Group Rationality Diary, December 16-31
This is the public group rationality diary for December 16-31.
It’s a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:
Established a useful new habit
Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief
Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations
Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior
Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something
Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life
Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you
Tried doing any of the above and failed
Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other’s experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn’t tend to work out.
Thanks to cata for starting the Group Rationality Diary posts, and to commenters for participating.
Previous diary: December 1-15
Next diary: January 1-15
Due to a job that involves a lot of time sitting at computers I had been chronically stiff and in pain for a while. Over the last month I’ve started and maintained a yoga practice several times a week. This has significantly reduced stiffness and random back / joint pain.
What type of yoga have you been doing and for what duration?
For a while now, I’ve been spending a lot of my free time playing video games and reading online fiction, and for a while now, I’ve considered it a bad habit that I should try to get rid of. Up till now, I’ve been almost universally unsuccessful at maintaining this resolve for any length of time.
My latest attempt consisted of making the commitment public to my closest friends, explaining the decision to them, and then asking them to help by regularly checking up on my progress. This has been more effective than anything else I’ve tried so far.
Usually, when I get the impulse to catch up on a story or whatnot, I will end up weighing that impulse against the fact that I ought to behave differently. Sadly, as is often the case when pitting System 1 vs System 2, even if I suppress the impulse several times, it eventually wears down my resolve. So far, what I’m experiencing now is that I end up weighing the impulse against the rather unappealing idea of explaining the fact to my friends, which has made it a lot easier to maintain my commitment.
I have outsourced some of my motivation to my boyfriend, in the form of asking him to put me to work when I want to work but find myself unable to prevent myself procrastinating. It’s surprisingly effective so far. (Note: still in honeymoon period of intervention, do not take as gospel)
Realized that my interest in buying a house was giving me an ugh field around thinking about how I could give more.
Realized it’s obviously more optimal to buy a house and give what I can than to keep not thinking about it and not giving what I can.