Hi...I’m Will—I learned about less wrong through a very intelligent childhood friend. I am quite nearly his opposite—so maybe I shouldn’t say anything...ever...and just stick to reading and learning. But It recommended leaving an introduction post. I also like this as a method of learning. I skimmed a few of the articles in the about page and enjoyed them...they provided a good deal of information that I believe I am much better at processing and understanding as opposed to creating. Therefore, I’m excited to see what I get out of this. I’m also curious to attend a Less Wrong meeting. I haven’t looked for one yet, but I will be.
Part of the problem I have is that I prefer doing things that provide tiny levels of fun with little to no levels of self-growth. For example, I would prefer playing a game of League of Legends over reading...anything. This is an annoying habit for obvious reasons. So I guess if there were suggestions of where I should start that might help me subconsciously (and eventually consciously) in favor of more meaningful activities. Not to abolish random bouts of pointless fun, but rather to refine my efficiency with time devoted to ALL of my daily activities.
How funny, I’m Will too! Just a quick & probably useless suggestion: be sure to be extremely honest with yourself about what it is all parts of you want, including the parts that want to play League of Legends. If you understand those parts and how they’re a non-trivial part of you, not just an adversarial thing set up to subvert your prefrontal cortex’s ‘real’ ambitions, that will allow you to find ways in which those parts can be satisfied that are more in line with your whole self’s ambitions. E.g. the appeal of League of Legends is largely that you have understandable, objective goals that you can make measurable cumulative progress on, which is intrinsically rewarding—the parts of you that are tracking that intrinsic reward might be just as well rewarded by a sufficiently well-taskified approach to learning, say, piano, Japanese, programming, and other skills that are more likely to provide long-term esteem-worthy capital. Finding a way to taskify things in general might be tricky, and it won’t itself be the sort of thing that you’re likely to make unambiguous cumulative progress on, but it’s meta and thus is a very good way to bootstrap to a position where further bootstrapping is easier and where you can hold on to momentum.
The suggestion was definitely not useless. Again, I’m not speaking out of rationalized information I’ve gathered from material sources. I’m speaking out of what my mind has processed through experiencing life. My current views might be somewhat depressing. Everybody has a different life no matter how much you want to macro them into generalized functions. What I mean by all of that? [I have a tendency of not necessarily saying precisely what I mean]. I mean that I can’t be honest with ‘all’ parts of what I want because I don’t know them. Is there potential for damage to my ‘real’ ambitions? Maybe they are no longer normal or good.
I completely understand what you mean about what to do once those first steps are established. I don’t think that it would have necessarily been my course of action once getting that far. So thanks for the advice!
Again, thank you for posting so quickly. I had time to read it much earlier, but this is my first real chance [League prevailed] to reply. <-- embarrassing, but true.
What about you? Why did you start on this site? What has brought you to your way of thinking? What are the most interesting aspects? The ones you think newbies like me should start?
Hi...I’m Will—I learned about less wrong through a very intelligent childhood friend. I am quite nearly his opposite—so maybe I shouldn’t say anything...ever...and just stick to reading and learning. But It recommended leaving an introduction post. I also like this as a method of learning. I skimmed a few of the articles in the about page and enjoyed them...they provided a good deal of information that I believe I am much better at processing and understanding as opposed to creating. Therefore, I’m excited to see what I get out of this. I’m also curious to attend a Less Wrong meeting. I haven’t looked for one yet, but I will be.
Part of the problem I have is that I prefer doing things that provide tiny levels of fun with little to no levels of self-growth. For example, I would prefer playing a game of League of Legends over reading...anything. This is an annoying habit for obvious reasons. So I guess if there were suggestions of where I should start that might help me subconsciously (and eventually consciously) in favor of more meaningful activities. Not to abolish random bouts of pointless fun, but rather to refine my efficiency with time devoted to ALL of my daily activities.
How funny, I’m Will too! Just a quick & probably useless suggestion: be sure to be extremely honest with yourself about what it is all parts of you want, including the parts that want to play League of Legends. If you understand those parts and how they’re a non-trivial part of you, not just an adversarial thing set up to subvert your prefrontal cortex’s ‘real’ ambitions, that will allow you to find ways in which those parts can be satisfied that are more in line with your whole self’s ambitions. E.g. the appeal of League of Legends is largely that you have understandable, objective goals that you can make measurable cumulative progress on, which is intrinsically rewarding—the parts of you that are tracking that intrinsic reward might be just as well rewarded by a sufficiently well-taskified approach to learning, say, piano, Japanese, programming, and other skills that are more likely to provide long-term esteem-worthy capital. Finding a way to taskify things in general might be tricky, and it won’t itself be the sort of thing that you’re likely to make unambiguous cumulative progress on, but it’s meta and thus is a very good way to bootstrap to a position where further bootstrapping is easier and where you can hold on to momentum.
The suggestion was definitely not useless. Again, I’m not speaking out of rationalized information I’ve gathered from material sources. I’m speaking out of what my mind has processed through experiencing life. My current views might be somewhat depressing. Everybody has a different life no matter how much you want to macro them into generalized functions. What I mean by all of that? [I have a tendency of not necessarily saying precisely what I mean]. I mean that I can’t be honest with ‘all’ parts of what I want because I don’t know them. Is there potential for damage to my ‘real’ ambitions? Maybe they are no longer normal or good.
I completely understand what you mean about what to do once those first steps are established. I don’t think that it would have necessarily been my course of action once getting that far. So thanks for the advice!
Again, thank you for posting so quickly. I had time to read it much earlier, but this is my first real chance [League prevailed] to reply. <-- embarrassing, but true.
Oh! And yes taskifying (if/once I get there) will be very difficult for me.
What about you? Why did you start on this site? What has brought you to your way of thinking? What are the most interesting aspects? The ones you think newbies like me should start?