The way I frame these situations to myself is to consider myself not as a succession of agents figuring out how to cooperate, but as a single four-dimensional entity that coheres in time as it does in space. Myself tomorrow is as surely a part of myself as my right hand is today.
I go to the gym today because that’s what I planned yesterday, if there is no new information prompting a reconsideration. I make sure all the dishes are washed before retiring at night, because that’s one of the rules that I have. Whatever decisions I make are what I do when the time comes, because that is what a decision is.
I cannot claim to do this perfectly, any more than I can claim any other perfection, but that is the frame of mind.
All beginnings are paradoxical, for how can a thing begin, without its seeds having already been present? Yet things do begin, notwithstanding philosophers proving that the arrow does not move, that learning is but remembrance of forgotten knowledge, that an omnipotent, self-caused being must have started this universe, that none can do good of their own volition, or that we are machines that cannot do at all.
If you’re screwed enough, you’re screwed, as the saying is, but if not then one can learn to do such things. Sometimes an outside stimulus may help one to start.
I think Ainslie’s theory of willpower excels at explaining instances of weakness-of-will—I badly want to be the sort of person who regularly goes to the gym, but it wouldn’t hurt much to hold off starting till next week…
On your theory, isn’t it a little mysterious that you have conflicting local and global interests like this? Or do you think that you basically don’t have this kind of goal-conflict?
“Not today, but tomorrow I really will!” is an obvious failure mode. Do not do obvious failure modes. Today’s cross-section and tomorrow’s should no more conflict than your left hand and your right.
“I badly want to be the sort of person who regularly goes to the gym, but it wouldn’t hurt much to hold off starting till next week” — on the contrary, it does hurt to hold off until next week, by a week of not being the person you want to be. You can be that person right now by going to the gym. If you want a thing, and you can have it right now, take it. When you grok this, action is effortless.
The way I frame these situations to myself is to consider myself not as a succession of agents figuring out how to cooperate, but as a single four-dimensional entity that coheres in time as it does in space. Myself tomorrow is as surely a part of myself as my right hand is today.
I go to the gym today because that’s what I planned yesterday, if there is no new information prompting a reconsideration. I make sure all the dishes are washed before retiring at night, because that’s one of the rules that I have. Whatever decisions I make are what I do when the time comes, because that is what a decision is.
I cannot claim to do this perfectly, any more than I can claim any other perfection, but that is the frame of mind.
You can do that only if you are a coherent entity, to begin with—or at least close enough to it that this model works.
All beginnings are paradoxical, for how can a thing begin, without its seeds having already been present? Yet things do begin, notwithstanding philosophers proving that the arrow does not move, that learning is but remembrance of forgotten knowledge, that an omnipotent, self-caused being must have started this universe, that none can do good of their own volition, or that we are machines that cannot do at all.
If you’re screwed enough, you’re screwed, as the saying is, but if not then one can learn to do such things. Sometimes an outside stimulus may help one to start.
I think Ainslie’s theory of willpower excels at explaining instances of weakness-of-will—I badly want to be the sort of person who regularly goes to the gym, but it wouldn’t hurt much to hold off starting till next week…
On your theory, isn’t it a little mysterious that you have conflicting local and global interests like this? Or do you think that you basically don’t have this kind of goal-conflict?
“Not today, but tomorrow I really will!” is an obvious failure mode. Do not do obvious failure modes. Today’s cross-section and tomorrow’s should no more conflict than your left hand and your right.
“I badly want to be the sort of person who regularly goes to the gym, but it wouldn’t hurt much to hold off starting till next week” — on the contrary, it does hurt to hold off until next week, by a week of not being the person you want to be. You can be that person right now by going to the gym. If you want a thing, and you can have it right now, take it. When you grok this, action is effortless.