This is the public group instrumental rationality diary for January 16-31.
It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:
- Established a useful new habit
- Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief
- Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations
- Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior
- Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something
- Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life
- Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you
- Tried doing any of the above and failed
Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.
Thanks to cata for starting the Group Rationality Diary posts, and to commenters for participating.
Immediate past diary: January 1-15
I've only just realised this one, but both people I've subsequently mentioned it to have told me it's a common experience.
I'm currently learning about ARIMA time series modelling. I've been on time series forecasting for about a month now, and it's starting to get a bit tiresome. Last night, after a couple of hours of study, I found myself trying to explain what I'd been studying to my (moderately-but-not-highly-mathematical) partner. I didn't explain it very well, and probably failed to make much sense at all, but almost immediately afterwards I felt a lot more positive and enthused about the whole subject.
In retrospect, I can think of several stand-out examples of "I had to explain this subject to someone, and then got really interested in it", but have only just made the connection. There's an obvious selection bias in play, but the stand-out examples also seem to be subjects I've retained more readily. Having now noticed this effect, I'm thinking about (a) how real it is, and (b) how exploitable it might be.
I've noticed this as well. My theory on the phenomenon is that putting something in your own words is a big step in understanding. If you've read so8res' recent posts, his studying method involved reading, doing the exercises, then explaining it in his own words, even if only to a text file.
I think explaining something really solidifies the knowledge in your mind and gives you a better understanding. That itself could make you more enthusiastic, as it provides validation that your hard work has paid off and that you finally understand it.
I find it simila... (read more)