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Curiosity.md

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··· 15 15 - Knowing what we really want is hard and takes effort. Explore yourself and your [[values]]. 16 16 - Experiment more! It is very very easy to do what comes naturally and never deviate from that. Break the pattern. 17 17 - Consume content that is hard to produce. If the producer can spam the content, it is probably not worth your time. E.g: audiobooks vs podcasts. 18 18 + - Having fun is efficient! Doing fun activities gives you your energy back.

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Habits.md

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··· 4 4 5 5 Habits can be great because they help us get tasks done efficiently without having to spend willpower (a limited resource) on them all the time. The purpose of a habit is to remove that action from self-negotiation. You no longer expend energy deciding whether to do it ([ego depletion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion)). [Having a habit collapses hundreds of future decisions into one, and gives you focus](https://twitter.com/kepano/status/1698388043278012621). Habits will keep the frontal cortex free to solve other problems. Make a deliberate choice about what needs consistency and what doesn't. 6 6 7 7 - [Make it part of your identity to be an agent](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/become-a-person-who-actually-does-things) that does things. E.g: noticing the small problems, and fixing them. The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become. Focus on [[The Four Laws of Behavior Change]]. 7 7 + [Make it part of your identity to be an agent](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/become-a-person-who-actually-does-things) that does things. E.g: noticing the small problems, and fixing them. The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become. Focus on [[The Four Laws of Behavior Change]]. [Make a habit of trying safe, low-stakes experiments, to learn more about yourself & what works for you](https://blog.ncase.me/30). 8 8 9 9 They can also cause addictions and be harmful for us. It's important to be aware of your habits and know how to break and build them. Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. Make small habits that push you forward, little by little, and make them [compound](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/compoundinterest.asp). Remember, there are [no hacks](http://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/useful-hacks/) in life! 10 10

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Thinking.md

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··· 15 15 - Stress test your ideas/assumptions/beliefs with experiments and facts as many times as possible. 16 16 - Anything you know or do could be wrong. You get less dumb by saying things and getting feedback. [We all have crony beliefs](https://web.archive.org/web/20250129202840/https://meltingasphalt.com/crony-beliefs/). From time to time, do a self-audit and figure out which ideas you've come to hold sacred and remind yourself that they're just ideas. 17 17 - Many beliefs are held because there is a social and tribal benefit to holding them, not necessarily because they're true. 18 18 - - A great way to do that is to [bet on everything](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ybYBCK9D7MZCcdArB/how-to-measure-anything) where you can or will find out the answer. Even if you're only testing yourself against one other person, it's a way of calibrating yourself to avoid both overconfidence and under-confidence, which will serve you in good stead emotionally when you try to do [[Fallacies|inadequacy reasoning]]. It'll also force you to do falsifiable predictions. 18 18 + - A great way to do that is to [bet on everything](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ybYBCK9D7MZCcdArB/how-to-measure-anything) where you can or will find out the answer. Put a number on it. Then, to avoid the illusion of false precision, put error bars on it. Even if you're only testing yourself against one other person, it's a way of calibrating yourself to avoid both overconfidence and under-confidence, which will serve you in good stead emotionally when you try to do [[Fallacies|inadequacy reasoning]]. It'll also force you to do falsifiable predictions. 19 19 - A tool to assign a percentage to a belief is [the equivalent bet test](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/EtxTDPMXrbmpheiAt/how-the-equivalent-bet-test-actually-works). 20 20 - People have an incentive [to be the "most confident in the room"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M_QK4stCJU) as that gives us a hedge against the rest. 21 21 - Instead of thinking "I'm sure X is fake!", try to think in terms of probabilities. E.g: I think there's a 90% chance X is fake. Instead of thinking in terms of changing your mind, think in terms of updating your probabilities. [This mindset](https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-the-scout-mindset) makes it easier to remember that it's not a question of winning or losing, but a question of being as accurate as possible. "Probability update" is less emotionally devastating than "I said X, but actually ~X, so I was wrong"). ··· 23 23 - Knowledge decays. Things you learned in the past might not be true nowadays (_status of Pluto as a planet, dinosaurs with feathers, number of people living, ..._). [Facts decay over time until they are no longer facts or perhaps no longer complete](https://fs.blog/2018/03/half-life/). 24 24 - Don't fully trust Science (or History) as is not perfect. Studies are based on incorrect assumptions (from other studies), might have experimental issues, or might be manipulated by external factors (e.g: tobacco companies paying for studies). 25 25 - Avoiding stupidity is easier than seeking brilliance. Think backward so that you can avoid failures. 26 26 + - Use simple, consistent language. You should be able to explain why good things are good and why bad things are bad, without using fancy words. 26 27 - Research before judging! We do not know what we don't know. Gather as much context as you can before making any final statement. 27 28 - [Absolute truth is relative and everyone is doing the best they can](https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2019/08/12/there-are-no-adults-in-the-room/). These are opportunities for you to help and learn more about the world. 28 29 - Think in distributions instead of [magic answers](http://cassandraxia.com/cogbiases). The world is [analog and not digital](https://waitbutwhy.com/2019/12/political-disney-world.html), continuous and not discrete. [Nuance is everywhere](https://www.raptitude.com/2023/10/the-truth-is-always-made-of-details/).