I got into the habit of doing a quick web search for just about anything for purposes such as finding out more about something (to keep myself from letting an inaccurate idea/cached thought inform my view on the matter), checking internet consensus on the best ways to go about solving common problems, checking whether I’m right or wrong on a factual belief, and many others. It may not sound like much of an improvement in rationality, but I learned loads during the last few days half spent googling random things. (By the way, I probably wouldn’t have done this out of the inconvenience of turning on my desktop PC until now; I recently got myself a tablet.)
As a result, I learned pretty much all I needed, within reason, in order to fix my diet and workout program. I stopped eating crap entirely, cold turkey; filled my fridge only with the most nutritious foods I know of; began to restrict my calorie count to resting metabolic rate level to ensure I never have to deal with unwanted weight gain again (although I’m not sure yet whether this provides the life extension benefits of calorie restriction); optimized my workouts for maximum fat burning along with an increase in lean body mass and am currently trying to figure out a way around joint pain caused by running a lot. The results are… pretty shocking for someone who hasn’t seen me in a long time. ;)
Finally did something about my suspected dopamine deficit. For years I’ve been trying out all sorts of methods for increasing my motivation and productivity, with no avail, because I simply could never muster enough will to get stuff done, my natural inclination being to just laze around all day long. Then I found out about MAO-Is and how they work, and started popping the only over-the-counter supplements that contained MAO-Is that I had around. (I doubt I could have gotten a prescription for anything else; the doctor I’ve spoken to regarding my dopamine levels recommended me no medication whatsoever.)
I wasn’t looking for the non-selective kind, only MAO-B inhibitors interested me, since I couldn’t say I was feeling particularly low on serotonin. They unexpectedly came in handy. I recently had something happen to me that would have left me a total wreck otherwise (indeed, similar events in the past did leave me a total wreck); the antidepressant effect was the only reason why I kept feeling basically normal on an affective level. (On a behavioral level, though, I couldn’t help acting like a depressed person. That’s the only problem I’ve been noticing so far; your emotions get out of sync with your behavior, and you can’t predict yourself anymore.)
Memory has improved; I kept having episodes of random recall. No more brain fog as well; I’m more alert and aware of my surroundings. As for the intended effect… I definitely have a lower “activation energy” now; at last I notice myself starting to study spontaneously, without a lot of inner conflict, anguish and reluctance about the matter. However, it may take a higher dosage for me to have the crazy levels of motivation that my study schedule would require; last night, for instance, after taking my usual MAO-I dosage, I went out with some people and smoked a little (yes, yes, I know...). Now, cigarettes also contain MAO-Is along with nicotine, and apparently that’s what makes them so addictive; there are certain warnings when combining two MAO-Is. When I got back home, I began feeling a little over-stimulated. I was energetic as hell and very responsive to any idea that came to me. It would occur to me to do things that I’m normally unenthusiastic about, and my mind would go all “Why, that’s a great idea, let’s do it!”. If the effect lasted a little longer, I might have gotten much more done.
The bottom line, they helped, and they helped a great deal. To everybody who’s been trying for a long time to improve motivation and tried everything from Pomodoros to precommitment to psychotherapy: please please please consider dopaminergics. It may have been your core issue all along. There’s no substitute for naturally feeling like doing a lot of stuff, and no software (psychological hacks) that can get shoddy hardware (neurochemistry) to run like a supercomputer. Once you do, you may regret not having done it earlier.
On an unrelated note: ever since I completed CFAR’s sunk cost fallacy exercise book, I don’t think I’ve fallen prey to that bias (that I know of). I now recognize it very easily and tried to give some friends the intuition behind why it is irrational.
Curcumin, 1g a day. There have been studies which compared its effect to Prozac and concluded that the effect was strong enough for it to work as an antidepressant. Apparently it’s safe up to a dosage of 12g, plus it’s said to have several other health benefits. As well as that, it’s a reversible MAO-I, which (as far as I could understand from researching the matter) makes it fairly easy to correct imbalances in case the effect is too strong.
It’s also recommended to cancer patients, which are supposed to take a much higher dosage than I do (the highest I’ve seen is 8g), and can do so safely.
Interesting. Did you know that curcumin is normally largely metabolized by the liver (first-pass-effect) and this can be reduced with peperin (black peper).
Please be aware (I bet you are, since you say you’ve researched it, but some other people reading this may not be) that there are some nasty interactions between MAOIs and alcohol, and I think even between MAOIs and some ordinary foods.
I thought about that, but my ordinary state is the very opposite of the negative side effects caused by excess of serotonin, norepinephrine or dopamine. With too little MAO-A it’s serotonin syndrome or hypertensive crisis, whereas I err more on the side of cardio-induced bradycardia, and can withstand a moderate raise in heart rate. (A few days ago I even had dangerously low tension, barely any pulse.) The foods in question are most diary, aged cheese (see “cheese effect)”, aged beverages, yoghurt, soy, avocados, some beans and any such stuff high in tyramine (so basically, sucks if you’re French). I’ve consumed some of these with no noticeable effect, but I’m in no position to say that people who are, well, not me can also do so safely.
Alcohol + MAO-Is seems to lead to mild mania for me in the short term, and I’m talking small quantities. I basically never had episodes of mania otherwise. Still no high blood pressure though. It wasn’t the worst experience in the world, but whoever wants to stay firmly on the safe side should avoid drinking anything more than a few sips. And anyway, getting piss drunk is out of the question and never a good idea, with or without MAO-Is.
I haven’t been taking these for a long time, so I’m still (cautiously) experimenting with the changes they produce.
How long are you doing this? Long enough to believe the improvements are permanent? (As opposed to: every new stuff seems great at the beginning, and then things return to average.) Maybe you could share the specific advice that worked, in an article.
To be honest, I started doing this two or three days ago. I’m aware of the possibility of developing tolerance to it, but I couldn’t possibly have consumed enough of it so far to start noticing that already. I’ll report back in a month or so, but hopefully in the meantime I should be creating habits out of the productive stuff I (finally) feel like doing and transfer some of the impetus to the habituation—I’m not sure I can quite cure my motivation problem by way of these supplements, although it would be nice not to have to take them every day for the rest of my life!
I don’t think it’s just placebo, since I am able to feel when the effect wears off… quite conspicuously. I’d be back to feeling like lying in bed all day long, and if anything had been upsetting me shortly beforehand, all the physical sensations of sadness would resurface as if they had been there all along and were just waiting to manifest.
Just came here to write a followup in the current rationality diary post.
I’ll see about it, I’m not sure yet… After all it would only amount to my two cents on the matter; I’m very aware of the fact that my observations and experiments lack scientific rigour (of the kind you can see for instance in gwern’s articles on nootropics). I do however write down all the insights on productivity that I discover through my experience, and if and only if one day I produce the desired changes in my psychology and work-related behaviour, I’ll coalesce them into a mini-sequence. Until then, though, I won’t consider myself an authoritative voice on the matter.
For now I’ll be posting updates in the rationality diaries, and see if anything more substantial comes out of it.
I got into the habit of doing a quick web search for just about anything for purposes such as finding out more about something (to keep myself from letting an inaccurate idea/cached thought inform my view on the matter), checking internet consensus on the best ways to go about solving common problems, checking whether I’m right or wrong on a factual belief, and many others. It may not sound like much of an improvement in rationality, but I learned loads during the last few days half spent googling random things. (By the way, I probably wouldn’t have done this out of the inconvenience of turning on my desktop PC until now; I recently got myself a tablet.)
As a result, I learned pretty much all I needed, within reason, in order to fix my diet and workout program. I stopped eating crap entirely, cold turkey; filled my fridge only with the most nutritious foods I know of; began to restrict my calorie count to resting metabolic rate level to ensure I never have to deal with unwanted weight gain again (although I’m not sure yet whether this provides the life extension benefits of calorie restriction); optimized my workouts for maximum fat burning along with an increase in lean body mass and am currently trying to figure out a way around joint pain caused by running a lot. The results are… pretty shocking for someone who hasn’t seen me in a long time. ;)
Finally did something about my suspected dopamine deficit. For years I’ve been trying out all sorts of methods for increasing my motivation and productivity, with no avail, because I simply could never muster enough will to get stuff done, my natural inclination being to just laze around all day long. Then I found out about MAO-Is and how they work, and started popping the only over-the-counter supplements that contained MAO-Is that I had around. (I doubt I could have gotten a prescription for anything else; the doctor I’ve spoken to regarding my dopamine levels recommended me no medication whatsoever.)
I wasn’t looking for the non-selective kind, only MAO-B inhibitors interested me, since I couldn’t say I was feeling particularly low on serotonin. They unexpectedly came in handy. I recently had something happen to me that would have left me a total wreck otherwise (indeed, similar events in the past did leave me a total wreck); the antidepressant effect was the only reason why I kept feeling basically normal on an affective level. (On a behavioral level, though, I couldn’t help acting like a depressed person. That’s the only problem I’ve been noticing so far; your emotions get out of sync with your behavior, and you can’t predict yourself anymore.)
Memory has improved; I kept having episodes of random recall. No more brain fog as well; I’m more alert and aware of my surroundings. As for the intended effect… I definitely have a lower “activation energy” now; at last I notice myself starting to study spontaneously, without a lot of inner conflict, anguish and reluctance about the matter. However, it may take a higher dosage for me to have the crazy levels of motivation that my study schedule would require; last night, for instance, after taking my usual MAO-I dosage, I went out with some people and smoked a little (yes, yes, I know...). Now, cigarettes also contain MAO-Is along with nicotine, and apparently that’s what makes them so addictive; there are certain warnings when combining two MAO-Is. When I got back home, I began feeling a little over-stimulated. I was energetic as hell and very responsive to any idea that came to me. It would occur to me to do things that I’m normally unenthusiastic about, and my mind would go all “Why, that’s a great idea, let’s do it!”. If the effect lasted a little longer, I might have gotten much more done.
The bottom line, they helped, and they helped a great deal. To everybody who’s been trying for a long time to improve motivation and tried everything from Pomodoros to precommitment to psychotherapy: please please please consider dopaminergics. It may have been your core issue all along. There’s no substitute for naturally feeling like doing a lot of stuff, and no software (psychological hacks) that can get shoddy hardware (neurochemistry) to run like a supercomputer. Once you do, you may regret not having done it earlier.
On an unrelated note: ever since I completed CFAR’s sunk cost fallacy exercise book, I don’t think I’ve fallen prey to that bias (that I know of). I now recognize it very easily and tried to give some friends the intuition behind why it is irrational.
Which over-the-counter supplements did you use?
Curcumin, 1g a day. There have been studies which compared its effect to Prozac and concluded that the effect was strong enough for it to work as an antidepressant. Apparently it’s safe up to a dosage of 12g, plus it’s said to have several other health benefits. As well as that, it’s a reversible MAO-I, which (as far as I could understand from researching the matter) makes it fairly easy to correct imbalances in case the effect is too strong.
It’s also recommended to cancer patients, which are supposed to take a much higher dosage than I do (the highest I’ve seen is 8g), and can do so safely.
Interesting. Did you know that curcumin is normally largely metabolized by the liver (first-pass-effect) and this can be reduced with peperin (black peper).
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curcumin
Yes. The supplements I take do contain some dose of black pepper extract, but just to be sure I always take them with a dash of pepper.
Please be aware (I bet you are, since you say you’ve researched it, but some other people reading this may not be) that there are some nasty interactions between MAOIs and alcohol, and I think even between MAOIs and some ordinary foods.
I thought about that, but my ordinary state is the very opposite of the negative side effects caused by excess of serotonin, norepinephrine or dopamine. With too little MAO-A it’s serotonin syndrome or hypertensive crisis, whereas I err more on the side of cardio-induced bradycardia, and can withstand a moderate raise in heart rate. (A few days ago I even had dangerously low tension, barely any pulse.) The foods in question are most diary, aged cheese (see “cheese effect)”, aged beverages, yoghurt, soy, avocados, some beans and any such stuff high in tyramine (so basically, sucks if you’re French). I’ve consumed some of these with no noticeable effect, but I’m in no position to say that people who are, well, not me can also do so safely.
Alcohol + MAO-Is seems to lead to mild mania for me in the short term, and I’m talking small quantities. I basically never had episodes of mania otherwise. Still no high blood pressure though. It wasn’t the worst experience in the world, but whoever wants to stay firmly on the safe side should avoid drinking anything more than a few sips. And anyway, getting piss drunk is out of the question and never a good idea, with or without MAO-Is.
I haven’t been taking these for a long time, so I’m still (cautiously) experimenting with the changes they produce.
How long are you doing this? Long enough to believe the improvements are permanent? (As opposed to: every new stuff seems great at the beginning, and then things return to average.) Maybe you could share the specific advice that worked, in an article.
To be honest, I started doing this two or three days ago. I’m aware of the possibility of developing tolerance to it, but I couldn’t possibly have consumed enough of it so far to start noticing that already. I’ll report back in a month or so, but hopefully in the meantime I should be creating habits out of the productive stuff I (finally) feel like doing and transfer some of the impetus to the habituation—I’m not sure I can quite cure my motivation problem by way of these supplements, although it would be nice not to have to take them every day for the rest of my life!
I don’t think it’s just placebo, since I am able to feel when the effect wears off… quite conspicuously. I’d be back to feeling like lying in bed all day long, and if anything had been upsetting me shortly beforehand, all the physical sensations of sadness would resurface as if they had been there all along and were just waiting to manifest.
If it is so recent you should consider the possibility that the effect is placebo-like—esp. as you claim your behavior didn’t change.
I’d be interested to see you report back on this habit in next month’s diary entry, since that will give you a better sense a sustained effects.
Any news on this? Would you consider writing a top-level post on this?
Just came here to write a followup in the current rationality diary post.
I’ll see about it, I’m not sure yet… After all it would only amount to my two cents on the matter; I’m very aware of the fact that my observations and experiments lack scientific rigour (of the kind you can see for instance in gwern’s articles on nootropics). I do however write down all the insights on productivity that I discover through my experience, and if and only if one day I produce the desired changes in my psychology and work-related behaviour, I’ll coalesce them into a mini-sequence. Until then, though, I won’t consider myself an authoritative voice on the matter.
For now I’ll be posting updates in the rationality diaries, and see if anything more substantial comes out of it.