DanielLC comments on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas! - Less Wrong

55 Post author: D_Malik 15 May 2013 10:27PM

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Comment author: ModusPonies 10 May 2013 07:41:03PM 74 points [-]

If you are a human, then the biggest influence on your personality is your peer group. Choose your peers.

If you want to be better at math, surround yourself with mathematicians. If you want to be more productive, hang out with productive people. If you want to be outgoing or artistic or altruistic or polite or proactive or smart or just about anything else, find people who are better than you at that thing and become friends with them. The status-seeking conformity-loving parts of your mind will push you to become like them. (The incorrect but pithy version: "You are an average of the five people you spend the most time with.")

I've had a lot of success with this technique by going to the Less Wrong meetups in Boston, and by making a habit of attending any event where I'll be the stupidest person in the room (such as the average Less Wrong meetup).

Comment author: DanielLC 15 May 2013 10:52:14PM *  0 points [-]

If you want to be more productive, hang out with productive people.

I would expect they'd only influence you about how they act at the time. If you hang out with someone who is usually productive, but at this moment is hanging out with a friend, it doesn't seem like it would help much.

Edit:

Also, this seems like a zero-sum game. You are less productive than people who are more productive than you, and they might not want that to rub off on them. Is there a good way to get around that?