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Self-distancing can help you make better decisions

effectiviology.com

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Re: Self-distancing can help you make better decisions

#31

Post by jok311 »

hhjjkkll wrote: post #16
torstenvl wrote: post #15

Robert Sapolsky touches on this when discussing the effects of glucocorticoids on the prefrontal cortex. A stressed PFC is not an executive functioning PFC. When we're too close to an issue, we process with our periaqueductal gray (key in pain inhibition) and not with the part of our brain more adept at strategizing. These stress effects on frontal function also make us perseverative—in a rut, set in our ways, runnin…

>When we're too close to an issue, we process with our periaqueductal gray (key in pain inhibition) and not with the part of our brain more adept at strategizing. This must be what happens when you think of a funny comeback or joke several hours after the opportunity to use it.

tst

Re: Self-distancing can help you make better decisions

#32

Post by datalus »

I'm in the midst of a major decision... Just quit my job with a year of runway and I'm either considering putting that towards graduate school abroad or settling down, finding a better job, and buying a home. My emotions tell me to go study, but my rational mind tells me to settle down and buy a home.

Re: Self-distancing can help you make better decisions

#33

Post by module0000 »

datalus wrote: post #32

I'm in the midst of a major decision... Just quit my job with a year of runway and I'm either considering putting that towards graduate school abroad or settling down, finding a better job, and buying a home. My emotions tell me to go study, but my rational mind tells me to settle down and buy a home.

Rational advice from a complete stranger; settle down, study, and consider buying a home. Buying a home can consume a year of runway quickly depending on how you go about it.

Re: Self-distancing can help you make better decisions

#35

Post by jvanderbot »

dominotw wrote: post #10

> self who is analyzing the event is considered to be distinct from the self who experienced it I have hard time following this, how can there be two selfs in a single mind. Is the observer more nobler entity with higher self restraint than the entity being observed who is more emotional and lower self control?

I suggest you skim through these lectures.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/science-of-meditation

It touches on the connections between mindfulness and modern understanding of the mind. Most important, it talks about this problem, that you are not aware of the amout of decisions and input/output data is hidden from you, and how much of your life is narrating outcomes, rather than deciding them.

Fascinating stuff. Makes me feel like a batch of hidden layers struggling for consensus with one tiny human-interaction module that tells a consistent story about why certain outputs are weighted, and that story is called "free will and personality".

Re: Self-distancing can help you make better decisions

#36

Post by sidcool »

hhjjkkll wrote: post #16
torstenvl wrote: post #15

Robert Sapolsky touches on this when discussing the effects of glucocorticoids on the prefrontal cortex. A stressed PFC is not an executive functioning PFC. When we're too close to an issue, we process with our periaqueductal gray (key in pain inhibition) and not with the part of our brain more adept at strategizing. These stress effects on frontal function also make us perseverative—in a rut, set in our ways, runnin…

>When we're too close to an issue, we process with our periaqueductal gray (key in pain inhibition) and not with the part of our brain more adept at strategizing. This must be what happens when you think of a funny comeback or joke several hours after the opportunity to use it.

True! Captured very well in the 'Jerk Store' instance in Seinfeld.

Re: Self-distancing can help you make better decisions

#37

Post by sidcool »

datalus wrote: post #32

I'm in the midst of a major decision... Just quit my job with a year of runway and I'm either considering putting that towards graduate school abroad or settling down, finding a better job, and buying a home. My emotions tell me to go study, but my rational mind tells me to settle down and buy a home.

Same here. I have two ways, either go into tech leadership or go down the path of research in theoretical computer science. It's a tough choice to make as it will consume the next few years of my life.

Re: Self-distancing can help you make better decisions

#38

Post by verelo »

module0000 wrote: post #33
datalus wrote: post #32

I'm in the midst of a major decision... Just quit my job with a year of runway and I'm either considering putting that towards graduate school abroad or settling down, finding a better job, and buying a home. My emotions tell me to go study, but my rational mind tells me to settle down and buy a home.

Rational advice from a complete stranger; settle down, study, and consider buying a home. Buying a home can consume a year of runway quickly depending on how you go about it.

I like this advice. Unless you have a very large capital base, houses are a great way to reduce your optionality in many ways.

Re: Self-distancing can help you make better decisions

#39

Post by hsitz »

maroonblazer wrote: post #4

>Self-distancing is the act of increasing the distance from your own egocentric perspective when assessing events and emotions that you experience. It's odd that there's no mention of meditation as a way to achieve this effect, since that's arguably its biggest benefit. Put another way, as someone once said: Wisdom is the ability to take your own advice.

Yes, this does seem like it's closely related to a habit you develop through meditation. However, the "self-distancing" seems worse to me than meditation, since it seems to advocate taking a distance from the "true self" of feelings and thoughts. Meditation encourages the [better]route of recognizing that feelings and thoughts are not parts of your true self at all.
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