1) Cut superstimulus, which probably includes much of the internet, video games if you play them, etc. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work to just manage these things, because the issue isn’t the time you spend on them, but the pleasure they produce. For me at least, this includes LW.
2) Talk about your work, both with people who understand the field, and those that don’t. Explaining your work in terms laypeople can understand often involves explaining why it’s interesting or important, and it’s good to go over these reasons.
Nor do I! Which is why I cancel my internet subscription when necessary. It’s super inconvenient, but I haven’t found a way to solve this problem otherwise.
What I’m saying, I guess, is that I don’t have a hack. In my experience, pleasures and pains are very hard to move around as an adult. But the danger you describe in your OP is very, very serious (one I face as well), and so it seems to me to be worth extraordinary measures. But I’m eagerly reading for any easier method.
Two things work for me:
1) Cut superstimulus, which probably includes much of the internet, video games if you play them, etc. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work to just manage these things, because the issue isn’t the time you spend on them, but the pleasure they produce. For me at least, this includes LW.
2) Talk about your work, both with people who understand the field, and those that don’t. Explaining your work in terms laypeople can understand often involves explaining why it’s interesting or important, and it’s good to go over these reasons.
What exactly does that leave?
Well, the work. It sucks. It sucks for weeks. But eventually things reset pleasurewise.
I don’t think I have the kind of willpower necessary to pull that off.
Nor do I! Which is why I cancel my internet subscription when necessary. It’s super inconvenient, but I haven’t found a way to solve this problem otherwise.
What I’m saying, I guess, is that I don’t have a hack. In my experience, pleasures and pains are very hard to move around as an adult. But the danger you describe in your OP is very, very serious (one I face as well), and so it seems to me to be worth extraordinary measures. But I’m eagerly reading for any easier method.