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pjeby comments on Compartmentalization in epistemic and instrumental rationality - Less Wrong
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I like the writing here: very clear and useful.
I have a very simple problem when doing mathematics.
I want to write a proof. But I also want to save time. And so I miss nuances and make false assumptions and often think the answer is simpler than it is. It's almost certainly motivated cognition, rather than inadequate preparation or "stupidity" or any other problem.
I know the answer is "Stop wanting to save time" -- but how do you manipulate your own unvoiced desires?
If you think of the brain as having two "programming languages": the "far" (symbolic) and "near" (experiential), and the "unvoiced desire" as being something that's running on the "near" system, then what you need to do is translate from the symbolic to the experiential.
In this case, you'd begin by asking what experiences you anticipate will happen if you don't "save time", and what your emotional reaction to those experiences is.
Take care, though, to imagine actually experiencing one specific situation (in sensory detail) where you currently want to "save time", and to anticipate the results in sensory detail as well. Otherwise, you'll only engage the "far" (symbolic) system, and won't get any useful information.