This seems to skip some steps, as is common for a DIY-type advice.
I doubt that being offended is the easiest undesirable emotion to master control of. I would start with something simple. And not necessarily negative. As a practice of taking control of emotions, so help me Spock, I would take a positive one, they ought to be easier to evoke and less painful to control. For example, curiosity is mild enough and could be useful to be able to either suppress (no, it’s a bad idea to “just take a pick” at my partner’s unattended cell phone) or enhance (this boring class would be much easier to pass if I cared about the material). Happiness is another simple emotion, even babies display it.
The next step could be trying to control a simple negative emotion (fear, maybe?). Again, by control I mean both suppression and enhancement.
Now, thinking about prerequisites, one first ought to learn analyzing emotions in terms of complexity (is there a decent hierarchy of emotions? or justlists?) What simpler emotions do we feel before we get offended? Presumably recognizing a certain emotion in others is in many cases easier than in oneself? How much work has been done in this area of research and what is the current state and cutting edge?
So, it seems like a literature review is in order… Anyone? Anyone? Buel… err… gwern?
This seems to skip some steps, as is common for a DIY-type advice.
I doubt that being offended is the easiest undesirable emotion to master control of. I would start with something simple. And not necessarily negative. As a practice of taking control of emotions, so help me Spock, I would take a positive one, they ought to be easier to evoke and less painful to control. For example, curiosity is mild enough and could be useful to be able to either suppress (no, it’s a bad idea to “just take a pick” at my partner’s unattended cell phone) or enhance (this boring class would be much easier to pass if I cared about the material). Happiness is another simple emotion, even babies display it.
The next step could be trying to control a simple negative emotion (fear, maybe?). Again, by control I mean both suppression and enhancement.
Now, thinking about prerequisites, one first ought to learn analyzing emotions in terms of complexity (is there a decent hierarchy of emotions? or just lists?) What simpler emotions do we feel before we get offended? Presumably recognizing a certain emotion in others is in many cases easier than in oneself? How much work has been done in this area of research and what is the current state and cutting edge?
So, it seems like a literature review is in order… Anyone? Anyone? Buel… err… gwern?