Why should our emotions always rule our reason? There ought to be a rational way to deal with urges, fatigue and so on. I think the methods currently under discussion are Pjeby’s motivation techniques, cognitive behavioural therapy and possibly meditation. If these lines of inquiry bear fruit, then that should make it possible for people here to muster the willpower to do whatever it is they want to do. At that point we’ll be able to say that any Less Wrong reader who wants to lose weight or whatever and can’t, is failing to be sufficiently rational.
My point was just that knowing what to do and actually doing it are two separate things. It’s possible that someone could come to the objectively rational conclusion in every single circumstance, yet fail to act on those conclusions for a variety of other reasons. In that case, it would very tough to say their rationality is in any way at fault.
Anyone care to explain why this comment (and for that matter, the one below) was downvoted? Given that my karma score just dropped about 10 points in under an hour, I can only assume someone is going through my history and downvoting me for some reason. Great use of the karma system.
Why should our emotions always rule our reason? There ought to be a rational way to deal with urges, fatigue and so on. I think the methods currently under discussion are Pjeby’s motivation techniques, cognitive behavioural therapy and possibly meditation. If these lines of inquiry bear fruit, then that should make it possible for people here to muster the willpower to do whatever it is they want to do. At that point we’ll be able to say that any Less Wrong reader who wants to lose weight or whatever and can’t, is failing to be sufficiently rational.
My point was just that knowing what to do and actually doing it are two separate things. It’s possible that someone could come to the objectively rational conclusion in every single circumstance, yet fail to act on those conclusions for a variety of other reasons. In that case, it would very tough to say their rationality is in any way at fault.
Anyone care to explain why this comment (and for that matter, the one below) was downvoted? Given that my karma score just dropped about 10 points in under an hour, I can only assume someone is going through my history and downvoting me for some reason. Great use of the karma system.
I’ve had some very weird karma behaviour recently too.
All karma systems are abused. On this one, I’d be curious to know what proportion of votes are coming from non-commenting accounts.
It seems increasingly likely that this bug needs to be prioritized, especially part 3.
Even if he comes to the objectively rational conclusion on how to get himself to do what is best/most rational?
(I don’t think that in that case “forcing oneself with sheer willpower” is the best solution)