Meta Addiction

Related: Levels of Action.

As someone who suffers from this, I try to test my self-improvement ideas against reality very soon after thinking of them. A principle I try to follow: If you think of some brilliant scheme for improving yourself, and there's no reason not to implement it right away, do so so you can start collecting data ASAP.

XKCD on my desk at work: http://xkcd.com/974/

This topic made me wonder if we can't make things, or we make create things that are harder to put your finger on - better ideas. Another way of putting that is what we have conceptual OCD, and compulsively spend our time straightening up our ideas.

Instead of paper clip maximizers, we're good idea maximizers.

This year I've quadrupled the amount of structured meta thinking I do, compared to last year, and I have seen a big improvement in my ability to make and stick to goals. So I think more meta-thinking can help you get more done, if you have a problem with sticking to resolutions, as I do. Probably the meta-thinking has to have a point to it, though.

But I've also been amused at just how much meta-thinking it takes for me to achieve a goal. Like, currently, achieving brushing my teeth more would take hours and hours of thinking about brushing my teeth, considering adopting the goal of brushing my teeth more, motivating myself to brush more, expressing "brushing more" as a pithy phrase, tracking my brushing daily, reviewing my brushing track record weekly etc etc.

So, in future I'd definitely like to reduce the ratio of meta-thinking to goal-achieving, by a lot, but still, I'm getting more done with more meta-thinking at the moment.

Edit: come to think of it, I could stand to brush my teeth more.

Sometimes when trying to get instant gratification by making dubious commitments to optimization you may find yourself questioning the method's efficacy. Don't worry, just like a heroin addict must increase their dosage you must move on to stronger stuff. From now on, try to get your gratification from meta-meta-optimizing. You're already off to a great start with this thread; try reading the sequences.

hrm, found something on it here: http://lesswrong.com/lw/aq/how_much_thought/ . Still reading it. But I guess the concept of bounded rationality encompasses it pretty well. Any practical approaches to bounding your rationality? A stopwatch maybe?

Some thinking on what to think about is very important, unfortunately it is also very hard to get it right. For example here we can discuss optimal decisions involving probability, entirely forgetting the limited runtime and the effect of introducing risk on the efficacy of bounded calculations in the future. When you take risks, for example, you double the size of the expected-utility-calculating tree, meaning that in limited time you cut down on depth.

Then there's this: you can think how to optimize your behaviour by single digit percentage, for example, by trying to do nonbiased estimates of your utility, which you won't be doing very well anyway because the world is hard to predict. Or you can spend that runtime e.g. learning to program, then coming up and writing some popular application, putting it up on a relevant store, and getting way more than enough money for papering over your inefficiencies.

Of course. Doing low level stuff like brushing your teeth is boring. Going meta is fun.

Eventually you need to actually cash out your strategies and really brush your teeth, at which point going meta can be a form of procrastination that has the benefit of making you feel like you are being productive.

I try to mentally file metacognition under "enjoyable pastime", but I'm not sure if the low level resource manager agrees with the user. This produces an acute form of akrasia wherein, while attempting to be productive, I go really meta, encounter a stack overflow, resolve the issue, and then treat myself to a well deserved break because I'm such a brilliant meta-theoretician.

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.

This is fine if you then go and implement your meta solution. It may not be the most efficient solution but if meta is easier for you and you can follow through on it then harness it. (Works for me!)

And yet here you are, going meta about meta.

If going meta doesn't work you're not doing it enough.