Yes, totally agreed. Be precise, define a goal that's both reachable and testable.
"Fix the automatic response" is an interesting criterion. Am I right you're saying "it doesn't count if you can only do it with a special effort?" That's an interestingly subtle point. The improvement has to be pervasive in your life. It agrees with my preference for a private intent - you can't always rely on a gun to your head to make you work at peak ability.
But contrariwise, it's true that the way you learn stuff in general is to do it many many times deliberately, and it gets cached and you can do it automatically. So fixing an improvement in automation could take a long while, longer than a one shot quick commitment.
I wonder what would be the best criterion that would capture the ideal of ongoing use even if not yet automation?
Am I right you're saying "it doesn't count if you can only do it with a special effort?"
Doing it with effort is fine; needing to make an effort to do (or remember to do) it in the first place is not, or you're going to forget as soon as it drifts out of your sphere of attention/interest.
But contrariwise, it's true that the way you learn stuff in general is to do it many many times deliberately, and it gets cached and you can do it automatically.
How many times do you have to practice non-belief in Santa Claus, before you stop trying to sta...
The main danger for LW is that it could become rationalist-porn for daydreamers.
I suggest a pattern of counterattack:
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(This used to be a comment, here.)Find a nonrational aspect of your nature that is hindering you right now.
Determine privately to fix it.
Set a short deadline. Do the necessary work.
Write it up on LW at the deadline. Whether or not it worked.