I was at July rationality minicamp, and in addition to many “epiphanies”, one idea that seems to work for me is this, very simplified—forget the mysterious “willpower” and use self-reductionism, instead of speaking in far mode what you should and want to do, observe in near mode the little (irrational) causes that really make you do things. Then design your environment to contain more of those causes which make you do things you want to do. And then, if the theory is correct, you find yourself doing more of what you want to do, without having to suffer the internal conflict traditionally called “willpower”.
Today it’s almost one month since the minicamp, and here are the results so far. I list the areas where I wanted to improve myself, and assign a score from 0 to 5, where 5 means “works like a miracle; awesome” and 0 means “no change at all”. (I started to work on all these goals in parallel, which may be a good or bad idea. Bad part is, there is probably no chance succeeding in all at once. Good part is, if there is success in any part, then there is a success.)
(0) improving social skills and expanding comfort zone
(0) spending more time outside
So far it seems like a benefit, although of course I would be more happy with greater/faster improvement. The mere fact that I’m measuring (not very exactly) my progress is suprising enough. I’m curious about the long-term trends: will those changes gradually increase (as parts of my life get fixed and turn to habit) or decrease (as happened with my previous attempts at self-improvement)? Expect a more detailed report in the end of December 2012.
How exactly did I achieve this? (Note: This is strongly tailored to my personality, it may not work for other people.) Gamification—I have designed a set of rules that allow me to get “points” during the days. There are points e.g. for: having enough sleep, having an afternoon nap, meeting a friend, exercising (a specific amount), publishing a blog article, spending a day without consuming sugar, spending a day without browsing web, etc. Most of these rules allow only one point of given type per day, to avoid failure modes like “I don’t feel like getting this point now, but I can get two of these points tomorrow”. So each day I collect my earned points, literally small squares of colored paper (this makes them feel more real), and glue them on a paper form, which is always on my desk, and provides me a quick visual feedback on how “good” the previous days were. It’s like a computer game (exact rules, quick visual feedback), which is exactly why I like it.
This specific form of gamification was not literally taught at Minicamp, and I was considering something similar years before. Yet I never did it; mostly because I was stopped by my monkey-tribe-belonging instincts. Doing something that other people don’t do is weird. I tried to convince some friends to join me in doing this, but all my attempts failed; now I guess it’s because admitting that you need some kind of help is low status, while speaking about willpower in far mode is high status. Being with people at Minicamp messed with my tribe instincts; meeting a community of people with social norm of doing “weird” things reduced my elephant’s opposition to doing a weird thing. Sigh, I’m just a monkey, and I’m scared of doing things that other monkeys never do; even if it means being rational or winning.
Hm, I’ve been trying to get rid of one particular habit (drinking while sitting at my computer) for a long time. Recently I’ve considered the possibility of giving myself a reward every time I go to the kitchen to get a beer and come back with something else instead. The problem was that I couldn’t think of a suitable reward (there’s not much that I like). I hadn’t thought of just making something up, like pieces of paper. Thanks for the inspiration!
I was at July rationality minicamp, and in addition to many “epiphanies”, one idea that seems to work for me is this, very simplified—forget the mysterious “willpower” and use self-reductionism, instead of speaking in far mode what you should and want to do, observe in near mode the little (irrational) causes that really make you do things. Then design your environment to contain more of those causes which make you do things you want to do. And then, if the theory is correct, you find yourself doing more of what you want to do, without having to suffer the internal conflict traditionally called “willpower”.
Today it’s almost one month since the minicamp, and here are the results so far. I list the areas where I wanted to improve myself, and assign a score from 0 to 5, where 5 means “works like a miracle; awesome” and 0 means “no change at all”. (I started to work on all these goals in parallel, which may be a good or bad idea. Bad part is, there is probably no chance succeeding in all at once. Good part is, if there is success in any part, then there is a success.)
(5) avoiding sugar and soda
(4) sleeping regularly, avoiding sleep deprivation
(2) spending less time procrastinating online
(2) exercising regularly
(2) going to sleep early, waking up early
(1) following my long-term plans
(1) spending more time with friends
(1) being organized, planning, self-reflecting
(0) writing on blog, improving web page
(0) learning a new language
(0) being more successful at work
(0) improving social skills and expanding comfort zone
(0) spending more time outside
So far it seems like a benefit, although of course I would be more happy with greater/faster improvement. The mere fact that I’m measuring (not very exactly) my progress is suprising enough. I’m curious about the long-term trends: will those changes gradually increase (as parts of my life get fixed and turn to habit) or decrease (as happened with my previous attempts at self-improvement)? Expect a more detailed report in the end of December 2012.
How exactly did I achieve this? (Note: This is strongly tailored to my personality, it may not work for other people.) Gamification—I have designed a set of rules that allow me to get “points” during the days. There are points e.g. for: having enough sleep, having an afternoon nap, meeting a friend, exercising (a specific amount), publishing a blog article, spending a day without consuming sugar, spending a day without browsing web, etc. Most of these rules allow only one point of given type per day, to avoid failure modes like “I don’t feel like getting this point now, but I can get two of these points tomorrow”. So each day I collect my earned points, literally small squares of colored paper (this makes them feel more real), and glue them on a paper form, which is always on my desk, and provides me a quick visual feedback on how “good” the previous days were. It’s like a computer game (exact rules, quick visual feedback), which is exactly why I like it.
This specific form of gamification was not literally taught at Minicamp, and I was considering something similar years before. Yet I never did it; mostly because I was stopped by my monkey-tribe-belonging instincts. Doing something that other people don’t do is weird. I tried to convince some friends to join me in doing this, but all my attempts failed; now I guess it’s because admitting that you need some kind of help is low status, while speaking about willpower in far mode is high status. Being with people at Minicamp messed with my tribe instincts; meeting a community of people with social norm of doing “weird” things reduced my elephant’s opposition to doing a weird thing. Sigh, I’m just a monkey, and I’m scared of doing things that other monkeys never do; even if it means being rational or winning.
Hm, I’ve been trying to get rid of one particular habit (drinking while sitting at my computer) for a long time. Recently I’ve considered the possibility of giving myself a reward every time I go to the kitchen to get a beer and come back with something else instead. The problem was that I couldn’t think of a suitable reward (there’s not much that I like). I hadn’t thought of just making something up, like pieces of paper. Thanks for the inspiration!