torekp comments on Urges vs. Goals: The analogy to anticipation and belief - LessWrong

80 Post author: AnnaSalamon 24 January 2012 11:57PM

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Comment author: torekp 25 January 2012 01:47:46AM 5 points [-]

Andrew Critch's "greedy algorithm": Whenever you catch yourself really wanting to do something you want to want, immediately reward yourself - by feeding yourself an M&M, or if that's too difficult, immediately pumping your fist and saying "Yes!"

Closely related to the parenting advice of "Catch them being good" - which works wonders on kids. I expect it will generalize well to adults.