In Anna’s recent post, she talked about training your mind to notice when it wasn’t curious about something and scream “Error! Look for a different way to do this” in such cases. Johnicholas and TheOtherDave's list of what stupidity feels like also looks useful for this purpose. I'm creating this post to make a more comprehensive list of feelings which indicate that people should reanalyze different possible paths to make sure that the one which they're taking is the most effective one to their objective.

Please suggest additions to the list in your comments -- I'll move them up here (along with links to further explanation, if given.) Keep in mind that your description of the feeling should be as illustrative as possible. For example, "feeling stupid" is unhelpful, while "you feel like you've taken a wrong turn into a never-ending tunnel" is better. Of course, metaphors which are immediately understood by some people may not be so easily understood by others, so try to give a more detailed description of the feeling if other people express that you're probably saying more than they're hearing.

List: "Error! Look for a different way to do this" if you feel like:

• your curiosity is dead
• an automaton -- you're acting, albeit slowly, but your mind isn't grokking
• you've taken a wrong turn into a never-ending tunnel
• you're behaving clunkily, mechanically, when there's an already-formed instinct waiting to be used
• what you're doing is "like watching cable, only with fewer hair replacement infomercials"
• you have to avoid working out the implications of a particular line of reasoning.
• you're going to have to grit your teeth and do a tedious and boring task¹
• you're blind and must be led around by more observant people
• you're doing something because you're supposed to, rather than because it helps you achieve goals³
• you just shrugged off something that seemed important

• Stupidity feels like:

• being bored, being in pain, being distracted, wanting to do anything else than this
• being unworthy of these divine (external) ideas
• blind plodding obedience
• being tired all the time, even if you're not²
• not having enough fingers to hold all of my thoughts in place
• merging onto the highway when I can't see all the oncoming traffic
• someone's playing loud distracting music that I can't hear
• riding on a train with square wheels

---

^{1. Sometimes tedious/boring tasks genuinely cannot be made easier or less boring, so your "Error!" message might not return anything useful. However, you should at least look.}

^{2. This may also indicate that your stupidity has biological causes, such as nutrition/sleep deficiency. 20-30 minute naps are awesome, though longer ones might make you groggy.}

^{3. Of course, if a goal-achieving action is also supported by authorities, that is a good thing.}