interesting, i came to the opposite conclusion. or, more concretely, i found that there are rules that i can follow 95% of the time, and it’s actually better then follow it 100% of the time, and there are rules when i simply can’t, and i slip all the way down the slippery slope. and a lot of time i can search for differentiator, or more complicated solution.
simple rules need for coordination, when you have about five words. but i have much wider channel to coordinate with future-me, and i should use it to my advantage.
so my lesson was that having rules that are in the form of “never do X” or “always do Y” are almost always bad rules that lack granularity.
instead of “never go sleep after midnight” i can go for “don’t go sleep past midnight, except once a month you can read a book for as long as you want, if you commit to wake up on time at the morning, and go sleep early the next day”.
there are patterns when “breaking” the rule occasionally does not break the habit, and get me more utility (washing the dishes before going to sleep 95% of the time is better then 100% of the time - i get the utility in the rare cases when I’m honestly too tired, and i do not slip on this slope).
now, rules in the form of (1), that lack granularity, lack build-in exceptions, look to me surprisingly stupid. do you really can have only this simple rule? are you sure? did you tried?
you say ” humans tend to heavily biased towards believing that their future selves will make the decisions that they want it to make. ” but it look to me there are symmetrical and opposing biases -toward optimism and toward pessimism. and you just chose bias in the other direction. i prefer calibration.
and claims like (4) look to me like self-fulfilling prophesies. why do you believe that? my experience show that it’s mostly wrong. sometimes it is true, and then i get one of the hard line rules. but most of the time, more granularity is possible and sderiable. and having it, having better rules, is skill that is possible to develop. as is the ability to have exceptions without dismantling the rule.
interesting, i came to the opposite conclusion. or, more concretely, i found that there are rules that i can follow 95% of the time, and it’s actually better then follow it 100% of the time, and there are rules when i simply can’t, and i slip all the way down the slippery slope. and a lot of time i can search for differentiator, or more complicated solution.
simple rules need for coordination, when you have about five words. but i have much wider channel to coordinate with future-me, and i should use it to my advantage.
so my lesson was that having rules that are in the form of “never do X” or “always do Y” are almost always bad rules that lack granularity.
instead of “never go sleep after midnight” i can go for “don’t go sleep past midnight, except once a month you can read a book for as long as you want, if you commit to wake up on time at the morning, and go sleep early the next day”.
there are patterns when “breaking” the rule occasionally does not break the habit, and get me more utility (washing the dishes before going to sleep 95% of the time is better then 100% of the time - i get the utility in the rare cases when I’m honestly too tired, and i do not slip on this slope).
now, rules in the form of (1), that lack granularity, lack build-in exceptions, look to me surprisingly stupid. do you really can have only this simple rule? are you sure? did you tried?
you say ” humans tend to heavily biased towards believing that their future selves will make the decisions that they want it to make. ” but it look to me there are symmetrical and opposing biases -toward optimism and toward pessimism. and you just chose bias in the other direction. i prefer calibration.
and claims like (4) look to me like self-fulfilling prophesies. why do you believe that? my experience show that it’s mostly wrong. sometimes it is true, and then i get one of the hard line rules. but most of the time, more granularity is possible and sderiable. and having it, having better rules, is skill that is possible to develop. as is the ability to have exceptions without dismantling the rule.