I spent years trying to come up with a mental strategy that would reliably generate willpower, all to no avail. To my knowledge, there is one (1) way to cut through this Gordian knot, and that way is amphetamines.
It is easy to get a psychiatrist to prescribe you amphetamines.[1]
If you request generic drugs over brand-name, they’re pretty inexpensive.
Amphetamines greatly reduce one’s appetite; Adderall was originally sold as a diet pill. For the first time in my life, I could empathize with those people who just forget to eat.
Health risk is minimal.[1:1] In fact, on account of the caloric restriction[2], you could make a solid case that amphetamine supplementation actually increases your expected lifespan.
In my experience (and many others’), amphetamines reliably inhibit akrasia.
People on this site often conclude that akrasia is their primary bottleneck, and then try to solve that problem with a more elaborate to-do list system. I’ve been there, and it’s ineffective. Dextroamphetamine is effective.
I spent years trying to come up with a mental strategy that would reliably generate willpower, all to no avail.
I have had some limited success with the Decision Theorist method. Noticing that my decision process (in this example, regarding whether to go to bed yet) is basically the same computation at 10pm, 1am, 3am, etc. I calculate the limit of this behavior (e.g. computation not meaningfully altered until the birds outside start chirping, or the sun comes up, or I get so tired it makes me nauseous), notice my local choice is using a false option: not [stay up 5 more minutes] versus [sleep now], but rather [stay up until the sun comes up] versus [sleep now]. Having noticed the true form of my options, the correct choice becomes easy to act upon.
Of course, I’m posting this at 6am local time. My results have been inconsistent. This plan typically fails when I don’t notice myself deciding, or don’t remember to do that “what’s the limit” calculation.
Thanks for the tip on Dextroamphetamine. Hopefully I’ll act on it.
It’s time for me to shill for Big Pharma again.
I spent years trying to come up with a mental strategy that would reliably generate willpower, all to no avail. To my knowledge, there is one (1) way to cut through this Gordian knot, and that way is amphetamines.
It is easy to get a psychiatrist to prescribe you amphetamines.[1]
If you request generic drugs over brand-name, they’re pretty inexpensive.
Amphetamines greatly reduce one’s appetite; Adderall was originally sold as a diet pill. For the first time in my life, I could empathize with those people who just forget to eat.
Health risk is minimal.[1:1] In fact, on account of the caloric restriction[2], you could make a solid case that amphetamine supplementation actually increases your expected lifespan.
In my experience (and many others’), amphetamines reliably inhibit akrasia.
People on this site often conclude that akrasia is their primary bottleneck, and then try to solve that problem with a more elaborate to-do list system. I’ve been there, and it’s ineffective. Dextroamphetamine is effective.
SSC: Adderall Risks: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
LW: Fasting Mimicking Diet Looks Pretty Good
I started from the same place as:
I have had some limited success with the Decision Theorist method. Noticing that my decision process (in this example, regarding whether to go to bed yet) is basically the same computation at 10pm, 1am, 3am, etc. I calculate the limit of this behavior (e.g. computation not meaningfully altered until the birds outside start chirping, or the sun comes up, or I get so tired it makes me nauseous), notice my local choice is using a false option: not [stay up 5 more minutes] versus [sleep now], but rather [stay up until the sun comes up] versus [sleep now]. Having noticed the true form of my options, the correct choice becomes easy to act upon.
Of course, I’m posting this at 6am local time. My results have been inconsistent. This plan typically fails when I don’t notice myself deciding, or don’t remember to do that “what’s the limit” calculation.
Thanks for the tip on Dextroamphetamine. Hopefully I’ll act on it.