There are some lessons that I just keep re-learning. It’s not that I’m stupid, although I sometimes feel like I am. It’s that I have some weaknesses that are so ingrained in my being that I have to continuously struggle with them.
An example is my huge urge to tinker, and those of you who are regular visitors of this blog have seen that in action. You’ve seen me tinker, often, with the design of this site, especially over the past year. With me having the Thesis design most of this time, that made it even easier for me to tinker: it is so easy to customize, both in appearance and in the behind-the-scenes stuff.
This urge to tinker, and an easy ability to do it, has caused me to spend huge amounts of time tinkering with the “innards of the blog.” And, it’s caused a good bit of needless worrying, too. For example, whenever I make a change and then do some styling to go a long with it, I worry whether I have messed up the view for those who have Internet Explorer (especially worrying about IE6, which I do not have and cannot test).
So, I inserting a barrier between me and my urge to tinker: I installed a design that is harder to tinker with (great design, but I just don’t understand its code very well). This barrier should help my productivity immensely. And I had to do it because my urge to tinker is a fundamental part of my being. It’s the engineer in me. So, putting this barrier up will hopefully help me.
But, my point is not really about dealing with this weakness of mine: my point is that we all have weaknesses, and sometimes they are so persistent that we have to put barriers in place to keep from succumbing to them. My example just shows how easy it is to fall prey to your weaknesses, and it shows how easy it can be to put up a barrier to those weaknesses.