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orthonormal comments on Where to Intervene in a Human? - Less Wrong
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The highest-level hack I've found useful is to make a habit of noticing and recording the details of any part of my life that gives me trouble. It's amazing how quickly patterns start to jump out when you've assembled actual data about something that's vaguely frustrated you for a while.
Is it possible for you to give an example of this works in practice? I'm curios what type of things you would note down.
It sounds like a useful idea worth trying out, but I'm having trouble seeing how I would start using it.
Not the prettiest example, but I had a log-running acne problem that I could never seem to get a handle on. So a few years ago, I started writing down, every morning, whether I had new zits that day, what I was using on my face, and any other factors (like diet) I thought might be relevant. It suddenly became quite easy to zero in on the right solution (a low concentration benzoyl peroxide facewash), and I've been happy with the results ever since.
A second example is that I started a (rather involved and silly) spreadsheet tracking my time working one semester. It was far too complicated a system in retrospect, but the mere fact of observing my time-wasting led me to use my time moderately better than before.
And a third thing is keeping explicit track of what you spend, so that you notice what patterns are costing you money and can ask whether they're worth it. (Or, in the other direction, I learned that I shouldn't be so worried about marginal spending on clothes, since that amount is dwarfed by rent, food, etc. So I buy new clothes a bit more often.) There are automatic tools for budgeting (like Mint.com) if you trust them.
Seth Roberts found a cure to his acne problem by keeping track of how the number of pimples in his face fluctuated over time.
I've had the same experience. Connected with this, I've found it very useful to periodically process the same notes into a polite summary and communicate them with people who are interested and working on the same or related tasks. It does all kinds of good stuff, like helping me develop a more realistic "outside perspective" of myself, allowing me to function as a role model for self-aware self-improvement, engaging commitment and consistency in useful directions, and so on.
Could you flesh out some details here? What did you record, how did you fit recording it into your daily routine, how did you analyze it? Thanks!
Is this enough detail?
This is the "obvious" ideal which several of my ideas for hacks have been approximating. Adopting. Thanks.