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diegocaleiro comments on Working hurts less than procrastinating, we fear the twinge of starting - Less Wrong
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Comments (138)
This doesn't seem quite right to me.
There seem to be three kinds of relevant states:
1) Not working, and not worrying about work not done
2) Not working, and worrying about work not done
3) Working
1 is usually less painful than 3, if you can pull it off. 2 is indeed often worse than 3, but I usually handle it by trying to transition to 1 (by such means as playing an absorbing video game) instead of transitioning to 3.
I agree with Eliezer here.
There may be three kinds of states. But there are only two states which are procrastination related: 2, that is, procrastinating, and 3, not procrastinating.
1 is outside the scope of relevant states for the post's content. 1 is basically when you are not having a problem.
In addition to my agreement, I'd like to suggest another reason why we don't start working:
Well, I could stay here reading this random internet article, or else I could have the painful thought and decide to work. But hey, this means that I will be doing something for which I take responsibility, something that, out of all the tiny brainy selves of which I am composed, I will attribute to those that I call "me" and will not allow them to fail. Here, reading this article, I'm absent, it's just my dopamine circuits who are hanging around, "I" can lay down and do nothing. But if I decide for work, oh boy, then the vacations of my "I" are over and things must be done right........
It is funny that, as EI pointed out, even though processes like hyperbolic and the above one do happen, when we are actually working, the feeling of flow normally feels better than the feeling of a dissolved self that tries not to face responsibility.....
Well, 1 is also procrastinating related - if you decide to put off doing something and go to a party instead, and you have a good time at the party, but when you get back you wish that you'd done the work instead of partying...