I’ve paid close attention to my productivity and general cognitive agility for the last few years. I’ve found that it gets easier and easier to track, to the point that I can now identify how sharp I am on a given day without actually testing my mettle.
My sole motivation for tracking was to identify correlations between diet and cognition (which has been a pretty successful program). I imagine that once you start using predictions to inform your work schedule you have to be very careful you aren’t tricking yourself to avoid work.
Sure. I should mention before hand that I wouldn’t expect my results to generalize to anyone else. I started tracking my diet when I began having health problems and distinct cognitive impairment. I imagine the majority of the benefit I’ve achieved from diet has been due to correcting things wrong rather than improving things right. That said, here’s a brief overview:
Foods that rapidly bring on brain fog, degree dependent on quantity: Raw carrots, raw bell peppers, peanut butter, walnuts, pure sugar (even natural sources, such as sugarcane, but tentatively not honey), bananas, raw apples, enriched grains (tentatively, I’ve only tried this experiment half a dozen times), tofu.
Whether the food is cooked or not seems to matter, but I’ve only experimented with this for a handful of foods.
Among the foods I do eat I prefer those that provide an even level of energy over time, to avoid crashes: lean protein, oats, olive oil, non-starchy vegetables; however, there are foods/drinks that provide positive cognitive benefit in the short run, such as: some alcoholic drinks, starchy vegetables (yams, sweet potatoes), coffee, mint tea.
For the sake of simplicity in analysis I almost always restrict my meals to 4-5 ingredients, and almost never eat out.
My own observations about myself have been much more accidental, but I can add the following to your list:
Onions and mushrooms. Don’t eat any of that in quantity if you want to stay alert. Large quantities of either make me want to sleep.
Lactose. I realized belatedly that I’m apparently lactose intolerant, like most people (depending on origin) over the age of 4. To avoid crashing, make your breakfast cereal with lactose-free milk.
It still might generalize a bit if others have the same things wrong. I’d be interested to hear what sort of back story you have to make this a bigger problem for you.
I’ll try to pay attention when eating those sorts of foods and see if I notice anything different.
True, I’m sure some others could gain something useful, but a health forum would probably be a better place for all the details. I think there’s a small LessWrong walk away message though, so I’ll elaborate a bit here.
I began having various symptoms about 5 years ago. The main things were heart issues (tachycardia, brachycardia, arrhythmias), digestive issues, low body temperature, and cognitive issues (confusion, reduced reflexes, poor multitasking). I was a typical junk food-eating,over caffeinated college student at the onset.
After about a year of worsening symptoms I sought out medical help. Multiple doctors had nothing to say. The last doc I saw diagnosed me with hypothermia. I slapped my face and decided I could do better on my own, and thus started my food experiments. It took a few years and was more difficult than I would have thought (being skinny I never realized how dependent I was on certain foods) but I finally converged on a diet that has largely eliminated all my symptoms.
Treating food like an experiment, rather than a source of pleasure or a chore, has been a great way to exercise rationality and will power. Nutrition is a complicated subject, confounded by conflicting information and individual differences. In addition there are numerous motivations for rationalizations (social pressure, convenience, cravings), and often little confidence about rational conclusions. Combine all that with a need to make level headed hypotheses and the ability to carry out the month long experiments and you have yourself a tricky exercise.
I’ve paid close attention to my productivity and general cognitive agility for the last few years. I’ve found that it gets easier and easier to track, to the point that I can now identify how sharp I am on a given day without actually testing my mettle.
My sole motivation for tracking was to identify correlations between diet and cognition (which has been a pretty successful program). I imagine that once you start using predictions to inform your work schedule you have to be very careful you aren’t tricking yourself to avoid work.
Would you mind sharing the results of your diet and cognition experiments?
Sure. I should mention before hand that I wouldn’t expect my results to generalize to anyone else. I started tracking my diet when I began having health problems and distinct cognitive impairment. I imagine the majority of the benefit I’ve achieved from diet has been due to correcting things wrong rather than improving things right. That said, here’s a brief overview:
Foods that rapidly bring on brain fog, degree dependent on quantity: Raw carrots, raw bell peppers, peanut butter, walnuts, pure sugar (even natural sources, such as sugarcane, but tentatively not honey), bananas, raw apples, enriched grains (tentatively, I’ve only tried this experiment half a dozen times), tofu.
Whether the food is cooked or not seems to matter, but I’ve only experimented with this for a handful of foods.
Among the foods I do eat I prefer those that provide an even level of energy over time, to avoid crashes: lean protein, oats, olive oil, non-starchy vegetables; however, there are foods/drinks that provide positive cognitive benefit in the short run, such as: some alcoholic drinks, starchy vegetables (yams, sweet potatoes), coffee, mint tea.
For the sake of simplicity in analysis I almost always restrict my meals to 4-5 ingredients, and almost never eat out.
My own observations about myself have been much more accidental, but I can add the following to your list:
Onions and mushrooms. Don’t eat any of that in quantity if you want to stay alert. Large quantities of either make me want to sleep.
Lactose. I realized belatedly that I’m apparently lactose intolerant, like most people (depending on origin) over the age of 4. To avoid crashing, make your breakfast cereal with lactose-free milk.
I’m lactose intolerant as well. I refused to believe it most of my life. Ice cream was too delicious and cold cereal too convenient.
It still might generalize a bit if others have the same things wrong. I’d be interested to hear what sort of back story you have to make this a bigger problem for you.
I’ll try to pay attention when eating those sorts of foods and see if I notice anything different.
True, I’m sure some others could gain something useful, but a health forum would probably be a better place for all the details. I think there’s a small LessWrong walk away message though, so I’ll elaborate a bit here.
I began having various symptoms about 5 years ago. The main things were heart issues (tachycardia, brachycardia, arrhythmias), digestive issues, low body temperature, and cognitive issues (confusion, reduced reflexes, poor multitasking). I was a typical junk food-eating,over caffeinated college student at the onset.
After about a year of worsening symptoms I sought out medical help. Multiple doctors had nothing to say. The last doc I saw diagnosed me with hypothermia. I slapped my face and decided I could do better on my own, and thus started my food experiments. It took a few years and was more difficult than I would have thought (being skinny I never realized how dependent I was on certain foods) but I finally converged on a diet that has largely eliminated all my symptoms.
Treating food like an experiment, rather than a source of pleasure or a chore, has been a great way to exercise rationality and will power. Nutrition is a complicated subject, confounded by conflicting information and individual differences. In addition there are numerous motivations for rationalizations (social pressure, convenience, cravings), and often little confidence about rational conclusions. Combine all that with a need to make level headed hypotheses and the ability to carry out the month long experiments and you have yourself a tricky exercise.
Would you mind trying Isomaltulose