Now I've only been on Everything for just over a month now, and I can't help but to notice a certain cycle developing in my noding.

This Node Cycle has ruled my noding ever since it began, and only recently I've noticed it. Someone may have noded on this in the past, but I've been unable to locate it in my (rather cursory) explorations. In retrospect the fluctuations in my Node Cycle grew in amplitude when I was approaching level 2, and I fear will soon increase as I approach level 3. But I get ahead of myself.

The Node Cycle is the repeating pattern that can be observed in my nodes (and perhaps yours too), where after a period of relative inactivity, a Good writeup is composed, and noded. This writeup, usually being composed of much blood, sweat, and perhaps even a few tears, will be closely monitored by myself, and more often than not C!hinged, and voted up. Of course this leads to a certain inflation of ego, and a feeling of nodal invulnerability. I call this stage "Ego Inflation".

The next stage begins when, carried away by my nicely plumped ego, I begin to pump out nodes at the rate of two or three an hour, most of which are inane-one-liners, or poorly concieved of responses to other nodes. This is usually when I begin to fill nodeshells I come across. These writeups are generally mediocre at best, and do not see a good response. I call this stage "Ego Extension".

Usually this leads to a large number of 0 rep writeups appearing on my User Search page, and usually a healthy dose of well deserved downvoting. After getting trounced for several of the nodes written in "Ego Extension" I start to seriously doubt my noding abilities, especially as I read my nodes over again. This stage is called "Ego Deflation". In this stage I typically fix up my hastily written nodes, and try to get them back out of negative voteland, as well as try to nuke any that were especially poor.

The next stage called "Ego Recovery" invloves a lot of reading, and not much noding. Maybe one or two nodes a day at most, where I lick my wounds and watch the nodes sprouting, until a truly creative idea tickles itself into my brain, and I node once again, restarting the cycle.

I've found the best way to prevent high amplitude Node Cycles is to reread everything I node before hitting "sumbit", and think about where I am currently in my Node Cycle. Unfortunately this is difficult sometimes, when you are close to the next level. Proximity to Level 2 (and 3 now) lead to an unprecedented period of Ego Extension, which lead to many silly and non-worthwhile nodes that simply lower my XP to Node ratio.