JGWeissman comments on Group rationality diary, 8/20/12 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: cata 21 August 2012 09:42AM

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Comment author: JGWeissman 22 August 2012 01:39:02AM 1 point [-]

I think they are likely to take your advice, and I would encourage them to do so.

I myself plan to adapt to polyphasic starting September 7th, and would interested in any tests you think I should do.

Comment author: gwern 22 August 2012 02:13:49AM *  1 point [-]

would interested in any tests you think I should do.

Having tried to do polyphasic myself twice, and having read a good deal of material from other people, I really would not suggest many tests for 2 reasons:

  1. as far as I know, there are ~0 extant records of either long-term spaced repetition users or Zeo users. The latter is particularly striking since multiple Zeo users were supposedly doing polyphasic (see the Zeo blog & forum). Any dataset is good, so there is no point risking someone returning no useful results by demanding they maintain 3 or 4 separate metrics - as valuable as they all might be.
  2. Keeping up unautomated metrics like spaced repetition is particularly risky for polyphasic sleepers, since willpower & energy are precisely what is most lacking in the transition phase. Something dropped in the transition phase may never be resumed.

So, that's my basic suggestion. Pick 1 metric, at most, which requires effort on your part.

Zeos require little-to-no effort, so you can add on 1 metric. My suggestion is spaced repetition (Wozniak would also thank you for data), but also valid would be something like dual n-back (DNB) or the Psychomotor vigilance task (PVT).