April '17 I Care About Thread

MaryCh

As an experiment, here's a thread for people to post about things they care about. Specifically, for things that are possible to contribute to, in some way, and preferably, to invite others to join.

Mine is buying and donating highschool textbooks to schools in the 'grey zone' of Ukraine (where the war kinda isn't fought, but few people would be surprised if it started.) I don't deliver them myself, though.

What's yours?

As an experiment, here's a thread for people to post about things they care about. Specifically, for things that are possible to contribute to, in some way, and preferably, to invite others to join.

What's yours?

Right now, it's overcoming my unbearable procrastination/lethargy/aversion to/for anything that even seems unpleasant. If I can't do hard work, I'm basically useless for whatever I have planned anyway, so it's critical.

I recently stumbled across this video, which is making me rethink the Mini Habits thesis.

In summary, Dr. K specifically calls out that many people focus on habits to avoid running out of willpower but considers good habits and discipline to be separate things. He says "discipline" is not the exertion of willpower either, but rather it's a particular emotion: resolve.

To help explain what "resolve" means, he said that the opposite emotion is doubt. I think the cultivation of doubt is super important to our practice of epistemic rationality, but (according to... (read more)

0gilch9y

Meditation also looks like an interesting avenue. The practice of controlling attention might improve willpower.

0fortyeridania9y

Many people have been through similar periods and overcome them, so asking around will yield plenty of anecdotal advice. And I assume you've read the old /u/lukeprog piece How to Beat Procrastination. For me, regular exercise has helped for general motivation, energy levels, willpower--the opposite of akrasia generally. (How to bootstrap the motivation to exercise? I made a promise to a friend and she agreed to hold me accountable to exercising. It was also easier because there was someone I wanted to impress.) Good luck. When you've got a handle on it, do share what helped most/least.