Me too.
Nick_Roy
Karma: 458
If you do decide to try it, start with a very low dose.
Where this chain of reasoning breaks down for me is in the “without resistance” phase of “take right action without resistance”. If the resistance, both conscious and unconscious, is too strong, there will be no right action taken, whether I will it or no. So what I do instead is undermine the resistance itself. This is my precondition for taking right action. Do you see what I mean? Wu-wei prevents hedonism if wu-wei is essential to hedonism but there can be no wu-wei.
The similarity between our approaches is as you say: the realization that akrasia defeats frontal assaults with heavy casualties. The difference is that you are doing something like the “take right action without resistance” approach that I’ve encountered before in Buddhism, which matches up nicely with anhedonia (personally I am a hedonist, so this does not work for me); while I am attempting to root out the basic causes of my akrasia, down to the very sources, to change the way I feel in the first place. Both approaches have their merits, and I agree that proper choice of approach relative to the individual depends on factors like personality and culture. Have you encountered any other indirect approaches to defeating akrasia, as we are attempting at present?
Two Disclaimers: First, I am not a doctor. Second, beware of other-optimizing. This advice is working well for me, but it may not work well for others.
The depression became obvious and major enough that I was forced to take action to stop it. The rationalizations had run dry, so I fully realized in both System 1 and System 2 that I was not “unmotivated”, I was mentally ill. Years of life hacks and half-assed lifestyle interventions had accomplished some, but not enough, so it was time for medications, which I had previously feared due to bad experiences with bupropion years earlier.
The constraints in my investigation: something effective for major depressive disorder in both the short-term to fight what I was then feeling and in the long-term to prevent relapse, non-serious side effects, anxiolytic properties, as there is comorbid OCD and social anxiety disorder (SA, also this is why I chose medications before psychotherapy), and a reasonable price. Tianeptine met these constraints, with the nice bonus of plausibly being a cognitive enhancer.
Within six weeks of use, the tianeptine decreased the depression such that it was time to focus on the next most serious drag on my productivity and happiness: OCD. Not being majorly depressed allowed me to develop exercise and meditation habits that reduced the OCD down to a similarly manageable level. The anxiolytic effects of the tianeptine and the reduced stress of not being seriously depressed probably also helped.
The depression and OCD were still there and still a nuisance, but they had become minor enough that it was time to continue prioritizing elsewhere. By then tianeptine’s anxiolytic properties had faded to mildness due to tolerance, though it has continued to be effective as an antidepressant that at least does not increase anxiety, which was my primary issue with bupropion.
Next on the list was either SA or an uncontrollable sleep cycle, both being about equally problematic. I chose to address the sleep cycle first because modafinil immediately came to mind as a plausible treatment, plus we’ve all heard of its reputation as an anti-akratic. In hindsight, I should have thought about this more thoroughly before leaping into it. Availability bias at work. Anxiety is an uncommon side effect, but I decided to take the risk. In hindsight, I ought to have realized that for people already dealing with multiple anxiety disorders, that anxiety side effect probably becomes a lot more more common. A statistics fail on my part.
So, I tried modafinil to control my sleep cycle and reduce akrasia, and instead I produced the unshakable certainty that unnamed, unseen monsters were out to get me. Whoops. Looks like my suspicion was correct that I have subclinical generalized anxiety disorder, because the modafinil had exacerbated it to unacceptable levels. The stress of experiencing this also triggered a depression relapse, so I then took myself off the modafinil. Soon enough I recovered to where I had been before trying it.
This leads me to the present. Now I am faced again with the choice of confronting either the sleep cycle problem, SA, or both. My System 1 is wary of fighting the sleep cycle again just yet after being burned last time, so SA it is. I have already taken the edge off, because of social skills training I started months ago and because of the interventions I’ve taken against OCD, but it is still serious enough to pursue a pharmacological solution.
First on my To Be Scrutinized list is kratom, as I have already been taking theanine for years now. I will investigate effectiveness, safety, cost, and personal fit. Whatever I try, I will also attempt exposure therapy alongside the anxiolytic effects of a medication. If I am successful, I will next have another go at fixing the sleep cycle, then I will either consider my options regarding the notoriously untreatable fact that I am on the autistic spectrum, or else move on to address the much decreased but still niggling depression and OCD.
Agreed. Personal anecdote: once I redefined my “motivation problem” as a “depression and anxiety problem” a number of months ago, and began treating this depression and anxiety instead of wearily trying out yet another willpower hack, I have made more progress in being motivated in months than I had in the previous years.
Your point on a description of Harry’s thinking is well-taken. I just had my brother submit this as a review, to err on the side of caution:
“With NickRoy’s permission, I am submitting his solution, which I agree with, with additional evidence appended, just in case that is necessary; so consider this as superseding NickRoy’s submission:
[the relevant text is here in the submission, but I don’t need to repeat it in this comment]
Appended:
Harry does not know the full prophecy for certain, but he can guess it, based on: Harry’s thought on star lifting in response to this prophecy in Ch. 21, Harry noticing Quirrelmort’s interest in the same prophecy in Ch. 86, Quirrelmort’s talk of the stars’ vulnerability to “sufficiently intelligent idiocy” in Ch. 95, Firenze’s comment on the stars and Harry’s innocence in Ch. 101, Voldemort’s “while the stars yet live” remark in Ch. 111, Voldemort’s more explicit talk on the prophecy and his great fear of it in the next chapter, and how the Unbreakable Vow is framed in the most recent chapter. If Harry connects these dots, he’ll have a good idea of what the full prophecy says.
As for how Harry connects these dots: he runs with the hypothesis (quickly, as he did in Ch. 104): “I am to destroy the world [I don’t have to explain why this idea stands out to him] in some way that is not actually bad”, since if he were to destroy the world in a way that really is bad, but this may be preventable, he probably should die immediately instead! My first thought on this line of thinking (since “Harry is allowed to solve this problem the way I would solve it”) is: “well, someday Earth ought to be converted into computronium for hedonium purposes, though the Sun is much more massive, and then we have the nearby stars… Oh”.
Also, on Voldemort’s response: Voldemort would be skeptical, but he would also be interested, because “It is impossible to tell lies in Parseltongue” and because all this persuasion has to do is raise the risk enough that it makes more sense to stop and gather more information before killing Harry, thus it “allows Harry to evade immediate death”.”
Voldemort would be skeptical, yes, but he would also be interested, because “6. It is impossible to tell lies in Parseltongue” and because all this speech has to do is raise the risk enough that it makes more sense to stop and gather more information before killing Harry, thus it “allow[s] Harry to evade immediate death”. What do you think would improve the believability?
Sure. Along with the centaur evidence, there’s: Harry’s thought on star lifting in response to this prophecy in Ch. 21, Harry noticing Quirrelmort’s interest in the same prophecy in Ch. 86, Quirrelmort’s talk of the stars’ vulnerability to “sufficiently intelligent idiocy” in Ch. 95, Voldemort’s “while the stars yet live” remark in Ch. 111, Voldemort’s more explicit talk on the prophecy and his great fear of it in the next chapter, and how the Unbreakable Vow is framed in the most recent chapter. If Harry connects these dots, he’ll have a good idea of what the full prophecy says.
Done.
Harry hisses “You have missinterpreted prophecy, to your great peril, becausse of power I have, but you know not. Yess, you are sstudying sscience, but, honesstly, you are yearss behind me. It may be that thiss power you know not iss ssomething I have at thiss sspecific time, that you will not know for too many yearss hence.
Before I explain, remember my Vow, and know my honesst intention not to desstroy the world, Vow or no. Now, do you know why I would tear apart the very sstarss? Do you know how? Not to desstroy the world, but to ssave it from whatever threatss require more energy to extinguissh than exisstss in thiss entire ssolar ssystem. There are more thingss in heaven and earth, Dark Lord, than are dreamt of in your philossophy.
I would usse sstar lifting to do it ssafely. In a way, I really would end the world to ssave it, ssince once humanss are out of the cradle, sspread through… er, let uss ssay ‘heaven’ in Parsseltongue, to mean well beyond thiss planet, why not add the masss of the Earth itsself to the sstuff of the sstarss, to yield that much more energy? And sso, if you avert thiss prophecy, there iss sseriouss rissk you doom yoursself! Are you willing to take that chance?
And why were you the one to hear thiss prophecy, Dark Lord? Why are you the one to causse it or avert it? What iss your abssolute advantage? Not in killing. Killing is eassy. Thiss iss your blind sspot cossting you much more in expected value than lasst time if you do not lissten.
You are the one becausse you have come clossesst by far, ass far ass I know, to true immortality, though thiss project iss not yet complete, elsse prophecy would not concern you to degree it obvioussly doess. Usseful sstar lifting will take time; much more than ussual lifesspan.
Ssupposse you heard thiss prophecy becausse you are to sshare thiss advantage with me, and together we will tear apart the very sstarss in ‘heaven’ to prevent ssomething actually bad! Ssomething we both may know nothing of yet, though I already have guesssess; and you know thiss project iss likely to go fasster with me than without me. Your lack of complete immortality meanss time may not be on your sside.
All I have ssaid iss my honesst besst esstimate. If you do not trusst my viewss, let uss wake girl-child friend, ass sshe alsso knowss more of sscience than you. No offence. And becausse I have told you of sstar lifting, that you clearly knew not of, at thiss time when it matterss mosst—conssider the sserioussnesss of your error if I had tried esscaping—you will protect and honor deputy sschoolmissstresss, with the undersstanding that your reign hass already begun. Now what iss the resst of the prophecy?”
Harry puts it together mainly from clues in the three most recent chapters and Chapter 86.
Edited to add: if you’re reading this, Eliezer, please see this comment below for the Appendix.
Paths of Glory (1957), film. Kirk Douglas vs. Moloch. An anti-war film, for reasons both usual and unusual.
I would die of smallpox.
:(
I upvoted, but I’ll clarify why, as this is a list: the only name I like on this list is Level Up, but I strongly like it.
Personally, I figure I’m not intelligent enough to research hard problems and I lack the social skills to be an activist, so by process of elimination the best path open to me for doing some serious good is making some serious money. Admittedly, some serious student loan debt also pushes me in this direction!
“Proving useful in your life” (but not necessarily “proving beneficial”) is the core of instrumental rationality, but what’s useful is not necessarily what’s true, so it’s important to refrain from using that metric in epistemic rationality.
Example: cognitive behavioral therapy is often useful “to solve problems concerning dysfunctional emotions”, but not useful for pursuing truth. There’s also mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for an example more relevant to Buddhism.
Ah, I should have taken that possibility into account. Thank you.
Good instrumental rationality quote; not so good for epistemic rationality.
So, with a 60% chance of girlfriend breakup and a 90% chance of new partner acquisition, does this mean a 36% chance of a polyamorous, open, “cheating” or otherwise non-monogamous relationship situation for you at some point over the next year?
Edited to add: actually somewhat higher than 36%, since multiple new partners are possible along with a girlfriend breakup.
Taken.