Where is user Thomas? He should have some nice stuff to show I presume
If you dam a river, you already know that it isn't easy for the water to flow through the ground, because it isn't taking that route.
Actually, this (water that passes under the dam) is the main problem after water passing directly through the dam. If the bed of the river is ok to hold a height of 10 m of water, it is probably not to hold 20 or 30 or 70 m of water.
My goal is “become able to do at least one pull up, or more if possible”
So, 20 months later, did you succeed in this, and if so, how did you modify your goal in time?
Why is this an excellent low hanging fruit? I work in windows doing stuff in excel with vba, cad and structural fea (thousands in licences, already sunk cost). I have no clue how I could continue to do my work in linux and what return would I have?
In my opinion you are not resting at all, if that's your routine.
overcome your disgust with all things economic
I will acknowledge there's a huge component of pride in this. I don't want to give my family an opportunity to tell me they were right in their choices all along. When I joined the publishing company after three years in various call centers, my brother described it as "finally seing sense."
You try to live up to the expectations of "friends who know important people in journalism and web media", you feel bad for not having the degree you'd need, you feel bad about not living up to the "professional" expectations of your family. At the same time you give up opportunities to make a (probably decent) living with your first degree (and with it probably a chance to write more).
Be more proactive. You are responsible for your life now, and you are really responsible for your own feelings.
Do you think your parents and siblings would think they won if you changed field of work? Are you reading their minds and predicting their future minds? And would it change anything in your life if they won? Would you feel you lost and you'd be defeated if you did it? Really? Is there a rational reasoning behind this, implying you live in the present?
Try this "simplish" technique http://sourcesofinsight.com/how-to-use-the-triple-column-technique/
Don't forward, read from within gmail: http://www.howtogeek.com/school/gmail-guide/lesson9/