ata comments on Improving The Akrasia Hypothesis - Less Wrong

69 Post author: pjeby 26 February 2010 08:45PM

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Comment author: CannibalSmith 27 February 2010 04:36:57PM *  6 points [-]

conflict-resolution methods

Article request: how to find, identify, and remove those conflicts.

the unfortunate fact that this is also what you have to do, if your ultimate goal is to help people

Are you saying that self-help books are but advertisement for workshops and that it's impossible to be any other way? That is, that an akrasia technique cannot be encoded as a string of symbols?

Comment author: Vladimir_Golovin 27 February 2010 07:09:19PM *  22 points [-]

It doesn't deserve a top-level post, but I do have a method for locating conflicts that works for me -- a written self-interview. I open an empty Word document, and imagine that I'm being interviewed by someone (or something?) smarter, more confident or higher-status than me.

I won't quote my existing interview documents -- they're too context-dependent, and sometimes too personal -- but here's an example of how it usually looks like:

Alpha: You look depleted. What's bothering you?
Me: I feel that the work I'm doing isn't leading me anywhere.
Alpha: What do you mean by 'anywhere'? Money? Fame? Personal satisfaction?
Me: Money.
Alpha: So, you think that the work you're doing isn't going to make you rich, right?
Me: Right.
Alpha: Then why are you doing it?
...
...

The interview continues until I find the source of the conflict and decide how to resolve it. If I can't locate it on the first session, I get back to the saved document later to continue the interview. I included the names 'Alpha' and 'Me' for readability -- I don't type any names when recording the interview.

I have at least three occasions when this technique helped me pinpoint conflicts that paralyzed me (one of them was a cause of a 6-month procrastination streak.)

Comment author: MichaelHoward 27 February 2010 09:22:02PM 10 points [-]

Some programmers do something like this when they're stuck on a problem - they call it Rubber Ducking. Googling it I just found 4 separate stories about students having to explain their programming problems out loud to teddy bears before they get to ask a teacher.

Comment author: ata 28 February 2010 03:24:26PM 10 points [-]

Interesting technique, I'll need to remember that.

Reminds me of the several times I've thought I've disagreed with Eliezer on various issues here, spent a while understanding my objections so I could detail it in a reply, and ended up convincing myself of his orignal position by the time I finished writing.

Comment author: homunq 15 February 2015 08:22:28PM 0 points [-]

Would be better if you didn't say whom you ended up agreeing with. Most people here have either a halo or horns on Eliezer, and discounting that is distracting.

Comment author: Liron 01 March 2010 07:07:22AM 0 points [-]

+1 mind change