The Sun Room
post by Jarred Filmer (4thWayWastrel) · 2020-10-12T21:08:11.507Z · LW · GW · 9 commentsI'm walking to work with a large coffee in hand. It is cold, and I am happy.
Because I am in the sun room.
I bring a task onto my mental desk. Considerations, insights, possibilities start spilling from it immediately with no effort required.
I seem to have micro thoughts within larger ones. Little jokes I make to myself, flashes of pleasant memories, ideas for tangential projects while the larger loops churn away.
I love to code here, though one must keep an eye for refactoring hubris when sitting in the sun room.
In this room I have the idea to start naming familiar states of consciousness like rooms of a house. The sun room, the doorless room, the infinity cupboard, the hole.
Sadly I've only found coffee for opening this door but daily use quickly builds tolerance in me.
So I'd very much like to know, has anyone else has found a key to the sun room?
9 comments
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comment by PatrickDFarley · 2020-10-14T22:37:14.953Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
My smartphone cannot enter the sun room with me.
comment by Kenny · 2020-10-12T22:15:43.912Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
This is a beautiful poetic gem of a post!
I can't think of any keys to 'the sun room' but I definitely know of some doors or barriers that block me from entering, e.g. distractions, discomfort, anxiety, depression.
Being in a literal sunny room is often a good way to enter too!
I am particularly sympathetic to this:
Replies from: 4thWayWastrelI love to code here, though one must keep an eye for refactoring hubris when sitting in the sun room.
↑ comment by Jarred Filmer (4thWayWastrel) · 2020-10-14T07:13:42.014Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Your kind words made my day, thankyou 😊. And now that you mention it I suppose that has been my side avenue of approach, tuning my health and schedule to make it easier to enter flow.
comment by David Gretzschel (david-gretzschel) · 2020-10-13T16:58:27.168Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
other keys:
Modafinil, if that doesn't work.... more Modafinil. (combine with coffee)
Stage 8 of The Mind Illuminated. (Prasrabdhi/mental pliancy practice; obviously you'll have to do stages 1 to 7 first, though)
Fully implementing GTD.
Liberally combine all of the above, have fun.
Replies from: 4thWayWastrel↑ comment by Jarred Filmer (4thWayWastrel) · 2020-10-14T07:18:03.565Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
That's fascinating, does Stage 8 feel like caffeine / nootropics on it's own or was it more of an enhancement to those effects?
If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take you to reach Stage 8 with what level of daily practice / dedication? And if it took years as many claim how did you think about the risk / reward of that kind of time investment VS whether or not the people reporting those effects were deluded?
comment by Parafox · 2020-10-13T12:42:54.201Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Tea does it for me. Especially fancy Chinese teas.
Replies from: 4thWayWastrel↑ comment by Jarred Filmer (4thWayWastrel) · 2020-10-14T07:19:53.382Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I've only tried your standard western teas, are there more exotic brands with more exotic effects? And how do they compare with coffee?
Replies from: Parafox↑ comment by Parafox · 2020-10-14T11:54:43.050Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Tea has less caffeine than coffee, but also has l-theanine, which has a relaxing effect. I've never really been much of a coffee drinker though, so I can't compare the two on a subjective-experience level.
The reason I like the fancier teas is mostly because they have better, more complex flavors and smells. That plus the caffeine and l-theanine puts me in a good head space to focus on whatever I need to.