I think that this sort of advocacy is key. In addition to this, I think that any motivated rationalists should try to go public with any personal improvements they have managed to make and could reasonably attribute to more rational thought. Health and income improvements seem particularly alluring to most, so improvements in either area might be good to advertise.
I’m currently making several active changes to my routine that I hope will maximize my mental and physical health (stopping smoking; both marijuana and tobacco, working out, using supplements for mood-brightening and other nootropics). I eventually hope to use the documentation of my personal improvements to push x-rationality, as I feel that it has greatly improved my akrasia fighting tendencies. More precisely, I am much better at cutting myself off before I convince myself not to take positive and productive steps towards self-improvement, which was previously quite a large problem for me.
I am much better at cutting myself off before I convince myself not to take positive and productive steps towards self-improvement, which was previously quite a large problem for me.
Well, I can say that I feel as though I greatly increased in my ability to set goals for myself. Previously I would feel totally scattered and disorganized, and I often felt as though I lacked direction. I’ve been reading Less Wrong and Overcoming Bias for about half a year now and I feel that my ability to break down my larger goals into workable sub-goals has dramatically increased.
I used to simply have a goal like “get in shape” or “learn category theory” or “learn Mandarin” and the result simply would not materialize for me, I felt like my wheels were spinning. In addition to this, I had a tendency to over-think simple tasks and would typically end up feeling like they were too difficult to achieve, thereby making it alright to procrastinate. Eventually I had convinced myself that I was a natural procrastinator, and that I could never overcome my bad habits or meet my goals. By building my ability to break larger goals into manageable goals, I feel that I have been able to overcome (to some degree) my tendency to make excuses.
Perhaps most importantly, I feel that I’ve managed to chase away my tendency to seek out ‘grand ideas’, focusing instead on functional knowledge. Having a strong interest in philosophy since the age of sixteen probably did not help me. I had placed too big an emphasis on the ‘big’ ideas, and severely underestimated the value of hacks and heuristics. I craved some sort of ill-defined ‘Ultimate Truth’, and in pursing more and more ‘exotic’ topics (both in mathematics, where my tendency was to go as abstract as possible as quickly as possible and in philosophy when my tendency was to find a ‘fully general explanation’) I missed out on a solid basis and overlooked the importance of practice, practice, practice.
It seemed to me that simply grocking the ‘big picture’ (i.e. finding the right metaphysics) would be sufficient, but while I was chasing the Pot of Gold, I missed the fact that I was skipping over all of the workable material laying on the ground all around me. In reading Less Wrong, and chatting with those who had come further than myself, I slowly began to realize my mistake and have begun taking serious steps to mitigate my foolishness.
A Caveat: It may be that I’m overestimating how much of this is due to rationality training and how much is due to simple maturation (I’m still young enough that this could certainly be the case, suffice it to say that my brain is still developing). Or, it could be that because I’m still somewhat young the material has had a more significant impact on me. It’s difficult to tell.
I think that this sort of advocacy is key. In addition to this, I think that any motivated rationalists should try to go public with any personal improvements they have managed to make and could reasonably attribute to more rational thought. Health and income improvements seem particularly alluring to most, so improvements in either area might be good to advertise.
I’m currently making several active changes to my routine that I hope will maximize my mental and physical health (stopping smoking; both marijuana and tobacco, working out, using supplements for mood-brightening and other nootropics). I eventually hope to use the documentation of my personal improvements to push x-rationality, as I feel that it has greatly improved my akrasia fighting tendencies. More precisely, I am much better at cutting myself off before I convince myself not to take positive and productive steps towards self-improvement, which was previously quite a large problem for me.
Could you expand on what you changed?
Well, I can say that I feel as though I greatly increased in my ability to set goals for myself. Previously I would feel totally scattered and disorganized, and I often felt as though I lacked direction. I’ve been reading Less Wrong and Overcoming Bias for about half a year now and I feel that my ability to break down my larger goals into workable sub-goals has dramatically increased.
I used to simply have a goal like “get in shape” or “learn category theory” or “learn Mandarin” and the result simply would not materialize for me, I felt like my wheels were spinning. In addition to this, I had a tendency to over-think simple tasks and would typically end up feeling like they were too difficult to achieve, thereby making it alright to procrastinate. Eventually I had convinced myself that I was a natural procrastinator, and that I could never overcome my bad habits or meet my goals. By building my ability to break larger goals into manageable goals, I feel that I have been able to overcome (to some degree) my tendency to make excuses.
Perhaps most importantly, I feel that I’ve managed to chase away my tendency to seek out ‘grand ideas’, focusing instead on functional knowledge. Having a strong interest in philosophy since the age of sixteen probably did not help me. I had placed too big an emphasis on the ‘big’ ideas, and severely underestimated the value of hacks and heuristics. I craved some sort of ill-defined ‘Ultimate Truth’, and in pursing more and more ‘exotic’ topics (both in mathematics, where my tendency was to go as abstract as possible as quickly as possible and in philosophy when my tendency was to find a ‘fully general explanation’) I missed out on a solid basis and overlooked the importance of practice, practice, practice.
It seemed to me that simply grocking the ‘big picture’ (i.e. finding the right metaphysics) would be sufficient, but while I was chasing the Pot of Gold, I missed the fact that I was skipping over all of the workable material laying on the ground all around me. In reading Less Wrong, and chatting with those who had come further than myself, I slowly began to realize my mistake and have begun taking serious steps to mitigate my foolishness.
A Caveat: It may be that I’m overestimating how much of this is due to rationality training and how much is due to simple maturation (I’m still young enough that this could certainly be the case, suffice it to say that my brain is still developing). Or, it could be that because I’m still somewhat young the material has had a more significant impact on me. It’s difficult to tell.