This is really solid. I think the insight that they really really feel declarative from the inside is super valuable. What kind of handle might be good for “mental habits are procedural, not declarative”? Is great already, and I want to tie it to other visceral images and phrases to increase its availability.
Some thoughts like:
deliberate practice applies to purely mental phenomena just as well as physical
wearing mental grooves
mental muscle memory
a mental picture of a bad teacher who thinks you should just ‘get it’ even though their explanation wasn’t nearly enough
“I can probably recurse and just repeat ‘mental habits are procedural’ to myself for the next several days”
mental rituals becoming more powerful over time (particularly noticeable for things like exercise)
It’s Owen here. When we talked at EAG, your thoughts on Reference Class Forecasting was a huge part of the inspiration for this post, actually, so I want to thank you for helping me figure this out.
As for your query, a few other helpful mental “hooks” may include:
Imagining “meta-you” in your head practicing some MMA (mental martial arts) against mental akrasiatic demons, which would obviously require lots of practice to get good at.
(or any other variation of the analogy “learning mental habits = your brain training for a sport” )
Any action you want to take necessarily has thought behind it. Thus, practicing actions also means practicing thought.
A mental habit is what you do, not what you know.
Tie your mental habits into concrete physical actions, then focus on using that action as a mental anchor:
EX: Fighting distractions is about noticing that “drifting down the path of least resistance” and closing your eyes, clenching, and removing yourself from the situation. If you package that as a “unit”, seeing yourself do it, then these mental notions become much less abstract (basically re: Eliezer on the 5 second level)
More than happy to continue the dialogue on this. Loved your thoughts on breaks / relaxing too, as well as when you said “akrasia has mutant healing powers”.
This is really solid. I think the insight that they really really feel declarative from the inside is super valuable. What kind of handle might be good for “mental habits are procedural, not declarative”? Is great already, and I want to tie it to other visceral images and phrases to increase its availability.
Some thoughts like:
deliberate practice applies to purely mental phenomena just as well as physical
wearing mental grooves
mental muscle memory
a mental picture of a bad teacher who thinks you should just ‘get it’ even though their explanation wasn’t nearly enough
“I can probably recurse and just repeat ‘mental habits are procedural’ to myself for the next several days”
mental rituals becoming more powerful over time (particularly noticeable for things like exercise)
what else overlaps with this concept?
Hi Romeo,
It’s Owen here. When we talked at EAG, your thoughts on Reference Class Forecasting was a huge part of the inspiration for this post, actually, so I want to thank you for helping me figure this out.
As for your query, a few other helpful mental “hooks” may include:
Imagining “meta-you” in your head practicing some MMA (mental martial arts) against mental akrasiatic demons, which would obviously require lots of practice to get good at.
(or any other variation of the analogy “learning mental habits = your brain training for a sport” )
Any action you want to take necessarily has thought behind it. Thus, practicing actions also means practicing thought.
A mental habit is what you do, not what you know.
Tie your mental habits into concrete physical actions, then focus on using that action as a mental anchor:
EX: Fighting distractions is about noticing that “drifting down the path of least resistance” and closing your eyes, clenching, and removing yourself from the situation. If you package that as a “unit”, seeing yourself do it, then these mental notions become much less abstract (basically re: Eliezer on the 5 second level)
More than happy to continue the dialogue on this. Loved your thoughts on breaks / relaxing too, as well as when you said “akrasia has mutant healing powers”.