As I Recall, Smoking and Drinking Were Not Among the Habits

So, I'm back into a book I started a while ago, but gave up on, which was kind of a funny thing. Seems like when you're reading a self-help book, and a big part of the book is changing your outlook on life, getting laid off can be a bit of a deterrent to continuing the process. Oh well, it only took a couple of years to get back to, right?

So, in addition to whatever it says that I'm currently reading to the left, I'm back into The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I started this one a while ago, and I like the basic premise of it, which is that changing the way you interact with people and whatnot is great and all, but if you really want to have control and influence over your life, you have to first figure out what your perceptions of the world are, since that's really what determines how you react to things.

Like most self help things I've read, this simultaneously falls under the categories of "duh" and "why didn't I think of that?". I mean, it's not exactly a stretch that if my perception of the world is that everyone is a mindless robot but me (with apologies to Kurt Vonnegut), then that world view will influence how I react to things. But in my day to day life, I forget that all the time.

It actually reminds me of one of the more enjoyable musings of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, where he was pondering the classic philosophical question: What if this is all for my benefit? What if I'm the linchpin of the universe, and existence is exactly what I perceive, no more or less. Or, as he put it, "Does light even EXIST when the refrigerator door is shut?".

It is, of course, like most philosophy that I enjoy so much, a stupid question. Of course the world exists beyond what I perceive of it - this isn't the matrix. If it were, I would hope I was in better shape and have a cool, full length vinyl coat. Oh, and I would totally know kung-fu.

How often do we forget that though? Have you ever seen someone on the street, someone you've never even spoken to, and as you drive away tried to conceive of their life, a life that, for you, existed in exactly that moment, and no longer. Seriously, where are they going? Where do they live, and do they live alone? What does their living room look like? You'll probably never know, and yet there are answers for all of these. Frankly, it makes my head hurt a little.

So anyway, I'm starting over again. I'm only on introductory material at this point, so while I get caught up I'll try to post something amusing in between. That way you might still come here and read this, if only under the false hope that I'm running something you wanted to read and not this self-improvement based drivel.

While you wait, however, I give you Indexed, an amusing site that falls somewhere between math and life.