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author: niplav, created: 2021-02-22, modified: 2024-10-22, language: english, status: in progress, importance: 3, confidence: other

Inspired by others (Falkovich 2019, Ideopunk 2020, Ethan 2021) I thought it might be useful to create a grabbag of strategies for dealing with being human.

Life Advice

1. There is value-laden and value-agnostic advice. Most advice is value-laden. Before you carry out some advice, check whether it actually corresponds to your values.
   • This also applies to all advice in this post (yes, even self-referentially)
2. Make things you endorse part of your identity (but not too much)
   • Example: On the subreddit /r/hydrohomies, people build a strong identity around drinking water. This is probably good.
3. If you are like me, you probably underestimate the value of good gear
   • Example: I spent around 200 hours meditating on a folded sheet. Then I got a zafu, which was so much more comfortable. Major improvement in my practice.
4. Choose your hobbies so that they solve big problems in your life
   • Example for myself: I didn't get laid, so I made daygame one of my hobbies (going out quite a lot, for a 3 month period 2 hours a day 6 days a week)
5. Try to identify addictive loops early and destroy them as early as possible
   • The longer you wait, the harder they become to root out
   • This will probably become a bigger problem in the future
6. Sign up for cryonics (if you can afford it).
   • It's likely worth it
7. People have a strong sense that once they come into remote contact with something bad, it makes them a bad person, no matter how small the badness or how remote the contact. You probably do this as well. This is both psychologically unhealthy and makes no sense, since it usually doesn't take into account the quantity of badness ("all bad things are equally bad") and doesn't weigh it against the quantity of goodness produced (disallowing offsetting). Try to recognize when you do this, and if other people do this to you, and ignore it.
   • Example: If you start investing money, some people will probably tell you that you might be giving money to unethical companies. While this might be true, due to market efficiency arguments (especially about replaceability) and the small number of unethical companies, this is probably negligible, and it neglects the massive positive effects of economic growth Halstead & Hillebrandt, 2020
   • Instead, try to focus on the higher-order bits, e.g. Effective Altruism or peak experiences, of course while still maximizing expected value
   • Related: The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics, Umeshisms, Asymmetric Justice
8. Have a long-term plan to completely or nearly completely phase the internet out of your life
   • The internet will probably become more addictive over time, and the increase in addictiveness will probably accelerate
   • Technology is becoming more powerful, while the power of the human brain stays pretty much constant (maybe cultural evolution linearly develops better defenses)
   • If this process crosses a certain threshold, humanity is probably doomed
     • But you can still spend the remaining time well!
     • Or even try to prevent it
   • Post on this forthcoming some time
9. If you are looking for solutions to problems, look for zero-willpower/zero-inspiration solutions first
   • The best example for this is buying a product that solves your problem
   • Example: I had trouble going to bed early, so I tried Melatonin, which pretty much solved my problem
   • Example: I had trouble biting my nails, so I started cutting them regularly, which also pretty much solved my problem
   • Example: I used to have a problem with getting distracted by the internet during hours when I wanted to be working. I moved to a place without internet, which made working easier.
10. The benefits of small amounts of meditation are probably overstated, while the benefits of large amounts of meditation (north of 1 hour a day) are probably heavily underestimated. I have had very good experiences with it.
    • The basic foundational activity before meditation is just doing nothing. It shouldn't be very hard to do, but it is.
11. The ability to form habits is powerful.
    • Establishing low-value low-difficulty habits intentionally can train this
      • Example: Eating a small bar of chocolate a day
12. Trigger-Action plans. They're great.
13. Only consume media you actually enjoy consuming, not the media you brag about consuming in front of others
    • Seriously. If you don't enjoy the process, just don't do it.
14. Instead of learning a language, learn a couple of poems. Most people don't actually manage to learn a second (or, outside English speaking countries, third) language. Also, most people can't recite a single poem, even though it's much much easier to learn than a whole language.
    • Bonus points for learning a poem that inspires you, so that you can recite it in situations of hopelessness
    • This also applies to songs
15. Use spaced repetition for, well, anything
    • This includes learning poems, songs, random facts, formulae
    • I especially like reading textbooks and saving the formulae and definitions
      • Not only does one remember the the things themselves, but is also continually reminded of the underlying structure, so that it is slowly baked into the brain
16. When trying to receive specific advice, look for people that had a problem similar (or identical) to yours, and find the methods that they used to solve their problem. If these methods don't work as well you as they did for them, continue searching
    • The more similar their constraints to yours, the better
    • This probably disqualifies this whole text, but whatever
17. Structured Procrastination might work for you. It does for me.
18. Fight tooth and nail for Slack. FIRE, fewer addictions (even small ones like mindless internet browsing), no debt, fewer physical objects you own, and fewer social obligations are all instances of having a lot of slack.
    • Example: I have a bad instance of completionism around media. Once I have started a particular piece of media (a podcast, a series, a blog), it feels bad to just not finish it. This is a lack of slack!
      • I haven't solved the podcast problem yet, except being very strict about which podcasts I start.
19. Don't destroy option value.
    • Becoming enemies with people is an instance of destroying option value (you can become an enemy of your friend more easily than you can become a friend of your enemy)
    • Dying destroys a lot of option value.
    • Becoming irrational destroys option value (it's easier to become irrational when you're rational, than to become rational when you're irrational).
20. There are two ways of living more: making your life longer and making your life feel longer.
    • Unfortunately, there is a tradeoff between how enjoyable an activity is and how long it feels like.
      • Try to find activities that are at the pareto frontier of enjoyability and subjective length
        • Meditation is probably a good example for this
    • Creating things probably feels longer than the same time spent consuming things
    • Doing new activies also feels longer than familiar ones
21. If you want to get into X, the best way of doing so is probably doing a little bit of X for a month, and then one week of X for 6 or more hours a day.
    • This probably works better for non-cognitive tasks
    • Unfortunately, you probably won't have the time for spending 6 hours a day on X for a week.
22. If there is an item on this list that tells you to stop doing X, but you truly enjoy doing X, then disregard the advice.
23. If you're writing a long commment on the internet, you're probably better off writing it in a local text editor and copy-pasting it once you're done. It has only happened to me a couple of times, but losing a long, detailed comment through a reload or browser crash or whatever was always frustrating.
24. Obvious computering advice:
    • Make backups
      • Ideally, use the 3-2-1 strategy (3 copies on the local drive, 2 more copies on separate drives, and 1 copy on a remote server)
    • Use a password manager
      • I prefer both remembering my passwords and using a password manager, in case something breaks irreparably
    • Use an adblocker
      • People still don't do this. Don't be one of those people.
    • Touch typing reduces brain-to-screen viscosity
25. Kimchi is amazing. Try it.
    • It's quite enjoyable to eat, but the real enjoyment comes after having eaten it. I feel very refreshed & alert.
    • I think it's also healthy?
26. Money is important. Treat is as such.
    • I have the impression that many otherwise smart people have ideological hangups about money, seeing it as immoral and not worth thinking about. This seems both untrue and harmful – money is extremely useful, and having money is pretty important.
    • Know how much you spend, on what, and what your longterm financial plan is.
27. For some people, sometimes being able to ground out ones problems causally in the world (i.e. "Which gears-level processes lead to the situation I'm in, and which incentives pushed which people to create/exacerbate those problems?") can help dissolve negative emotions around the problem.
    • Related: Modeling other people as causal systems plays into this very well
28. Vitamin C might cause kidney stones to happen more often. You probably don't want to experience kidney stones. Therefore, consider not supplementing Vitamin C.
29. If you are about to start fighting someone, be aware that this happens. State it out loud: Does this mean we are now fighting? Surprisingly, this sometimes defuses the fight.
30. If you're already doing something unethical, it's better to be aware of that than to compartmentalize and push it away – for yourself and others.
31. Don't invest money by buying diamonds. Humanity is able to create synthetic diamonds that are as big as natural ones, cleaner (fewer residual elements, e.g. nitrogen) and ~10x cheaper. It is easier to make synthetic diamonds dirtier than to clean natural ones. De Beers and other diamond companies have been combatting this by giving out certificates of authenticity – but the temptation to cheat on these is probably too high and this looks like a major market disequilibrium that will collapse at some point – I'm just not sure when ("The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent—unless it can't anymore").
    • If you appreciate natural diamonds for their authenticity, then by all means, go ahead. But don't be disappointed when a years later, your friends can buy bigger diamonds with the same carbon atoms 10x cheaper, and nobody cares about your authentic diamond.
32. Carrying around a USB stick on a keychain is pretty useful in some situations.
33. Don't put a backpack with a laptop in it on a chair.
34. If you really want something to get done, use a money-as-commitment website like beeminder, taskratchet, forfeit or intend.
    • I've only used beeminder, sparingly, but it has worked very well every time.
    • For me, using this kind of commitment device feels uncomfortable, which is why I limit my usage of them. I suspect there's some significant amount of coërcion of subagents in my mind involved.
35. Own multiple chargers for your laptop.
36. Do a little bit of stock-picking, based on your inside view, and then observe how well the picked stocks do.
    • In the beginning, don't do this for the returns, but for the value of information on whether you can outperform the market.
    • If you're performing worse than the market, go back to index funds.
37. Do the obvious things
    • Exercise any amount
      • Even walking around outside for 10 minutes a day is better than nothing
      • By my best guess, the 30th minute of exercise a day probably has zero net marginal life expectancy (taking a baseline of jogging, high-intensity interval training probably needs less). If you are at hat point, you're probably in the 90th percentile of people doing exercise anyway. More probably isn't really needed, even for becoming better looking.
    • Eat vegetables and fruit
      • Dates are very tasty
      • Raw salad can be snacked like chips while watching a movie
    • Drink mostly water
    • Get enough sleep to not be tired during the day
    • Eliminate debt, invest money you have lying around
    • Spend less time sitting
      • The alternatives are standing (e.g. at a standing desk) and walking
    • Try to spend less time in front of screens
    • Try to be better looking
      • General hygiene
      • Dressing better
      • Mannerisms, Voice, Posture, Smell
      • Some people seem to make not caring about how they look like as part of their identity
        • I think this is a big mistake, being better looking is net positive in nearly all situations, including both finding partners and job interviews
    • Floss
    • Follow the advice in Muehlhauser 2011

Disclaimer: I only follow parts of the advice given in here, though my idealized version follows it nearly completely. I also believe that following this advice completely is probably too hard, but following it has monotonically increasing gains.

However, as always, the law of equal and opposite advice applies, people are different.

And, as always, remember that I'm just a person on the internet.

See Also

• Boring Advice Repository
• Solved Problems Repository