I can not speak for cameroncowan, but I was tempted to ask the same question. For which reasons are you interested in forming the habit of experimentation? For example, is your main motivation to pick up low-hanging fruit, do you have some particular question concerning yourself (such as diet, medication, habits, etc.) that you wish to test, or do you perhaps wish to become more adept at spotting moments ripe for experimentation in the long run?
The examples in this thread are of different sort, and require different approach. The links posted by coyotespike show examples of long experiments on yourself, where you sit down once a day for a long period of time (weeks/months) to draw a conclusion. The (fictional!) HPMOR example is a clear case of low-hanging fruit: taking a couple of hours to find a better battle strategy is a good investment of time. I’m not sure about the Feynman example, but this also seems to be a low-hanging fruit example (if the experiment would have taking him a month I’m not sure he would have done it). So, what sort of experimentation skills are you looking for?
I keep a spreadsheet of my daily metrics so that I can peruse it for correlations with productivity. I’d like to do that better, and more efficiently.
I’ve done small experiments to test a claim, essentially praying over an apple slice daily and comparing it’s decay to that of a control. I’d like to get “better” and more rigorous at doing that.
do you perhaps wish to become more adept at spotting moments ripe for experimentation in the long run?
This is closest. Basically, I want to put another tool in my toolbox, more then I have a project in mind.
What is your motivation?
What do mean? Can you rephrase your question?
I can not speak for cameroncowan, but I was tempted to ask the same question. For which reasons are you interested in forming the habit of experimentation? For example, is your main motivation to pick up low-hanging fruit, do you have some particular question concerning yourself (such as diet, medication, habits, etc.) that you wish to test, or do you perhaps wish to become more adept at spotting moments ripe for experimentation in the long run?
The examples in this thread are of different sort, and require different approach. The links posted by coyotespike show examples of long experiments on yourself, where you sit down once a day for a long period of time (weeks/months) to draw a conclusion. The (fictional!) HPMOR example is a clear case of low-hanging fruit: taking a couple of hours to find a better battle strategy is a good investment of time. I’m not sure about the Feynman example, but this also seems to be a low-hanging fruit example (if the experiment would have taking him a month I’m not sure he would have done it). So, what sort of experimentation skills are you looking for?
All sorts.
I keep a spreadsheet of my daily metrics so that I can peruse it for correlations with productivity. I’d like to do that better, and more efficiently.
I’ve done small experiments to test a claim, essentially praying over an apple slice daily and comparing it’s decay to that of a control. I’d like to get “better” and more rigorous at doing that.
This is closest. Basically, I want to put another tool in my toolbox, more then I have a project in mind.
Does that answer your question?