I can not speak for cameroncowan, but I was tempted to ask the same question. For which reasons are you interested in forming the habit of experimentation? For example, is your main motivation to pick up low-hanging fruit, do you have some particular question concerning yourself (such as diet, medication, habits, etc.) that you wish to test, or do you perhaps wish to become more adept at spotting moments ripe for experimentation in the long run?
The examples in this thread are of different sort, and require different approach. The links posted by coyotespike show examples of long experiments on yourself, where you sit down once a day for a long period of time (weeks/months) to draw a conclusion. The (fictional!) HPMOR example is a clear case of low-hanging fruit: taking a couple of hours to find a better battle strategy is a good investment of time. I'm not sure about the Feynman example, but this also seems to be a low-hanging fruit example (if the experiment would have taking him a month I'm not sure he would have done it). So, what sort of experimentation skills are you looking for?
All sorts.
I keep a spreadsheet of my daily metrics so that I can peruse it for correlations with productivity. I'd like to do that better, and more efficiently.
I've done small experiments to test a claim, essentially praying over an apple slice daily and comparing it's decay to that of a control. I'd like to get "better" and more rigorous at doing that.
do you perhaps wish to become more adept at spotting moments ripe for experimentation in the long run?
This is closest. Basically, I want to put another tool in my toolbox, more then I have a project in mind.
Does that answer your question?
I want to make regular experimentation a part of my life and don't really know how. I thought that I should associate with and assist people who do run experiments (I'm interning with a psych lab and a paranormal investigator, and hope to work with some behavioral economists who run field-experiments), but I relied that I haven't taken the time to consider if that is actually a good approach or if there is somthign else I should be doing in addition.
How do I gain proficiency with experimental methods and build the habit of running simple experiments regularly? I suppose that there's a certain kind of phenomenon that to the educated mind is automatically flagged as ripe for experimentation (I'm thinking of Feynman's curiosity about the ants in his room, from Surely You're Joking, or Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres testing with his army to find out what the optimal way to fight is, prior to the first of Quirrell’s battles), but I don't have that intuition, yet.
What are the key insights, procedures, or guidelines that I need to know in order to experiment fruitfully? How do I build that intuition?
I’m looking either for recommendations or critiques. Perhaps personal experimentation is not as useful as my veneration of science in general leads me to believe? It seems to me beneficial that when faced with a problem, confusion, or dispute, one of my go-to approaches is to run an experiment.
Suggestions?