Tuesday, January 28, 2014

New Feature: Weekly Questions

First, I want to thank people who responded, commented, and gave me feedback on the blog. The main reply seems to be that people like the topics I cover, they enjoy the writing, and they want it to stay focused on writing. This is a bit of a relief to me, since writing is arguably my strongest skill, so I’m glad people want me to keep doing it.

One thing that I’m interested in doing is having occasional blurby posts that give you a bite-sized piece of value for coming to the site; you won’t always have time to stop what you’re doing and read a 1000+ word post. They might be links, book or article recommendations, small realizations, information on interesting upcoming gaming events. The kinds of things that wouldn’t fit cleanly into a Facebook or Twitter update, but also aren’t deserving of the bi-weekly slots.

So from now on, I’m going to try and include a weekly question. It is something for you to ask yourself, to help you analyze your behaviors and attitudes towards your performance and competition. The process of thinking and self-improvement is, quite frequently, one of asking ourselves questions, and then answering them. So rather than do this in a normal post and then try to elaborate with just my thoughts, I want to encourage people to ask these questions to themselves, and search within their own experiences.

I also want to heavily encourage people to comment and discuss their viewpoints. Being the sole author of my blog, I can only offer my perspective; sometimes I can try to interpret other viewpoints, but it’s not the same. When somebody has a view that differs from mine, or has more insight than me on a specific topic, we all benefit from hearing and thinking about it.

So for a short period of time, Mondays will be devoted to a weekly question to get your brain churning. I am excited to see the answers people give and the discussions that arise. I say “for a short period of time” because if it’s not generating value or interest, I will probably stop.

Since it just occurred to me to do this, we will do the weekly question today. After this, they will show up on Monday with a normal post on Tuesday. The responses may even help me figure out what to write about as time goes on, so you do me a service by sharing your thoughts.

This week’s question is geared towards the more self-critical readers who beat themselves up for making errors:

“If a stranger stood behind me, and told me the same things that I tell myself, how would I respond?”

Comments and discussion are hugely appreciated. See you Friday!

8 comments:

  1. I like this idea :)

    I usually have mixed responses when I feel like I underperform. Sometimes I create excuses for myself. It's actually somewhat comforting to hear other people reiterate excuses because it makes them seem more legitimate, even if they aren't. Other times I fell that I'm terrible and will never improve. If a stranger told me that I would be very offended and upset. Like with excuses, if other people say that I'm bad it feels much more true than if I alone say it and that really hurts.

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  2. Probably shrug and go "yeah". I think the answer will probably reveal more about your introvert/extrovert personality type than anything about your attitude towards learning from your mistakes...

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  3. I would turn around, clasp their shoulders, and shout "WHY, AND HOW DO I IMPROVE." I play LoL with a bunch of friends. Most of the time we do the stupid social dance of talking behind someone's back about how bad they are. Typically, when someone says "God, I suck," others just respond with comforting dismissals or look-on-the-bright-sides. Sometimes, sometimes, someone will respond with "here's why that's happening, and here's how to fix it." Something one person finds obvious might elude someone else completely, and that someone else might take a long time discover it on their own.

    No one improves in a vacuum. You'll need to think about, try, and analyze as many attitudes, ideas, and strategies as possible in order to truly understand a game - or anything in life, really. No one plays competitive games in a vacuum, so it's not very productive to act as if you do.

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  4. punch him in the face and run away. sadly, you cant run away from your own thoughts.

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  5. hearing it from another person, it would make me alot more sad than saying to myself, but i think that firstly i would try to see the reasons that person said it, and if couldn't find it, would ask it "if i do this or that wrong, what i need to correct it?"

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  6. I would most likely get frustrated, mess up even more and then eventually leave if the guy continued.

    I would have to spend some time to cool off, but that can take a while. I'm bad at dealing with anger and frustration and they normally lead me to a rant in my head that leads to me either hating the guy who said it, me putting myself down some more, or both.

    I'm not one to confront others, so chances are I wouldn't say or do anything to him.

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  7. I'd probably go off on him. Only I can say mean things about myself >:I

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