concentration and survey

src/changelog.pdc

@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@
 All major changes on the site
 =============================
 
+-   2010/07/13: Notes on how I fixed my [Concentration] issues. Also, I filled
+    out PhilPapers excellect [Philosophical Survey].
+
 -   2010/05/28: New rant on why [Square Circles Exist]. 
 
 -   2010/04/26: Reworked the whole site, turning it into a proper site instead
@@ -27,6 +30,8 @@ All major changes on the site
     On-site comments are gone, but I'm still very much open to anything over mail.
     Sorry for the broken links. At least the RSS feed is still there. ;)
 
+[Philosophical Survey]: /reflections/survey.html
+[Concentration]: /experiments/concentration.html
 [Square Circles Exist]: /rants/square_circles.html
 [Consciousness Explained]: /reflections/con_exp.html
 [Determinism]: /reflections/determinism.html

src/experiments/concentration.pdc

@@ -0,0 +1,243 @@
+% Fixing Concentration
+
+I had serious problems concentrating. Typically, I rapidly lost focus or just
+felt blah and unmotivated the whole day, often with a (minor to medium)
+depression thrown in for good measure. Here's what I tried and how I finally
+fixed it.
+
+Diet and Drugs
+==============
+
+Caffeine
+--------
+
+![totally safe](coffee_cat.jpg)
+
+Caffeine does drastically improve my concentration. It gave me an
+indiscriminate, but very narrow focus. I could work for hours on basically anything,
+but found it hard to change topics or decide what to do in the first place. But
+if I made those decisions early on and arranged it so that I could work all day
+without disturbances, then caffeine worked really well.
+
+Nonetheless, there are multiple problems with caffeine. Most importantly, it
+reduces serotonin and builds up a resistance. Because of the resistance, you
+either soon get diminishing returns while still dealing with all of the
+downsides, or you keep on increasing the dosage till you crash. I typically went
+the crash route. Reduced serotonin levels lead to an unstable mood, depression,
+crankiness and twitching muscles. All very sucky.
+
+Furthermore, caffeine screws up my sleep. It improves some part of it, but makes
+it less regenerative and harder to fall asleep. However, a sudden large dose has
+the opposite effect. I fall asleep easily and dream very vividly, totally
+cocaine-fueled. While I won't *feel* sleep-deprived, I will still *be* it.
+
+Caffeine also is bad for my digestion and raises insulin levels (particularly
+because I prefer coffee with at least some sugar). Given all those
+disadvantages, I tried to get rid of it for years now, but never found a worthy
+alternative. With the discovery of the following techniques, though, I finally
+managed to kick it for good.
+
+Animal Fat and Protein
+----------------------
+
+Despite what virtually all common wisdom is going to tell you, animal fat is
+probably the most important thing for you to eat. (The second-most important are
+bacteria[^bacteria]). As I'm a bit lazy, I'll do no convincing here and leave
+this to the [Paleo] crowd. (Ignore the libertarians. Just try it yourself for a
+week and be amazed.) If you are an vegetarian, then you really shouldn't be one.
+But the very least don't be a vegan, k?  Because then you are royally screwed
+with regards to food.
+
+[^bacteria]: 
+    I'm just gonna send you over to [Seth Roberts] on this. I completely agree
+    with him on everything about nutrition, having tested it all myself.
+    Seriously, grab yourself some strong jogurt (not the sweet stuff, but the
+    good, sour one), kefir or miso and eat it. Every day. You can thank me later
+    when most of the problems you just lived with are gone.
+
+[Seth Roberts]: http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/category/umami-hypothesis/
+[Paleo]: http://www.paleonu.com/what-is-panu/
+
+Eating about 50-100g of butter refuels my energy almost completely in less than
+20 minutes and greatly increases concentration. I perform better on all
+intelligence and memory tests I used and find learning (especially with Anki)
+to be easier and more enjoyable. I'm now reworking my diet to get in as much
+as I can. I eat plenty of quark, butter (even raw) and as fatty a dinner as I
+can get away with. 
+
+Butter is my clear favorite. Very high-fat (>50%) cream, cheese or quark work as
+well, but I don't like their taste too much. I do eat a lot of quark with about
+15-20% fat content, though, and the occasional psychedelic cheese[^cheese].
+
+When choosing butter, be sure to pick one from grass-fed cows. It contains high
+levels of Omega-3, which also greatly increases all kinds of mental functions
+and general health. A good and wide-spread brand is Kerrygold, although there
+are often local alternatives as well.
+
+[^cheese]: 
+    I'm not kidding here. I have no idea what exactly is causing it, but
+    *something* in certain cheeses is clearly psychedelic. I get a trippy mood,
+    incredibly wild dreams and even some mild hallucinations. I suspect the
+    tryptophan, but it doesn't really fit the dosage and only seems to happen
+    with cheese. Anyway, I recommend Danish Havarti.
+
+The other component is protein. I'm not yet sure about a good base level, but I
+found that eating a lot more meat and eggs also helps. Not as noticeable as with
+fat (that is, the effect doesn't kick in right away), but it's certainly there.
+
+Just as with animal fat, this doesn't apply to any plant source. Soy or flour
+don't count as a good protein source because of all their other negative
+effects. I know how much living without grains sucks, being a big fan of pizza
+and tofu, but having collected data for months now, I can quite clearly say
+that, at least for me, grains are never worth it. They screw up your digestion,
+your mental performance and sap away your energy. That feeling of being totally
+sated and need for a nap after dinner? That's the grains. It's not normal.
+Eating dinner should have you *more* active than before, not *less*. 
+
+St. John's Wort 
+----------------
+
+St. John's Wort has gotten quite a bit of attention recently for being as least
+as effective as all other depression medicine while generally having far less
+side-effects.
+
+So far, it has been very successful in both preventing my typical seasonal
+depression beginning around November and in aborting an ongoing depression. I
+also took it during my most recent caffeine withdrawal and I think it greatly
+improved it, but I'm quite unwilling of doing another as a control.
+
+I'm unsure if there is any positive effect beyond preventing the depression. I
+had no noticeable side effects despite taking 900mg of it for months. As a test,
+I stopped a week after my caffeine withdrawal was over, as my serotonin levels
+were stable anyway and I suspected that St. John's Wort slightly decreases
+motivation, at least when it is unnecessary.
+
+Unfortunately, I had about a week of withdrawal, which mostly resulted in mild
+mania, severe tiredness and low motivation. Still more pleasant than caffeine
+withdrawal and certainly better (and shorter) than depression, which could last
+for months. I would still advocate slowly reducing the dose instead to avoid
+withdrawal.
+
+After that, my motivation didn't really recover. My mood was stable and my sleep
+returned to more normal levels, but I was still wasting a lot of time, as is
+typical for depression. So I went back to my daily dose and am quite happy with
+the result. I'm still trying to find the perfect dosage that is *just* beneath
+the overdose when my muscles start twitching and I get nervous. About 600mg work
+seems to work, though. I may try getting off again next spring, nonetheless,
+after everything has stabilized more.
+
+I suspect that 5-HTP works very well, too, although I never got to test it. I
+failed to try it a few years back when it was still unregulated in Germany,
+although I actually wanted to. It has a very good track record and I would
+recommend trying it if St. John's Wort doesn't work for you. I might... obtain
+it at some point, but so far, I am happy with St. John's Wort and see no
+advantage in switching.
+
+I have a relatively low opinion of most mainstream medication for depression,
+though especially SSRIs may be worth a try. Personally, I also had good
+short-term success with MAO inhibitors, but wouldn't recommend them because they
+are so incompatible with many other drugs or important food. It's just too hard
+to eat right and too easy to kill yourself on MAO inhibitors.  Also, raised
+serotonin levels and drugs don't mix at all, especially MDMA or DXM. [Serotonin
+syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin_syndrome) isn't nice. It's a
+bit of a pity, though, but I can live with that.
+
+Tyrosine
+--------
+
+![lolcatecholamines](lolcats.jpg)
+
+Now comes the magic bullet. Seriously, Tyrosine is among my favorite chemicals
+because it fixes a problem without creating new ones. That's quite rare.
+
+Tyrosine is basically a building block for many important neurotransmitters,
+most importantly the catecholamines (CATs) which are necessary for
+concentration and proper motivation. If you can't get yourself to do something
+you actually want to do (and enjoy), then you have a big CAT deficiency.
+Caffeine is by far the most common "cure", but with all its side-effects, it
+doesn't really fix the problem.
+
+Tyrosine, for me, does. On the first day, I took 900mg in the morning and all
+desire for caffeine was gone. I took another 900mg after dinner and kicked
+caffeine immediately. Without any side-effects or withdrawal symptoms. *None*.
+If you have ever done a caffeine withdrawal after heavy use, that might already
+be the selling point right there. 
+
+I now use 900mg every morning and occasionally 900mg after a nap if I have a
+lazy day. I haven't yet experimented with higher doses (up to 4g) because I
+don't wanna jinx it. Taking the powder orally (keeping it in your mouth a bit)
+has a faster onset (and slight high), but taking capsules seems to have more or
+less the same effect. I'm still experimenting with this, though.
+
+I'm now completely caffeine free and have better long-term memory and a far more
+usable level of concentration. Full-on caffeine mode is slightly stronger, but
+so manic that it is utterly useless. Mental tunnel-vision is not a good thing,
+you know. 
+
+With tyrosine, however, my concentration is as it should be. I don't have to
+trick myself into starting anything, but can just work right away. I only get
+exhausted when I actually did something (and can refuel with sleep and butter)
+and not at random times.
+
+As a last piece of evidence, I'm just going to mention three numbers. They are the
+number of daily [SRS](/reflections/srs.html) repetitions I could do per day
+before my brain would shut down. A year ago, using almost no caffeine and no
+tyrosine, I managed about 80 reps, max. A few months ago, using caffeine, I got
+up to 150, maybe 200, but that's a good day. 100 would be normal. The last two
+weeks, I did over 500 each day without breaking a sweat. I got up to 800 after 3
+hours of continuous work and that's still not the maximum level. I just normally
+stop after an hour or so because it gets too time-consuming or boring otherwise.
+
+Tyrosine is, however, useless when your serotonin levels are bad. You can be as
+concentrated as you want, if you are apathetic, nothing will get done. That's
+why I consider St. John's Wort more important, but tyrosine is more noticeable
+right away and ultimately the effect I was hoping for.
+
+Magnesium
+---------
+
+I took magnesium for my sore knee a year ago and noticed a minor drop in
+motivation while using it. I'm not exactly sure why and I couldn't find many
+reports, but a friend who used a similar dose of magnesium at the same time
+noticed the same thing, so better watch out, you know.
+
+Exercise
+========
+
+For simplicity's sake, there are two kinds of exercise: short-term muscle growth
+and long-term endurance training. The first one is good for you, but I found no
+effect on concentration or motivation at all. (Except for a testosterone high
+for about half an hour afterwards.)
+
+Endurance training does raise serotonin somewhat, but not very reliably and
+requires a large investment of energy beforehand. It's very hard to get yourself
+motivated enough to start and unless you own a treadmill or something like it,
+you won't have fast access either. I had reasonable success in fixing the
+serotonin problem with jogging, but it did very little for my concentration or
+motivation. Unless you enjoy it and would do it anyway, I recommend against it.
+There is also some indication that it is bad for your health, so it's not
+necessarily a good trade-off.
+
+Meditation
+==========
+
+Meditation works great, but has a serious disadvantage - it has a circular
+dependency on its own effect. In other words, when you practice meditation
+daily, it will greatly improve your discipline and concentration (among other
+things, like bringing you enlightenment), but to meditate successfully, you need
+discipline and concentration. You see how that's a problem?
+
+The typical solution to that problem has been either trying for years until you
+finally manage to bootstrap the process or going on retreats or entering a
+monastry, for a week to a whole year, where you are forced to meditate and have
+no alternative or escape route. It works, sure, but it's both kinda cruel and
+very inconvenient. 
+
+Because of that, meditation is more of a middle- to end-game strategy. I highly
+recommend it, but you need a certain level of skill and concentration already to
+really use it. If you can't get out of bed, then meditation ain't gonna work,
+either. For introductions to meditation, I recommend going on a 10 day
+[Vipassana] retreat and [Shinzen Young]'s videos.  
+
+[Shinzen Young]: http://www.youtube.com/user/expandcontract
+[Vipassana]: http://www.dhamma.org

src/experiments/index.pdc

@@ -7,11 +7,13 @@ Experiments
 This is basically my public spoiler file for life. Why should I keep all the
 cool stuff I found out to myself? Information ought to be free, after all.
 
+- improving [Concentration] and motivation
 - how to develop [Speed Reading] and read a book in an hour 
 - [Sleep] hacks
     - some hacks for [Good Sleep]
     - my experience and criticism of [Polyphasic Sleep]
 
+[Concentration]: /experiments/concentration.html
 [Speed Reading]: /experiments/speedreading.html
 [Sleep]: /experiments/sleep
 [Good Sleep]: /experiments/sleep/good_sleep.html

src/index.pdc

@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ Articles are sorted by date, with newer ones at the top. You can see the
 This is basically my public spoiler file for life. Why should I keep all the
 cool stuff I found out to myself? Information ought to be free, after all.
 
+- improving [Concentration] and motivation
 - how to develop [Speed Reading] and read a book in an hour 
 - [Sleep] hacks
     - some hacks for [Good Sleep]
@@ -29,6 +30,7 @@ cool stuff I found out to myself? Information ought to be free, after all.
 
 The unobserved life is not worth living.
 
+- a [Philosophical Survey]
 - thoughts on Daniel Dennett's book [Consciousness Explained]
 - [Letting Go of Music]
 - my review of [Find the Bug]
@@ -63,6 +65,7 @@ The fuel of the internet.
 [LibraryThing]: http://www.librarything.com/profile/muflax
 
 [Experiments]: /experiments
+[Concentration]: /experiments/concentration.html
 [Speed Reading]: /experiments/speedreading.html
 [Sleep]: /experiments/sleep
 [Good Sleep]: /experiments/sleep/good_sleep.html
@@ -77,6 +80,7 @@ The fuel of the internet.
 [Neo 2]: /rants/neo.html
 
 [Reflections]: /reflections
+[Philosophical Survey]: /reflections/survey.html
 [Letting Go of Music]: /reflections/letting_go_of_music.html
 [Consciousness Explained]: /reflections/con_exp.html
 [Why I love my SRS]: /reflections/srs.html

src/reflections/index.pdc

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ Reflections
 ![circle_logo](/circle_logo.jpg)   
 The unobserved life is not worth living.
 
+- a [Philosophical Survey]
 - thoughts on Daniel Dennett's book [Consciousness Explained]
 - [Letting Go of Music]
 - my review of [Find the Bug]
@@ -12,6 +13,7 @@ The unobserved life is not worth living.
 - a meditation on [Xmonad]
 - [Why I love my SRS], or, How to hack your long-term memory
 
+[Philosophical Survey]: /reflections/survey.html
 [Letting Go of Music]: /reflections/letting_go_of_music.html
 [Find the Bug]: /reflections/find_the_bug.html
 [Consciousness Explained]: /reflections/con_exp.html

src/reflections/survey.pdc

@@ -0,0 +1,220 @@
+% Philosophical Survey
+
+Just a few thoughts on my answers to PhilPapers excellent [survey] for
+philosophers. I'll explain my positions somewhat and almost certainly go into
+more details in separate articles.
+
+Background
+==========
+
+Philosophically, my strongest early influence comes from Satanism and
+Discordianism. I tried to, but never really got Nietzsche and felt very much at
+home when reading Robert Anton Wilson. Later on, I picked up many Buddhist
+influences (many distinctly Zen) and some Taoism. I am now more or less a
+Buddhist, but my understanding is still too weak for my taste to fully identify
+as one yet. I belong to no school of thought and my belief system is very
+idiosyncratic. 
+
+I was motivated at first by fascinating problems, then making sense of madness
+and currently understanding consciousness and fate.
+
+In my opinion, the two most important philosopher are the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama,
+for the three principles of [anatta](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatta),
+[anicca](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anicca) and
+[dukkha](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukkha), and [Wang
+Yangming](http://www.iep.utm.edu/wangyang/) for the unity of knowledge and
+action. Without those, no understanding of the world is ever possible.
+
+Survey
+======
+
+A priori knowledge?
+-------------------
+
+No. There is no such thing as knowledge without experience.
+
+Abstract objects: Platonism or nominalism?
+------------------------------------------
+
+Neither. Abstract objects do not exist, but neither do particular ones.
+
+Aesthetic value: objective or subjective?
+-----------------------------------------
+
+Subjective.
+
+Analytic-synthetic distinction: yes or no?
+------------------------------------------
+
+No, as a priori knowledge does not exist.
+
+Epistemic justification: internalism or externalism?
+----------------------------------------------------
+
+Neither. There is no such thing as a distinction between mind and environment.
+
+External world: idealism, skepticism, or non-skeptical realism?
+---------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Skepticism, very similar to the most common Gnostic position.
+
+Free will: compatibilism, libertarianism, or no free will?
+----------------------------------------------------------
+
+There is no free will. Determinism is also provably false. Make of that what you
+will.
+
+God: theism or atheism?
+-----------------------
+
+I believe in fate, which I often personify for easier comprehension. You might
+call that theism and I wouldn't object. I don't believe in any monotheistic god,
+so you might call my an atheist and I wouldn't object either. I have met
+multiple gods, though, and consider them very much real, but I'm unsure of their
+nature. I'm probably best described as a proper agnostic. In contrast to most
+agnostics, I'm not just an "atheist with doubts", but consider atheism and
+theism *both* to be about equally plausible, yet still undecided. Atheism is
+logically somewhat stronger, theism has the bonus of experiential evidence on
+its side. (Yes, I'm aware that most atheist will claim the opposite. I accept
+that, as being able to experience gods is rare among people.)
+
+Knowledge: empiricism or rationalism?
+-------------------------------------
+
+Strongly lean towards empiricism. I consider it very important, but it seems to
+be not exhaustive. I'm still open to alternatives.
+
+Knowledge claims: contextualism, relativism, or invariantism?
+-------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Relativism. There's no such thing as separate knowledge and certainly no
+objective knowledge.
+
+Laws of nature: Humean or non-Humean?
+-------------------------------------
+
+Humean, in the sense that there are no objective laws of nature. All order is
+fictitious.
+
+Logic: classical or non-classical?
+----------------------------------
+
+Very strongly non-classical. Classical logic is absolutely bankrupt and should
+be abandoned asap. I am strongly leaning towards
+[dialetheism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialetheism) and even
+[trivialism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivialism). (A challenge: if you
+believe trivialism is false, find an argument a trivialist can't see as support
+for trivialism.)
+
+Mental content: internalism or externalism?
+-------------------------------------------
+
+Externalism. Again, there is no distinction between mind and world.
+
+Meta-ethics: moral realism or moral anti-realism?
+-------------------------------------------------
+
+Moral nihilism. There is no such thing as morality and you should abandon the
+very concept.
+
+Metaphilosophy: naturalism or non-naturalism?
+---------------------------------------------
+
+Non-naturalism. I reject materialism and without it, I find the distinction into
+natural / non-natural to be a bit silly. 
+
+Mind: Anti-physicalism or physicalism?
+--------------------------------------
+
+Anti-physicalism. I'm a [nondualist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nondualism). I
+strongly reject materialism, including physicalism, and have severe suspicions
+against dualism, but wouldn't rule that one out just yet.
+
+Moral judgment: cognitivism or non-cognitivism?
+-----------------------------------------------
+
+Non-cognitivism. As mentioned, I'm a moral nihilist.
+
+Moral motivation: internalism or externalism?
+---------------------------------------------
+
+Neither. Again, moral nihilism.
+
+Newcomb's problem: one box or two boxes?
+----------------------------------------
+
+One box, expecting the large reward. I play this game with fate all the time and
+completely trust her.
+
+Normative ethics: deontology, consequentialism, or virtue ethics?
+-----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Neither. Again, moral nihilsm. Though I have a lot of sympathy for virtue
+ethics.
+
+Perceptual experience: disjunctivism, qualia theory, representationalism, or sense-datum theory?
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Of those, mostly qualia theory. Otherwise nondualism. The question is far from
+being answered, but anything that rejects the subjective reality of experience
+is simply wrong.
+
+Personal identity: biological view, psychological view, or further-fact view?
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+None. There is no self and no personal identity.
+
+Politics: communitarianism, egalitarianism, or libertarianism?
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Neither. All fail. Solving problems through ideology never works. Solve them
+through experiments.
+
+Proper names: Fregean or Millian?
+---------------------------------
+
+Unsure, though Frege seems to be sensible. I haven't thought much about this
+problem.
+
+Science: scientific realism or scientific anti-realism?
+-------------------------------------------------------
+
+Anti-realism. There is no objective law to be discovered, only new ones to be
+invented.
+
+Teletransporter (new matter): survival or death?
+------------------------------------------------
+
+Rebirth. Literally. (Similarly to sleep.)
+
+Time: A-theory or B-theory?
+---------------------------
+
+Unsure. I'm not familiar with either.
+
+Trolley problem (five straight ahead, one on side track, turn requires
+switching, what ought one do?): switch or don't switch?
+-------------------------------------------------------
+
+Neither, in the sense that there is no such thing as something one "ought" to
+do. Regardless, I would listen to fate and do what she tells me. I can not tell
+ahead what I would do, but I suspect that I most likely would not switch. There
+are rarely choices that are not meant to be taken, and if switching were right,
+it would be too obvious a choice for most people (who would switch), so with me
+getting there, fate already made clear that she is not interested in the most
+common choice and wants someone who is willing to reject switching.
+
+Truth: correspondence, deflationary, or epistemic?
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+Neither, really. I have a lot of sympathy for social constructivism, but would
+probably just reject the concept of truth altogether. Everything is true.
+
+Zombies: inconceivable, conceivable but not metaphysically possible, or metaphysically possible?
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Real. I'm only uncertain how widespread they are. *Most* people are zombies
+without consciousness, but maybe not *all* are, including me. I'm unsure about
+this, still. I have lots of sympathy for radical behaviorism.
+
+[survey]: http://philpapers.org/surveys/