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Do you still regularly use nootropics and/or stimulants or was that just to get you through the adaptation period?
With regard to the piracetam combo, yes I still use that regularly. With modafinil, I wouldn't say regularly, since it's a little expensive to keep that up. But I didn't actively stop using it. I pretty much use the same amount as I did when I was monophasic - i.e when I have it, I take it on a semi-regular basis.
Thanks for sharing your experience, it is valuable data to have. From what I've read most people recommend NOT using stimulants & nootropics because they can damage sleep. Interesting that you were successful with it. Just out of curiosity, what sleep schedule are you on now & how long have you been doing it?
I'm still on the Everyman-3, and have been for about 7 months now.
I tried the Everyman-3 for 1 day & found it completely intolerable. I slept for 3 hours late at night, took a nap before work, at lunch, & when I returned home. All day I was basically useless. I felt as if I had the Flu. My mood was severely depressed, my head felt as if it were in a vice, & I was "zoning out" continuously. If this only lasts a few days, I think I could push through it, but my main consideration is that if I make a mistake at my job or miss some minor detail, someone could have a serious reaction or die. For this reason I feel like this is an unacceptable price to pay.
Is there something I'm missing or is this only viable for people who are either unemployed or have work that is not cognitively demanding?
The first couple times I tried it, I had the exact same experience, though it took me a little longer to give up. What really helped me finally adjust was using nootropics. I had a lot of success with piracetam + choline + l-theanine after each nap, sometimes adding coffee when I needed it. I also used modafinil every other day for the first two weeks (I wouldn't recommend this though, since most people can't sleep on it).
The coolest thing about the modafinil (and to a lesser extent piracetam, etc) use during this period was that I could really see the difference between my sleep deprived self and my normal self, since modafinil completely erases all of the effects of sleep deprivation. On my previous attempts I did feel very useless, but I didn't realize the extent to which I just couldn't do things until I took modafinil on a particularly difficult day - it felt like someone gave me an entirely new brain. So it's really clear to me how much sleep dep actually impairs my ability to do things.
(Note that there are a few LWers attempting or contemplating polyphasic sleep right now. If you are considering it seriously we'd love your participation in a data collection effort on before and after cognitive performance.)
Polyphasic Sleep
How to have 19-22hrs of fun every day
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/107056/Minicamp2012/PolyphasicSleep/index.html
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/107056/Minicamp2012/PolyphasicSleep.zip
which includes at slides 114 and 115
Theory:
http://trypolyphasic.com/forum/post/8455/#p8455
http://trypolyphasic.com/forum/topic/876/uber-and-everyman-theory-analysis/
Experience:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/ ... and see links at bottom, particularly...
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/11/polyphasic-sleep-log-days-25-30-final-update/
Note that Steve's experience of the flexibility of his near-uberman schedule doesn't match with other reports. I think this flexibility may be available after stabilisation, but come at a high cost before.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/01/polyphasic-sleep-update-day-90/
Steve's report of euphoric mood is fairly common on the Uberman schedule, and much less common on schedules that include regular core sleep.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/02/polyphasic-sleep-20/ Some experiments in flexibility
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/04/polyphasic-sleep-the-return-to-monophasic/ Why did he stop?
http://trypolyphasic.com/forum/forum/17/adaptation/
And https://groups.google.com/d/topic/polyphasic/FTWKW0pvKZ0/discussion
and finally
My sleep tracks (which include masking sound including walla to drown out distracting conversation):
- http://dl.dropbox.com/u/107056/audio/Nap_20-22mins-heart.mp3 (my standard track)
- http://dl.dropbox.com/u/107056/audio/Nap_20-25mins.mp3
- http://dl.dropbox.com/u/107056/audio/Nap_20mins.mp3
- http://dl.dropbox.com/u/107056/audio/Nap_15mins.mp3
My schedule calculator: http://bit.ly/poly-schedule-tool
I wish I had that schedule calculator earlier - I must have spent a couple of hours googling (#1 failure of my rationality skills) for one because I was sure someone had to have made it, given that all these polyphasic sleepers have oodles of free time.
Yah - Wozniak is fairly well known in the polyphasic community for having very strongly held views that are directly contradicted by the experience of polyphasic sleepers. See for example http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/2006/11/01/an-attack-on-polyphasic-sleep/.
I did not gather objective evidence of the differences in my cognition before and after polyphasic sleep, but any differences are small enough that they're invisible to me and those who live with me.
I think Wozniak is only evangelical about the Uberman schedule being a horrible idea. He states in his 2010 update that the Everyman 3-hour core sounds "pretty sustainable".
Final point: I've heard it said (though cannot find figures on this) that in parts of the US, the time spent waiting on death row is so long, that your life expectancy is higher if you murder someone when you're in your early twenties than if you stay on the streets. Interesting that choosing execution could be seen as a rational choice.
QALYs, anyone? Probably one would get a larger amount of Fun in 10 years on the streets than in 15 years on death row.
Unless being on "the streets" means running with gangs and/or living in a slum. I'd rather spend those years in jail rather than watch my friends get shot (assuming that I'm stuck in this environment and have come to the conclusion that murdering is bad, revenge is unsatisfactory, etc).
Though I can't imagine a situation where a person is rational enough to choose jail over the streets but not rational enough to find another way out of his current situation.
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Wow, I hadn't thought of using a graphics tablet before. I'll definitely look into that, as well as the incremental learning technique you linked to.
I had tentatively placed Differential Eq. before Calc III on a whim. I had no idea it drew on LA and Calc III. According to a prereq. flow chart I have, the only requirement for Calc III, Differential Eq., Discrete Math, and LA is Calc II. This very well may be a case of prerequisites being too lenient. I've penciled in the appropriate swap.
I'm looking to take some computer science courses. If nothing else, at least Foundations of Computer Science. Hopefully this summer. I'll have to look into precisely what the major/minor requirements are for CS. In the mean time, I'm trying to navigate the minefields of general education requirements.
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The gen eds are tricky to deal with. You can't usually get out of them, but some schools are pretty good with what classes satisfy them. I would suggest ignoring the recommended gen ed courses (though try to get specific advice from fellow students and listen to them if it contradicts this) and going straight to the department which is related to the requirement. Look around and see what courses they offer, and then ask if it will satisfy a gen ed. I've found that taking department specific introductory courses is WAY more interesting than trying to slog through the default ones, which are usually filled with the same people you had to deal with in high school. It's also been my experience that most of the default courses are actually harder (I think this might be because they want to push freshmen into college mode). Again, this varies with the school, so take it with a grain of salt.
One more thing that I wish people had told me: find all the problem solving strategies you can, and use the hell out of them. You might think you are good at this and you don't need anyone's advice on how to think (actually you probably don't, since you are on this site...), but the falseness of this statement will become increasingly clear when you attempt problem sets. I thought I knew this, but looking back I would spend hours on one problem just trying the same method over and over, thinking I was doing something new.
If you don't see a solution or the path to the solution within 5 or 10 minutes, try something completely new no matter how close you think you are. Keep prodding your brain like this, and eventually one of those stubborn folds of tissue will spill its guts for you. But if you keep hitting the same part over and over again, you're just gonna have a pissed off commander in chief. Yeah, it does sound obvious... but if you don't check to make sure you're doing it, most of the time you're just going to keep hacking your way to nowhere.
Also, find or make a study group. I was too damn stubborn to do this - biggest mistake of my college career. It might be annoying when you know all the answers and everyone else doesn't, but that won't happen often.
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Hey ryjm, thanks for taking the time to give me advice. I found it helpful. I appreciate when older students take the time to send some words of advice down the ladder. These are my thoughts, in no particular order.
There are some subjects that I find it easy to excel in. But math certainly isn't one of them. For me, math takes some serious work to understand and master. And it's only been recently that I've gained an interest in really understanding it. In high school, I was definitely not in the top of my class when it came to math, never mind anything like Gauss.
While I think my OP gives off a different vibe, I fear precisely what you described: that I'll get in over my head, that I'm just not cut out for a math major, or that I'll have no fucking clue what's going on. A part of my brain says to just do a philosophy degree. Because philosophy is something I've been studying almost non-stop since I was 11. It's something I won't struggle at. At least for me, a philosophy major would be orders of magnitude less difficult than a math major. Heck, I don't think I really comprehend at a gut level how hard a math major will be. All of that scares me.
But while I think I'd enjoy taking a philosophy of science class than Linear Algebra, I think I have very good instrumental reasons for taking the math route. Rather than seeing math as something I value in and of itself, I see math as a gateway to other things I want to do in life. Don't get me wrong, I do find a lot of math fascinating. But I'm more attracted to it because it allows me more financial opportunities than, say, philosophy. I'm making an investment with my college education. I want an optimal rate of return.
So while I really do want to understand the mathematics of linear algebra, I am more so concerned about keeping a high GPA. I need the scholarships, the internships, and the job opportunities for when I get out of school. But I don't quite see where the two goals diverge. My line of think is this: if I really work hard to understand and internalize the knowledge, wouldn't that lead me to have higher grades than if I didn't?
At least in far-mode, I am determined to work hard. But I also want to work smart. I know that if I approached a math class with a brute force approach, then I won't succeed. I could do that in high school history classes, but not now. So I'm trying to compile a strategy beforehand so I can work smarter. Here are some of the ideas that come to mind.
First, what you said about limiting the rate at which I want to speed ahead. One of my biggest concerns is that I'll be unprepared for some of my math classes. I took that placement test the other day and placed into calculus, but there was some material which I really didn't know. Particularly some higher level trigonometry and logarithms. I need to make sure I have that down before this fall.
But I'm also over qualified for the precalculus course. Beyond that material, I have a really pretty great grasp of precalculus. As of now, this is my tentative plan for my math course-load during my freshman and sophmore years. This fall I'll take Calculus I. That will let me take Calculus II in the spring. During that spring, I'll also take Statistics Honors, which is a combination of stats I & II. Fall of next year I'll take Differential Equations and Linear Algebra. The spring after I'll take Calculus III and Discrete Math. (Differential Eq. and Calc III can be swapped if chosen.) Would you say this is an okay rate, or is it still too fast? I'm trying to pretty evenly distribute my course work so that I don't have to take three math's in one semester.
Another strategy is to use SRS. I'm pretty awful at programming with LaTeX, which is necessary for using math with Anki. But if I could master it, I think it could reap some benefits.
And I plan to use my summers to study for upcoming math classes. This summer I'm preparing for Calc I and Calc II.
Lastly, I'm told I should take notes of the material before I come to class. That way I can just absorb the lecture and make adjustments as needed. Then do all the homework.
If you have any comments or other advice, I'd love to hear them. That goes for any other math majors, too. Heck, might as well let the scientists join in on the fun, as well.
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If you understand that you have to work very hard and you are able to judge how much you can handle, you'll probably be okay. I've just seen a lot of people doing a math degree because they were always good at math and they thought they could breeze through it. That won't happen.
I use SRS daily for math stuff, and the best thing you can do is get one of those cheap graphics tablets. I think mine was about $60. Then you can just write out all your question answer pairs. I did the LaTeX route for a while, but the amount of time you have to spend inputting everything is not worth it. If you really want to get into this kind of studying, you can try this incremental learning technique. And definitely read ahead before each lecture.
Your course selection looks pretty good, but I would swap Differential Eq. and Calc III. I took Differential Eq. freshman year (stupid) while taking Calc III, and it was heavy on both linear algebra and calc III material. Your class may be different, but I would recommend a full semester of linear algebra before. Try to find some fellow students to ask though; professors can be either too strict or too lenient when it comes to what they require before taking a course.
You might want to consider throwing in some computer science courses too. Even a minor will increase your opportunities immensely after college.
I wonder how many brain hacks become awesome if you just lean on them hard enough. Could we all increase our effective waking hours by a factor of 1.2 by learning to lucid dream consistently, for instance?
Mindfulness meditation seems like another good example, especially since the required time investment for you to start seeing benefits seems to be pretty large.
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Instead of, ‘I don’t want to read My Little Pony fanfiction,’ now I think ‘I used to not want to read My Little Pony fanfiction.’ You modified a total of fifty-eight opinions in my mind.
I think I just imagined HPMOR in the My Little Pony universe, which does not sound appealing at all (to me). This is much better.