What you call compartmentalization and what jimmy calls attention shifting I imagine in terms of the abstract data type “stack”
To clarify, what he calls compartmentalization I call compartmentalization. I’d just recommend doing something else, which, if forced to name, I’d call something like “having genuine instrumental goals instead of telling yourself you have instrumental goals”.
When I say “attention shifting” I’m talking abut the “mental bit banging” level thing. When you give yourself the (perhaps compartmentalized) belief that “this water will make me feel better because it has homeopathic morphine in it”, that leads to “so when I drink this water, i will feel better” which leads to anticipating feeling better which leads to pointing your attention to good feelings to the exclusion of bad things.
However, you can get to the same place by deciding “i’m going to drink this water and feel good”—or when you get more practiced at it, just doing the “feeling good” by directing attention to goodness without all the justifications.
(that bit of) my point is that knowing where the attention is screens off how it got there in terms of its effects, so might as well get there through a way that does not have bad side effects.
To clarify, what he calls compartmentalization I call compartmentalization. I’d just recommend doing something else, which, if forced to name, I’d call something like “having genuine instrumental goals instead of telling yourself you have instrumental goals”.
When I say “attention shifting” I’m talking abut the “mental bit banging” level thing. When you give yourself the (perhaps compartmentalized) belief that “this water will make me feel better because it has homeopathic morphine in it”, that leads to “so when I drink this water, i will feel better” which leads to anticipating feeling better which leads to pointing your attention to good feelings to the exclusion of bad things.
However, you can get to the same place by deciding “i’m going to drink this water and feel good”—or when you get more practiced at it, just doing the “feeling good” by directing attention to goodness without all the justifications.
(that bit of) my point is that knowing where the attention is screens off how it got there in terms of its effects, so might as well get there through a way that does not have bad side effects.