Does anyone happen to know of reliable ways for increasing one’s supply of executive function, by the way? I seem to run out of it very quickly in general.
Does anyone happen to know of reliable ways for increasing one’s supply of executive function, by the way? I seem to run out of it very quickly in general.
There are a handful of specific small fixes that seem to be helpful. For example, having a capture system (which many people are introduced to by Getting Things Done) helps decrease cognitive load, which helps with willpower and energy. Anti-akrasia methods tend to fall into clusters of increasing executive function or decreasing value uncertainty / confusion. A number of people have investigated various drugs (mostly stimulants) that boost some component.
I get the impression that, in general, there are not many low hanging fruit for people to pick, but it is worth putting effort into deliberate upgrades.
After joining the military, where executive function on demand is sort of the meta-goal of most training exercises, i found that having a set wardrobe actually saves a great deal of mental effort. You just don’t realize how much time you spend worrying about clothes until you have a book which literally has all the answers and can’t be deviated from. I know that this was also a thing that Steve Jobs did- one ‘uniform’ for life. President Obama apparently does it as well. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/10/05/steve-jobs-always-dressed-exactly-the-same-heres-who-else-does/
There are a number of other things i’ve learned for this which are maybe worth writing up as a separate post. Not sure if that’s within the purview of LW though.
I agree, though it’s always been interesting to me how the tiniest details of clothing become much clearer signals when eveybody’s almost the same. Other military practices that I think conserve your energy for what’s important:
-Daily, routinized exercise. Done in a way that very few people are deciding what comes next.
-Maximum use of daylight hours
-Minimized high-risk projects outside of workplace (paternalistic health care, insurance, and in many cases, housing and continuing education.)
It’s plausible to me that a much higher proportion of peeps than is generally realized operate substantially better on different sleep schedules to what a 9-5 job forces, in which case enforced maximal (or at least, greater) use of daylight hours is possibly taking place on a societal (global?) level, though not as strongly as in militaries.
This is plausible to me, too. I’ve had very productive friends with very different rhythms.
But I suspect far more people believe they operate best staying up late and sleeping late than actually do. There’s a reason day shifts frequently outperform night shifts given the same equipment. And we know a lot of people suffer health-wise on night shift.
I don’t think one forced sleep schedule outperforming another is strong evidence that forced schedules are better than natural schedules.
Edit: Also, depending on geography, time of year and commute a 9-5 job may force one to get up some time before dawn and/or stay up some time after dark.
I’m going the opposite way: Paying more attention to non-formulaic outfits, after years of {{varying only within one or two very circumscribed formulas, or even wearing one of exactly the same few set outfits for months—or more—at a time}}. So far it’s interesting figuring things out, but it’s increasing wardrobe load, and if I continue expanding my collection, it could become substantially more expensive than what I was doing before.
The dialectic outside view suggests I’ll end up settling down a bit and going back to a more repetitive approach, but with a greater number of variables (e.g. introducing variables for level of formality, weather, audience, tone-fancied-on-given-day, etc.) and items from which to choose.
Okay, now that does sound like a useful term.
Does anyone happen to know of reliable ways for increasing one’s supply of executive function, by the way? I seem to run out of it very quickly in general.
There are a handful of specific small fixes that seem to be helpful. For example, having a capture system (which many people are introduced to by Getting Things Done) helps decrease cognitive load, which helps with willpower and energy. Anti-akrasia methods tend to fall into clusters of increasing executive function or decreasing value uncertainty / confusion. A number of people have investigated various drugs (mostly stimulants) that boost some component.
I get the impression that, in general, there are not many low hanging fruit for people to pick, but it is worth putting effort into deliberate upgrades.
After joining the military, where executive function on demand is sort of the meta-goal of most training exercises, i found that having a set wardrobe actually saves a great deal of mental effort. You just don’t realize how much time you spend worrying about clothes until you have a book which literally has all the answers and can’t be deviated from. I know that this was also a thing that Steve Jobs did- one ‘uniform’ for life. President Obama apparently does it as well. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/10/05/steve-jobs-always-dressed-exactly-the-same-heres-who-else-does/
There are a number of other things i’ve learned for this which are maybe worth writing up as a separate post. Not sure if that’s within the purview of LW though.
I agree, though it’s always been interesting to me how the tiniest details of clothing become much clearer signals when eveybody’s almost the same. Other military practices that I think conserve your energy for what’s important:
-Daily, routinized exercise. Done in a way that very few people are deciding what comes next.
-Maximum use of daylight hours
-Minimized high-risk projects outside of workplace (paternalistic health care, insurance, and in many cases, housing and continuing education.)
It’s plausible to me that a much higher proportion of peeps than is generally realized operate substantially better on different sleep schedules to what a 9-5 job forces, in which case enforced maximal (or at least, greater) use of daylight hours is possibly taking place on a societal (global?) level, though not as strongly as in militaries.
This is plausible to me, too. I’ve had very productive friends with very different rhythms.
But I suspect far more people believe they operate best staying up late and sleeping late than actually do. There’s a reason day shifts frequently outperform night shifts given the same equipment. And we know a lot of people suffer health-wise on night shift.
I don’t think one forced sleep schedule outperforming another is strong evidence that forced schedules are better than natural schedules.
Edit: Also, depending on geography, time of year and commute a 9-5 job may force one to get up some time before dawn and/or stay up some time after dark.
I also intuit that most people do best on a non-forced sleep schedule; I don’t think that many people know how to have a unforced schedule.
I’d be interested to see this in Discussion.
I’m going the opposite way: Paying more attention to non-formulaic outfits, after years of {{varying only within one or two very circumscribed formulas, or even wearing one of exactly the same few set outfits for months—or more—at a time}}. So far it’s interesting figuring things out, but it’s increasing wardrobe load, and if I continue expanding my collection, it could become substantially more expensive than what I was doing before.
The dialectic outside view suggests I’ll end up settling down a bit and going back to a more repetitive approach, but with a greater number of variables (e.g. introducing variables for level of formality, weather, audience, tone-fancied-on-given-day, etc.) and items from which to choose.
As requested.
http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/il7/military_rationalities_and_irrationalities/
Awesome!
Stimulants, exercise and the removal of chronic stress.
That sounds like ways of reducing the demand, not increasing the supply.
“Spending it better” is one option, but not the one that I want.
They are not. Each of those increase the supply of executive function.
Stimulants.
Exercise.
Chronic stress.
Lumosity’s new game “Train of Thought” might do it.