My stereo wouldn’t turn off when the car was turned off. This was annoying. I’ve been busy enough and my knee wouldn’t let me do any repair. I took the easy route. I simply pulled the fuse and forgot about it for the time being. In the process of troubleshooting, I disconnected the battery. This reset my clock.

I didn’t notice it until the next time I went out. I left with ample time, no big deal. I knew when I left and how much time it would take to get there. I wasn’t worried, so I didn’t bother setting the clock. This repeated several times over the next couple of days. I was surprised to learn that I enjoyed the experience of driving a little bit more.

I don’t want stress. It’s not enough to simply say that, though. I must have a narrative to guide me there.

Last week I listened to a great guy from Providence, RI talk about building the tech scene there. He runs a start-up accelerator program, making introductions and arranging for funding, removing the stops and lubricating the wheels. It’s a good thing.

I really hate daylight savings time. It’s a terrible thing. Today I woke up feeling off. What better way to get back than to get started on my routine. I did so and took notes in TDP. It was a very typical Monday. Except it wasn’t. It was broken. It didn’t look like it should. My streaks were wrong!

When dog-sledding, heat is generated on the runners which melts the ice. When the sled stops the water will freeze. The sled becomes frozen to the ice. There is specific knowledge required free the sled. Brute forcing certainly could work, it requires more effort. It’s a matter of teamwork between the dogs and the driver.

At the start of this week I felt frozen. My momentum seemed to have evaporated completely. It was rough. I was a stuck sled.

The last few days have been filled with spirited discussions about life, psychology and improvement. My wife has been and continues to be great; I love her involvement and our discussions. We’ve both had to work to reach this level of communication. Recently the books I’ve been reading have given us a shared vocabulary to formalize what was before loose concepts.

Until now I didn’t understand the power of vocabulary. It’s significantly easier to discuss, explain and understand when complex concepts are standardized and commonly understood.

Every culture has their own vernacular, and to outsiders it’s complete gibberish. What about at a larger stage? What about when we’re talking about improvement, or simply learning new things? The vocabulary available to describe and explain the trials and tribulations we all share is woefully inadequate.

I’ve been having a really hard time writing and posting something. It’s not just lately, it’s been fairly consistent failing. My goal was to write every day, and publish something publicly every 3 days. It seems like a reasonable goal.

I fail at this frequently. Often times I fail because I struggle for material that I want to post. I have ideas and certainly go through situations that would be good to write about. It is very hard to develop these ideas. What are the best ideas? What can be grown into a coherent and ideally helpful post? This type of refinement is challenging.

How can I proceed with this? I’d like to have more success, and I’ve been trying for long enough. I must revisit my definition of success. This is the great part about being sentient and self-aware. At any point I can adjust my expectations and my definitions of success.

In thinking about this I realized I have a good post here. I shouldn’t feel so bad, I have 90 published entries here. That isn’t insignificant, but it is short of my previously defined level of success. In considering this, I figure three likely options.

I’ve been reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. You should too. I’m stunned it’s taken me this long to read it. I’m just glad I finally started. I’m only through the first habit and it’s already made a fantastic impression on me. The craziest part of it is that not one of the ideas are new. They’re similar to my own thoughts and feelings, but that’s what makes the book so enjoyable and profound.

Life is not so flat. We are not walking on a field, free to choose any direction we wish. We live our lives floating on a river. More accurately in modern times, an artificial river at an amusement park. As we float by we are free to enjoy the spectacles that other people have created for us.

I didn’t make the best choices the other day. Yesterday I did great. Today may be better. I sat at my desk. I stared at the work I needed to get done. My todo list stared back; telling me what needed to be done. After a few minutes, I gave up. I made a bad choice. I loaded up a video game and relaxed for a little bit. It wasn’t a good choice. It made me worse off. I don’t really feel guilty about it, though. I felt I needed it.

How do products become products? Something sold, with value and people pay money. When I see some brick and mortar business, this is fairly apparent. Some people wanted a product and someone could provide that product. A shop is created. Software products are different, typically. They’re significantly more speculative.