Yeah, I think people who are high in abstract thinking and believing their beliefs and anxious thought patterns should really stay away from psychedelics and from leaning too hard into their run-away thought trains.
Also, try to stay grounded with people and activities that don’t send you off into abstract thought space. Spend some time with calm normal people who look at the world in straightforward ways, not only creative wild thinkers. Spend time doing hobbies outdoors that use your physical body and attention in satisfying ways, keeping you engaged enough to stay out of your head.
people who are high in abstract thinking and believing their beliefs and anxious thought patterns
I think one who this description fits can avoid any risks of ‘going insane’ while still using their abilities for good. For example, in my own case (I think the first two describe me, and the third one sort-of does), if I were to apply these suggestions..
try to stay grounded with people and activities that don’t send you off into abstract thought space. Spend some time with calm normal people who look at the world in straightforward ways, not only creative wild thinkers. Spend time doing hobbies outdoors that use your physical body and attention in satisfying ways, keeping you engaged enough to stay out of your head.
then my creative output related to alignment would probably drop significantly.
(I agree with not trying psychedelics though. Even e.g nootropics and adhd meds are things I’m really cautious with, cause I don’t wanna mess up some part of my process.)
For anyone reading this post in the future, I’d instead suggest doing things meant to help you channel your ability: being conscious and reflective about your thoughts, revisiting basic rationality techniques and theory occasionally, noticing privileged hypotheses (while still allowing yourself to ponder them if you’re just doing it because you find it interesting; I think letting ones mind explore is also important to generating important ideas and making connections).
“Please don’t throw your mind away” in this other sense of counteracting your tendency to think abstractly; you might be able to do a lot of good with it.
I think your suggestions are good as well. To be clear: I didn’t mean that I think one should spend a large fraction of their time just ‘staying grounded’. More like, a few hours a week.
The way I model attention is that it is (metaphorically) a Cirrus (biology) of thought that you extend into the world and then retract into your mind. If you leave it out for too long, it gets tangled up in the forest of all knowledge, if you keep it inside for too long, then you become unable to respond to your environment.
People who are extremely online tend to send their attention cirrus into the internet, where it is prone to become a host to memes that use addiction to bypass your mind’s typical defenses against infection.
Anything that you really enjoy to the point of losing self-control comes under the category of being a disease: whether that’s social media, programming, fiction, gaming, tentacle pornography, research, or anime.
Yeah, I think people who are high in abstract thinking and believing their beliefs and anxious thought patterns should really stay away from psychedelics and from leaning too hard into their run-away thought trains. Also, try to stay grounded with people and activities that don’t send you off into abstract thought space. Spend some time with calm normal people who look at the world in straightforward ways, not only creative wild thinkers. Spend time doing hobbies outdoors that use your physical body and attention in satisfying ways, keeping you engaged enough to stay out of your head.
I think one who this description fits can avoid any risks of ‘going insane’ while still using their abilities for good. For example, in my own case (I think the first two describe me, and the third one sort-of does), if I were to apply these suggestions..
then my creative output related to alignment would probably drop significantly.
(I agree with not trying psychedelics though. Even e.g nootropics and adhd meds are things I’m really cautious with, cause I don’t wanna mess up some part of my process.)
For anyone reading this post in the future, I’d instead suggest doing things meant to help you channel your ability: being conscious and reflective about your thoughts, revisiting basic rationality techniques and theory occasionally, noticing privileged hypotheses (while still allowing yourself to ponder them if you’re just doing it because you find it interesting; I think letting ones mind explore is also important to generating important ideas and making connections).
“Please don’t throw your mind away” in this other sense of counteracting your tendency to think abstractly; you might be able to do a lot of good with it.
I think your suggestions are good as well. To be clear: I didn’t mean that I think one should spend a large fraction of their time just ‘staying grounded’. More like, a few hours a week.
The way I model attention is that it is (metaphorically) a Cirrus (biology) of thought that you extend into the world and then retract into your mind. If you leave it out for too long, it gets tangled up in the forest of all knowledge, if you keep it inside for too long, then you become unable to respond to your environment.
People who are extremely online tend to send their attention cirrus into the internet, where it is prone to become a host to memes that use addiction to bypass your mind’s typical defenses against infection.
Anything that you really enjoy to the point of losing self-control comes under the category of being a disease: whether that’s social media, programming, fiction, gaming, tentacle pornography, research, or anime.