Fluffy Snow

I wish I brought my camera out more often. Today saw the fluffiest snow I've ever seen. Snow that fell onto the ground with a little *phut*. Snow that came down so hard that people walked around with a thick layer of white on them. This was also the first time I actually carried my umbrella in the snow. The amount of snow I shook off my trusty umbrella before I enter Sage Hall could have made a good sized snow-ball. I really like how the trees look when the bare branches are outlined with snow. It has a very Christmas feel to it. That's what I really wanted to bring my camera for.

The project is going well. If nothing else, I've gained the confidence to proclaim myself a code-monkey. I've transitioned from being an experienced manipulator of the spreadsheet to a coder who actually writes custom functions and macros. I feel pretty proud of myself really. It's funny how self-esteen can actually get in one's way of being capable of doing a task. Even though I really had the skills to write code, I had never possess the confidence to enable myself to do it. Part of this stems from a fear of making mistakes -- if I expect less from myself, it doesn't matter if I fail. Recently however, I've begun to overcome that fear. I've been trying to hammer into myself that people really do not think any worse of a person just because he/she made mistakes, well as long as he/she acknowledges it.

Interestingly, there was this article written by Mr Baumeister, a professor in the department of psychology at Florida State University. He asserts that there is no evidence that self-esteem actually leads to high achievement. While it is true that there is a relationship between the two, the cause and effect relationship is really that high achivement leads to better self-esteem and not vice versa.

Jan 30, 2005
Forget self-esteem, focus on self-control
by Roy F. Baumeister

When I ran my first research study on self-esteem in 1973, [...] [p]sychologists everywhere were convinced that if only we could help people to accept and love themselves more, their problems would gradually vanish and their lives would flourish. They would even treat each other better.[...]

A generation - and many millions of dollars - later, it turns out we may have been mistaken. [After wading through] the enormous amount of published research on the subject, [...] [h]ere are some of our disappointing findings.

High self-esteem in schoolchildren does not produce better grades. (Actually, children with high self-esteem do have slightly better grades in most studies, but that's because getting good grades leads to higher self-esteem, not the other way around.)

[C]ollege students with mediocre grades who received regular self-esteem strokes from their professors ended up doing worse on final exams than students who were told to suck it up and try harder.

Self-esteem doesn't make adults perform better at their jobs either. Sure, people with high self-esteem rate their own performance better - even declaring themselves smarter and more attractive than their low-self-esteem peers - but neither objective tests nor impartial raters can detect any difference in the quality of work.

Likewise, people with high self-esteem think they make better impressions, have stronger friendships and have better romantic lives than other people, but the data doesn't support their self-flattering views.

Self-esteem doesn't predict who will make a good leader, and some work (including that of psychologist Robert Hogan writing in the Harvard Business Review) found humility, rather than self-esteem, to be a key trait of successful leaders.

It was widely believed that low self-esteem could be a cause of violence, but, in reality, violent individuals, groups and nations think very well of themselves.

They turn violent towards others who fail to give them the inflated respect they think they deserve. Nor does high self-esteem deter people from becoming bullies, according to most of the studies that have been done; it is simply untrue that beneath the surface of every obnoxious bully is an unhappy, self-hating child in need of sympathy and praise.

High self-esteem doesn't prevent youngsters from cheating or stealing or experimenting with drugs and sex. (If anything, children with high self-esteem may be more willing to try these things at a young age.)

There were a few areas where higher self-esteem seemed to bring some benefits.

For instance, people with high self-esteem are generally happier and less depressed, though we can't quite prove that high self-esteem prevents depression or causes happiness. Young women with high self-esteem also seem less susceptible to eating disorders.

In some studies (though not all), people with high self-esteem bounce back from misfortune and trauma faster than others. High self-esteem also promotes initiative. People who have it are more likely to speak up in a group, persist in the face of failure, resist other people's advice or pressure and strike up conversations with strangers. [...]

In short, despite the enthusiastic embrace of self-esteem, we found that it conferred only two benefits. It feels good and it supports initiative.

While I agree with him that high esteem does not get you high achievements, in my case it really does seem that low self-esteem prevented me from achieving what you are really capable of. So perhaps there is a threshold level of esteem one needs to reach your maximum potential though an overdose of esteem creates unrealistic self-expectations and is likely to backfire. Looks like the ancient Chinese got it right when they said moderation is the way to go.