Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on "Epiphany addiction" - Less Wrong

52 Post author: cousin_it 03 August 2012 05:52PM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 05 August 2012 07:21:03PM 7 points [-]

I independently invented a similar concept, "epiphany junkies", but didn't get around to posting it yet. A couple of points that would've been in that post:

  • Achieving an amazing insight about your past suffering (especially other people hurting you somehow), is probably not worth much. The past is past, and unreachable; five seconds ago is as far away as forever. You shouldn't even have been chewing that cud in the first place.
  • You probably need a lot of small, nondramatic life optimizations more than you need any particular big huge insight. Besides the addictive quality, a problem with being an epiphany junkie is that it trains you to think that progress comes in the form of dramatic, self-justifying insights about your mother, instead of realizing that you need to stop thinking about all the things wrong with an email after you send it.
Comment author: cousin_it 06 August 2012 12:25:45AM *  7 points [-]

If you use Gmail, you can enable the "undo send" feature in settings. I use it a lot, with the longest possible timeout (30 seconds), and think the timeout should be even longer, like 5 minutes.

Comment author: Alicorn 06 August 2012 12:57:05AM 1 point [-]

I love that feature. I notice typos right after sending all the time and then I can undo.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 06 August 2012 05:24:07PM 3 points [-]

True, but not always. Sometimes people need to realize that the suffering that other people have caused them isn't the only way life with people can be.

Comment author: FiftyTwo 11 August 2012 05:53:25PM 1 point [-]

a problem with being an epiphany junkie is that it trains you to think that progress comes in the form of dramatic, self-justifying insights

I found this particularly in regards to dealing with my depression. No big personal revelations can make it better, just learning to implement coping techniques, remembering to take my medication and exercise, etc.

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