After I started noticing this, I’ve been realizing that coffee is not as useful in improving my focus as I thought it was earlier.
“Improving your focus”? Wait, you think that the placebo effect and you self-signaling by adopting the identity of a Hard Worker… weren’t “improving your focus”? Compartmentalize the epistemic from the instrumental, dude! Sometimes your instincts, narrative-building instinct included, are a LOT smarter than you can be. Chesterton’s Fence: do you have an idea how the “narrativist” instinct might have been advantageous in a similar situation, so that the adaptation is triggering now? If you don’t, you might not know enough to handle a manual override!
P.S. Ah, it’s already been noted by other commenters. Still, I think that’d be a few Quirrel points minus! You exhibited a textbook bit of Spock Rationality and used it to self-handicap...
P.P.S. Damn, I’m speaking in LW jargon when I’m too lazy for proper English.
Here is why I think I’m better off. Earlier, I used to get my cup of coffee, and then go to my desk all pumped up, still feeding off from my narrative, and then work with hard focus for maybe 10 mins, following which I would open my browser, turn on some music and do shitty work for the following hour or so. I would then feel mentally foggy and distracted. Then I would notice that my narrative is getting hurt. And I know how to fix that! More coffee! So I’d probably go to coffee machine or walk over to the coffee shop. Come back to my desk. But now the extended break has made it even harder to find my focus again.
Rinse, lather, repeat.
Having realized how little coffee actually helps, when I feel distracted and feel the urge get more coffee, I’m now able to stay at my desk and continue working because I know that coffee isn’t some magic drug which helps all the time.
So yes, it might help me get to my desk feeling good. But it sure as hell doesn’t help me do good work.
The problem I think, might be that narratives put you into far mode, while actually making progress in real life requires near mode. Now, you might build a narrative where you are a near mode person, but it’s feeding off from far mode fuzzies. And it’s hard maintain both at the same time.
Interesting, I often use a coffee or bathroom break exactly because it allows me to stop working and get up from my desk, whether because I need a change of perspective to think about a problem or because I just don’t feel like working and want to use a socially acceptable method to slack off for ten minutes. Then again, I drink tea instead of coffee, so I don’t have the issue of taking in too much caffine at once and actually harming how I work. YMMV.
Narratives definetly seem to be far mode, yes—you can construct a narrative where you’re a Good Worker or whatnot without actually doing any of the near mode activities. Maybe if you build the narrative consciously, actually trying to construct the proper narrative for your task, you can do the near mode tasks (write code, frex) and refer back to the narrative if you get stuck or start to slack off (a Good Worker wouldn’t slack off on their unit tests, they Have Pride In Their Work and Want To Create Good Products).
P.P.S. Damn, I’m speaking in LW jargon when I’m too lazy for proper English.
At least you used “P.S.” rather than “ETA:”. ;-)
BTW, I guess that part of the reason why this comment was upvoted that high is that it’s written in LWese, because the content is just a worn-out cliché (though one I do agree with).
“Improving your focus”? Wait, you think that the placebo effect and you self-signaling by adopting the identity of a Hard Worker… weren’t “improving your focus”? Compartmentalize the epistemic from the instrumental, dude! Sometimes your instincts, narrative-building instinct included, are a LOT smarter than you can be. Chesterton’s Fence: do you have an idea how the “narrativist” instinct might have been advantageous in a similar situation, so that the adaptation is triggering now? If you don’t, you might not know enough to handle a manual override!
P.S. Ah, it’s already been noted by other commenters. Still, I think that’d be a few Quirrel points minus! You exhibited a textbook bit of Spock Rationality and used it to self-handicap...
P.P.S. Damn, I’m speaking in LW jargon when I’m too lazy for proper English.
Here is why I think I’m better off. Earlier, I used to get my cup of coffee, and then go to my desk all pumped up, still feeding off from my narrative, and then work with hard focus for maybe 10 mins, following which I would open my browser, turn on some music and do shitty work for the following hour or so. I would then feel mentally foggy and distracted. Then I would notice that my narrative is getting hurt. And I know how to fix that! More coffee! So I’d probably go to coffee machine or walk over to the coffee shop. Come back to my desk. But now the extended break has made it even harder to find my focus again.
Rinse, lather, repeat.
Having realized how little coffee actually helps, when I feel distracted and feel the urge get more coffee, I’m now able to stay at my desk and continue working because I know that coffee isn’t some magic drug which helps all the time.
So yes, it might help me get to my desk feeling good. But it sure as hell doesn’t help me do good work.
The problem I think, might be that narratives put you into far mode, while actually making progress in real life requires near mode. Now, you might build a narrative where you are a near mode person, but it’s feeding off from far mode fuzzies. And it’s hard maintain both at the same time.
Interesting, I often use a coffee or bathroom break exactly because it allows me to stop working and get up from my desk, whether because I need a change of perspective to think about a problem or because I just don’t feel like working and want to use a socially acceptable method to slack off for ten minutes. Then again, I drink tea instead of coffee, so I don’t have the issue of taking in too much caffine at once and actually harming how I work. YMMV.
Narratives definetly seem to be far mode, yes—you can construct a narrative where you’re a Good Worker or whatnot without actually doing any of the near mode activities. Maybe if you build the narrative consciously, actually trying to construct the proper narrative for your task, you can do the near mode tasks (write code, frex) and refer back to the narrative if you get stuck or start to slack off (a Good Worker wouldn’t slack off on their unit tests, they Have Pride In Their Work and Want To Create Good Products).
At least you used “P.S.” rather than “ETA:”. ;-)
BTW, I guess that part of the reason why this comment was upvoted that high is that it’s written in LWese, because the content is just a worn-out cliché (though one I do agree with).