Voltairina

Doing "Nothing"

It might be a useful habit to remember, whenever you're making a choice about some situation, that "doing nothing" is never actually an available option. Even if you avoid doing the task you're considering, you're still making some kind of choice about how you spend your time, and you're still doing something relative to that task. For example, if the task is "paint the barn" the alternative is "leave the bare barn exposed to the elements", not "store the barn in some impermeable stasis field and return to paint it later". Being able to clearly articulate what that "nothing" slot entails, its consequences and rewards, might be a helpful way to motivate yourself to make better choices. I am working on internalising this, because if I don't think about it, a part of me tends to just think that I'm doing the equivalent of sticking the task in an atemporal stasis field instead of leaving it unattended. If I don't exercise, I don't stay "the same amount fit". I get weaker (or, as aelephant points out, I could be getting stronger, during a recovery period - in which case "doing nothing" (as far as exercise) is the better option, after evaluation) . If I don't study, I don't stay "the same amount knowledgeable". I forget. Sure, there are things which remain effectively "in stasis" - Olympus Mons will probably stay about the same whether I climb it in ten years (somehow) or a hundred years - but I won't be the same by then. Or things that are so transient and commonplace that they might as well be in stasis - If I'm thinking of going somewhere, I might think, "I might miss catching this taxi cab, but I miss cabs all the time, there are always more cabs, and I can catch another one". But subjectively static opportunities are rare.

42Mar 29, 2012

Voltairina

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14y

Tabooing Science + an xkcd comic about the eclipse - "Honestly, it's not that scientific."

It occurred to me when I was reading XKCD a moment ago that given that there exists a strain of suspicion of anything 'science' among a certain crowd in this country (fundamentalists, creationists, etc), and a kind of mystique among another crowd (of the "It was in a study so...

Aug 16, 20176

Under the eyes of your betters

There is some research that claims the feeling of being watched motivates you to engage in more prosocial behavior. Our gaze recognition ability is apparently hard for us to suppress even when we try to intentionally. When I think about times when I've been around friends, however, I usually feel...

Oct 6, 201313

[LINK] '3 Secrets of Wise Decision Making'

Personal Decision Making (textbook about applied decision-making, for the class I'm taking right now) The reason the book struck me as interesting was the author is employed at the university I'm going to, so if I get stuck its possible I could go and talk to him myself, and that...

Apr 20, 20124

The Blue School

The Blue School appears to be a neuroscience driven playgroup for children to learn about their own neuroanatomy and emotional self-regulation and are given language to describe their feelings... "So young children at the Blue School learn about what has been called “the amygdala hijack” — what happens to their...

Apr 16, 201231

Doing "Nothing"

Mar 29, 201242

Meaning and having names for things vs knowing how they work

I saw this post on a discussion thread earlier: > We routinely deny, or act in spite of, inconvenient truths. We can recognize that there is no meaning to love beyond evolutionary and chemical triggers, yet we fight for it just as fervently. Nihilists write books about nihilism despite it's...

Mar 18, 20121

Meta Addiction

I was wondering if anyone has ever had the feeling, like I get sometimes, that they were addicted to 'meta-level' optimizing rather than low-level acting? As in, I'd rather think about how to encourage myself to brush my teeth more than brush my teeth. I'm guessing there's something about this...

Mar 15, 201223

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Voltairina

Voltairina

Voltairina

Doing "Nothing"

The Blue School

Meta Addiction

Under the eyes of your betters

Voltairina

Tabooing Science + an xkcd comic about the eclipse - "Honestly, it's not that scientific."

Under the eyes of your betters

[LINK] '3 Secrets of Wise Decision Making'

The Blue School

Doing "Nothing"

Meaning and having names for things vs knowing how they work

Meta Addiction

Doing "Nothing"

The Blue School

Meta Addiction

Under the eyes of your betters

Tabooing Science + an xkcd comic about the eclipse - "Honestly, it's not that scientific."

Under the eyes of your betters

[LINK] '3 Secrets of Wise Decision Making'

The Blue School

Doing "Nothing"

Meaning and having names for things vs knowing how they work

Meta Addiction