Why blogging?

I am an addict. If something warrants my interest, I become addicted to it. I've been addicted to playing the MOBA, Defense of the Ancients (DoTA) for as long as I can remember. Valve's release of DoTA 2 has done nothing to help with this addiction. Other MOBAs such as LOL and HON make their fair contribution to leeching what precious time I have left when I get home after a hard day's work at Virtusa. Many a time I have tried, to give up on this time consuming habit of being stuck in front of an LCD screen and verbally abusing my team mates when they play like noobs and blame it on lag. I of course, am super pro.(note- sarcasm)

Whatever said and done, this addiction is a complete waste of time. At the end of the day, the only value that  it adds to my life is the happiness of being entertained. Many pro-gamers (not pro as in "pro" pro; but people who are for gaming) say, an individual's reflexes, speed of thought and reasoning skills are honed by gaming. While that may be true, the considerable waste of time, risk of RSI and the continuously growing tire around my lower abdomen has opened my eyes to a fairly obvious fact. This is NOT the most productive use of my time. I've been slacking, on my reading and studying for CIMA exams as a result of time being devoted to gaming. So all in all, I came to the ultimatum; (personal policy- the ultimatum theory. During decision making, one must always think in terms of ultimatums- this ensures that clarity and black-and-white reasoning is available to the person taking the decision) this habit of incessantly gaming was bad for me.

After coming to this realization, the rest was pretty simple. Uninstalled LOL, Steam and HON from the PC and started thinking. Since this was pretty big scale, for a geek like me, I decided to brand my giving up gaming as my resolution for 2013. But a bad habit will always remain a bad habit. How many countless times have I given up playing DoTA, uninstalling it from my PC, only to get the setup back into my hands, install and play again? I guess, one must not forget that a bad habit, is after all a habit. A recurring set of events executed by an organism that provides a gratifying response to the organism as a result of executing said set of events. The best way to break a bad habit is to create an alternate set of events that can provide you with the same gratification that the bad habit provided. Since bad habits are habits in their basest form, bad habits can even be replaced by a good habit. The most important thing about an addiction is the stimulant/end result. Let us say that executing events 1,2 and 3 result in gratifying response X and events 7,8 and 9 provide the same gratifying response; while 7,8 and 9 are more beneficial to an individual than 1,2 and 3 then 7,8 and 9 can be used to replace 1,2 and 3.

The logic applied is simple. I replaced my 1,2 and 3 with a 7,8 and 9 which is blogging. I've always enjoyed reading and writing. It provides me satisfaction to a level equivalent to the satisfaction of getting an ultra kill in DoTA. Blogging would ultimately, foster a better reading habit (I plan to review books and articles in my blog), improve my writing and language skills and also help me create an artifact that can be used as a testament to my experience in a given field. It is advisable that everyone blogs. Sharing information is a great thing. Maintaining a blog for 2+ years on subject Y will make you an expert on subject Y (depends on how consistently one blogs). My raunchy account manager validated this claim with a bit of sarcasm saying that "Writing a blog on sex for 2+ years won't make you an expert at it". She did however admit that I could use the blog to pass off as a de facto sex therapist.

So all in all, I've resolved to take up this new endeavor of blogging instead of gaming. Giving it my 100%, I guess I could write something everyday. (very practical) I've identified several topics that would be interesting to read. Planning on sharing my musings about them as soon as possible. Over and out.