Comment by Audie on The benefits of madness: A positive account of arationality · 2011-05-01T03:05:12.665Z · LW · GW

I'm sometimes on the lookout for novel, relatively inexpensive techniques that might be considered arational processes assisting more formal cognitive processes. Presently I'm not directly working on extremely hard problems, but I intentionally emulate in some ways a good cognitive system who is. Since the problems are still hard for me, including as in some parts of the solutions' implementations being routine or tedious, I'm naturally interested in determining beneficial affective states that I can appropriately reproduce.

Thus far I haven't adopted much beyond plastic procedures based on more or less vague information I've come upon in unrelated searches. To help me be apparently more productive or vigorous, they simply include taking walks, bike rides, or hikes in luscious environments, working where a serene outdoors may stream in as non-attentive perceptions, and minimizing distress-inducing conditions. Honestly, not very short of controlled extreme technical interventions, I wouldn't expect there to be anything better for me to do alongside complex systematic problem solving given my native capacities. But I'll be pleasantly surprised if there is.