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TheOtherDave comments on Self Improvement - Broad vs Focused - Less Wrong Discussion

8 Post author: Raemon 31 December 2010 03:39PM

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Comment author: TheOtherDave 31 December 2010 04:35:37PM 1 point [-]

I'm a firm believer in working on one thing at a time when it comes to improving skills, and defining "thing" as narrowly as possible.

In animal training, the advice is usually to work on one aspect of a behavior at a time. For example, if I'm training my dog to sit, I decide ahead of time whether I'm working on latency (how quickly does she sit when I cue her?), duration (how long will she hold a sit before I release her?), form (where does she put her feet?), etc. A training session will make some progress in that area that generally carries forward, and then I can switch areas.

Humans aren't dogs, of course, but I suspect there's a shared principle.

(Unrelatedly: I used to be a cheesehound and then cut cheese out of my diet almost completely about three years ago. But I did so by having a stroke and being post-traumatically hypervigilant about food for about a year. I don't recommend that strategy.)