Vladimir_Golovin comments on Open Thread: May 2010 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: Jack 01 May 2010 05:29AM

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Comment author: MartinB 01 May 2010 09:09:54PM *  3 points [-]

To answer my own question:

  • changed political and economic views (similar to Matt).

  • changed views on the effects of Nutrition and activity on health (including the actions that follow from that)

  • changed view on the dangers of GMO (yet again)

  • I became aware of areas where I am very ignorant of opposing arguments, and try to counterbalance

  • I finally understand the criticisms about the skeptics movement

  • I repeatedly underestimated the amount of ignorance in the world, and got shocked when discovering that

And on the funnier side. Last week I found out that i learned a minor physics fact wrong. That was not a strongly held opinion, just a fact i never looked up again till now. For some reason i always was convinced that the volume increase in freshly frozen water is 10x, while its actually more like 9%

Comment author: Vladimir_Golovin 02 May 2010 09:15:40AM 2 points [-]

As a result of reading this post, I uninstalled a 10-year old habit -- drinking a cup of strong coffee every morning. Now I drink coffee only when I feel that I need a short-term boost.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 02 May 2010 10:10:18AM *  3 points [-]

Coffee and concentration experiment

Article about self-measurement

A few months ago, Barooah began to wean himself from coffee. His method was precise. He made a large cup of coffee and removed 20 milliliters weekly. This went on for more than four months, until barely a sip remained in the cup. He drank it and called himself cured. Unlike his previous attempts to quit, this time there were no headaches, no extreme cravings. Still, he was tempted, and on Oct. 12 last year, while distracted at his desk, he told himself that he could probably concentrate better if he had a cup. Coffee may have been bad for his health, he thought, but perhaps it was good for his concentration.

Barooah wasn’t about to try to answer a question like this with guesswork. He had a good data set that showed how many minutes he spent each day in focused work. With this, he could do an objective analysis. Barooah made a chart with dates on the bottom and his work time along the side. Running down the middle was a big black line labeled “Stopped drinking coffee.” On the left side of the line, low spikes and narrow columns. On the right side, high spikes and thick columns. The data had delivered their verdict, and coffee lost.

This doesn't mean you don't get a boost, but it might be worth checking.

Comment author: Vladimir_Golovin 02 May 2010 11:55:04AM 2 points [-]

My experience is quite similar to what is described in the first article -- no coffee leads to better concentration for me. The caffeine 'boost' I was talking about reduces my concentration but makes me more inclined to action -- I found it useful for breaking through procrastination periods. The effect of Red Bull on me is similar but more pronounced.

The effect seems to be physical, but I don't rule out placebo (and frankly, it's fine with me either way.)

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