From a former post of him I trust that he actually figured it out for real. It’s mainly about meditation. I have made a comparable experience (actually with much less effort than even learning swimming, though not teachable but basically by luck). And I can tell you it is true. I can also make myself happy by small mental effort. But what for? All the complexity of human experience gets lost if you just switch on one part of it without the rest.
If you think you actually care about this (haha), take a 2 week vacation on the Canary islands and I promise that I’ll spend this time telling you what I know and meditating with you.
There are at least several interesting directions you can pursue in meditation, and they have their benefits and their dangers. It is obviously wise to know what you are getting info, and not feed unaware people instructions that could be dangerous. Meditation is not, by itself, a “solution” to anything.
If you really have motivation but no money to spend, try following my (partially written) instructions here and see where you can get. Also, flights might be cheaper than you think these days if you look for a good deal.
+1 to the linked model. My guess is that this is why yoga shows suspciously high effects on happiness. I think it, unlike other such suspicious effect sizes has a good chance of replicating. To the degree it doesn’t replicate I would have priors on poor/watered down instructions that no longer do the thing.
This kind of illustrates the point, right? We only profess to strive for happiness, but actually don’t care that much. Just kidding. I guess proper estimates of likelihood of success vs cost I probably also wouldn’t make the travel. But what you could do is try meditation. A rationalist starter can be found e.g. here.
Okay, so the obvious question here is, is this a hypothetical thought experiment, or do you claim to actually have figured out such a method?
If it’s the former, I cautiously believe that this is largely accurate. If it’s the latter, I would like to see a description of it.
From a former post of him I trust that he actually figured it out for real. It’s mainly about meditation. I have made a comparable experience (actually with much less effort than even learning swimming, though not teachable but basically by luck). And I can tell you it is true. I can also make myself happy by small mental effort. But what for? All the complexity of human experience gets lost if you just switch on one part of it without the rest.
If you think you actually care about this (haha), take a 2 week vacation on the Canary islands and I promise that I’ll spend this time telling you what I know and meditating with you.
Have you read http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/18/book-review-mastering-the-core-teachings-of-the-buddha/ this post and/or book about meditation? The post itself made me decide that meditation should be promoted really cautiously and it is not a unviersal solution, so I’m curious what you would say about it.
There are at least several interesting directions you can pursue in meditation, and they have their benefits and their dangers. It is obviously wise to know what you are getting info, and not feed unaware people instructions that could be dangerous. Meditation is not, by itself, a “solution” to anything.
I actually care about this, and if I knew of such a method with reasonably cheap implementation and a reasonable prior I would / will try.
Traveling 3800 km is not reasonably cheap.
If you really have motivation but no money to spend, try following my (partially written) instructions here and see where you can get. Also, flights might be cheaper than you think these days if you look for a good deal.
+1 to the linked model. My guess is that this is why yoga shows suspciously high effects on happiness. I think it, unlike other such suspicious effect sizes has a good chance of replicating. To the degree it doesn’t replicate I would have priors on poor/watered down instructions that no longer do the thing.
This kind of illustrates the point, right? We only profess to strive for happiness, but actually don’t care that much. Just kidding. I guess proper estimates of likelihood of success vs cost I probably also wouldn’t make the travel. But what you could do is try meditation. A rationalist starter can be found e.g. here.