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BrassLion comments on Heuristic: How does it sound in a movie? - Less Wrong Discussion

9 Post author: Stabilizer 28 October 2012 01:30AM

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Comment author: BrassLion 01 November 2012 04:22:05PM 0 points [-]

Interesting, I often use a coffee or bathroom break exactly because it allows me to stop working and get up from my desk, whether because I need a change of perspective to think about a problem or because I just don't feel like working and want to use a socially acceptable method to slack off for ten minutes. Then again, I drink tea instead of coffee, so I don't have the issue of taking in too much caffine at once and actually harming how I work. YMMV.

Narratives definetly seem to be far mode, yes - you can construct a narrative where you're a Good Worker or whatnot without actually doing any of the near mode activities. Maybe if you build the narrative consciously, actually trying to construct the proper narrative for your task, you can do the near mode tasks (write code, frex) and refer back to the narrative if you get stuck or start to slack off (a Good Worker wouldn't slack off on their unit tests, they Have Pride In Their Work and Want To Create Good Products).