(02-26-2022, 08:59 PM)Marko Wrote: (02-26-2022, 08:23 PM)MaineYooper Wrote: I am so out! Good thing I went out earlier this month, but for the life of me I can't remember what did it. Soap, I think. I will scroll back and see.
But I have a Ti Vector inbound. I probably need to lock my PayPal account and hide the password for at least 2 months if not longer! Thanks to DFS member for enabling me . All will be shown in glorious living color once it is in hand.
Reversion to the mean. It’s like in basketball. Not even the best shooters hit 100% of their shots. They may go for stretches where they hit 100% of their shots - in a quarter or even a half but eventually they will revert to their historical percentage. Same thing with buying shaving stuff. Despite taking a month off in January and feeling good about it, we’ll likely spend close to the same amount of money in 2022 that we did in 2021.
SOAPBOX ALERT
(Personal opinions mixed with scattered thoughts)
I agree that typical past performance has predictive value, but I think life is long, and and there is more to the story than that. Studies reported by the NIH an FDA, show that many people try many times before successfully quitting smoking, but people do succeed. Here the stakes are higher than a shaving restraint - something in which lifetime success is not even the goal - and yet we sometimes seem to treat it as if lifetime success were the goal. In a similar vein, it takes a lifetime to succeed in quitting alcohol, but it is possible to succeed for a month, or a year, and so on. I agree with the FDA article, which suggests remembering that even small successes are wins.
There is a reason that the aphorism "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" is part of the language. OTOH I had a music teacher once who pointed out that practice does not make perfect. Practice makes consistent. If you are not careful, all your practice will do is guarantee that you repeat the same mistakes the same way. Accurate practice makes perfect. But even accurate practice does not make perfect in the same way that instant coffee is made. Accurate practice takes time, and the time is interspersed with failures.
My own view is that we are what we train ourselves to be, and visa versa. We become increasingly what we practice being, and we do achieve many kinds of substantial and desirable growth over the course of our lives. IMHO this lifetime growth is not limited by the same dynamics as best shooter averages, and it should not be viewed in the same way. Personal growth happens, I believe, when intent and propitious circumstance combine (when the times are right), and it often has the jagged, two-steps-forward-one-step-back appearance of a sales chart.
Of course, all this is just part of my own worldview.
Let's hear some good news for the lady.
She's coming out from far behind
And if she seems a little slow,
It only goes to show
That everything will grow in its own time
(Good News, Melissa Manchester)
Technique Trumps Tools
Skin Care Trumps Skin Repair
Be Cool, be Kind, and be Well
-- Mike --