‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 690

The training is like free dancing practice for Danni in a way.

19 Comments

You don’t practice “not” doing something. You practice adjusting to the gravity. During practice, that requires taking manual control of your movements. After the practicing is done… it will be automatic again, it but it will be automatically right instead of automatically wrong.

I am pretty sure she is thinking about “not hacking” in that panel.

That doesn’t make the steps less valid.

It kind of does though. there’s a big difference between learning to do something differently, and learning to not do something at all. Learning an alternative action vs learning inaction.

Actually, it IS fairly similar, but instead of “Manually adjust” its “Manually control yourself”. She simply has to be exposed to the chance TO hack, and control herself not to. After long enough, that too will become muscle memory.

Better methods of habit breaking include replacement activities for the activity that one wishes to cease. Habitual smokers who wish to quit often stimulate the oral fixative nature of their habit by putting something else in their mouth, such as candy. But if you don’t have something in advance to fill the void you are creating in your routines, you are left to try to fill it on the fly when you come to that point in your routine, and the momentum we have in following our routines makes it easier to continue the habit than try to come up with something else to do on the fly.

Yeah – her current strategy is to, when she does practice not hacking and fails to succeed, to hack in a Special that’s hypothetically random to block her.

But it’s not perfect.

I know she probably wouldn’t like it, but I want to give Kleya a hug rn!

You practice by getting a better habit to replace it.

You seemingly join Hackers Anonymous or even Villains Anonymous, any help group you feel help. Collect or create rewards based around not doing the activity. And just practice, go to meetings with friends and the Anonymous group of your choice even if you lie to them about what your trying to quit it might help. And give yourself rewards for completing milestones. And just keep practicing the act of meetings,reward no evil. Simple. And yet so hard.

“But how you do practice NOT doing something?” should read “But how do you practice NOT doing something?”
And the way you do that is by setting up situations where you would do it.

Err, actually that’s the exact WRONG thing to do. You don’t practice “not drinking” by going to bars or by keeping alcohol in the fridge.

IMO, the best way for Kleya to practice “not hacking” would be living in the real world, using her real body to help real people. (Only the people cut off from communicating with her enemies, of course).

If you’re used to doing something at an interval (e.g. Drinking, smoking), then reducing the opportunities is a good first step. But if you’re used to doing something on cue (Like some sort of Pavlovian reaction), then avoiding the signal would mean you’re not actually getting any better, just bottling it all up until you explode.

That’s why, for example, people doing anger management don’t avoid nor bottle up anger. Rather, they would intentionally put themselves in situations where their anger could erupt, but then exercise healthier ways to let it out. Because you can’t hope to live a life where nothing makes you angry.

So, likewise, K needs to actually learn to face the temptation to hack. Not just hope to avoid it her whole life.

Wouldn’t that 100% doom the world in this story?

In the 4th panel, you got two words flipped around. It should be: “But how do you…”

I really love the character of Danni, by the way. She is great at helping Kleya to grow as a person, as well as possibly bridge the gap between Kleya and Jake. Her lack of knowledge is also beautifully done to allow you to explain things to us, that we need to know, while also having it flow naturally in the storyline. A very well-crafted and thought out character. (Plus, I love how blunt she can be about things, saying what needs said.)

Yes to all of this. What I was thinking but said better than I could.

There is a quote I like. “When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” The issue is that because of the environment she keeps herself in, all her problems are nails. Reaching for the hammer is a natural and trained reaction. What she should practise is other methods of solving issues and focus on that. Once she has several tools for her nails, she can reach for stuff other then the hammer. The temptation to use the hammer probably will never go away completely, but at least she is less likely to use it with training.

Their situations are basically the same. Danni has to practise NOT using her usual force, while Kleya has to practise the usual method of action that everyone else uses. The problem is that Kleya also has… let’s call it an addiction. Danni loves dancing and just has to learn to do it in more ways. Kleya has to do things the hard and unreliable way when a certain and easy win is just sitting there for the taking…

It is too bad that “hackers anonymous” meetings attract homicidal mobs like corpses attract flies.

‘But how you do practice not doing something’
That format sounds way off to me grammar-wise.

‘But how do you practice to not do something?’
‘But how do you practice not doing something?’
‘But how would you practice not doing something?’
Either of those would sound a lot better and make the point clearer.

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 690