Stable Externalization
Full disclaimer: the following post is poorly researched, “folk productivity” advice. It borrows terms from neuroscience without strong research into those ideas, which makes it no more than useful anecdotes of the self-help genre.
One thing that helps me get more done is being more organized. If I think of myself as a meat-computer, a self-improving algorithm, I would say that my constraints are as follows:
- I have two cognitive systems, system 1 and system 2.
- System 1 is automatic, intuitive, and emotional.
- System 2 thinks deeply, but requires sustained effort.
- System 2 responds poorly to attention fragmentation, has low bandwidth.
- System 2 can be consciously controlled.
- System 1 imputes a policy (chooses a next thought or action) where system 2 does not or cannot.
- System 2 shuts off once attentional resources are exhausted, for which blood glucose is a proxy.
Also:
Read more...Type A and Type B Productivity
In the month of December 2024, I started messing around on the piano a bit. I started practicing every day, and the habit actually started to stick a little. I did it for about 10 days, practicing on single scales exercise in C major for about 10 minutes per day, and it was small enough that it was actually sustainable. Plus, it was just spaced out just enough that I could see improvement in about a week.
Read more...New Year's Resolutions 2025
I feel the urge to Paul Graham this one – really break down New Year’s Resolutions, talk about why they work, why they don’t work, what constitutes a good New Year’s resolution, and the like. But then I stand the risk of becoming a little too meta. The goal of this post is not to write about New Year’s resolutions, but rather to make the resolutions themselves.
It seems best if I start, though, by talking about what constitutes a good New Year’s resolution, and what constitutes a good habit, more generally.
Read more...