Some thoughts on a toy model of productivity and well-being
T = set of task
S = set of physiological states
R = level of “reflective acceptance” of current situation (ex. am I doing “good” or “bad”)
Quality of Work = some_function(s,t) + stress_applied
Quality of Subjective Experience = Quality—stress + R
Some states are stickier than others. It’s easier to jump out of “I’m distracted” then it is to escape “I’ve got the flu”. States can be better or worse at doing tasks, and tasks can be of varying difficulty.
There is some lever which I’m going to call stress (might call willpower) that you can spam to get a non-trivial increase in work output, though it seems to max out pretty fast.
R is very much primal, and also seems to be distinct from S. I generally don’t feel bad about not being able to do work when I’m sick (normal R, low S), yet if I’m persistently “just distracted” it’s easier to get a bad R value. By default, it seems like R is main feedback loop us humans us to make corrective measures.
Sometimes I feel amazing and can just breeze through work, other times I can barely think. I’m used to trying to maintain a constant quality of work, which mean if I’m in a poor S, more stress is applied, which decreases the quality of the subjective experience, which can have long term negative effects.
The master-level play seems to be to hack you S to consistently be higher quality. Growth-mindset? Diet? Stimulants?
Or, if you’re okay with being a bit less of a canonical robust agent and don’t want to take on the costs of reliability, you could try to always match your work to your state. I’m thinking more of “mood” than “state” here. Be infinitely creative chaos.
Oooh, I don’t know any blog post the cite, but Duncan mentioned at a CFAR workshop the idea of being a King or a Prophet. Both can be reliable and robust agents. The King does so by putting out Royal Decrees about what they will do, and then executing said plans. The Prophet gives you prophecies about what they will do in the future, and they come true. While you can count on both the decrees of the king and the prophecies of the prophet, the actions of the prophet are more unruly and chaotic, and don’t seem to make as much sense as the king’s.
Some thoughts on a toy model of productivity and well-being
T = set of task
S = set of physiological states
R = level of “reflective acceptance” of current situation (ex. am I doing “good” or “bad”)
Quality of Work = some_function(s,t) + stress_applied
Quality of Subjective Experience = Quality—stress + R
Some states are stickier than others. It’s easier to jump out of “I’m distracted” then it is to escape “I’ve got the flu”. States can be better or worse at doing tasks, and tasks can be of varying difficulty.
There is some lever which I’m going to call stress (might call willpower) that you can spam to get a non-trivial increase in work output, though it seems to max out pretty fast.
R is very much primal, and also seems to be distinct from S. I generally don’t feel bad about not being able to do work when I’m sick (normal R, low S), yet if I’m persistently “just distracted” it’s easier to get a bad R value. By default, it seems like R is main feedback loop us humans us to make corrective measures.
Sometimes I feel amazing and can just breeze through work, other times I can barely think. I’m used to trying to maintain a constant quality of work, which mean if I’m in a poor S, more stress is applied, which decreases the quality of the subjective experience, which can have long term negative effects.
The master-level play seems to be to hack you S to consistently be higher quality. Growth-mindset? Diet? Stimulants?
Or, if you’re okay with being a bit less of a canonical robust agent and don’t want to take on the costs of reliability, you could try to always match your work to your state. I’m thinking more of “mood” than “state” here. Be infinitely creative chaos.
Oooh, I don’t know any blog post the cite, but Duncan mentioned at a CFAR workshop the idea of being a King or a Prophet. Both can be reliable and robust agents. The King does so by putting out Royal Decrees about what they will do, and then executing said plans. The Prophet gives you prophecies about what they will do in the future, and they come true. While you can count on both the decrees of the king and the prophecies of the prophet, the actions of the prophet are more unruly and chaotic, and don’t seem to make as much sense as the king’s.