malcolmocean comments on New Monthly Thread: Bragging - Less Wrong

30 Post author: Joshua_Blaine 11 August 2013 05:50PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (145)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: malcolmocean 12 August 2013 04:18:58AM 6 points [-]

Can you give a few examples of new ideas and formal implementations? I'm just curious what the typical size of the every-other-day item is.

Comment author: somervta 12 August 2013 12:10:37PM *  3 points [-]

First: +1 for asking for examples!

The 'ideas' can range from fairly vague;

  • 'find 'some way to stop using games on phone as a distraction'

to more specific;

  • 'nail down a GTD system, focusing on ease of modification in response to strategics reviews',

  • 'integrate all my uses of to-do and time-planning software into a single tool/piece of software".

(other examples:

  • 'find some way to store meta ideas and increase them',

  • 'Find a reliable [I've had problems with blockers being too easy to circumvent, I don't want to screw around with deeper modifications to OS etc and I'm often on university computers anyway] way to stop myself using facebook at certain times/days')

The point there is just to keep thinking about "what can be done to improve" and to encourage writing down 'clever ideas' that have no obvious next-action.

'Formal Implementations' are more like "this is exactly what I'm going to do/try":

  • 'use backup-to-computer app and software to store savedata, then uninstall games' [this is the only one so far where I fulfilled the idea but not the F.I - I couldn't get backup apps to work, and I ended up uninstalling without concern for savegame data],

  • 'Use an ical port to get all my uni timetable data into Gcal and use Google's text message reminders to duplicate the fact that I'd moderately trained myself to pay attention to that style of reminder. Copy important lists into Gcal, experiment with Gcal's todos, and set aside time to copy important data from other services.'

    (the FI versions of other examples:

  • "Use separate Trello lists to represent levels of precision and integrate with beeminder",

  • "Get a friend to create half of my facebook password [half to prevent them having access], give them instructions on when I can use it, [starting with when I ask and ramping up if that doesn't work] and turn on email notifications of anything I need to keep track of").

Also, implementations always have a next-action associated with them. (for example:

  • copying savedata - locate in filesystem, [didn't work: maybe backup apps?]

  • Look for beeminder integration that can work like notes.

  • (Fix problem with FB access if I ask a friend to help, figure out whether cutting facebook semi-permanently is worth it - use Goal Discernment [my alternative name for Goal Factoring. I already had a cognitive tool that I'd called 'Factoring', and I didn't want the work of switching my mental habits])

Sometimes the next actions lead to a modification of the implementation rather than a result, which is fine, and sometimes they lead to doing something that doesn't fully satisfy the implementation/idea, but I record those also (like for the facebook - I haven't actually done it yet because I'm not sure if it's too radical, but I quit all the facebook debate groups I frequented.)

The trello in question is here, although not all of the info is on there - next actions and problem specifications I still keep in my head (somehting to change? the NAs anyway).

Comment author: malcolmocean 12 August 2013 06:43:18PM 1 point [-]

I'm curious what your pre-existing Factoring tool is.

Comment author: somervta 12 August 2013 11:01:42PM 2 points [-]

It's not really a tool - that's just what I used to call breaking up a task into subcomponents in a sort of 'next-action-chain'. You know - I've got an assignment due, but instead of worrying about the whole assignment, it turns into

read chapter 9 -> read this paper -> scratch out an outline -> fill in arguments file ->decide which arguments I'm going to focus on...

Comment author: [deleted] 12 August 2013 11:34:14PM 0 points [-]

Get a friend to create half of my facebook password

Gurer'f gur “sbetbg lbhe cnffjbeq” yvax, naq hasbeghangryl jvgu Snprobbx lbh pna'g punatr lbhe r-znvy gb n snxr bar orpnhfr vg'q nfx lbh sbe pbasvezngvba gurer. (Ohg n qvfcbfnoyr rznvy nqqerff zvtug fbyir gung.)

(These days I just use a ridiculously long password, and log out of Facebook anywhere except on my laptop, where I have LeechBlock installed.)

Comment author: westward 14 August 2013 08:34:41PM 0 points [-]

I use a randomly generated password from LastPass. I have no idea what it is, so I can only access it from my laptop (with the Firefox LastPass Add-on). That combined with LeechBlock is pretty effective.

I could go to the LastPass site on another machine, I suppose. But I do store other, more important passwords on LastPass and don't want to expose those. And it takes only nominal inconvenience to prevent me from jumping into FB.

Comment author: somervta 12 August 2013 11:48:36PM 0 points [-]

can I ask why this is rot13'd? I don't want to read it and find out that it breaks the placebo efffect or something, which was my first thought of why it might be.

Comment author: [deleted] 13 August 2013 09:50:22AM *  0 points [-]

It describes a way to escape a precommitment, which certain people in certain situations might be better off not knowing.

Comment author: wedrifid 13 August 2013 09:58:13AM 0 points [-]

It describes a way to escape a precommitment, which certain people in certain situations might be better off not knowing.

I rather suspect that most people have encountered 'forgot my password' links before.

Comment author: [deleted] 13 August 2013 10:11:21AM 1 point [-]

Yes, but it might not have occurred to them to use them in that situation.

Comment author: malcolmocean 12 August 2013 06:42:40PM 0 points [-]

'Find a reliable [I've had problems with blockers being too easy to circumvent, I don't want to screw around with deeper modifications to OS etc and I'm often on university computers anyway] way to stop myself using facebook at certain times/days')

If your problem can actually be isolated to facebook, it might be possible to write an app that enacts some sort of negative consequence based on how much time you spend on facebook, regardless of where you spend it.