scrape_r_rational/data/cache/4eb2md.md

[D] Monday General Rationality Thread

Post:

Welcome to the Monday thread on general rationality topics! Do you really want to talk about something non-fictional, related to the real world? Have you:

• Seen something interesting on /r/science?
• Found a new way to get your shit even-more together?
• Figured out how to become immortal?
• Constructed artificial general intelligence?
• Read a neat nonfiction book?
• Munchkined your way into total control of your D&D campaign?

Comments:

• u/elevul:

  Rational fiction has ruined my enjoyment of standard media. I got two free tickets for the cinema this week, so I used them to watch Deadpool and Batman vs Superman. Deadpool was still fun because the jokes were fantastic, but I kept noticing plotholes. BvsS was a disaster for me. I spent the whole damn movie thinking about plotholes and characters holding the idiot ball, to the point that I didn't enjoy it at all.
  

  • u/Frommerman:

    I've noticed this too. I watched an episode of Flash last week with friends, and it was *terrible!* Every character kept making obviously stupid decisions, apparently in order to set up a contrived plot rather than accomplish any goal in a coherent way.
    

    • u/FuguofAnotherWorld:

      Pretty much the same here. Once you've had steak, you don't really want to go back to fried stewing beef.
      

    • u/MugaSofer:

      Did the plot of Flash get visibly dumber as the protagonist got more powerful, or was that just me?
      

      • u/Frommerman:

        I only watched one episode, but yes. In this episode, he *begins the episode* by leaping off cliffs, and only survives because one of his buddies thought to bring a net. Later, he leaps off a similar cliff *while chasing an enemy* and after complaining that he hadn't improved at all.
        
        Flash is a moron and it's a wonder he hasn't exploded into a pile of blood and bone yet.
        

  • u/None:

    BvS was a disaster for everyone, don't worry.
    

  • u/LesserWrong:

    BvS was strange. Lex were bordering on rational in his actions up until near the end.
    

• u/Faust91x:

  I'm thinking of starting a **Hell Week**. Read abut it on /r/getdisciplined and its a technique for avoiding procastination and dealing with bad habits through intensive avoidance of distracting stimulus.
  
  It seems to work best when its a deeply ingrained bad habit. I think I may resort to this due to having spent all weekend watching Flash rather than working on productive stuff. Anyone knows of any other techniques to be more productive?
  
  I tried Pomodoro but I always find a way to avoid using them and thus render them useless. Same with my alarms in the morning, tend to learn ways to crack them and fall asleep again...
  
  Here's the [Hell-Week](https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/3ngae9/method_hellweek/) technique for those interested.
  

  • u/FuguofAnotherWorld:

    Well, there are some browser addons you can use that straight up block you from using a given website or websites either during certain hours of the day or after a certain amount of internet usage a day.
    
    While you can circumvent them trivially, then extra inconvenience can be surprisingly helpful in the short term.
    

  • u/None:

    Fuck. That sounds like a really good idea. 
    
    My go-to alarm technique: switch up the alarm sounds every few weeks. I find it's easier for me to ignore a noise in my sleep if I know it's an alarm. My brain is an arsehole.
    
    Another thing I've been contemplating is sticking a picture of someone you want to impress (Thomas Edison, your six-year-old self, whatever) where you'll see it if you go to procrastinate. Then you have to imagine yourself explaining to that person why you're dicking around on reddit again instead of being productive. Obviously I haven't tried this yet because, well, here we are, on reddit.
    

    • u/CouteauBleu:

      Pretty sure that wouldn't work. In my experience, trying to motivate yourself by concentrating on a known motivating stimulus (inspiring figure, people you want to impress, etc) will only make the stimulus less motivating.
      
      My vague understanding of it is that there is some sort of conservation of motivation going on, whether you call it willpower or energy or whatever, and that your best bet is better investing your motivation and making fallback plans for when you run out, rather than trying to make motivation appear when you don't have any.
      
      This is all based on my own experience and that SSC article I read once, so I'm not actually sure any of it is true.
      

• u/xamueljones:

  I'm just wondering, how comfortable are people here talking about politics such as the current presidential election? I know that people don't want top-level posts, but would there be interest to talk about it in the Friday Threads?
  
  I'm asking here and now, because it's related to the question, how should one start a potentially uncomfortable discussion that many people may not want to talk about such as personal issues or difficulties one is having in school/work/money?
  

  • u/alexanderwales:

    Friday post is the place for it, but I would put a warning at the top so people can skip it. I'd also urge the usual respect and charity that you should be using on the internet anyway.
    

  • u/ayrvin:

    I'd love to see what this crowd has to say.  I'm not sure I'm informed enough to contribute though.
    

• u/None:

  My entropy estimators really suck, and I have to switch to new ones, but having a first simulation result made me rethink what I was doing.  Namely, I was doing it all wrong, measuring the uncertainty in the model rather than the information in the data.  Now I've found better estimators and have a much better idea of what I really need to measure.
  
  Yay.
  

  • u/Adrastos42:

    If it works first time, you've probably screwed up somewhere. High five!
    

    • u/None:

      Thanks!  It was an informative, useful failure.
      

• u/SvalbardCaretaker:

  So I am currently in week 9 of a day clinic program for depression/social anxiety. 
  
  So far some good results, and great insights, like how much of maladapted behaviour is misinterpreted attention seeking.
  
   Just wanted to share and get positive feedback.
  

  • u/Bowbreaker:

    > like how much of maladapted behaviour is misinterpreted attention seeking.
    
    Could you give some examples. I sometimes have mild struggles with depression/social anxiety but I currently can't imagine anything that I do related to that that could be construed as attention seeking behavior.
    
    Or do you mean being in actual need of positive attention and having those symptoms due to a lack of it?
    

    • u/SvalbardCaretaker:

      My most obvious example is being whiney, eg. friends would often remark about me talking more than other people about small pains, headaches etc. 
      
      While writing my therapheutical/emotional CV or autobiography I stumbled upon the fact that both my parents were excellent physical caregivers. Always a bandaid at hand or ready to feel for fevery temperature with a hand. 
      
      However they were pretty bad at other positive types of care, esp. emotional, so of course I'd get positive feedback for being whiney, which pattern consisted well into adulthood. 
      
      Or the anorexic girl who is food-phobic.Being helpless about eating does give her a huge ton of positive attention; during dinner everybody crowds around her with her very visible symptoms and  wants to help her.
      

      • u/Bowbreaker:

        Ah. I think I understand now. My problems usually manifest by me not leaving my house and telling everyone who asks that everything is fine, thus the disconnect.
        

        • u/SvalbardCaretaker:

          Yes, I do/tend to do the same. For me its a symptom of an underlying attachment problem, which makes any relationship to people problematic, thus leading to avoidance.
          

  • u/whywhisperwhy:

    So do you feel like after 9 weeks you've been able to make or start any lasting changes? Anything particularly useful or surprising you've learned recently?
    

    • u/SvalbardCaretaker:

      And just today I realised why I perceive going into an unknown group so threatening, and why I am often confounded by seemingly simple opinion question (whats your favourite food? ----FREEZE----).
      
      Had an emotionally unstable parent and I needed to model her perfectly to avoid setting her off. So anytime I go into a group I need to model all of them perfectly without any knowledge of them, which is of course not possible. 
      
      And the brainfreeze on opinions then is because I am frantically searching for the answer that will be able to appease the asker; since that task has no solution, I get the null response.
      

      • u/None:

        You demonstrate a great level of introspection and self-understanding, that sounds extremely useful and hopefully it will help you! What can be the next step after understanding yourself? I have trouble imagining for example what I'd do to avoid the freezing you mentioned. Also do I understand correctly that you've been having daily sessions?
        

    • u/SvalbardCaretaker:

      Just yesterday/today I tapped a previously unknown reservoir of anger, which is a peculiar experience- hopefully it will provide some energy. 
      
      I feel like I have an approximately complete theory about my symptoms. Unfortunately knowing the sources of my maladaptive behaviour in abstract and recognizing/acting upon that knowledge in a situation is a very different beast.
      

      • u/FuguofAnotherWorld:

        > Unfortunately knowing the sources of my maladaptive behaviour in abstract and recognizing/acting upon that knowledge in a situation is a very different beast.
        
        That's generally what CBT is for. Concrete action to change habits. I had a few months of it. Found it helpful, but not sufficient in and of itself so I'm pushing to be put on antidepressants. Current doctor seems willing to make that happen, which is really positive.
        

        • u/SvalbardCaretaker:

          Well good luck with that. For some people pills are amazing! Just dont be afraid to ask to be switched to some different meds if you have bad side effects.
          

• u/Enasni_:

  What are good ways to motivate yourself to exercise regularly and consistently?
  
  I have had trouble keeping a regular schedule. I may get 3-4 sessions in over a week as I planned, but invariably something happens to throw off my schedule, or I'm too tired or overworked one day. And then I find more excuses why it's ok to skip this one. And then I stop altogether, until I can work up the motivation to start again, sometimes a month or two later.
  

  • u/captainNematode:

    Start small and progressive overload it, dude. What you're trying to do is build a habit of exercising, and once that habit is built it becomes mostly effortless. But trying to jump in the deep end all at once is tricky, since getting proper exercise can be hard, especially when you're tired and overworked. So don't try to get "proper" exercise to start!
    
    Instead, for the next couple weeks, put on your gym clothes and go to the gym, but don't actually do any exercise -- go get a drink of water and leave. This is a fairly trivial task and doesn't require much effort, so you should be able to properly motivate yourself to do it, even when you're not feeling like much. I mean, you're just driving to the gym (or w/e), it doesn't take long and you can do it even when exhausted. Then, once that habit is built and the action feels automatic and effortless, incrementally add another step -- now, instead of just going to the gym to drink some water, take a few minutes to do a few light stretches -- nothing strenuous, just roll around on the yoga mats or something. I personally like Joe DeFranco's Limber Eleven, but you can do the Agile Eight or the Fast Five to start, and slowly work your way up to the full Eleven. Once you finish stretching, go home. Do this for a few weeks until it too becomes an ingrained habit. Then slowly add a few exercises in. Consistently do those for a few weeks. Then add more exercises in, and more and more, until you're regularly and consistently doing whatever full workout routine you wanted to build a habit of in the first place. 
    
    Program your progressive overload in a way that best suits you. If consistently going to the gym in your workout clothes is too difficult and you can't keep it up for a few weeks in the first step, deload a bit and just put your workout clothes on at home, then take them off immediately after. Then upgrade it to going out to sit in the car for a minute or two, and then just drive to the gym and back, and then do the water at the gym thing, then walk around the gym aimlessly, then do stretches, then walk on a treadmill while listening to audiobooks, and so on. Baby steps, bro. Ease into it!
    

  • u/xamueljones:

    Two ways.
    
    Find someone to be accountable to. You can either get an exercising buddy you don't want to disappoint by not showing up to the gym (you can even hire a trainer if you want this badly enough), or have a friend who you pay $20 every time you don't go as a punishment.
    
    Another option is to make the exercising fun and engaging enough that you find yourself looking forward to going back again. This would be sports, martial arts, yoga, or some sort of activity you do as part of a group. This shifts your motivation from extrinsic (I'm only doing this because I want something else which is to be healthy) to intrinsic motivation (I'd want to keep doing this even if I don't get any benefit).
    

  • u/trifith:

    First, it has to be something you enjoy doing. I enjoy heavy weight lifting, so that's what I do. I don't like running, so I don't do that. I despise organized sports of any sort, so I avoid them like the plague. 
    
    Second, the schedule and facilities should allow for no excuses, excluding injury. I have a gym I go to, which is close to my house, so there's no reason I can't go. It's indoors, so weather isn't an excuse. It's the first thing I do in the morning, so I can't claim I'm tired. 
    
    The only other advice I have is make it at least 3, if not 4 weeks, and it really does become a habit. You'll miss it when don't go.
    

  • u/TennisMaster2:

    I follow a more ad-hoc approach than "go to gym and spend time at gym."
    
    I leave a pull up bar propped against my bathroom door - if I could, I'd put it in a doorway permanently.  I sprint instead of walk, and stand instead of sit.  I also used to do random exercises should the mood have caught me - if I died too much in a multiplayer videogame, or the theme song to a show I was watching came on.  I don't do this as much currently; once I became strong enough, I started working progressions to harder exercises that are fun to do, maybe once every few days.
    

  • u/Chronophilia:

    Add some variety? Do a few weeks of jogging, a few weeks of push-ups, a few weeks of swimming, a few weeks of tai-chi, etc.
    
    You don't have to stick to a precise schedule if it doesn't work for you. Aim for half an hour of aerobic exercise 3 times a week, but it really doesn't matter much what form that workout takes.
    

• u/None:

  - I was wrong about the *Butlerian Jihad*, I thought it was going in a different direction from where it went. Sorry folks
  
  - Check out this website that helps you calculate the dimensions of an impact crater! http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects/
  

  • u/FuguofAnotherWorld:

    > Butlerian Jihad
    
    Ugh, it was so bad. Especially when compared to the first book Dune, which I was unaware was written by a different author when I started reading it. The villains in particular, were so comically evil that it broke my suspension of disbelief. It was like reading big, 30 foot high letters spelling out "THESE ROBOTS ARE EVIL, YOU SHOULD HATE THEM, THEY HAVE NO REDEEMING FEATURES!". I couldn't take them seriously.
    

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