Nick_Tarleton comments on Open Thread: April 2010 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Unnamed 01 April 2010 03:21PM

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Comment author: Nick_Tarleton 04 April 2010 06:26:51PM *  2 points [-]

Melatonin. Also, getting my housemates to harass me if I don't go to bed.

Comment author: gwern 07 April 2010 09:30:34PM 1 point [-]

Mass_Driver's comment is kind of funny to me, since I had addressed exactly his issue at length in my article.

Comment author: Mass_Driver 08 April 2010 03:25:39PM *  1 point [-]

Which, I couldn't help but notice, you have thoughtfully linked to in your comment. I'm new here; I haven't found that article yet.

Comment author: gwern 08 April 2010 04:38:49PM *  3 points [-]

If you're not being sarcastic, you're welcome.

If you're being sarcastic, my article is linked, in Nick_Tarleton's very first sentence; it would be odd for me to simply say 'my article' unless some referent had been defined in the previous two comments, and there is only one hyperlink in those two comments.

Comment author: Mass_Driver 08 April 2010 07:14:46PM 0 points [-]

Gwern, I apologize for the sarcasm; it wasn't called for. As I said, I'm new here, and I guess I'm not clicking "show more above" as much as I should.

However, a link still would have been helpful. As someone who had never read your article, I had no way of knowing that a link to "Melatonin" contained an extensive discussion about willpower and procrastination. It looked to me like a biological solution, i.e., a solution that was ignoring my real concerns, so I ignored it.

Having now read your article, I agree that taking a drug that predictably made you very tired in about half an hour could be one good option for fighting the urge to stay up for no reason, and I also think that the health risks of taking melatonin long-term -- especially at times when I'm already tired -- could be significant. I may give it a try if other strategies fail.

Comment author: gwern 08 April 2010 09:38:38PM 1 point [-]

I also think that the health risks of taking melatonin long-term

I strongly disagree, but I also dislike plowing through as enormous a literature as that on melatonin and effectively conducting a meta-study, since Wikipedia already covers the topic and I wouldn't get a top-level article out of such an effort, just some edits for the article (and old articles get few hits, comments, or votes, if my comments are anything to go by).