I do not allocate enough time in making the world a better place. In particular, and I will stress only this most important particular, I do not get around doing the bureocratic things that precede execution. I plan, and stop after planning.
Ex: I wrote a book but am not getting it published
Everyone who meets me think I am awesome and wants to join my project, but my projects don’t last enough time before the next project takes over my mind
I can’t pay with my money for loads of utilitarian stuff because I don’t feel safe donating so I’m not actually outputting the stuff I should (websites for instance)
MY AVOIDING conditions:
1) There are always better experiential options available instead of bureaucracy. From reading Less Wrong, to going out with girlfriend, or a pic-nic, or playing card-games, watching how I met you mother. Reading Cognitive Neuroscience papers. All those are way more fun, easier, than actually getting things done
2) I’m not safe putting money into stuff that is not me because I do not alief that I am able to acquire money. Being the son of a successful engineer and having chosen to study philosophy/psychology and not buying in to the christian/American morality of work as a value in itself, I hardly think I’ll want to make enough money to pay for me. Even if investing little into Utilons is something I really believe would be good for the world.
3) My life has been generally great over the course of the last quarter century, and it does not seem to be the case that going through any bureocracy was required for that. Now that my parents are stepping away, and money is being drained away, this is not the case anymore, but this is not something I alief, only something I barely know.
Being the son of a successful engineer and having chosen to study philosophy/psychology and not buying in to the christian/American morality of work as a value in itself, I hardly think I’ll want to make enough money to pay for me.
Wow. I had a surprisingly strong emotional response against that. I’m still trying to parse why, and it probably says more about my psychology than about yours. I think it boils down to the following beliefs that I seem to have: a) everyone should try their best to be self-sufficient, otherwise the weight of freeloaders will drag the rest of society down, b) anything can happen to anyone at any time and if you’re not trying your best to be prepared, you’re an idiot. Etc. Again, I’m not trying to attack you in any way. Your system sounds reasonably healthy, as long as you can afford it financially. (I know people who are similar but who really can’t afford it, and that may be coloring my perception.)
That probably means that my mind works sufficiently differently from yours that my suggestions may not work, but I’ll try my best.
a) Focus on the good feeling of having gotten something done, rather than the negative feeling of starting something that seems like harder work than the ‘better experiential options’. Over time, you might find that the satisfaction of having accomplished something is so addictive that it bleeds through into ‘I want to start more projects and finish them, so I can have the fulfillment of having finished them.’ Of course there are things that are easier than finishing difficult projects, but you might find that after a while, they aren’t as fun because you become conscious of how little you’ve accomplished at the end of doing them. That being said, that’s how my psychology works. Yours may require other tactics to get it to cooperate.
b) Your life may have been great for the past 25 years. Don’t focus on your life. Making the whole world a better place is not about you. In fact, plenty of people who’ve tried to make the world a better place, and sometimes succeeded, have suffered in the process. It’s not about you. According to utilitarian moral theories, every person’s happiness is of equal weight. If the stress of putting off spontaneous, fun activities to finish projects makes you a teeny bit less happy, but it makes just 2 other people much happier, than the total sum of happiness in the world is greater and you can be at ease, having accomplished your goal.
NOTE: This is not bragging, I really really want to change many of my ways and think part of this info is relevant to that.
Trying to give you a bit more precision about my intentions and perceptions.
1) I’m very good at finishing stuff if it is social/sexual/friendship stuff, or reading, or writing essays. 2) What I am not good is what requires feedback, things like finding an agent for book publishing, writing a good paper even though I am from Brazil and no one would revise it, or pretending to be interested in a low-impact master thesis.
Now, to your comments: Sure man, having gotten something done is great, now the kinds of things that really make me shine inside for having done them: Creating new friendships between two similiar people, giving presentations on transhumanism or philosophy and being high regarded, seducing women whom I’m likely to love, winning in intelectual games, and more than everything, being regarded, after planning an event, as a person who really takes the fact that we only live once and thus ought to savour every moment seriously. I’ve been told that I’m the person who most changed their lives by at least five people. I’ve optimized for being considered awesome by those who know me little. These things, I like the feeling of having done. Now if you ask me about how good I feel about having written a book on Dan Dennett, about having writen three unpublished philosophical articles, or about having caused 5 people to take immensely seriously the possibility of dedicating themselves to transhumanism/singularity/utilitarianism, I would be ridiculously lying to say that it makes me happier than, say, reading less wrong replies about my comments.
So basically, what you’re saying is that you get satisfaction from doing things that give you fairly immediate rewards (being considered awesome) from people. If I guess correctly, you are probably quite extroverted and like being around people. (This is fairly rare on LessWrong, and it isn’t the case for me.) A possible solution would be to try to tie those things you don’t get as much satisfaction from (writing a book, writing philosophy articles, etc) to getting respect and having people think you are awesome. If you can think of a way to do that, I’m guessing it would help.
I would be ridiculously lying to say that it makes me happier than, say, reading less wrong replies about my comments.
Like I said. Making the world a ‘better place’ is not necessarily about making just yourself happier. (Though I haven’t done a huge amount on that front either.)
I do not allocate enough time in making the world a better place. In particular, and I will stress only this most important particular, I do not get around doing the bureocratic things that precede execution. I plan, and stop after planning. Ex: I wrote a book but am not getting it published Everyone who meets me think I am awesome and wants to join my project, but my projects don’t last enough time before the next project takes over my mind I can’t pay with my money for loads of utilitarian stuff because I don’t feel safe donating so I’m not actually outputting the stuff I should (websites for instance)
MY AVOIDING conditions: 1) There are always better experiential options available instead of bureaucracy. From reading Less Wrong, to going out with girlfriend, or a pic-nic, or playing card-games, watching how I met you mother. Reading Cognitive Neuroscience papers. All those are way more fun, easier, than actually getting things done 2) I’m not safe putting money into stuff that is not me because I do not alief that I am able to acquire money. Being the son of a successful engineer and having chosen to study philosophy/psychology and not buying in to the christian/American morality of work as a value in itself, I hardly think I’ll want to make enough money to pay for me. Even if investing little into Utilons is something I really believe would be good for the world. 3) My life has been generally great over the course of the last quarter century, and it does not seem to be the case that going through any bureocracy was required for that. Now that my parents are stepping away, and money is being drained away, this is not the case anymore, but this is not something I alief, only something I barely know.
Wow. I had a surprisingly strong emotional response against that. I’m still trying to parse why, and it probably says more about my psychology than about yours. I think it boils down to the following beliefs that I seem to have: a) everyone should try their best to be self-sufficient, otherwise the weight of freeloaders will drag the rest of society down, b) anything can happen to anyone at any time and if you’re not trying your best to be prepared, you’re an idiot. Etc. Again, I’m not trying to attack you in any way. Your system sounds reasonably healthy, as long as you can afford it financially. (I know people who are similar but who really can’t afford it, and that may be coloring my perception.)
That probably means that my mind works sufficiently differently from yours that my suggestions may not work, but I’ll try my best.
a) Focus on the good feeling of having gotten something done, rather than the negative feeling of starting something that seems like harder work than the ‘better experiential options’. Over time, you might find that the satisfaction of having accomplished something is so addictive that it bleeds through into ‘I want to start more projects and finish them, so I can have the fulfillment of having finished them.’ Of course there are things that are easier than finishing difficult projects, but you might find that after a while, they aren’t as fun because you become conscious of how little you’ve accomplished at the end of doing them. That being said, that’s how my psychology works. Yours may require other tactics to get it to cooperate.
b) Your life may have been great for the past 25 years. Don’t focus on your life. Making the whole world a better place is not about you. In fact, plenty of people who’ve tried to make the world a better place, and sometimes succeeded, have suffered in the process. It’s not about you. According to utilitarian moral theories, every person’s happiness is of equal weight. If the stress of putting off spontaneous, fun activities to finish projects makes you a teeny bit less happy, but it makes just 2 other people much happier, than the total sum of happiness in the world is greater and you can be at ease, having accomplished your goal.
NOTE: This is not bragging, I really really want to change many of my ways and think part of this info is relevant to that. Trying to give you a bit more precision about my intentions and perceptions. 1) I’m very good at finishing stuff if it is social/sexual/friendship stuff, or reading, or writing essays. 2) What I am not good is what requires feedback, things like finding an agent for book publishing, writing a good paper even though I am from Brazil and no one would revise it, or pretending to be interested in a low-impact master thesis. Now, to your comments: Sure man, having gotten something done is great, now the kinds of things that really make me shine inside for having done them: Creating new friendships between two similiar people, giving presentations on transhumanism or philosophy and being high regarded, seducing women whom I’m likely to love, winning in intelectual games, and more than everything, being regarded, after planning an event, as a person who really takes the fact that we only live once and thus ought to savour every moment seriously. I’ve been told that I’m the person who most changed their lives by at least five people. I’ve optimized for being considered awesome by those who know me little. These things, I like the feeling of having done. Now if you ask me about how good I feel about having written a book on Dan Dennett, about having writen three unpublished philosophical articles, or about having caused 5 people to take immensely seriously the possibility of dedicating themselves to transhumanism/singularity/utilitarianism, I would be ridiculously lying to say that it makes me happier than, say, reading less wrong replies about my comments.
So basically, what you’re saying is that you get satisfaction from doing things that give you fairly immediate rewards (being considered awesome) from people. If I guess correctly, you are probably quite extroverted and like being around people. (This is fairly rare on LessWrong, and it isn’t the case for me.) A possible solution would be to try to tie those things you don’t get as much satisfaction from (writing a book, writing philosophy articles, etc) to getting respect and having people think you are awesome. If you can think of a way to do that, I’m guessing it would help.
Like I said. Making the world a ‘better place’ is not necessarily about making just yourself happier. (Though I haven’t done a huge amount on that front either.)