Good advice overall. Just to give a counterpoint that may or may not be related to the post:
Yes, doing this kind of stuff can make you happier, but I’m not sure if I want to give that advice to other people. It might also make them unhappy if they keep kicking themselves to become more awesome day after day and keep failing anyway. This happens a lot. And if they succeed, it’ll make many other people unhappy by comparison, and raise the standard that other people must reach before they allow themselves to be happy...
I don’t know if it’s a strong argument. It probably depends on what kind of society you want to live in. Most of LW will probably disagree, but as for me, I don’t like competitiveness. I don’t enjoy being competitive, and I don’t enjoy being around competitive people. I feel that it’s like defecting in the PD. Winners will say it was good for them, and losers won’t be heard.
You might say that improving yourself isn’t about competition, but I disagree. Becoming more awesome is about status competition, and status is zero-sum. You’ll only be happy if you’re more awesome than others. Otherwise you’d be happy already, because you can walk and talk and think, isn’t that awesome by itself?
I wish there was a kind of rationality that emphasized cooperation. Not like TDT’s advice to cooperate in the PD if the other guy is similar to you, but more like a list of biases that stop us from cooperating in everyday life. Does such a thing exist?
In some contexts I like competition, even when I am losing, although obviously much more when I am winning. I guess it’s when I care more about the absolute outcome than about my relative position in the race, and when besides winning and losing there is a default third position of not trying at all, which is even worse than losing (though it may not feel so to the people who simply ignore the race).
For example, right now I am developing mobile games and I am comparing myself with a friend who is also developing mobile games, and he does it at least twice faster than me. I guess I would feel better being the first one, but I still prefer having some else compete with me to doing it alone. -- A few years ago I was in a running competition, which is highly unusual for me, and I was almost the last. It still felt good, because it was a huge improvement from never participating in such a competition. (Though I guess being literally the last one would be depressing.)
I am so tired of so many people around me not even trying that I welcome a competition even if I know that I am likely to lose. Actually, there is something good about losing: it shows that there is still a lot of opportunity to grow (and in the best case someone who already did it and could give me advice).
When I was at the CFAR Rationality Minicamp, compared with some other participants I felt like a loser. And at the same time, it was a great feeling: it was like being a new student at Hogwarts and seeing the magic the older students can do. It felt like a plan.
Good advice overall. Just to give a counterpoint that may or may not be related to the post:
Yes, doing this kind of stuff can make you happier, but I’m not sure if I want to give that advice to other people. It might also make them unhappy if they keep kicking themselves to become more awesome day after day and keep failing anyway. This happens a lot. And if they succeed, it’ll make many other people unhappy by comparison, and raise the standard that other people must reach before they allow themselves to be happy...
I don’t know if it’s a strong argument. It probably depends on what kind of society you want to live in. Most of LW will probably disagree, but as for me, I don’t like competitiveness. I don’t enjoy being competitive, and I don’t enjoy being around competitive people. I feel that it’s like defecting in the PD. Winners will say it was good for them, and losers won’t be heard.
You might say that improving yourself isn’t about competition, but I disagree. Becoming more awesome is about status competition, and status is zero-sum. You’ll only be happy if you’re more awesome than others. Otherwise you’d be happy already, because you can walk and talk and think, isn’t that awesome by itself?
I wish there was a kind of rationality that emphasized cooperation. Not like TDT’s advice to cooperate in the PD if the other guy is similar to you, but more like a list of biases that stop us from cooperating in everyday life. Does such a thing exist?
In some contexts I like competition, even when I am losing, although obviously much more when I am winning. I guess it’s when I care more about the absolute outcome than about my relative position in the race, and when besides winning and losing there is a default third position of not trying at all, which is even worse than losing (though it may not feel so to the people who simply ignore the race).
For example, right now I am developing mobile games and I am comparing myself with a friend who is also developing mobile games, and he does it at least twice faster than me. I guess I would feel better being the first one, but I still prefer having some else compete with me to doing it alone. -- A few years ago I was in a running competition, which is highly unusual for me, and I was almost the last. It still felt good, because it was a huge improvement from never participating in such a competition. (Though I guess being literally the last one would be depressing.)
I am so tired of so many people around me not even trying that I welcome a competition even if I know that I am likely to lose. Actually, there is something good about losing: it shows that there is still a lot of opportunity to grow (and in the best case someone who already did it and could give me advice).
When I was at the CFAR Rationality Minicamp, compared with some other participants I felt like a loser. And at the same time, it was a great feeling: it was like being a new student at Hogwarts and seeing the magic the older students can do. It felt like a plan.