WHEN: 26 October 2014 03:00:00PM (+0400)

We start at 14:00 and stay until at least 19-20.

So which one is it?

It's too bad they don't have a "profile without picture" study to see if not being able to judge by sight influenced the rating/messaging.

Immersion is not an option for me currently.

Whatever you do, immerse yourself as much as possible in your circumstances. This most likely means having radio blaring in Hebrew most of the time when it's not actively obstructing whatever you're trying to do; plastering your living space with labels, adding Hebrew blogs to your blogroll, seeking social activities outside your comfort zone such as volunteering at a retirement home with lonely seniors or attending insipid school plays at your local center for Hebrew language and culture.

I am an aspiring autodidact in math who's having motivation issues and would like to identify their cause. I've been, embarrassingly, stuck at basically the same high-school, introductory level for a few years now in all of the material I've begun studying so far, and this is because I've been studying with a frequency ranging from one week per month, to once every three months or something. My chosen study methods are slow and thorough.

I often feel frustrated about the material I'm studying, and find it rather tedious. I suspect that one reason for this is the fact that I'm a freshman undergrad in a STEM field, so I've already gone through all of what I'm studying now and more (albeit more superficially), have been acquainted with more difficult math and would really like to get into the meat of things -- however, I'm aware that I don't have a solid grasp on the basics and need to practice even the easy exercises until it becomes second nature to me.

I often wonder whether my struggles with finding the motivation to go through my textbooks are an ordinary part of the life of people who eventually overcome them (through better study plans, or increased conscientiousness or whatever) and go on to become good mathematicians, or whether it just means that I'm simply naturally disinterested in math, and will always be so, and consequently I'll never raise above the level of a mediocre STEM undergrad. I mean, if I were cut out for math, then I'd be naturally curious and enthusiastic about studying it, right? Or at least I'd have the conscientiousness / work ethic to study diligently even when it doesn't feel exciting. So far none of these conditions apply; does it mean that they never will? (I expect this feeling of tediousness to go away once I start to become good at college-level math. But maybe there's a selection effect at play here: only people who are naturally good at math master the undergrad level; people who naturally suck at math give up by the end of high school.)

I've also noticed that my lack of motivation is not domain-specific: I fail to habitually study every other field I've ever meant to study. In fact, I've been comparatively successful in studying math (and, to a lesser extent, physics and programming). This leads me to thinking the issue is a lack of study habits. The funny thing is that I constantly -- habitually, even -- fret about lacking study habits, yet so far (3 years or so) this has never translated into the instillation of said study habits.

Have any LessWrongers had similar issues and managed to overcome them?

I think CR is a bad idea compared to intermittent fasting after reviewing the available studies and expert opinion on those studies. Here's one cautionary editorial: http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/29/want-to-live-longer-dont-try-caloric-restriction/

I don't have all the evidence about it loaded into my head right now, but I can go dig it up later. What I recall is that while there was a life extension benefit for sedentary, high bodyfat lab animals, there was no benefit recorded for wild caught, normal bodyfat animals.

I also personally know people who did CR and regretted it because their hormone levels are now out of whack.

Seconding shower things.

Also consider sex toys and sex-shop items.

I carry thermic starbucks glasses around to keep my tea hot in winter and cold in the brazilian summer. Worth it.

Depending on your age, big 5 personality traits, group of friends etc... psychedelic drugs (but not opiates or amphetamines) may be worth their price and time.

It is as if you're buying / shorting an index fund on opinions.

Started translating the Sequences into Slovak language (with Eliezer's permission). Two articles already published (yesterday, today), another eight are already waiting translated on my hard disk (I decided to limit publishing to at most 1 article per weekday, to avoid possible quick start followed by gradually slowing down later).

How much useful is that? Not sure -- this is a meta action, so it is naturally a multiplier, and I don't have a good estimate about what it multiplies: how many potential LW fans are there in my country. If many, this is one of the best ways to find them; someone can recommend them an article, or they can find it by putting some words in google. If there are few, this is a way to find out, and move on to some other plan. Perhaps this is also a way to create them.

What I learned:

Translating from English to Slovak is surprisingly easy for me. Understanding the context helps tremendously. I also have two translating programs open in browser (an English-Slovak dictionary, and Google Translate), so when I find an unfamiliar word, I first try to guess, and then look at the provided translation. If feels almost like using Anki. Seems like I found my comparative advantage. Depending on the results, this could be my most efficient "sanity waterline increasing" activity by far. I wish I had this idea half year ago; but better now than never.

Translating those articles and seeing the paragraphs written in my first language helped me understand the text better. (For example, in Simple Truth, which is a rather long text with some boring parts, I understood the motivation for having Autrey as a person separate from the speaker, as they represent different approaches. I somehow missed that on the first reading.) Generally, reading a text in a foreign language imposes a cognitive tax; with a lot of practice this tax gets smaller, but at least for me it's still far from zero. For the same reason I guess my readers will appreciate the translations even if they understand English.

I am now doing Anki about 3 times a week now. I am currently creating an Anki deck for my Psychology 101 book and another for "An Idiot's Guide to Game Theory" which I picked up the other day. I am also learning HTML and CSS on an online course, again using Anki and practice tests to reinforce what I have learned.

I picked up these techniques at LessWrong.

The caveat mainly targets those on some low-carb dietary regimen. If you were to break a fast (can't give a specific fast length, sorry) with exercise then maybe have a banana 15-30 minutes or so before starting, depending upon your metabolic speed.

Does this apply to you? If a highly confident no, then have at it at your own liability!