People often say “exercising makes you feel really good and gives you energy.” I looked at this claim, figured it made sense based on my experience, and then completely failed to implement it for a very long time. So here I am again saying that no really, exercising is good, and maybe this angle will do something that the previous explanations didn’t. Starting a daily running habit 4 days ago has already started being a noticeable multiplier on my energy, mindfulness, and focus. Key moments to concentrate force in, in my experience:
Getting started at all
The moment when exhaustion meets the limits of your automatic willpower, and you need to put in conscious effort to keep going
The moment the next day where you decide whether or not to keep up the habit, despite the ugh field around exercise
Having a friend to exercise with is surprisingly positive. Having a workout tracker app is surprisingly positive, because then I get to see a trendline and so suddenly my desire is to make it go up and stay unbroken.
Many rationalists bucket themselves with the nerds, as opposed to the jocks. The people with brains, as opposed to the people with muscles. But we’re here to win, to get utility, so let’s pick up the cognitive multiplier that exercise provides.
People often say “exercising makes you feel really good and gives you energy.” I looked at this claim, figured it made sense based on my experience, and then completely failed to implement it for a very long time. So here I am again saying that no really, exercising is good, and maybe this angle will do something that the previous explanations didn’t. Starting a daily running habit 4 days ago has already started being a noticeable multiplier on my energy, mindfulness, and focus. Key moments to concentrate force in, in my experience:
Getting started at all
The moment when exhaustion meets the limits of your automatic willpower, and you need to put in conscious effort to keep going
The moment the next day where you decide whether or not to keep up the habit, despite the ugh field around exercise
Having a friend to exercise with is surprisingly positive. Having a workout tracker app is surprisingly positive, because then I get to see a trendline and so suddenly my desire is to make it go up and stay unbroken.
Many rationalists bucket themselves with the nerds, as opposed to the jocks. The people with brains, as opposed to the people with muscles. But we’re here to win, to get utility, so let’s pick up the cognitive multiplier that exercise provides.