Open thread, May 17-31 2013

Open thread, May 17-31 2013 — LessWrong

Comment Permalink

I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask you all. It's research for something I'd like to do with my local meetup group, and I'd appreciate your help.

1) Can you name one or more activities or experiences you find to be depletary, in the sense of ego depletion, (i.e. something that fatigues you along some psychological axis the more you do it). If they exist, I would prefer examples that are personally salient to you.

2) Can you name one or more unreasonable demands you feel you are under, psychologically speaking? I'm thinking of cases which you might phrase "I'd like to (not) do X, but my brain just won't let me". As an example, if I get into a protracted internet argument, I feel like my brain compels me to rehash the argument over and over again. This feels like an unreasonable demand from my brain, and I would like to not be subject to it. Again, personally salient examples are especially welcome.

Thank you.

Showing 3 of 5 replies (Click to show all)

drethelin13y10

1) Interacting with a lot of randoms when I'm not in a great mood. Example: I used to play a ton of magic, less these days. Consistently I would have some fun but as the day went on and I had to make small talk with more and more strangers most of whom were fairly lame, I would get sick of it and just want to stop.

1b) long lasting one on one interactions with people I'm not extremely close to. Even with friends, spending more than an hour or so with someone one on one gets to be very stressful for me.

1c) Cleaning or similar tasks, if not spaced out a lot.

10Error13y

1) Official paperwork, especially if it's the sort where a trivial error can be a major hassle, like tax forms. I have some fairly serious Ugh Fields around the latter. 2) I obsess over previous mistakes, even ones that were made months or years ago. I even obsess over hypothetical mistakes, where I could have screwed something up if I'd been a trifle less lucky or if my synapses had fired a little differently. The mental monologue in the first case runs something like goddamnit, I'm supposed to be better than that. In the second case it's more of an abject horror at what Could Have Happened.

2Skeeve13y

1) I find that interacting with other people face-to-face is mentally exhausting for me. A few hours or so of prolonged exposure is not so bad, but more than that and I have to exert noticeable effort to not be snappish and crabby with people. 2) I suffer from an unreasonable need to sit with my back to a wall, or some other solid structure, even within my own home.

See in context