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
A retrospective on my month of daily blogging, what I’ve gotten out of it, why you should do a daily writing project, and advice for doing this well.| 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 overcoming procrastination and paralysis, and making it part of your identity that you take opportunity| Neel Nanda
The short version: Depression has many possible causes, including stressful life events and biological problems like inflammation and hormone imbalances. Any given case of depression might be due to some of these causes and not others. Some people have long-standing mild depression (dysthymia), but more often depression comes in episodes; these usually go away on…| Lorien Psychiatry
One of the most valuable experiments I ever ran was intentionally practicing the skill of making close friends, and this directly led to most of my friends today. This post is the story of that experiment, and distills the lessons learned| Neel Nanda
A common failure mode with problems in your life is to feel helplessness. To feel stuck, and overwhelmed, to flinch away from the idea that you can do anything about it. In this post I argue for why this is often wrong, and what you can do about it.| Neel Nanda
There are many ways your life could be better, many mistakes that feel obvious when pointed out, but which you do nothing about by default. My favourite tool for resolving this is having a routine to regularly review my life - here I make the case for that, and outline how to do it well| Neel Nanda
On the importance of Slack - the freedom and spare capacity left on your life. How to guard and protect your Slack, notice the bottlenecks which bleed away your Slack, notice the drive to optimise that pushes you beyond your limits, and how to channel these insights having the freedom to be excited,| Neel Nanda
A common failure mode is to consistently set your standards for yourself too high, and to always feel guilty for falling short. I diagnose why I think this is a major problem, and outline some of my tools for overcoming this| Neel Nanda
Learning fast and well is one of the most valuable skills you can cultivate, and a force multiplier on everything else you’ll ever do. I outline my philosophy of learning, and my favourite tactics for doing this well| Neel Nanda
Why would we program AI that wants to harm us? Because we might not know how to do otherwise.| Cold Takes