I'm going down the path of gwern and ordered some Modafinil and empty capsules to do blind tests on myself -- those should arrive this week. I'll probably try the same with other popular nootropics afterwards.
Also, this week I'm going to spend 6+ hours learning to draw, working off Raemon's drawing posts and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. If it's true that I can become a passable sketch artist in the span of a few dozen hours of practice, I have no excuse not to -- that would be a skill that would be really fun and also somewhat useful to me as a programmer. So I'm working on that during the evenings this week.
Holy crap, drawing is hard. Six hours is a lot! One hour makes me tired of looking at things!
I thought drawing would be relaxing but it's basically the opposite of relaxing (maybe just since I'm no good yet.)
Previously: 5/14/12 (and explanation)
This is the public group instrumental rationality diary for the week of May 21st. It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:
Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.
Thanks to everyone who contributes!