Random question—was anything ever done with data from the November 2013 participants? (That’s me.)
TimMartin
Karma: 53
This is some great analytical work, and the explanations are some of the clearest I’ve seen for this type of writeup. Kudos to Dan and anyone who helped! I’m really impressed by how readable this is.
Currently it looks like this page has lots of broken images, which are actually formulas. Can this be fixed? It’s kind of hard to understand now.
I worked as a neuroscience research assistant for 5 years. For the latter 3 of those years, I had wanted to leave that job and move on to something better, but had been unable to make a decision about what to pursue and to actually pursue it.
7 months after my first CFAR workshop, I started a new job making 25% more. There were other causal factors. Part of the motivation to do job searching was due to the fact that my research position would be ending, and part of the salary increase was due to the fact that I left academia. But I also credit CFAR training, including the follow-ups and the support I got from the community, as a significant cause of this success.
Other semi-quantifiable changes: -I keep a budget now. -I’m investing money for retirement each month. I was not investing any before. -I’ve learned 1.5 new programming languages, and have learned several new statistical analysis methods (consider that I was doing almost nothing in terms of job-relevant skill development prior to CFAR). -I’ve started a biweekly productivity meeting at my apartment (before I did not organize events other than the occasional party).
I’ve made many other changes in my life regarding habits, learning and practicing new things, and pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone. Perhaps the most important thing for me is that I no longer have the sense of being overwhelmed by life, or of there being large categories of things that I just can’t do. I’d say this is mostly the result of a cascade of changes that occurred in my life due to attending CFAR. And to repeat what nbouscal said, I feel like I can change my life in ways that will both work and feel good.
...I also had not thought to think of those two things as separate. Lots of good ideas for things to try. Thank you!
Hmm, interesting. I’ve just realized that I’ve never tried this, because once I begin thinking about a difficult decision my tendency is to want to keep going and reach some sort of conclusion. I’m going to try your method next chance I get!
That’s very true re: mindset! There was one time in my life when the decision of where to live was made for me (I used to each English in Japan), and I was placed in a location I never would have picked on my own. But because I didn’t have a choice in the matter, I made the best of it, and things worked out pretty well. Telling yourself “this is fine, this is going to work” is necessary sometimes.
Overcoming Decision Anxiety
Hello,
My name is Tim. I’m a neuroscience researcher and swing dance teacher living in NYC.
I originally found out about LW via one or two friends who occasionally shared LW posts with me. I didn’t get into the site too much, but I did eventually come across HPMOR, and thought it was awesome. At one point, one of the author notes mentioned that CFAR would be putting on workshops in my area. I checked those out and they seemed very high-value, so I attended. That was in November. Since then I’ve been getting involved with the real-life LW community in New York, and now more recently, the online community. I’m still reading through a lot of the material here, but I hope to get involved in some discussions.
Some of my academic interests are neuro- and cognitive science (consciousness, morality, decision making, belief-formation), evolution, physics, and linguistics. I’m also on a bit of a history kick lately—it was always my least favorite subject in school, but now that I’m a little older I find that history sharpens my intuitions about how the interaction of systems we call “life” tends to play itself out. Less academically, I’m a fan of dancing, music (working on jazz guitar atm), ultimate frisbee, and other stuff :)
Cheers!
This form of article navigation doesn’t seem to be available anymore (at least, I can’t find it), and I wish you’d just provided a link.
Here is a link: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/jbgjvhszkr3KoehDh/the-truly-iterated-prisoner-s-dilemma