Group Rationality Diary, July 16-31

Realized I liked BDSM for the wrong reasons.

After some hard introspection,I confessed to myself that I didn't find BDSM sexually arousing. The main appeal was that, compared to a vanilla partner, a submissive partner would be more likely to let me have my way in disagreements (and this would be ok since they would enjoy yielding) and less likely to betray my trust. I'm not a dom, I'm just selfish and mistrusting. Taking the outside view, I concluded that if I were to be in a BDSM relationship, there's a significant risk of me becoming an abuser. Power corrupts and whatnot.

So now I'm distancing myself from BDSM.

I did a backup of my computer data to external hard disk.

I knew that computer disks can crash, and once I lost some data after a disk crash, and yet I never before did the full backup. Because... well, it was a trivial inconvenience, something easy to leave to some unspecified day in the future. Also, thinking about a possible crash meant thinking about having to install things again on a new computer, so it was more pleasant to not think about such things. During the last five years I even had an external disk at home with plenty of free space, and yet I never did the backup.

A few days ago my computer had problem starting (then the problem magically disappeared again) and I realized that if I'd lose the data now, I would be really angry that I did not use the opportunity while I had it. Even so, it took me almost a week to really do the backup. Well, today it's finally done.

When was the last time you made a safe copy of your data? If at this moment your disk would stop working , how much would you be willing to pay someone to restore the data? Which of those data would you miss most?

Today I had the health exam for the life insurance policy associated with my cryonic suspension contract.

Then I grabbed my best friend and girlfriend and repeatedly showed them clips from the Futurama episode where Fry's dog waits for years after Fry gets frozen, and Fry misses his dog in the future, and the dog misses Fry in the past, etc. They are now both awaiting insurance policy quotes for their own suspension contracts.

• I've developed a habit for when I want to feel like I'm doing something productive, yet there's no real work I feel up to at that moment: tidying up. It accomplishes something (albeit something admittedly minor and unessential) while not being cognitively taxing, and it's always available immediately. Of course, it's also a way to procrastinate on higher-value tasks, but given the way I tend to function, I know I could be doing worse.

• I'm experimenting with a randomized system of task-setting. (My main goal is autodidacticism in a bunch of disciplines.) I divided the subjects I want to study into 3 lists of 6 disciplines each, 18 in total. Every day I roll a dice to decide which of them I am to study on that day. The first roll decides the list; I have assigned each list two numbers out of the six available ones, and if either of them comes up on the first roll, then it's that list that I pick. The next roll decides which of the 6 disciplines in a given list I am to study. The third roll decides how many half-hours I should spend on it. (I initially tried that with full hours, but if I'm unlucky enough to get two sixes in a row, then that day's schedule is filled to the brim.) To give an example, the rolls 6 - 1 - 3 mean: from the Humanities list (which has the numbers 1 and 6 assigned to it) choose History (discipline number 1 on that list) and study it for 1 hour and a half (3 x 30 min = 90 min). I do this a few times, up until my schedule for that day is filled, to end up with a bastardized version of a schoolkid's timetable, but without the predictability. The problem? I don't always find myself willing to obey the dice. Sometimes I'm not happy with the resulting schedule and just decide to ignore it and go study something else instead. But a big part of the reason why I implemented this system in the first place is not to focus on certain disciplines to the detriment of the others. On the other hand, I could use a boost to the enjoyment I get from doing the tasks, and restrictions on what I should study take away from that. Dunno. Will figure out a solution to this.

• I'm beginning to realize that my biggest productivity-related failure is by far my habit of going weeks without even thinking once about my goals. Usually it takes something like a LW post on akrasia (since I check LW daily, even and especially when I'm having a "lazy day") to get me back on track. I'm not sure it would work if I tried to send myself mere memos, like programming my alarm clock app to ring at a given time the next day, to remind me of the need to do some studying that day. I'd just feel annoyed and shut it down at once. For something to work, it needs to appeal to my interest in productivity/motivation hacks and then make me go through a certain thought process: visualizing how cool it would be to be able to work hard, and then autonomously concluding that it's high time I did something for my goals. I'm not sure I could do that on a cue, but if there is such a cue that would work, I need to know about it.

I'm currently working on a website application to figure out what I can't eat. It will use Bayes Theorem. This could make a huge difference in my life.

I also found that I'm really good at asking lots of questions when I'm stuck but not good at realizing that I need to stop working on something until more resources arrive.

I'm trying to use neurofeedback to become one of the people who can actually create images in their minds which they see vividly. My neurofeedback provider is promoting the dominant frequency in my visual cortex. She has done it four times so far. I think I can sort of almost see mental images, but I'm not sure.

I'm going to start (re-)reading all of the posts in Main in chronological order, from “The Martial Art of Rationality” onwards.

Consciously modifying my expectations for how much of a task I'll complete is an effective tactic against feeling overwhelmed. I am not sure how much of this is the result of taskification and how much is the result of directly making the target easier to hit.

I know it is easier to not compulsively check FB, mail, etc. when I'm supposed to be working on other things if the tabs are not open.

However, I have just discovered that using break time to check FB and mail (since the volume in both cases is small) significantly reduces the amount of willpower required to go back to work -- possibly from the little success-spiral boost of having Completed A Task.

Wondering what other break activities could also serve.