I liked your post; it was well written with good practical illustration of your point. And it is definitely the case that lesswrong needs more posts about creating good habits on a practical level.
However I do have one concern; when you say that it is possible for anyone to acquire any character trait. I know eliezer has repeatedly bemoaned the state of “nothing fucking works,” and I can imagine simple physiological mechanisms such that some character traits are practically impossible for certain people to acquire.
Agreed. I’m sure it would be harder for Eliezer to acquire the character trait of “being a fit person who exercises an hour every day” simply because his body seems to give less positive reinforcement. He stated in one post that although he tries to walk an hour a day (or something equivalent, I can’t remember) he feels exhausted afterwards, rather than euphoric like a lot of people do after exercising. (Then again, the “runner’s high”, for me anyway, comes at its strongest after very intense exercise. Walking an hour leaves me pretty exhausted too.)
However, I’m sure there are invisible health effects to Eliezer’s physical exercise, just in terms of cardiovascular health and aerobic capacity. As far as I can tell, his attitude is “I don’t get as much visible benefit from exercise anyway, but I’m going to keep trying anyway.” Perserverence is a character trait, too.
I agree that in practical terms you are probably correct that things like acquiring the character trait of perseverance will work.
My only objection was that the way you phrased it, you seemed to leave no room for the possibility of something different happening. Perhaps your theory is airtight enough to do so; but I am curious what you would think if someone came to you and convinced you that they had tried to acquire a character trait in this way and failed.
Perhaps your theory is airtight enough to do so; but I am curious what you would think if someone came to you and convinced you that they had tried to acquire a character trait in this way and failed.
I would say “really? you’re not at all better at perseverence than when you started? Not even a tiny bit?” And maybe they wouldn’t be, but in that case my theory would be wrong. It seems to me that it would be very hard not to change in a permanent way after following a new habit for a year.
I liked your post; it was well written with good practical illustration of your point. And it is definitely the case that lesswrong needs more posts about creating good habits on a practical level.
However I do have one concern; when you say that it is possible for anyone to acquire any character trait. I know eliezer has repeatedly bemoaned the state of “nothing fucking works,” and I can imagine simple physiological mechanisms such that some character traits are practically impossible for certain people to acquire.
I thought the whole “nothing fucking works” thing was about physical traits, not character traits.
Yes; although it seems possible (not necessarily likely) that it could work for character traits as well.
Agreed. I’m sure it would be harder for Eliezer to acquire the character trait of “being a fit person who exercises an hour every day” simply because his body seems to give less positive reinforcement. He stated in one post that although he tries to walk an hour a day (or something equivalent, I can’t remember) he feels exhausted afterwards, rather than euphoric like a lot of people do after exercising. (Then again, the “runner’s high”, for me anyway, comes at its strongest after very intense exercise. Walking an hour leaves me pretty exhausted too.)
However, I’m sure there are invisible health effects to Eliezer’s physical exercise, just in terms of cardiovascular health and aerobic capacity. As far as I can tell, his attitude is “I don’t get as much visible benefit from exercise anyway, but I’m going to keep trying anyway.” Perserverence is a character trait, too.
I agree that in practical terms you are probably correct that things like acquiring the character trait of perseverance will work.
My only objection was that the way you phrased it, you seemed to leave no room for the possibility of something different happening. Perhaps your theory is airtight enough to do so; but I am curious what you would think if someone came to you and convinced you that they had tried to acquire a character trait in this way and failed.
I would say “really? you’re not at all better at perseverence than when you started? Not even a tiny bit?” And maybe they wouldn’t be, but in that case my theory would be wrong. It seems to me that it would be very hard not to change in a permanent way after following a new habit for a year.
Okay; I accept that you are confident enough to be extremely surprised at an exception to your theory.
So long as you are explicitly endorsing that high level of confidence, which seems reasonable but is also I think worth noticing.