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Viliam_Bur comments on Group Rationality Diary, January 16-31 - Less Wrong
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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 also feel better when I can talk with other people about what I am doing. It's probably a social instinct -- we like to do things that people in our tribe respect.
How to exploit it? Create situations when you report to other people what you did today, or this week. In person it will probably be more powerful, online it will be easier to organize. If you do daily reports, make them short (1 or 2 minutes in person, 1 or 2 paragraphs online), if you do weekly reports, they can be somewhat longer (5 minutes / 5 paragraphs). You could make it a ritual; e.g. every evening to review the good parts of your day, both you and your partner; or once a week meet with your colleagues for progress report. Maybe setup a collaborative blog for this purpose.