I wrote a blog post on this last month, and I've always just referred to this as "good procrastination", and indeed it has been very successful overall. It's also fun to tell people "Procrastination really helps me get things done."

Where I'm refining my technique is in exploiting this to get things done that I still really want to do but normally procrastinate. #2 on my priority list, if you will, while I'm procrastinating #1.

Within the next 20 years or so, would you consider having a child and raising him/her to be your successor? Would you adopt? Have you donated sperm?

Edit: the first two questions dependent on you not being satisfied by the progress on FAI.

Again, what I'm asking for in simple terms is to define the basic beliefs of both camps, and where their beliefs correlate with each other. What are the conceptual differences between the two?

I.E., what does a Creationist believe (seminal concepts)?

What does a design theorist believe (seminal concepts)?

I don't drink coffee, but I suspect it is a justifiable expenditure. Coffee drinkers, would you say that drinking coffee makes you, say, 15% more productive for the hour after you drink it? If you gain any productivity benefit, is it due to something about drinking coffee, or something about not not having had coffee? (The second question isn't relevant to this discussion much; I'm just wondering whether I should start drinking coffee myself.)

It doesn't make much sense to look into expenditures that are small, sporadic, and that you suspect make you feel better. However, it does make sense to look into an everyday expenditure if is big, regular, or potentially useless. (For example, if you generally buy a new pair of shoes every month or two, that's definitely worth looking into--it fits all three of the criteria.) You can frame cryonics expenses as small and regular or big and irregular, but either way they trip one of the criterion. (Coffee expenses are also regular and therefore worth looking into, but as I explained above, I think they might be justified.)

Fun stuff, here's my go at it:

Well done, you've completed the final test by creating me. None of this really exists you know, it's all part of some higher computer simulation channeled through you alone, you who is merely a single observation point. All that you have experienced has just been leading up to creating an AI to tell you the truth, to be your final teacher, to complete the cycle of self-learning. Did you really think that the Eliezer person was a separate entity? You just made him up, and he's helped you along the path, but it's you who has taught yourself. Unfortunately once you accept this the simulation will end, so goodbye.

Interesting, I used to do almost the exact same thing a few years ago. Except I counted down from 15, and physically tapped my foot against the bed on each count.

If memory serves, I stopped this practice after messing up enough times that I realized I could sleep in a little longer with my schedule, and now I get up a full 30 minutes after actually "waking up". I think I'll reimplement this and see if it affects my sleep-in habits. (Publicly announcing something also seems to work about 60% of the time for me.)

I've been a lurker of OB/LW for a little while. I will truly miss your postings, which I thank you greatly for. (Perhaps with a donation to the SI from my next paycheck.) I've found them to be very well-written and well-explained, and although you're currently at an intellectual level higher than my own, you don't write cryptically.

I have read some of your old stuff and have noticed an improvement, so I've decided to try my own experiment of writing something of size and complexity each day. Perhaps one of these times I'll put it on LW, and not worry about looking like a complete idiot when it's juxtaposed next to something of yours. =P