Swimmer963 comments on Checklist of Rationality Habits - Less Wrong

117 Post author: AnnaSalamon 07 November 2012 09:19PM

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Comment author: Kaj_Sotala 07 November 2012 01:26:39PM 28 points [-]

Very nice list! I feel like this one in particular is one of the most important ones:

I try not to treat myself as if I have magic free will; I try to set up influences (habits, situations, etc.) on the way I behave, not just rely on my will to make it so. (Example from Alicorn: I avoid learning politicians’ positions on gun control, because I have strong emotional reactions to the subject which I don’t endorse.) (Recent example from Anna: I bribed Carl to get me to write in my journal every night.)

To give my own example: I try to be vegetarian, but occasionally the temptation of meat gets the better of me. At some point I realized that whenever I walked past a certain hamburger place - which was something that I typically did on each working day - there was a high risk of me succumbing. Obvious solution: modify my daily routine to take a slightly longer route which avoided any hamburger places. Modifying your environment so that you can completely avoid the need to use willpower is ridiculously useful.

Comment author: Swimmer963 07 November 2012 03:51:42PM 11 points [-]

Modifying your environment so that you can completely avoid the need to use willpower is ridiculously useful.

My personal example: arranging to go exercise on the way to or from somewhere else will drastically increase the probability that I'll actually go. There's a pool a 5 minute bike ride from my house, which is also on the way home from most of the places I would be biking from. Even though the extra 10 minutes round trip is pretty negligable (and counts as exercise itself), I'm probably 2x as likely to go if I have my swim stuff with me and stop off on the way home. The effect is even more drastic for my taekwondo class: it's a 45 minute bike ride from home and about a 15 minute bike ride from the campus where I have most of my classes. Even if I finish class at 3:30 pm and taekwondo is at 7 pm, it still makes more sense for me to stay on campus for the interim–if I do, there's nearly 100% likelihood that I'll make it to taekwondo, but if I go home and get comfy, that drops to less than 50%.