Back again. Let’s become stronger.
This week’s challenge:
Years ago you found yourself hurled into existence, facing a vast universe with a mind capable of the Art of Rationality, reading a LessWrong post at this very moment.
Yet in your life there is a particular problem. I don’t know what it is. Maybe your chair is uncomfortable; you’re not getting as high scores as you want at the Math Olympiad; or you’ve got insomnia.
Whatever it is, pick one specific problem in your life.
Find a way to solve it.
You have 1 hour to come up with 50 ways.
(But no need to implement the solutions within 1 hour!)
Looking back
Here are the champions who made it to 50 last week, with stars indicating their streak:
★★★ Slider, gjm, Harmless, jacobjacob, Tetraspace Grouping
★★ athom, johnswentworth, ryan_b, Ericf, Bucky, Mark Xu, CptDrMoreno, Yonge
★ TurnTrout, Tighe, knite
Why measure streaks?
Last week Bucky commented:
I don't like measuring things by streaks - if you want to do a list I think doing it by total number of challenges completed is better. Streaks are a less accurate indication of effort put in or potential gains achieved and have more potential to create unhealthy incentives.
But I disagree. I replied:
One of the goals of the challenge is building a culture of practice. I think consistency is an incredibly important part of that. That's how you get compound returns. A portfolio that grows 7% every year will grow ~30x over fifty years. But a portfolio that grows that much only every other year will only grow about ~5x. (Even though the first one only put in "twice as much effort".)
Moving forwards
I’m now entering week 4 out of the 7-week babble streak I committed to. If you want more regularity in practicing your creativity, feel free to post a comment committing to also going all the way to 7.
This week we’re trying something new: applied babble. I haven’t tried it before, so am very curious to see what will happen. Feel free to add a note to your comment about how useful you found the exercise, and whether you thought about good things you hadn’t considered before.
Rules
- 50 answers or nothing. Shoot for 1 hour.
Any answer must contain 50 ideas to count. That’s the babble challenge.
However, the 1 hour limit is a stretch goal. It’s fine if it takes longer to get to 50.
- Post your answers inside of spoiler tags. (How do I do that?)
- Celebrate other’s answers.
This is really important. Sharing babble in public is a scary experience. I don’t want people to leave this having back-chained the experience “If I am creative, people will look down on me”. So be generous with those upvotes.
If you comment on someone else’s post, focus on making exciting, novel ideas work — instead of tearing apart worse ideas.
Reward people for babbling — don’t punish them for not pruning.
I might remove comments that break this rule.
- Not all your ideas have to work.
The prompt is very underspecified. If your chair is uncomfortable, consider sitting on a sofa, on the ground, in a pool, or on a trampoline. I've often found that 1 great idea can hide among 10 bad ones. You just need to push through the worse ones. Keep talking. To adapt Wayne Gretzky's great quote: "You miss 100% of the ideas you never generate."
- My main tip: when you’re stuck, say something stupid.
If you spend 5 min agonising over not having anything to say, you’re doing it wrong. You’re being too critical. Just lower your standards and say something, anything. Soon enough you’ll be back on track.
This is really, really important. It’s the only way I’m able to complete these exercises.
—
Now, go forth and babble! 50 ways of solving a problem in your life!
Problem: I have few friends and am becoming depressed. I have a few roommates but they already have full social lives to fulfil them. The zoom calls at work are not sending my brain signals that I am an accepted member of the clan. Having been isolated like this before, I know I will become increasingly depressed until all my outputs suffer.
Write "Talk to me about anything" on a whiteboard and sit in a public park. Wait for people to approach and talk to me.
Join a crossfit group. People are always talking about it so it must be fulfillling. It's expensive but worth.
Join an ultimate frisbee team. They are dormant atm but some people play pickup on weekends.
Talk to EVERY PERSON at the frisbee pickup. Invite them out for dinner on a Monday night. Someone must be lonely too.
Text my roommates all the time asking how their days were. Try and add enough value to be let in.
Download grindr. Say on my profile "not gay but I need friends, invite me out with your crew"
Download coffee meets donut
Borrow a fancy camera and talk Bokeh effect pictures for my bumble, so I go on more dates -> more social contact
Start running every saturday morning. Crisscross the city. If I see a pack of runners, seemlessly integrate with them.
Adopt a dog.
Try to network into other programs at my university. Maybe make friends in the economics deparment.
Hang out in bookstores and look busy. Start conversations with people about books.
Every evening do my studies in a random outdoor cafe. Bring the "talk to me" sign.
Make a friend with a dog. Over to walk their dog for them. Use the dog to make friends with other dog owners. Walk their dogs. Repeat.
Join the local radical libertarians. Maybe they hang out in person???
There are no volunteer opportunities in my city, but in other cities that would be a great way to make friends.
Go kayaking alone. Wait around on rocks and try to make friends on them like a mermaid.
Go on a long distance bike trip. Try and track down other bikers and befriend them.
Make way more eye contact in other interactions.
On the weekends groups of young men stand around outside a pizza place. Every weekend night try to make friends with at least one of them.
Print out signs that say "friends wanted" and have my phone number around town.
Get in stupid arguments on the internet so I feel some interaction.
Move to China.
Move to a different city that is more open.
Spend my weekends across the state lines in a more open area.
Sit on the benches in my university with the "talk to me about anything" sign.
Run around and look for stairs that people run up and down. Become one of the stairs running people. Friends. Profit.
Bring brownies to the frisbee games. People feel indebted to me. They become my friend.
Hang out in front of the White House and give directions to tourists for the social interaction.
Sign up for any and all events I can find. Show up alone. Talk to at least one person per venue.
Try never mentioning to other people that I'm lonely for a week. If they don't know, they might hang out with me.
Learn a street performance skill like breakdancing. Perform in parks.
Do all of my reading in public parks, so that I have a chance to meet someone.
Give up and become depressed.
Move to a rural area where people don't social distance.
Spend an entire day outside, more time = more opportunities for friendmaking. Stay out of my room 12 hours a day.
Go to popular brunch places. Sit outside with a sign that says "new in town, want to get brunch?"
Go to parks with my frisbee every day before dark. Throw the frisbee for myself. Invite local parkgoers to join.
Go to the local basketball court. I'm terrible but could make friends.
Call all the local churches. Ask if they have in person services. Make friends there.
Call all the local mosques. Go to the post-mosque tea-drinking sessions (I speak Arabic).
Become a sex worker.
Buy a car and drive uber.
Figure out which TV shows are popular right now. Watch them all. Bring up in conversation.
Start a bookclub. Put up signs about my bookclub all over the neighbourhood. Pick fun books to read.
Get a lobotomy.
Buy a cat. Take the cat on walks???
Build a boat out of driftwood on the shore of the potomac.
Start a serious drug habit. Move into a house with other drug users. Make friends.
Learn to unicycle. Become that guy who unicycles around town (or pogo stick or skateboard).
Take up rock climbing.
Wow that does feel better.