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A smart phone is easily the highest roi purchase I've ever made. For people who don't have them, seriously it's worth it.
As a counter opinion, I barely use my smart phone for anything I didn't use my old Razr phone for. The only reason I got it was because it was actually cheaper to get a new smart phone than to continue on the old plan. The cost I pay is that I have to charge it every day.
In response to
Drawing Less Wrong: Technical Skill
About half of the images are no longer there
In response to
Approving reinforces low-effort behaviors
This is an excellent piece, I regret putting off reading it until now (I have a long reading list).
Any shorter four years later? Asking for a friend.
In response to
Never Leave Your Room
There is an excellent example of "priming" the mind here.
The idea is that specific prior knowledge drastically changes the way we process new information. You listen to a sine-wave modulated recording that is initially unintelligible. You then listen to the original recording. You are now primed. Listen again to the modulated recording and suddenly the previously unintelligible recording is clear as day.
I first listened to all of the samples on December 8th, when the link was posted on kottke.org. If I'm not mistaken that means it's been exactly 100 days since I last heard, or even thought about, these recordings. I listened to them again just a few minutes ago and understood every single one of them perfectly.
I can't decide if this is impressive or terrifying.
Of the five recordings on that page I was able to figure out three without listening to the clear speech.
In response to
No, Seriously. Just Try It.
Great post. A useful followup might be "Just try what?", which would address how to generate and weigh ideas to be tested. Like you mention, scientifically established (or at least supported) ideas are usually the best starting point, but how do we fill in the gaps in this knowledge that you alluded to?
I mention this because there's no way "drink spoonfuls of vegetable oil" would have even occurred to me as a hypothesis, and if it had I would surely have laughed it away.
my answer to this question has become: 1) Research the topic 2) gather many ancedotes and strategies 3) try them 4) as my pool of suggested actions runs low, either brainstorm or go and gather more.
In response to
Thoughts on designing policies for oneself
Just read this yesterday (July 31st 2014), and let it sink in before I commented.
In the past I've attempted to do self-improvement checklists (like this, but better organized), and haven't gone further than 2 weeks with them. With this post I think I have much improvement to make on my list design (and designing policies in general).
Question: what are good rewards/punishments that could be implemented in not finishing a set goal?
I would actually recommend not setting any rewards or punishments due to the overjustification effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect By adding an external reward you will feel less intrinsically motivated.
In response to
Scholarship: How to Do It Efficiently
There are three things I do that save hours a week each, giving me more time for scholarship: 1) voice-recognition software: most people can talk a lot faster than they can type, even including corrections 2) reading while riding a stationary recumbent bike: can transcribe highlighted sections later, or even read from a computer and copy and paste 3) phone headset: do housework or exercises on the phone
I also have a list of tips that save minutes a week each, if people are interested.
A few years late, but I'm interested!
What's Worm? Oh, wait..
After having read Worm I will say this much: it engages the creative thinking of the reader.
I've actually started a wiki of sorts for this. http://instrumental.wikidot.com/ It is very much in the early stages
(not really useful yet, just me throwing down a lot of random bullshit ideas and structures that need testing and investigating).
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Use rechargeable batteries.
After two years of constant use in my headphones (8+ hours a day), I still get a full week's worth of power from each battery. I don't recall how long traditional batteries lasted, but I don't think it was all too much longer. I don't have any to compare it with as a major benefit is not needing to worry about buying batteries ever. I do need to make sure I keep charged and discharged batteries separate.