Group rationality diary, 5/21/12

cata

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:

Established a useful new habit
Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief
Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations
Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior
Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something
Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life
Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you
Tried doing any of the above and failed

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!

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:

Established a useful new habit
Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief
Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations
Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior
Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something
Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life
Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you
Tried doing any of the above and failed

Thanks to everyone who contributes!

Today wasn't something new, but was an example of a skill I've been working on developing: Use the Try Harder, Luke. I had told myself I would work on research for at least two hours today, and by the first 30 minutes discovered a significant problem with the method I was investigating. Typically I would shunt it to subconscious and do something else for a few hours, but because I was on the clock (using pomodairo to track time and regulate breaks) I took a drink, looked at the problem for a few minutes, and then tried another approach. (That one didn't work either, but figuring out why it didn't work gave me some valuable insight into the problem.) I ended up putting about four and half hours of concentrated work in, which is a lot for a day I had originally allocated as a Diablo III vacation :P

[Edit] On rereading this post, I wonder if this was a missed opportunity to try out some emotional engineering. I don't think I checked whether or not I was seeking, and if I wasn't it might have been worthwhile to try and cultivate that emotion- but that might have been procrastination rather than trying harder. I think I'll make a note to think about that during break periods.