Yes, this is the main way I’ve been very productive in the past—by “cheating” on some other “important” task to sneak time for something that at the time feels rebellious, but is eventually more important.
It doesn’t seem too much different from Ainslie’s points about hyperbolic discounting and factions in the mind warring over what to do. One faction can lack the short-term clearcut justifications necessary to make ‘writing this fun little paper’ look like the good choice it is, compared to ‘grading these papers due back tomorrow’ (which is much easier to defend, though likely less valuable).
Yes, this is the main way I’ve been very productive in the past—by “cheating” on some other “important” task to sneak time for something that at the time feels rebellious, but is eventually more important.
How do you trick yourself to false-rank things that way?
No need to trick—one can be honestly confused about what is more important.
Well yes, but that sounds too convenient that it happens to arrange itself that way.
Unless this is basically “Texas Sharpshooter”.
It doesn’t seem too much different from Ainslie’s points about hyperbolic discounting and factions in the mind warring over what to do. One faction can lack the short-term clearcut justifications necessary to make ‘writing this fun little paper’ look like the good choice it is, compared to ‘grading these papers due back tomorrow’ (which is much easier to defend, though likely less valuable).