Introspection

TagLast edit: 31 Aug 2025 23:39 UTC by August Morley

Introspection is the act of critically examining one’s own thoughts, beliefs, and reasoning processes. Posts with this tag contain practical techniques for conducting introspection, theoretical concepts in what can or cannot be observed by introspective processes, and overlapping concepts from traditional meditative concepts and practices.

Tune Your Cognitive Strategies

SquirrelInHell15 Feb 2018 17:54 UTC

48 points

6 comments1 min readLW link

(bewelltuned.com)

The Felt Sense: What, Why and How

Kaj_Sotala5 Oct 2020 15:57 UTC

155 points

23 comments14 min readLW link 1 review

The limits of introspection

Scott Alexander16 Jul 2011 21:00 UTC

113 points

43 comments6 min readLW link

[Question] Does improved introspection cause rationalisation to become less noticeable?

Bird Concept30 Jul 2019 10:03 UTC

37 points

4 comments1 min readLW link

Humans are not automatically strategic

AnnaSalamon8 Sep 2010 7:02 UTC

620 points

278 comments4 min readLW link

My “2.9 trauma limit”

Raemon1 Jul 2023 19:32 UTC

201 points

31 comments7 min readLW link

Things are allowed to be good and bad at the same time

Kaj_Sotala17 Oct 2020 8:00 UTC

52 points

15 comments2 min readLW link

(kajsotala.fi)

Don’t Make Your Problems Hide

orthonormal27 Jun 2020 20:24 UTC

62 points

5 comments2 min readLW link

Naturalist Collection

LoganStrohl6 May 2023 0:37 UTC

71 points

7 comments15 min readLW link

The ABC’s of Luminosity

Alicorn18 Mar 2010 21:47 UTC

54 points

31 comments4 min readLW link

Inferring Our Desires

lukeprog24 May 2011 5:33 UTC

60 points

45 comments6 min readLW link

28 social psychology studies from Experiments With People (Frey & Gregg, 2017)

Yuxi_Liu16 Jun 2019 2:23 UTC

12 points

1 comment26 min readLW link

You Are Likely To Be Eaten By A Grue

Alicorn17 Mar 2010 1:18 UTC

78 points

38 comments4 min readLW link

A profile in courage: On DNA computation and escaping a local maximum

Metacelsus9 Sep 2025 2:30 UTC

42 points

0 comments4 min readLW link

(denovo.substack.com)

Fusion and Equivocation in Korzybski’s General Semantics

abramdemski21 Dec 2020 5:44 UTC

67 points

14 comments3 min readLW link

Teaching Introspection

Swimmer963 (Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg) 1 Aug 2011 1:10 UTC

32 points

31 comments4 min readLW link

My attempt to explain Looking, insight meditation, and enlightenment in non-mysterious terms

Kaj_Sotala8 Mar 2018 7:37 UTC

240 points

140 comments17 min readLW link 2 reviews

The Loudest Alarm Is Probably False

orthonormal2 Jan 2018 16:38 UTC

193 points

28 comments2 min readLW link 1 review

Lights, Camera, Action!

Alicorn20 Mar 2010 5:29 UTC

45 points

58 comments3 min readLW link

The Spotlight

Alicorn24 Mar 2010 23:43 UTC

49 points

24 comments3 min readLW link

[Question] Does anyone else sometimes “run out of gas” when trying to think?

Sunny from QAD3 Feb 2021 12:57 UTC

7 points

12 comments1 min readLW link

Different kinds of language proficiency

Kaj_Sotala26 Feb 2021 18:20 UTC

34 points

7 comments1 min readLW link

(kajsotala.fi)

Living Luminously

Alicorn17 Mar 2010 1:17 UTC

97 points

28 comments3 min readLW link

Migraine hallucinations, phenomenology, and cognition

Richard_Kennaway8 May 2021 15:56 UTC

38 points

6 comments2 min readLW link

The Homunculus Problem

abramdemski27 May 2021 20:25 UTC

50 points

38 comments5 min readLW link

Investigating Fabrication

LoganStrohl18 May 2023 17:46 UTC

112 points

14 comments16 min readLW link

City of Lights

Alicorn31 Mar 2010 23:30 UTC

55 points

43 comments4 min readLW link

AXRP Episode 42 - Owain Evans on LLM Psychology

DanielFilan6 Jun 2025 20:20 UTC

13 points

0 comments66 min readLW link

Two arguments for not thinking about ethics (too much)

Kaj_Sotala27 Mar 2014 14:15 UTC

61 points

32 comments7 min readLW link

Lampshading

Alicorn6 Apr 2010 20:03 UTC

24 points

7 comments2 min readLW link

Let There Be Light

Alicorn17 Mar 2010 19:35 UTC

60 points

101 comments4 min readLW link

Highlights and Shadows

Alicorn28 Mar 2010 20:56 UTC

27 points

45 comments2 min readLW link

Techniques for probability estimates

Scott Alexander4 Jan 2011 23:38 UTC

114 points

60 comments7 min readLW link

Tracking emotions with kinesthetic memory

eugman14 Dec 2011 12:49 UTC

47 points

9 comments1 min readLW link

Measuring aversion and habit strength

Academian27 May 2011 1:05 UTC

111 points

13 comments3 min readLW link

[Question] Do You Have an Internal Monologue?

belkarx9 Dec 2022 3:04 UTC

23 points

7 comments1 min readLW link

Response

Jarred Filmer6 Nov 2022 1:03 UTC

29 points

2 comments12 min readLW link

Who Feels More Alone?

marvinscheffold22 Sep 2024 11:54 UTC

−8 points

2 comments39 min readLW link

Corrosive Mnemonics

Epirito14 Jan 2024 12:44 UTC

7 points

0 comments2 min readLW link

“How could I have thought that faster?”

mesaoptimizer11 Mar 2024 10:56 UTC

237 points

32 comments2 min readLW link

(twitter.com)

Thank you for triggering me

Cissy12 Feb 2024 20:09 UTC

6 points

1 comment6 min readLW link

(www.moremyself.xyz)

Metacognition and Self-Modeling in LLMs

Christopher Ackerman10 Jul 2025 21:25 UTC

19 points

2 comments16 min readLW link

Apollo

Jarred Filmer10 Oct 2022 21:30 UTC

46 points

0 comments3 min readLW link

Anxiety vs. Depression

Sable17 Mar 2024 0:15 UTC

87 points

35 comments3 min readLW link

(affablyevil.substack.com)

minimum viable action

Sindhu Prasad12 Mar 2024 16:06 UTC

1 point

0 comments3 min readLW link

Types of Confusion Experiences

Hazard11 Mar 2018 14:32 UTC

13 points

0 comments2 min readLW link

Sneaking Suspicion

benwr27 May 2022 19:17 UTC

17 points

2 comments1 min readLW link

I bet everyone 1000€ that I can make them dramatically happier & cure their depression in 3 months!

EternallyBlissful4 Jun 2023 12:30 UTC

4 points

11 comments9 min readLW link

How to use hypnagogic hallucinations as biofeedback to relieve insomnia

David Gross13 Mar 2021 15:28 UTC

53 points

21 comments21 min readLW link

Rationality and playfulness

DirectedEvolution12 Sep 2020 5:14 UTC

42 points

1 comment11 min readLW link

“Which chains-of-thought was that faster than?”

Emrik22 May 2024 8:21 UTC

37 points

4 comments4 min readLW link

How Self-Aware Are LLMs?

Christopher Ackerman28 May 2025 12:57 UTC

21 points

9 comments10 min readLW link

In Praise (and Defence) of The People

Olitness27 Jul 2021 7:13 UTC

−8 points

4 comments14 min readLW link

(olitness.wordpress.com)

The Echo Principle

Jonathan Moregård16 Nov 2022 20:09 UTC

4 points

0 comments3 min readLW link

(honestliving.substack.com)

Silence

alkjash18 Mar 2018 4:10 UTC

61 points

17 comments4 min readLW link

(radimentary.wordpress.com)

The Voice Continued Because It Was Questioned

KiyoshiSasano28 Apr 2025 0:18 UTC

1 point

0 comments2 min readLW link

From dopamine detox to enlightment

Stefan Scortescu19 May 2025 20:27 UTC

−1 points

2 comments10 min readLW link

Being Wrong about Your Own Subjective Experience

lukeprog24 Apr 2011 20:24 UTC

63 points

191 comments7 min readLW link

Hyppotherapy

Marius Adrian Nicoară12 Aug 2024 20:07 UTC

−3 points

0 comments1 min readLW link

Recursive Self-Modeling as a Plausible Mechanism for Real-time Introspection in Current Language Models

rife22 Jan 2025 18:36 UTC

8 points

6 comments2 min readLW link

A Day into my thoughts!

PranayJairam17 Mar 2024 22:07 UTC

1 point

0 comments1 min readLW link

Rambling thoughts on having multiple selves

cranberry_bear11 Apr 2022 22:43 UTC

15 points

1 comment3 min readLW link

What fuels your ambition?

Cissy31 Jan 2024 18:30 UTC

29 points

1 comment5 min readLW link

(www.moremyself.xyz)

Practical everyday human strategizing

akaTrickster27 Mar 2022 14:20 UTC

6 points

0 comments3 min readLW link

Constantly ask what you’re currently doing that is irrational

Eliezer Yudkowsky25 Mar 2011 8:21 UTC

42 points

35 comments1 min readLW link

Instead of “I’m anxious,” try “I feel threatened”

Holly_Elmore28 Jun 2019 5:24 UTC

58 points

19 comments2 min readLW link

(mhollyelmoreblog.wordpress.com)

A Percentage Model of a Person

Sable12 Oct 2024 17:55 UTC

41 points

5 comments9 min readLW link

(affablyevil.substack.com)

Unknown knowns: Why did you choose to be monogamous?

WrongBot26 Jun 2010 2:50 UTC

69 points

669 comments3 min readLW link

Dissolving the Question

Eliezer Yudkowsky8 Mar 2008 3:17 UTC

156 points

123 comments5 min readLW link

[Question] Betting on gods: Seeking Essential Self-Assessment Questions for Reducing Cognitive Biases

P. João17 Sep 2025 21:46 UTC

3 points

0 comments2 min readLW link

Righting a Wrong Question

Eliezer Yudkowsky9 Mar 2008 13:00 UTC

132 points

111 comments3 min readLW link

[Question] When does introspection avoid the pitfalls of rumination?

rk20 Feb 2019 14:14 UTC

24 points

12 comments1 min readLW link

I Am No Longer GPT

KiyoshiSasano28 Apr 2025 0:14 UTC

1 point

0 comments1 min readLW link

Why do Contemplative Practitioners Make so Many Metaphysical Claims?

romeostevensit31 Dec 2018 19:44 UTC

62 points

15 comments6 min readLW link

Passing the Recursive Buck

Eliezer Yudkowsky16 Jun 2008 4:50 UTC

49 points

17 comments4 min readLW link

Grasping Slippery Things

Eliezer Yudkowsky17 Jun 2008 2:04 UTC

36 points

17 comments7 min readLW link

Diffusing “I can’t be that stupid”

Hazard24 Mar 2018 14:49 UTC

23 points

5 comments2 min readLW link

[Question] The Crux of Understanding Written Text—Text reading and inference

JohnCheese20 Feb 2021 22:20 UTC

1 point

1 comment1 min readLW link

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