My conscience is as hypertrophied as the next person, but how is a balance struck between avoiding cognitive biases, logical fallacies, etc., and enjoying life?
For me, avoiding biases means a cognitive load which means I have to be vigilant which means I can’t relax. Perhaps when and if avoiding all/most of the foibles becomes second nature then it will be less of a load. I hope! :)
One approach could be to set priorities. “How important is it if I do this not-optimally? What are the consequences of cognitive biases leading me to a poor choice here?” and to be vigilant on the most important stuff, and let it go for lower priority things.
However, practice can help, and sometimes it is easier to catch oneself on tasks or issues of a smaller scale than on the big importart ones. So practicing on the lower priority ones can be useful.
Vigilance takes energy. Awareness...not as much. Maybe a shift toward developing awareness rather than vigilance could help.
There are almost two modes of functioning. “Never thinking hard and going with the flow”; and “thinking hard about what happened”. I would suggest that these processes are like system1/system2 processes about living. where if you only play in system 2 you have an exhausting life where you feel like you never get far because you didn’t actually do the washing; you just thought really hard about it. You never really had fun; you just thought hard about it. etc etc.
The important thing to note is that we need both system 1 and system 2 to go about getting things done. You are concerned about the balance; Absolutely!
in this case because you are balancing “hard thinking about the problem” and “enjoying life”
If you are finding you are not enjoying life; reduce the time you spend hard-thinking.
Iif you are finding you are making mistakes; or needing more planning time to make things work the way you want them to; increase hard-thinking time.
If you want to increase both at once—take a break; work on a problem of no consequence.
My conscience is as hypertrophied as the next person, but how is a balance struck between avoiding cognitive biases, logical fallacies, etc., and enjoying life?
This is a broad question, and it will get broad answers.
Can you give some examples when avoiding biases made life less enjoyable?
For me, avoiding biases means a cognitive load which means I have to be vigilant which means I can’t relax. Perhaps when and if avoiding all/most of the foibles becomes second nature then it will be less of a load. I hope! :)
Would it be bad if you gave yourself time off for specific durations and/or activities?
One approach could be to set priorities. “How important is it if I do this not-optimally? What are the consequences of cognitive biases leading me to a poor choice here?” and to be vigilant on the most important stuff, and let it go for lower priority things.
However, practice can help, and sometimes it is easier to catch oneself on tasks or issues of a smaller scale than on the big importart ones. So practicing on the lower priority ones can be useful.
Vigilance takes energy. Awareness...not as much. Maybe a shift toward developing awareness rather than vigilance could help.
Ok, can you give an example of when you felt less relaxed, and the bias this helped you avoid?
I think I know what you are talking about.
There are almost two modes of functioning. “Never thinking hard and going with the flow”; and “thinking hard about what happened”. I would suggest that these processes are like system1/system2 processes about living. where if you only play in system 2 you have an exhausting life where you feel like you never get far because you didn’t actually do the washing; you just thought really hard about it. You never really had fun; you just thought hard about it. etc etc.
The important thing to note is that we need both system 1 and system 2 to go about getting things done. You are concerned about the balance; Absolutely!
In my post here; http://lesswrong.com/lw/mj7/3_classifications_of_thinking_and_a_problem/ Slider suggested a heuristic for producing results in the area of knowing how to balance.
in this case because you are balancing “hard thinking about the problem” and “enjoying life” If you are finding you are not enjoying life; reduce the time you spend hard-thinking. Iif you are finding you are making mistakes; or needing more planning time to make things work the way you want them to; increase hard-thinking time. If you want to increase both at once—take a break; work on a problem of no consequence.