Why do I care so much that my friend is “cheating” on Habitica? I mean, I’m not tracking his progress directly, so maybe he’s just actually that busy, or doing that well.<\/p>\n
It’s my problem with any socialization of games or martial arts or art or anything of joy. People compete with me. They want to either beat me or impress me, and it makes me stumble from my path. What should be private, and thus perfect, transmutes itself into the abhorrent.<\/p>\n
He’s my friend and there are no stakes. If he passes me in level, it could not conceivably mean less. As always, it’s the principle, and the loneliness that principle brings which at once sharpens and dulls all emotion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Why do I care so much that my friend is “cheating” on Habitica? I mean, I’m not tracking his progress directly, so maybe he’s just actually that busy, or doing that well. It’s my problem with any socialization of games or martial arts or art or anything of joy. People compete with me. They want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73iP8-Jw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":281,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=281","url_meta":{"origin":2822,"position":0},"title":"My heroes are imperfect. I do not ask why.","date":"3\/18\/2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been in a state of self-analysis lately, determining why I'm willing to put myself in a position of wage-slavery when all of the people whom I admire have avoided such servitude. Not surprisingly, it comes down to courage. They have had the courage to work toward their dreams, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ennui"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":956,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=956","url_meta":{"origin":2822,"position":1},"title":"Dream Journal: Chekov’s Naked Lunch with Ricky Gervais","date":"3\/4\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My friend, Ricky Gervais, and I are visiting a cherry orchard with some very salt-of-the-earth people, who invite us to lunch in their barn-like open eating area. As we chat and eat, I notice that the place is also my apartment. Ricky is wearing a shirt which is completely black,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dream Journal"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=47","url_meta":{"origin":2822,"position":2},"title":"The principle of evolution.","date":"2\/10\/2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey! Look at this! Now, I've gotta go kill and eat my little brother before he realizes I'm not cool.","rel":"","context":"In "For the geek in you"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":754,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=754","url_meta":{"origin":2822,"position":3},"title":"Scared of being scared.","date":"6\/6\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I called in yesterday and spent most of the day just being lazy. I did not attempt any projects. I did not work out. I took care of very little business. A part of me was glad of that, but I did feel twinges of guilt throughout the day. Then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Self-service"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":763,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=763","url_meta":{"origin":2822,"position":4},"title":"Put the funny up front.","date":"6\/18\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"If you haven't heard or seen Mitchell and Webb, as they are difficult to get hold of here in the states, I recommend you rectify that situation forthwith. Perhaps with a viewing of what may be my favorite tiny sketch of theirs: Can people levitate? I've been listening to their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ennui"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":351,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=351","url_meta":{"origin":2822,"position":5},"title":"Tom Cruise Is Nuts","date":"7\/11\/2005","format":false,"excerpt":"In case you didn't know, Tom Cruise is a verified loon. I don't even have TV in my house, I don't read magazines or newspapers, and I only surf the internet when I'm waiting for a DVD to finish burning before I go to bed (and all eight hours at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Link Larceny"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2822"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2824,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions\/2824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}