I see something grotesque every time I open WordPress:
Now, it’s not the stats that I see. It’s my addiction to numbers.
This next paragraph was going to be about how I don’t care about the numbers. That I’ve entered Nirvana. That I’ve transcended my desire to raise these bars higher than the bars I set for my content.
But then I’d be lying.
I’m selfish. I like seeing the numbers go up. High numbers means I’m a better blogger, right? A more powerful, influential, smarter, sexier blogger. 100 views in a day is more prestigious than 75. But 175 is more prestigious than 100. And so on and so on.
I’ve tried creating a desktop link to WordPress’s editor. So far that hasn’t worked. But I have another solution, one that I’m applying to other areas of my life.
I know that I like seeing the numbers go up. And that means I can work around my own vice.
Knowing that I like seeing the numbers go up is like a cognitive rehab against my addiction to stats, bar graphs, and metrics.
So, the lesson I have for you today is this:
Knowing about your vices is one of the best ways to work around them.
The literature on self-control suggests as much. Hagger and colleagues write:
2 National Groups”
In other words, design your environment around your vices.
P.S – I’m still addicted to Mammal Hands. Here’s a tune I had on loop while writing this.
