I found this article both interesting and informative. I definitely plan to spend some time studying picoeconomics.
One interesting effect that I have found in personal productivity efforts is that applying techniques to enforce resolution and overcome passive resistance can change the perceived emotional weighting between alternatives, often quite rapidly.
For example, let’s say I’m reading LW instead of writing a term paper. I’ve made a (probably irrational) decision that the negative emotion of exerting the effort to write the term paper exceeds the negative emotion of having an incomplete assignment hanging over me. If I apply a pattern interrupt to get me started writing, my emotional weighting will shift, often within a matter of minutes—the effort of writing will not feel nearly as bad as the pressure of the unfinished assignment. Overcoming the emotional inertia of passive resistance shifts the perceived emotional weight of the alternatives.
Of course the challenge is to translate that knowledge into action. Even though I know that the emotional balance will likely shift, that doesn’t alter the feeling of initial resistance. That challenge has sold and will continue to sell millions of self help books :) It’s like an arms race between future/planning self and present moment self. For every pattern interrupt devised by future self, present self finds a defense to defuse the pattern interrupt and continue the present moment pleasurable activity.
The irony of reading LW as a present moment escape under the nominal guise of strengthening future self’s ability to keep present self on course is not lost on me. And on that note, I’m off to get some work done.
Nicely done, well summarized. I definitely agree with your point that there are almost always multiple conflict sources behind any given instance of akrasia. It’s often an exercise in peeling the onion.
My other key takeway from this article was your reminder that it’s an important, perhaps core, rationalist skill to learn to look past philosophical differences (law of attraction, religious belief, etc) with experts in any given field, not just self-help or anti-akrasia techniques. Apply your own filter and look for the underlying value. Don’t just dismiss the source because some portion of their content is irrational.