Thanks for the offer Ruby. I’ve done a little bit of meditation (0.5-2 hours, 5-10 times) and think it may have given me a better phenomenological sense of my own focus and awareness, and slightly more control over it.
However, the improvement seems very low cost-effectiveness compared to the similar improvements in focus and awareness of my cognition I get from doing long stretches of math—noticing which strands of my mind think different things are useful to think about and focus on. I also find that most of the low-hanging fruit in improving my attention came from a CFAR class I had (that Val taught :-) ) about how removing drains on your working memory has increasing marginal value, and how to design your life environment accordingly (analagous to how rationality training on humans is very weak relative to being able to set up economic incentives to do well). This has helped me a fair bit, I think.
Regarding the practice of meditation, I’m currently at a level of skepticism where (I think) the only thing that will persuade me to do a bunch more will be someone doing something I personally regard as remarkable, and then telling me they believe it was causally due to their having done lots of meditation. It honestly just doesn’t seem worth the time.
As I said, I’m very happy to read examples of people having accomplished impressive things, and then crediting it to the practice of meditation. Such examples will gradually move my credences up.
Tim Ferris says some kind of meditation is one of the most common habits he finds in the people he interviews (regardless of whether it’s actually listening to a Headspace episode, or a runner just repeating the very same song throughout the entire 1h run). E.g. this (haven’t read, took me 5 sec of googling, but seems fine).
Also Ray Dalio says transcendental meditation is one of the key things that enabled him to cope emotionally with making mistakes and being wrong, and then building principles for never making the same kinds of mistakes again. He writes about that in Principles and talks about it here.
Glad to hear you’ve given it a decent shot. That being the case, I think it is pretty legitimate for you to not invest further time.
I do think that meditation/mindfulness can offer things not obtainable via the alternatives you listed, but I don’t think I could make a successful case for it briefly. My only remaining recommendation would be, if you haven’t, to spend some time meditating with a focus on your sensations and emotional state, instead of the more typical breathing. I especially recommend it when experiencing stronger emotions.
But I suppose I’ll just have to go off and do some remarkable things!
You may find it worthwhile to read Loch Kelly’s book Shift Into Freedom. It’s a relatively quick and easy read and teaches a style of practice oriented around “small glimpses” which don’t take much time. It doesn’t focus on developing concentration, which it sounds like you have a lot of already.
I think the advantage of meditation is that there has been a significant amount of research into it that has found all kinds of benefits—self-control, happiness, lowered stress. I suppose you might be able doubt this in light of the replication crisis, but I don’t know if there has been any similar research into doing maths. I’m not doubting that it works for you, just explaining why it comes so highly recommended.
Thanks for the offer Ruby. I’ve done a little bit of meditation (0.5-2 hours, 5-10 times) and think it may have given me a better phenomenological sense of my own focus and awareness, and slightly more control over it.
However, the improvement seems very low cost-effectiveness compared to the similar improvements in focus and awareness of my cognition I get from doing long stretches of math—noticing which strands of my mind think different things are useful to think about and focus on. I also find that most of the low-hanging fruit in improving my attention came from a CFAR class I had (that Val taught :-) ) about how removing drains on your working memory has increasing marginal value, and how to design your life environment accordingly (analagous to how rationality training on humans is very weak relative to being able to set up economic incentives to do well). This has helped me a fair bit, I think.
Regarding the practice of meditation, I’m currently at a level of skepticism where (I think) the only thing that will persuade me to do a bunch more will be someone doing something I personally regard as remarkable, and then telling me they believe it was causally due to their having done lots of meditation. It honestly just doesn’t seem worth the time.
As I said, I’m very happy to read examples of people having accomplished impressive things, and then crediting it to the practice of meditation. Such examples will gradually move my credences up.
Tim Ferris says some kind of meditation is one of the most common habits he finds in the people he interviews (regardless of whether it’s actually listening to a Headspace episode, or a runner just repeating the very same song throughout the entire 1h run). E.g. this (haven’t read, took me 5 sec of googling, but seems fine).
Also Ray Dalio says transcendental meditation is one of the key things that enabled him to cope emotionally with making mistakes and being wrong, and then building principles for never making the same kinds of mistakes again. He writes about that in Principles and talks about it here.
Glad to hear you’ve given it a decent shot. That being the case, I think it is pretty legitimate for you to not invest further time.
I do think that meditation/mindfulness can offer things not obtainable via the alternatives you listed, but I don’t think I could make a successful case for it briefly. My only remaining recommendation would be, if you haven’t, to spend some time meditating with a focus on your sensations and emotional state, instead of the more typical breathing. I especially recommend it when experiencing stronger emotions.
But I suppose I’ll just have to go off and do some remarkable things!
grins at your last line
You may find it worthwhile to read Loch Kelly’s book Shift Into Freedom. It’s a relatively quick and easy read and teaches a style of practice oriented around “small glimpses” which don’t take much time. It doesn’t focus on developing concentration, which it sounds like you have a lot of already.
I think the advantage of meditation is that there has been a significant amount of research into it that has found all kinds of benefits—self-control, happiness, lowered stress. I suppose you might be able doubt this in light of the replication crisis, but I don’t know if there has been any similar research into doing maths. I’m not doubting that it works for you, just explaining why it comes so highly recommended.