Alan Gutierrez

That was to be the title of a wail of anxiety about how it’s the last minute when I can’t figure out what I’m supposed to do. Just wrote an excellent little post in Kiloblog about how to use Chip In to raise money for Bayou Boogaloo. Then, before I press save for the first time, I wonder, should I post this at Daily Beta. I’ve not done anything with that site in a long time.

Now, something that was supposed to make life faster, is making it slower. Injecting long term decisions into short term decisions. This is driven by a false sense of permanence. The sense that permalinks mean that one must choose carefully.

The point of this post, and of this theme, Getting Things Half-Done, is to study all the places where I stop. How do you overcome the dead stop? The paralysis of indecision?

In this case, it’s a variation on the fear that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. When I write a post, I have one chance to position it. I had better choose wisely. That is the foreboding nonsense that speaks in hushed tones in the back of my head. How neurotic.

In the last year, I have become more of a programmer. Still not (self-)published, but at the very least plugging away, happy with the foundations, and not turning back for another rewrite. This comes from a way of dealing with the many little murmurs of doubt. I write it down the doubt in the form of a question. Then I wait for it. In a day or so, the answer comes.

This is not always going to work. Waiting for it assumes that you have a the knowledge of the technique necessary to have those moments of illumination. More to the point, am I really going to allow a quandry like, “where do I post my little rant?” to simmer in the background? It’s not really a problem to be solved.

With some problems, stop means wait. With others, stop means nothing.