Group rationality diary, 6/11/12

cata

This is the public group instrumental rationality diary for the week of June 11th. It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:

Established a useful new habit
Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief
Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations
Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior
Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something
Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life
Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you
Tried doing any of the above and failed

Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.

Thanks to everyone who contributes!

(Previously: 5/14/12, 5/21/12, 5/28/12, 6/4/12)

This is the public group instrumental rationality diary for the week of June 11th. It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:

Established a useful new habit
Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief
Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations
Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior
Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something
Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life
Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you
Tried doing any of the above and failed

Thanks to everyone who contributes!

(Previously: 5/14/12, 5/21/12, 5/28/12, 6/4/12)

I recently decided (after months of being unhappy with my previous decision) to see if I want to change my major from graphic design to biology. My old decision making was partially based on "I've been drawing my whole life, and am somewhat good at it." I found that I like drawing sometimes, but generally only get enough motivation to paint something every month or so, and rarely ever finish those paintings (Out of the 40 or so paintings I've started, I've completed only about 30% of them.) So I started looking into alternatives. I've loved the sciences since I was little, and have been really curious about the world around me, so I signed up for a biology and chemistry class this fall semester. I just got the textbooks today, and starting going through them out of curiosity. I'm realizing that my high school did an awful job teaching science, and I'm having to review some basic concepts. However, I am not finding myself minding it. It's really interesting.