

Tactics to beat Akrasia (acting against one's better judgement) - yurifury
http://lesswrong.com/lw/1sm/akrasia_tactics_review/

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Estragon
Personally, acting against my "better judgment" almost always results from a
failure of emotional regulation. The only way I've found to reliably solve
this problem has been to develop awareness of the emotional issues underlying
ill-considered reactions, and develop the capacity to peacefully experience
those emotions without a behavioral reaction. Technical solutions like
leechblock and organizational solutions like strict scheduling can temporarily
mask the problem, but they don't last, because I experience them as a form of
fighting with myself, and when I fight with myself, I always lose.

~~~
lionhearted
> Personally, acting against my "better judgment" almost always results from a
> failure of emotional regulation. The only way I've found to reliably solve
> this problem has been to develop awareness of the emotional issues
> underlying ill-considered reactions, and develop the capacity to peacefully
> experience those emotions without a behavioral reaction.

Would you care to elaborate on this? Seems like quite valuable stuff you're
doing.

~~~
Estragon
It is incredibly valuable, but it is also slow and often quite painful.

My approach has been through Buddhist meditation, but any practice which
fosters emotional awareness and resilience could help in the same way.

The practices described in the podcasts linked below are a concrete example of
what I'm talking about. (But my own meditation practice goes in a different
direction.)

[http://www.unfetteredmind.com/audio/podretreat.php?code=RER#...](http://www.unfetteredmind.com/audio/podretreat.php?code=RER#here)

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mattchew
Akrasia means not actually doing what you think you should be doing. For
example, actually spending time reading HN when you should be coding.

I think this article would get more traction if a different term was used, or
a parenthetical explanation provided. A lot of people are interested in this
issue, but most of them probably don't know what "akrasia" is.

~~~
jfarmer
Kids these days! Need more Aristotle.

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Niten
I really appreciate the author's rigorous scientific stance on the actual
utility of these suggestions; I went into this article expecting pure
pseudoscience (judging on nothing more than the title).

