{"id":783,"date":"2006-01-01T18:32:07","date_gmt":"2006-01-01T23:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/resolved\/"},"modified":"2006-01-01T18:32:07","modified_gmt":"2006-01-01T23:32:07","slug":"resolved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/resolved","title":{"rendered":"Resolved!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Great article from Virginia Postrel<\/a> in the NYTimes today about New Year’s resolutions:<\/p>\n

In the early 1980’s, [Nobel economics laureate] Professor Schelling applied similar analysis to individuals’ internal struggles, seeking to develop what he called “strategic egonomics, consciously coping with one’s own behavior, especially one’s conscious behavior.”<\/p>\n

The problem, he suggested, is that pretty much everybody suffers from a split personality. One self desperately wants to lose weight or quit smoking or run two miles a day or get up early to work. The other wants dessert or a cigarette, hates exercise or loves sleep.<\/p>\n

Both selves are equally valid, and equally rational about pursuing their desires. But they do not exist at the same time.<\/p>\n[. . .]New Year’s resolutions help the earlier self overrule the later one by raising the cost of straying. “More is threatened by failure than just the substance of the resolution: one’s personal constitution is violated, confidence demoralized, and the whole year spoiled [. . .]” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So there! Read it all<\/a>!<\/p>\n

(I just read Postrel’s The Future and Its Enemies<\/a> last week. It’s a heck of a book, when it comes to identifying the shifting alliances of political ideology and the perniciousness of technocrats. I recommend it highly.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Great article from Virginia Postrel in the NYTimes today about New Year’s resolutions: In the early 1980’s, [Nobel economics laureate] Professor Schelling applied similar analysis to individuals’ internal struggles, seeking to develop what he called “strategic egonomics, consciously coping with one’s own behavior, especially one’s conscious behavior.” The problem, he suggested, is that pretty much … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Resolved!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s4C7K-resolved","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1267,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/achievements","url_meta":{"origin":783,"position":0},"title":"Achievements","author":"Gil","date":"December 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, I'm still working on my New Year's resolutions, but it looks like I've already achieved two of my long-term goals in life: Outlive Saddam Hussein Get named Person of the Year by Time","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/achievements#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3163,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/rip-donald-westlake","url_meta":{"origin":783,"position":1},"title":"R.I.P., Donald Westlake","author":"Gil","date":"January 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald Westlake died on New Year's Eve at the age of 75. My condolences to his wife and family. I read a bunch of Westlake's caper novels when I was a kid, and recently returned to the first one (which I took out of my local library, 25 years ago).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":98,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/low-resolution","url_meta":{"origin":783,"position":2},"title":"Low Resolution","author":"Gil","date":"December 31, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"New Year's resolutions have never been my bag. I tend to do things as they arise, rather than waiting for a particular calendar-based occasion (friends who've received out-of-the-blue presents from me can attest to this). I already treat my friends with love, and I've tried opening up to my family\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1273,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/low-res","url_meta":{"origin":783,"position":3},"title":"Low-res","author":"Gil","date":"January 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, it looks like my New Year's resolution of posting every day is already shot. That's what I get for having a modicum of ambition. Amy wrote about our quiet New Year's Eve celebration over on her site: she cooked a nice meal, we watched Annie Hall & some South\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=0394720245","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5602,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-92710","url_meta":{"origin":783,"position":4},"title":"What It Is: 9\/27\/10","author":"Gil","date":"September 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: The Iliad, more Jaime Hernandez comics, and The Fall of the House of Usher. I didn't have much time to read this week. What I'm listening to: Sir Lucious Left Foot, We Are Born, and Boxer What I'm watching: Local Hero, the last hour of Spike Lee's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0140275363","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11984,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-301-kriota-willberg","url_meta":{"origin":783,"position":5},"title":"Episode 301 – Kriota Willberg","author":"Gil","date":"January 1, 2019","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 301: Kriota Willberg - Live at CXC! \"If you can understand the skeleton, you can figure pretty much everything else out.\" Recorded live at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) in 2018, Kriota Willberg returns to the podcast to talk about the origins of her new book, Draw Stronger:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/24050830342_cd341a890a_z.jpg?fit=640%2C516&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/24050830342_cd341a890a_z.jpg?fit=640%2C516&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/24050830342_cd341a890a_z.jpg?fit=640%2C516&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}