It’s easy to encounter an interesting idea, and really want to act on it, but to never get around it, while feeling a latent sense of guilt. This post is about my tools to translate that guilt into action , and overcome procrastination| Neel Nanda
The first step is often the hardest step. It’s easy to procrastinate, to get stuck, to feel overwhelmed, and to do nothing while feeling constant guilt. This post is about my toolkit for getting past this| Neel Nanda
Why optimisation is the correct action by definition, and responses to common objections and mistakes| Neel Nanda
An incredibly useful way to improve the way that I’m living my life is to run experiments on myself. Where by “experiment”, I mean to explicitly change something about how I live my life, follow this plan for some period of time, and then explicitly track how it went, and what I learned from this. F| Neel Nanda
A common trap, especially for quantitatively minded people, is to ignore your emotions and intuitions as “irrational”. I outline why I think this is a clear error, and how I try to balance between listening to my emotions and not letting them hold me back| Neel Nanda
The default state of the world is that things are inefficient, that 20% of the effort put in results in 80% of the output. This is a fundamental part of how I see the world, and this post outlines how I have internalised this idea, and how to pursue the clever hacks that can make things better| Neel Nanda
About how and why the habit of actually thinking about something for 5 minutes is an incredibly powerful tool for solving problems and being more creative| Neel Nanda
How to look at problems in your life, overcome helplessness, and see them as things to be solved| Neel Nanda
On the mindset of “thinking in systems” as a way to solve personal problems, and structuring my life so I do the right things with the minimal use of willpower.| Neel Nanda
A lot of my problems boil down to an attachment to safe options, and a desire to not put myself out there. I try to dissect where this error comes from, and propose concrete actions to overcome it.| Neel Nanda
Why and how you should optimise for being a nicer person| Neel Nanda
Friendships are a really important part of my life, and I think a standard approach to friendship is nowhere near as good as it could be. I outline the basic principles of how I think about friendships, and how I try to put them into practice| Neel Nanda
The Skill of Noticing Emotions (Thanks to Eli Tyre and Luke Raskopf for helping teach me the technique. And thanks to Nora Ammann, Fin Moorhouse, Ben…| www.lesswrong.com
Why prioritisation is incredibly important, and how to get started on figuring out your goals| Neel Nanda
On intrinsic motivation, and how to feel it more often| Neel Nanda
Life is full of opportunities with upside risk , a known cost, but a chance of a massive upside. This post is about why we miss out on so many, and how to fill your life with them| Neel Nanda
On the importance of having true beliefs about myself, seeking feedback, and receiving it constructively.| Neel Nanda
On overcoming procrastination and paralysis, and making it part of your identity that you take opportunity| Neel Nanda