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maia comments on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas! - Less Wrong
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Oh, and another thought: Have you considered trying to use this to learn to go in the opposite direction, i.e., increase your excitement? It might be useful to be able to do both!
OK, I tried this a couple times today, with disappointing results. I was trying to use it to help me focus on a video lecture I was watching, but I found it pretty hard to maintain any sustained increase in my level of activation... even when I got it to spike temporarily, it would immediately start going down. Also, the fact that it read data from my fingers meant I couldn't use that hand to create spaced repetition cards. Overall, it served as way more of a distraction than an asset, and I don't think I noticed any focus benefits immediately afterwards when I stopped using it and restarted the video I was watching from the beginning.
It's conceivable that you could make this work through a gradual increase rather than sudden spiking, or configure the dial so that it would only start to make noise once your level of activation went below some threshold. I might experiment with those ideas in the future.
If you want increased alertness, there are other hacks in the thread for that, like D_Malik's ideas of blue-tinted glasses or spraying/splashing water on your face (and of course there's always caffeine etc.) Supposedly yawning also improves alertness.
Hmm, okay. I was considering trying it on its own, rather than while doing something else. I know I wasn't able to do autogenics exercises while trying to do something else before, and now I sort of can after having practiced, so I would expect it to go poorly to try to go the other direction for the first time while otherwise occupied.
After you mentioned this I realized I have all the parts on hand to make a DIY galvanic skin response sensor. I got the hardware set up, and now I'm working on getting the software set up in a nice way. Hopefully it will work out :-)
Yep, I have considered that. I've been kind of distracted by the possibility of being able to do focused work even while in a relaxed/parasympathetic state, which seems more optimal but also harder (maybe impossible).
Hmm, I don't think doing work would work for me in that state. I've sometimes tried doing autogenics exercises and then "waking up" out of it right before doing work, and it seemed to help clear distractions.