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Yvain comments on Irrationality Game II - Less Wrong Discussion
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Irrationality game comment
The importance of waste heat in the brain is generally under-appreciated. An overheated brain is a major source of mental exhaustion, akrasia, and brain fog. One easy way to increase the amount of practical intelligence we can bring to bear on complicated tasks (with or without an accompanying increase in IQ itself) is to improving cooling in the brain. This would be most effective with some kind of surgical cooling system thingy, but even simple things like being in a cold room could help
Confidence: 30%
The nice thing about this one is that it's really easy to test yourself. A plastic bag to put ice or hot water into, and some computerized mental exercise like dual n-back. I know if I thought this at anywhere close to 30% I'd test it...
EDIT: see Yvain's full version: http://squid314.livejournal.com/320770.html http://squid314.livejournal.com/321233.html http://squid314.livejournal.com/321773.html
Self-experimentation seems like a really bad way to test things about mental exhaustion. It would be way too easy to placebo myself into working for a longer amount of time without a break, when testing the condition that would support my theory. Might wait until I can find a test subject.
If you got a result consistent with your theory, then yes it might just be placebo effect, but is that result entirely useless; and if you got a result inconsistent with your theory, is that useless as well?
"Conservation of expected uselessness!"
INSERT THE ROD, JOHN.
Overheating your body enough to limit athletic performance (whether due to associated dehydration or not) is probably enough to impair the brain as well. Dehydration is known to cause headaches.
I think the effect exists. But what's the size, when you're merely sedentary + thinking + suffering a hot+humid day?
To the pork futures warehouse!
Some indirect evidence from yawning, with a few references: http://www.epjournal.net/wp-content/uploads/ep0592101.pdf