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pianoforte611 comments on Open thread, Sept. 29 - Oct.5, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Not being able to form certain kinds of habits sounds plausible to me. When I stopped wearing retainers it was as though I had never had them. I never even thought about putting them in again.
Not having habits sounds a bit impossible to me. A habit is just a way of doing things consistently and without thinking about it. For example, you probably button your shirt up the same way every time. You probably have some quirks in how you walk or sit that you couldn't get rid of easily. If you play an instrument, you almost certainly have habits in how you play notes and phrases that would take time to relearn. Have you done any public speaking training? If not, when you talk in front of an audience you probably use filler words like "and, so, um, like" and it usually takes time to get rid of those. Do you not do any of these things?
For the specific things you mentioned? No, neither, n/a, and insufficient data for meaningful answer; definitely have filler but unclear whether the distribution of that filler is at all consistent.
For most things, I do have ways I do things consistently but I am specifically thinking about it at the time. So, to use the example of making Soylent Orange again: there is a particular sequence of putting ingredients into the blender that seems to make it mix the easiest and be completed the fastest (sunflower seeds first, then marmite + spinach leaves to wipe the marmite off the measuring spoon, then flour/bananas before OJ/milk). I usually follow this pattern, but if my attention wanders from it, often deviate from it in an unpredictable way, skipping and/or re-arranging steps, and when I regain focus have to basically review all my actions since I entered the kitchen to figure out which things I've done and in what order and whether I've missed any steps and whether this will put it at risk for a spill.
None of your Soylent making procedure sounds unusual to me. Not being able to form procedural habits of a certain kind (or not choosing to) are entirely possible.
What I am wondering is if you are lacking muscle memory, which many physical habits are an instance of. Perhaps I'm just using the word "habit" more inclusive way than you are, I'm classifying things as habits that you wouldn't. Do you think that is the case? Not having muscle memory sounds impossible to me - if you can walk and have a conversation at the same time then you have muscle memory (basically the ability to put something in auto-pilot).
If you can play any reasonably complicated piece of music then you have muscle memory.
If you consistently make the same mistakes when playing a sport and have a least a tiny bit of difficulty correcting them then you have muscle memory.
Do you have muscle memory?
I do have muscle memory, at least for basic things. I do not think that should be lumped in with habits, for the most part.
Not all habits are muscle memory, and not all instances of muscle memory are habits. But a lot of habits are muscle memory: crossing your legs when you sit, leaning on one leg when you stand, lip biting, cracking knuckles to name a few things.