You Are Not So Smart

I've struggled with this, but feel that I've made some headway in the past decade, so for what it's worth, here are my two cents (YMMV): I'd say start by conscious effort, and then eventually you can build intuition and 'empathy' in a more traditional sense (and your mirror neurons might even help you understand your own feelings better that way too, as seeing something in others might help you recognize those same things in yourself). Whenever you interact with a person, consciously ask yourself questions like 'how does this person feel?', 'how do they perceive me?', 'what are they trying to achieve?', 'what do they think I am trying to achieve?', 'in what context will they interpret the things I say?' and so on. Even if you won't have a lot of those answers, just making yourself aware that there is information there that you are missing is a valuable step in noticing it - and teaching yourself to care about that dimension of the human experience. Understanding what goes on inside a person is not unlike playing an imperfect knowledge game, e.g. reading someone's hand in poker - a combination of observation, prior knowledge, statistics and logic can help gain you insight into likely scenarios (e.g. "Aggressive behavior is often due to being stressed, or feeling threatened - this person is normally well-mannered, so they are likely under stress right now, so instead of snapping back at them, I could ask them if there's anything I could help with - assuming they normally trust…

I'm not so sure.

All of my friends who aren't getting the vaccine and vocal about it are pushing some pretty out there reasons. It may have started from relatively reasonable reasons, but it has morphed into an especially vitrolic ideology and in-group signaling rather quickly.

Also, a lot of polls show there is a sticky group of people who will never get it and that population hasn't changed much over time. So at this point there's not much you can move the needle on them via facts and all that.

Doesn't mean we shouldn't stop trying.

Highly recommend the You Are Not So Smart podcast on how to have beneficial discussions with anti-vax individuals. One key is don't use social media (eg in public).

https://youarenotsosmart.com/2021/08/23/yanss-213-how-to-improve-your-chances-of-nudging-the-vaccine-hesitant-away-from-hesitancy-and-toward-vaccination/

My experience shows me that there are no magic snake instant solutions. The only way to improve productivity is to gradually change your everyday routine for the better. One can do it by trying different things and sticking to the ones that work for you.

One thing that is certain is that guilt and self-loathing are as unproductive as it gets. This approach won't get you far because the brain doesn't work that way. I am sure we all have read plenty articles on this issue [1].

For example, try something along the lines of Magic Work Cycle [2] or Pomodoro technique [3]. Caffeine and other nootropics can also be helpful. Jogging is the best nootropic I know.

[1] http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/10/27/procrastination/

[2] http://www.magicworkcycle.com/

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

I hope some of it was useful.

Despite having a very long wish list of things I long for to do, I am usually in for redditing, reading HN, sitcoms, booze and weed. I hadn't opened Sublime for past two months, neither read anything nor any activity faintly productive.

After reading an amazing article [1], I have beginning to feel an amazing happiness with everything I am doing now and it just so simple. The trick is to ask yourself every time you start doing something: "What I will be doing now, Will it help me in future in anyway?". Of course, you must not drag yourself to despise everything not related to higher gains but realize that life in the future is function of what you do now, and the decisions you make.

[1]: http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/10/27/procrastination/

Now, for whatever reason, nothing has effectively changed and millions suddenly care

This was discussed on a You Are Not So Smart [1] episode some time over the last few months (I had a look but couldn't find it).

The basic idea was that collective behaviour can change in an instant because of multiple pressures that have been building over time and looking for a single cause (or trigger) is fruitless because no one event has any great significance per se.

The closest that Google would bring me is a paper on 'Threshold Models of Collective Behavior' [2].

[1] https://youarenotsosmart.com/

[2] https://www.jstor.org/stable/2778111?seq=1

>my friend was really good at Quake

no, he wasnt:( he was just better than you. Reaper on default skill 1 was an ok challenge for average players. Skill 3 was a competitive against good players, but still nothing special against deathmatch veteran spending days in gaming cafes or internet servers.

For reference best Quake bot, Omicron(dev went to work for ID software and wrote Quake3 AI etc) on highest skill level vs actually good dm player https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEeDXPkEnME

also https://youarenotsosmart.com/2014/11/10/yanss-podcast-036-why-we-are-unaware-that-we-lack-the-skill-to-tell-how-how-unskilled-and-unaware-we-are/