On the whole, myself. For every effortless, throwaway one-liner I feel bubbling up in me, I try to allow barely one in twenty go. As I feel more comfortable around here that ratio is falling but I'm fighting the urge. I'd rather not pepper the environment with droll but ultimately empty chatter as it's all too easy for that to replace a reply that requires more effort of me and in a funny way I feel it generates a feedback loop which lowers the overall approach I take to anything in life.

Likewise, I am sometimes moved to a longer reply in certain threads around here which I even begin, before stepping away from, since I recognise my motivation in writing them is either founded in a knee-jerk (heart-jerk?) emotional reaction or have been provoked by some narcissistic self-delusion that there's something else wrong on the internet that I must correct.

I've been reading Will Storr's 'The Heretics' of late and it's a surprisingly personal and honest account of a journalist's encounter with his own presumptions. More and more I find myself checking my own self-assurances and one way to do this is to shut up first.

I think my underlying goal is to become the sort of person I rather would listen to. I hope I'll get somewhere with it.