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GabrielDuquette comments on Things you are supposed to like - Less Wrong
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I'm trying out a new way of processing subjective aesthetic experiences. I'm spending less time worrying about how most people don't know they're signaling, and more time thinking: "This is a feeling I'm having, and it's new, and it won't be new for long, but luckily there are more feelings out there to be had."
The first thing I've noticed is that not everyone desires the same degree of novelty or the same intensity of arousal. I'm at the higher end of both spectrums. The second thing I've noticed is that I'm already suffering from diminishing returns. I'm in the offshore drilling and tar sands period of my cultural oil age.
Make me wonder how realistic it might be to willingly ration aesthetic experiences. Probably not very.
I've certainly heard of people who did that.
Such as?
You are not likely to believe me when I say that I still remember vividly, almost 50 years later, how strictly I disciplined myself with that book, forcing myself to read no more than a single chapter each evening. The catch, my out, the stratagem by which I escaped the bonds of my own law, was that I could read that chapter as many times as I wished; and that I could also return to the chapter I had read the night before, if I chose. There were evenings on which I reread the entire book up the point -- The Council of Elrond, let us say -- at which I had forced myself to stop. - Gene Wolfe
Your link is broken.
Thanks. Fixed. In accordance with Hartman's Law, you used "you're" instead of "your". :)
I noticed that I tended to get bored with music I had a copy of, because I played it too much. So now I mostly only listen to a track if I really want to, or it is unfamiliar, or it is on the radio. If I can't choose a track I strongly want to listen to and the radio doesn't appeal at all, I turn it off. The radio gets a lower threshold since they space out repetitions of music, and have enough new music to do so.
I haven't checked if there are any music listening systems analogous to spaced repetition learning systems, but optimised for playing tracks you like without you getting bored with them. That could be good.
Music players like iTunes and Winamp can be used to create something like spaced repetition for the music you have on your computer, since they let you create smart playlists based on criteria like playcount and when a track was last played. So you could create your spaced repetition playlist which keeps tracks out of rotation after you play them, but puts them back into rotation sooner if they have a lower playcount or a higher rating. For instance, it could include tracks with:
Playcount of 3 or less, and not played in last 1 day OR
Rating 5, playcount 4-6, and not played in last 3 days OR
Rating 4, playcount 4-6, and not played in last 6 days OR
Rating 3, playcount 4-6, and not played in last 12 days OR
Rating 5, playcount 7-9, and not played in last 7 days OR
etc.
Of course you'd have to figure out what numbers to use and program it yourself (and you'd have to rate everything you listen to, if you want to use rating as one of the criteria). Then you could listen to that playlist on shuffle, or choose what tracks to listen to while limiting yourself to the tracks on that playlist.
I actually have a crude version of this system in place, which I use to listen to my music on shuffle. It started as something much simpler (I put a one-week delay in for everything because I didn't want tracks to come up in the shuffle a few days after I'd listened to them), and over time I've lengthened the delay and added some dependence on rating & playcount.
Try Pandora? Their licenses prevent them from playing songs too frequently, but they replay songs you upvote more than songs you don't (and never play songs you downvote), as well as learning from your preferences to give you new music you might enjoy.
I have found that their selection can be somewhat limited in some subgenres, to the point where you can have upvoted or downvoted enough that it no longer has new music it thinks you'll be interested in. (So far, I've only done this with Celtic Punk, and that was made easier by my dislike of The Pogues.)
I like Pandora enough that I pay for it. That said, there are some issues with it:
I'm currently watching The Wire for the first time, and I try to only watch one or at most two episodes a day. I know that I'll enjoy the series more, and remember it better, if I watch it over an extended period of time than if I watched a season a day.
Interesting. I have found myself strongly preferring the experience of consuming fiction in one go to consuming as it comes out, to the point that I have stopped reading some webcomics (like Vattu) until they finish their current story so I can consume them at one go.
I find it a lot easier to see the connections between the parts when doing so- imagine watching a movie one scene a day!- and I find myself not particularly enjoying the suspense of waiting for the next installment. It's not clear to me, though, how my emotional attachment to the work changes based on the time I'm processing it.
I've also noticed a counter-trend, which is that when I'm reading or watching a work that evokes strong emotions or imaginative responses, I will frequently pause to process the emotion or imaginative scenario, then resume the work. So possibly one should pause a movie between scenes.
Here's something that I wrote elsewhere about this topic:
Some webcomics are paced so that they work well one page at a time; others aren't.
As usual, there are tropes about that.
I do this with books too. AFAI am concerned, there's no shortage of novelty amongst books (quite the opposite) so I don't have to ration myself.
The opposite seems true for good tv, though. So that I try to ration (and usually fail) :)
I just watched it a few months ago, a few marathon sessions at a time. I'm not sure how people who spaced it out could manage to keep the characters and storylines straight (it doesn't help that I'm not good with faces, I suppose).
The Wire deserves its own comment thread. I believe it is an objectively valuable and deeply moral example of what art can do. I envy you, I wish I could wipe my memory and see it anew.
ok... that inspires me to actually go watch it. I think I've only seen a few eps and it was oookaaay... maybe I just didn't give it enough time to gel?
What exactly did you feel was lacking?
Erm... that's not an answerable question for me.
Firstly - it was over three years ago, so I really can't remember. But generally when I'm watching fiction and just don't feel inspired - I can't actually tell what it is that's lacking. Just that it's not as zingy and interesting as something else that I could be watching instead.
I can postulate that it could be the "getting to know it" problem: it often takes time to get to know the characters and start to care about them before true fanaticism begins to blossom :) Take Babylon 5, for instance. It takes at least 6 episodes before people start to get an idea of why it's so popular. If you only watch one or two episodes, you don't get a feel for the difference that a proper story arc really makes. the characters actually change. Not just because it suits an episode's gimmick... but because they act like real people and make mistakes or work at fixing things up...
I'm quite happy to concede that I may have fallen victim to the same problem re: the Wire... and therefore willing to give it another go based on the above comments (when I get back to Sydney where my Aunt lives that owns them...)
Unlike most shows, The Wire is basically all arc. It barely makes any effort at all to make individual episodes interesting on their own. Each season is kind of like a 13 hour long movie.
I'm rationing my consumption of Bach. And I revisit the Brandenburg Concertos sparingly.
I just realized that I spent most of tonight mildly depressed because I didn't ration Beyonce's 2011 Glastonbury Festival set. It's enough to make you give up being an artist.