Thanks; I’ve bookmarked this and am going to try something like it. But I’m probably greedier than you are, so I’ve got to ask—do you think you could use the same techniques you used to raise your set point from 2 to 5, to raise your set point from 5 to 8?
It’d require more maintenance work—the new set point is still artificial, just not unsustainably so, and the higher one goes the more one has to prop it up. I don’t presently have a way to hack deep enough to make the new set point effortlessly native.
I find extreme moods in general, including nice ones, to be disabling. When I am very happy I don’t want to do work, I just want to twirl around grinning like an idiot and babble about what a beautiful day it is. 5 is a comfortable and practical place for me to spend most of my time. Other people may not have this trait.
Greed isn’t a sufficient motivation to prompt the systematic, deep changes I made. It took actual danger to my life to make this a high enough priority. I don’t have a good reason to believe that the 5 set point is endangering me.
There are certain forms of circumstantial stability (money, family, residence) that I do not have, and while it isn’t urgent to me that I have them right now, it is a very significant long term goal of mine that I eventually acquire them. Becoming significantly higher set-pointed than I am now would require either excising these goals, so their not being satisfied would cease to unsettle me in the background, or satisfying these goals, which isn’t feasible or clever right now.
I get the impression that the technique is most effective at moving to 5, or maybe 5.5/6 also.
Not because 5 is a particular level of happiness, but because it’s not. Part of the trick is likely in the labeling of your preferred position AS 5, and thereby making it the “default” state.
Thanks; I’ve bookmarked this and am going to try something like it. But I’m probably greedier than you are, so I’ve got to ask—do you think you could use the same techniques you used to raise your set point from 2 to 5, to raise your set point from 5 to 8?
Maybe. I haven’t tried it because:
It’d require more maintenance work—the new set point is still artificial, just not unsustainably so, and the higher one goes the more one has to prop it up. I don’t presently have a way to hack deep enough to make the new set point effortlessly native.
I find extreme moods in general, including nice ones, to be disabling. When I am very happy I don’t want to do work, I just want to twirl around grinning like an idiot and babble about what a beautiful day it is. 5 is a comfortable and practical place for me to spend most of my time. Other people may not have this trait.
Greed isn’t a sufficient motivation to prompt the systematic, deep changes I made. It took actual danger to my life to make this a high enough priority. I don’t have a good reason to believe that the 5 set point is endangering me.
There are certain forms of circumstantial stability (money, family, residence) that I do not have, and while it isn’t urgent to me that I have them right now, it is a very significant long term goal of mine that I eventually acquire them. Becoming significantly higher set-pointed than I am now would require either excising these goals, so their not being satisfied would cease to unsettle me in the background, or satisfying these goals, which isn’t feasible or clever right now.
I get the impression that the technique is most effective at moving to 5, or maybe 5.5/6 also.
Not because 5 is a particular level of happiness, but because it’s not. Part of the trick is likely in the labeling of your preferred position AS 5, and thereby making it the “default” state.
5+ years later, I’m curious: have you attempted this? If so, how did the attempt go? If not, is there a clear reason?
I’ve wondered the same thing. Have you found anything on this yet?