Thanks for the post. I’ve already noticed that certain decisions, while being rational conclusions of impartial analysis, are easier to implement in a certain emotional state, and having made the decision I’ve had trouble acting on it when the state was absent. This post suggest that the state can be saved and re-loaded, which is awesome if it works.
Note that if initial attempts to do this fail, or partially fail, that doesn’t mean “give up.” I claim this is a skill that improves with practice. I heard a (possibly apocryphal) story one time about Andrew Critch (former Jane Street mathematician/trader, CFAR instructor, MIRI researcher, founder of Berkeley Existential Risk Institute) doing something analogous with thorny math problems—in the story, he would do something like establish a clear felt sense of the taste of the part of the problem he was working on before pausing to go to sleep or eat food or whatever, so that he could reboot back into the problem without too much effort.
Similarly, I find that when I write, it’s often valuable to pick up the thread two or three paragraphs above where I left off. I hit return a few times, start retyping what I wrote previously word for word, and after a couple paragraphs I’m back into the flow and I remember why I wrote those paragraphs and what it felt like and I have a visceral sense of where-to-go-next that I wouldn’t have had if I tried to start cold.
Try things! Don’t give up until you’ve proven that this is a skill you can’t gain. =)
(not really, of course—tradeoffs, prioritization, Pareto curves, yadda yadda)
Duly updated on worthwhileness of trying harder here :). Interesting story from Andrew (know him). I do what you do with writing for reading, doing if for writing is a great tip, thanks.
Another thing that might be interesting to try is creating associations to “states” memory-palace style. I’m an audiobook fiend and I noticed that places I walk in Manhattan often remind me of the exact place and feeling of the book I listened too there. Maybe this can be leveraged to proactively bookmark states.
Thanks for the post. I’ve already noticed that certain decisions, while being rational conclusions of impartial analysis, are easier to implement in a certain emotional state, and having made the decision I’ve had trouble acting on it when the state was absent. This post suggest that the state can be saved and re-loaded, which is awesome if it works.
Note that if initial attempts to do this fail, or partially fail, that doesn’t mean “give up.” I claim this is a skill that improves with practice. I heard a (possibly apocryphal) story one time about Andrew Critch (former Jane Street mathematician/trader, CFAR instructor, MIRI researcher, founder of Berkeley Existential Risk Institute) doing something analogous with thorny math problems—in the story, he would do something like establish a clear felt sense of the taste of the part of the problem he was working on before pausing to go to sleep or eat food or whatever, so that he could reboot back into the problem without too much effort.
Similarly, I find that when I write, it’s often valuable to pick up the thread two or three paragraphs above where I left off. I hit return a few times, start retyping what I wrote previously word for word, and after a couple paragraphs I’m back into the flow and I remember why I wrote those paragraphs and what it felt like and I have a visceral sense of where-to-go-next that I wouldn’t have had if I tried to start cold.
Try things! Don’t give up until you’ve proven that this is a skill you can’t gain. =)
(not really, of course—tradeoffs, prioritization, Pareto curves, yadda yadda)
Duly updated on worthwhileness of trying harder here :). Interesting story from Andrew (know him). I do what you do with writing for reading, doing if for writing is a great tip, thanks.
Another thing that might be interesting to try is creating associations to “states” memory-palace style. I’m an audiobook fiend and I noticed that places I walk in Manhattan often remind me of the exact place and feeling of the book I listened too there. Maybe this can be leveraged to proactively bookmark states.