This is pretty cool. I think the fact that the cost is so low is almost a bit worrying. Because of reading this article, I’m likely to hum in the future due to “the potential non-trivial benefits compared to probably minuscule side effects and very low costs”.
In some sense you’ve just made this my default operating hypothesis (and hence in some sense “an idea I give life to” or “enliven”, and hence in some sense “a ‘belief’ of mine”) not because I think it is true, but simply because it kinda makes sense and generalized prudence suggests that it probably won’t hurt to try.
But also: I’m pretty sure this broader meta-cognitive pattern explains a LOT of superstitious behavior! ;-)
Yeah when I was writing this part of me kept saying “but humming is so cheap, why shouldn’t everyone do it all the time?”, and I had to remind myself that attention is a cost. This is despite the fact that it’s not cheap for me (due to trigeminal neuralgia; I’ll probably stick with enovid myslf) and attention is a limiting reagent for me. The too-cheap-to-meter argument is really seductive.
This is pretty cool. I think the fact that the cost is so low is almost a bit worrying. Because of reading this article, I’m likely to hum in the future due to “the potential non-trivial benefits compared to probably minuscule side effects and very low costs”.
In some sense you’ve just made this my default operating hypothesis (and hence in some sense “an idea I give life to” or “enliven”, and hence in some sense “a ‘belief’ of mine”) not because I think it is true, but simply because it kinda makes sense and generalized prudence suggests that it probably won’t hurt to try.
But also: I’m pretty sure this broader meta-cognitive pattern explains a LOT of superstitious behavior! ;-)
Yeah when I was writing this part of me kept saying “but humming is so cheap, why shouldn’t everyone do it all the time?”, and I had to remind myself that attention is a cost. This is despite the fact that it’s not cheap for me (due to trigeminal neuralgia; I’ll probably stick with enovid myslf) and attention is a limiting reagent for me. The too-cheap-to-meter argument is really seductive.