If you’re tired or hungry, I would write down the thought but wait to post it until you’re neither tired or hungry. For me, same goes for returning phone calls or doing work, if possible.
(For me it is when feeling contemptuous. Contempt seems to be a greater mind killer than hunger or tiredness. Anger doesn’t seem to have the same problem—it seems to result in somewhat better thinking, even though it does alter intentions.)
I think there are enough examples of people who’ve said or written stuff in anger or frustration and regretted it afterwards that I’m inclined to think twice. As far as I can tell, there aren’t very many examples of people regretting things they said or wrote when they were tired or hungry.
I think there are enough examples of people who’ve said or written stuff in anger or frustration and regretted it afterwards that I’m inclined to think twice.
I probably wouldn’t recommend the anger state to everyone. Just those of us who have found from personal experience that it has its advantages. My default state is carefree and flippant—which results in all sorts of problems if I forget for one second that communications can be taken by rivals and used for their personal advantage. This has resulted in many a regret.
Anger on the other hand provokes goal directed thinking, improved attention and decisiveness when it comes to determining and protecting my interests, whatever they may be.
Unfortunately contempt seems to result in the worst of both worlds. My instincts seem assume that just because someone is blatantly stupid they can’t be a viable social threat so I am both flippant and opposed. Big mistake. Contempt is a more useful emotion for people to feel when their contempt producing instincts are finely calibrated to what level of status they can get away with conveying that the object should have in the eyes of the applicable audience.
I would personally put this on discussion-level.
Possibly the moral of the story is “don’t post anything on lesswrong at 5 am.”
If you’re tired or hungry, I would write down the thought but wait to post it until you’re neither tired or hungry. For me, same goes for returning phone calls or doing work, if possible.
(For me it is when feeling contemptuous. Contempt seems to be a greater mind killer than hunger or tiredness. Anger doesn’t seem to have the same problem—it seems to result in somewhat better thinking, even though it does alter intentions.)
I think there are enough examples of people who’ve said or written stuff in anger or frustration and regretted it afterwards that I’m inclined to think twice. As far as I can tell, there aren’t very many examples of people regretting things they said or wrote when they were tired or hungry.
Judging by the existence of Google Mail Goggles, I’d guess that people often write things tired that they later regret.
That is...hilarious.
And all the funnier because it is mostly serious and a valuable tool for many! :P
I probably wouldn’t recommend the anger state to everyone. Just those of us who have found from personal experience that it has its advantages. My default state is carefree and flippant—which results in all sorts of problems if I forget for one second that communications can be taken by rivals and used for their personal advantage. This has resulted in many a regret.
Anger on the other hand provokes goal directed thinking, improved attention and decisiveness when it comes to determining and protecting my interests, whatever they may be.
Unfortunately contempt seems to result in the worst of both worlds. My instincts seem assume that just because someone is blatantly stupid they can’t be a viable social threat so I am both flippant and opposed. Big mistake. Contempt is a more useful emotion for people to feel when their contempt producing instincts are finely calibrated to what level of status they can get away with conveying that the object should have in the eyes of the applicable audience.