Two Rules Explained

Okay, so I do actually have more thoughts than a 3-item list.

This post started in a funny way. I was looking around at some sites over on bearblog and found gabby's website, specifically their about page where they mention they use any pronouns. They follow that up by telling the reader to "have fun with it," (something I'm not doing here, oops) and it reflects a lot about my own pronoun usage. I also use any pronouns, which typically gets two responses: "okay" or "what does that mean?" My ideal way to describe it would be: "I go by any pronouns, which means you can call me anything as long as it's clear you mean me, and you're not being a dick."

Thinking to myself about it, one of the phrasings I used was "there are two rules," which immediately prompted me to think about a sticky note on my desktop. As part of my process of turning my existence into something other than sludge from late last year, this sticky note is titled "The Two Rules" and lists two simple productivity rules that have helped me feel a lot more satisfied with my actions. Here's the funny part: directly below that sticky note are two more, and I have them there because these notes are basically an additional two rules. They're for something completely different, so they shouldn't join the top note, but it does mean I have "The Two Rules" immediately followed by more rules.

And thus, the post had begun! I had the original thought that giving yourself two rules can be a useful way of setting a direction and reminding yourself to stick to it. But, remembering a very succinct post, I decided to not write out some kind of explanation for this, but make into a fun post where that idea was its own rule. I also wanted to point fun at myself for having several pairs of rules, so I added the rule that rules can change. That doesn't convey quite the same meaning, but it gets the idea across while still forming a nice set of two rules.

But here's the actually important bit: the rules don't matter. The rules for my pronouns boil down to "don't worry, when I say 'any,' that means it's okay to use weird pronouns for me." Neither of my productivity rules aren't meant to be focused on, they're used to place my focus on intentional activity. And those final rules, they're really just reminders to avoid embracing negative thoughts. The rules set direction, they are not the goal. I wanted to make that clear, and I was met with a very fun punchline: it becomes a third-rule but I then zero-index the list resulting in the final rule being numbered 2.

So there's the backstory and explanation of something that just made me giggle a lot at the end of a workday. I've now written more to describe less, showing I took so much away from that last post I linked. That's fine, it was very fun to write all this and I think that matters more.