And what of serendipity? I find sometimes my best ideas hit me out of nowhere when I happen to observe something seemingly unrelated that I then tie back to the problem I'm trying to solve. A random stimulus sometimes causes ideas to bump up against each other which otherwise never would have. I have also read of several recent studies that show that performance actually improves after distractions and/or breaks.
When I was in high school, I participated for several years in a Number Sense competition, which consisted of taking a 10 minute high-speed test in which math problems had to be solved without showing any work or correcting any answers. Skipping or missing problems resulted in negative points, so the goal was to get as far through the 80 problems as possible without missing or skipping any. Each school year I would practice daily, gradually improving my score. Then, I would relax over the summer break. When I returned to school again the next fall, I would find my score had jumped up far above what it would have been had I continued to improve at the same rate that I did while I was practicing daily. I suspect the resting time allowed the concepts to go "offline" temporarily and be reorganized in my head, which could not be done as effectively while I had to keep them ready for active use. Most people would just call it getting a fresh perspective. Don't underestimate the value of self-maintenance, either. A healthy, happy mind is capable of much more than one constantly under stress, and being asocial is definitely stressful for most people, as is being in pain or focusing for too long without a rest period. It's not just about how much time you spend thinking about the task at hand; the quality of thought during that time is also important. I don't believe the human brain is designed for constant focus. It seems more likely, given our evolutionary history, that it is designed for spurts of high-intensity focus with frequent rests in between. So you might find your average productivity rate increases when you allow yourself to alternate between focusing and resting, so long as resting isn't excessive. Being overly obsessive is probably not in your best interest. On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 12:03 PM, Boris Kazachenko <[email protected]>wrote: > ** > > A (not so) new conclusion on my intro ( > *http://www.cognitivealgorithm.info*): > > … I am deeply convinced that main challenge we face in formalizing GI is > our specie-wide ADHD… > Our cognitive psychology, lagging a light year behind our technology, is > addicted to mental crutches of authority, examples, & experimentation, > while theoretical integrity is neglected & abused. > > It’s pretty obvious that AGI is by far the most important problem now. > Yet, not one out of 7B people pays it his full attention. A handful of > people claim to do so, but they all find excuses to fluff & tinker, at the > expense of building coherent theory. To me, it’s a stark proof that a > dressed-up ape desperately needs therapy. I’ve experimented with various > methods to focus on my meta-theory, with subjective success. For those who > like the results (above), I posted suggestions on my other blog: > > > *Cultivating focus on extreme generalizations**.* > > > Sustaining *top-down attention* is critical for anything complex, > especially a theoretical breakthrough. Such ability is scarce because we > evolved to focus on here & now survival, while far & future was > back-of-the-mind luxury. Modern society is drastically more secure, but our > attention spans lag far behind. Almost anyone can become a world-changing > genius, if he spends 10 years fully focused on important problem… at the > cost of so-called “life“: unthinkable for ADHD- addled hunter-gatherers we > still are. > > Attention span as discussed here is not simply a duration of focus on a > given subject. Rather, it’s a relative strength of higher cortical areas, > which represent generalized experience, in selecting subjects for focused > attention. For me, selection & basic understanding of *my top priority* came > early & easy. But actually maintaining effective focus on important stuff > in spite of ubiquitous distractions was far more difficult. Over the years, > I majorly improved my concentration thanks to these observations: > > > *Practice, externalizing thoughts, & avoiding distractions:* > > > Practice forms increasingly redundant representations, differentiated by > their context to explore alternative scenarios. Such redundancy is key to > maintaining subconsciously searching threads, even when your consciousness > is distracted. It also fills up memory & starves unrelated subjects out of > resources. This is very important: irrelevant memories keep competing for > our attention until well forgotten. But we need a conducive environment to > facilitate this virtuous cycle of practicing. > > The most basic working environment is a notepad or a computer screen, so > we need to fill them with a well designed write-up of the subject matter. > The brain, quite obviously, has plenty of memory for a few pages of text, > scarce resource here is attention. Writing down thoughts simply turns them > into a sensory feedback, which attracts attention much better than > internalized abstractions. Also helps a motor feedback, such as vocalizing, > writing by hand, semi-random editing/ re-arranging text or code. > > Even more critical is concise & cohesive (thus memorable) terminology, > abbreviations, & symbols, - small enough to keep reverberating within one’s > *working memory*. To build a coherent mental model, one should be using/ > designing a dedicated pseudo-language, with subject-specific syntax & > semantics. Just as important is a macro-structure: comprehensive write-up > with regular & contextually integral paragraphs & parts. Basically, one > should always try go for quality vs. quantity, continuously refining, > consolidating, & extending old articles or programs, rather than piling-up > new loosely related ones. > > Of course, we’re social animals, & our most important “environment” is the > people we deal with. > Hence the urge to bounce our ideas & decisions off others: it forces us to > focus on the implications. Your listener's attention (if credible) > stimulates yours, even if he doesn't really contribute anything. One > solution is a socially-imposed institutional environment, as in a good > university or a company. > But that requires societal consumer competence, which is sorely lacking in > relatively generalized fields. > > Absent relevant stimulation (be honest about “relevant“), one must block > the irrelevant one, AKA life. Real-life socializing is almost always > meaningless, at least compared to impersonal reading & writing. But people > are so desperate to belong that they will settle for the least irrelevant > group they can join, even obviously detrimental to their stated purpose. > Suppressing this urge is a must for any significant progress. However > miserable social isolation feels at first, avoiding distractions is an > effective way to ultimately focus: broadly stimulated brain always does > something, so attention is a zero-sum game. Anyway, social stimulation can > be largely replaced by “pseudo-social” one: writing or talking to oneself. > > Beside socializing, the worst attention hog now is the web, & my solution > is rationing. Unless there is something urgent or work-related (unlikely), > I only connect for ~2 hours once a day. Sticking to it was a challenge, I > have to use *“Freedom“*(& highly recommend it) to keep myself honest. > This sounds trivial, but staying off-line made a huge difference to my > concentration. And I am not even talking about cell phones, - never > considered catching that plague. > Also helps using a specific desk, computer, & times of the day only for > work, down to locking oneself in. Such *cognitive behavioral therapy* is > also useful with insomnia & other self-control problems. > > But even more insidious, at least for a generalist like me, are internal > distractions: wandering thoughts. Just recently, I came up with a low-tech > solution: thought conditioning. Positive conditioning of relevant > thoughts seems impractical because the delay is too long, but the negative > one is very simple & old-fashioned: catch yourself thinking about some > obvious distractions, & slap your face hard. Eventually, these subjects > become subconsciously unpleasant, & you will stop thinking about them. Even > the habit of specifically monitoring thoughts for distractions already > helps to terminate them. > > A less direct form of thought conditioning is via *neurofeedback*, article. > I currently use, with moderate success, very simple feedback: every day, I > write down the number of hours spent effectively focused on work, > translating total number of hours spent into top 10% out of recent working > hours. > More advanced neurofeedback may become possible in relatively near future > by *visualizing* subject-associated cortical activity via transcranial > imaging, such as EEG, fMRI, or *infrared spectroscopy*. > > Ideally, we should be able to directly stimulate or condition cortical > areas that represent the subject we want to focus on, via transcranial > direct current, magnetic fields, ultrasound, or even implants. > Big-picture intellectual integrity should be improved by stimulating left > *dorsolateral prefrontal cortex*: the last to myelinate during > development & containing most general concepts, thus *executive function*. > > BCI-assisted control over the focus of one's attention will be the most > profound revolution yet, - it will change what we want out of life. But, > waiting for the technology might leave you hopelessly behind those who > cultivate their attention the old-fashioned way. > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/23050605-2da819ff> | > Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
