I don’t agree that circumstances are easily known at all. Most of my variation in pleasure is tied up in the uncertain territory of social interaction (because I’m materially well off); the remainder is in the unpredictable progress of my research or hobbies. While there are moments of unequivocal (in)validation, most of the time the outcome is in doubt.
It’s fun playing around at such a high level of abstraction as you do in this post. Everything you discuss is obviously true, but it’s pleasant how you’ve packaged it.
In general, I find heuristics for focusing my attention other than where it falls naturally to be interesting only as novelties—soon I’m back to paying attention to whatever strikes me.
There’s a fun exercise I read about in a how-to-act book (aside: aspiring actors seem like a surprisingly large market): either aloud with a partner, or to yourself, say how every little thing you experience makes you feel. Clearly you weren’t doing that when you drafted this article; you were absorbed in the object you were manipulating. Self-awareness seems most important when what you’re manipulating is your own affect.
I can entertain time-consuming meditative or introspective exercises to the extent I hope that I’ll gain some permanent, low-maintenance benefit, like learning new information that will be useful without constant recitation, or forming more effective habits (in behavior or what I attend to).
In general, I find heuristics for focusing my attention other than where it falls naturally to be interesting only as novelties—soon I’m back to paying attention to whatever strikes me.
Same here. In daily life I don’t find this much of problem but I sometimes regret that when I have to choose between for example TVTropes or something else, TVTropes usually wins.
I can entertain time-consuming meditative or introspective exercises to the extent I hope that I’ll gain some permanent, low-maintenance benefit, like learning new information that will be useful without constant recitation, or forming more effective habits (in behavior or what I attend to).
One way I found to form habits is to try to change the environment in such a way that the habit you want to learn is also the path of the least resistance. If that isn’t possible, you can try to make it so that you pause and give yourself time to consciously make a decision instead of executing your old wrong habit routine.
For example, I usually hibernate my work laptop. After a couple of weeks however my ram usage tends to go to 2 Gb and stay there (not in the least thanks to visual studio & firefox with +100 tabs) and everything is starting to feel sluggish.
A reboot usually helps but I strongly dislike interrupting my work to reboot so I don’t do it much and, unfortunately, hibernating is always quicker then shutting down when leaving the office. So when I leave, I don’t have much incentive at the moment itself to shut down.
My solution was simply to schedule a batch file to run every Friday afternoon that disables hibernation (and another batch file to enable it again on Monday morning).
One way I found to form habits is to try to change the environment in such a way that the habit you want to learn is also the path of the least resistance.
I found this effective when trying to improve my eating habits. Making sure in advance that there are healthy options in the fridge already when I get home from work means I am likely to eat something healthy. If I know there is no readily available healthy option at home I’ll generally grab something less healthy on my way home or go out and get something just to satisfy my immediate hunger. Similarly I find I can avoid unhealthy snacking by simply not having any unhealthy snacks in my apartment.
Same here. In daily life I don’t find this much of problem but I sometimes regret that when I have to choose between for example TVTropes or something else, TVTropes usually wins.
I don’t agree that circumstances are easily known at all. Most of my variation in pleasure is tied up in the uncertain territory of social interaction (because I’m materially well off); the remainder is in the unpredictable progress of my research or hobbies. While there are moments of unequivocal (in)validation, most of the time the outcome is in doubt.
It’s fun playing around at such a high level of abstraction as you do in this post. Everything you discuss is obviously true, but it’s pleasant how you’ve packaged it.
In general, I find heuristics for focusing my attention other than where it falls naturally to be interesting only as novelties—soon I’m back to paying attention to whatever strikes me.
There’s a fun exercise I read about in a how-to-act book (aside: aspiring actors seem like a surprisingly large market): either aloud with a partner, or to yourself, say how every little thing you experience makes you feel. Clearly you weren’t doing that when you drafted this article; you were absorbed in the object you were manipulating. Self-awareness seems most important when what you’re manipulating is your own affect.
I can entertain time-consuming meditative or introspective exercises to the extent I hope that I’ll gain some permanent, low-maintenance benefit, like learning new information that will be useful without constant recitation, or forming more effective habits (in behavior or what I attend to).
Same here. In daily life I don’t find this much of problem but I sometimes regret that when I have to choose between for example TVTropes or something else, TVTropes usually wins.
One way I found to form habits is to try to change the environment in such a way that the habit you want to learn is also the path of the least resistance. If that isn’t possible, you can try to make it so that you pause and give yourself time to consciously make a decision instead of executing your old wrong habit routine.
For example, I usually hibernate my work laptop. After a couple of weeks however my ram usage tends to go to 2 Gb and stay there (not in the least thanks to visual studio & firefox with +100 tabs) and everything is starting to feel sluggish.
A reboot usually helps but I strongly dislike interrupting my work to reboot so I don’t do it much and, unfortunately, hibernating is always quicker then shutting down when leaving the office. So when I leave, I don’t have much incentive at the moment itself to shut down.
My solution was simply to schedule a batch file to run every Friday afternoon that disables hibernation (and another batch file to enable it again on Monday morning).
I found this effective when trying to improve my eating habits. Making sure in advance that there are healthy options in the fridge already when I get home from work means I am likely to eat something healthy. If I know there is no readily available healthy option at home I’ll generally grab something less healthy on my way home or go out and get something just to satisfy my immediate hunger. Similarly I find I can avoid unhealthy snacking by simply not having any unhealthy snacks in my apartment.
But TVTropes is so much fun! ;)