I also claim that the “ghost motion” before moving your arm, and the “how WOULD I go on this diet” simulation are two instances of the same kind of thing.
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Both of these claims come from personal introspection, but the “simulated movement precedes movement” iirc has support from neuroscience. Also, studies show athletes improve performance from *mentally simulating* doing sports, and iirc pro athletes actually do visualize.
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The implication is that it is also literally impossible to go on a diet without mentally simulating *how* you would go on a diet *should* you wish to.
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It is obviously true, but not at all controversial, that you can’t go on a diet if you literally don’t know how. That’s not the point I’m making.
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The point is, since humans are not logically omniscient, that just because you know the declarative fact “Intermittent fasting consists of only eating in an 8-hour window” doesn’t mean you have *created the plan*
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“If I were to do intermittent fasting, when I woke up I would make myself coffee but not breakfast.” + whatever nonverbal simulation is necessary to “prepare to do it.”
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In the psychological literature these are called implementation intentions, and lots of studies claim they work better than baseline for forming new habits.
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When thinking “I should do X” actually causes you to do X, my hypothesis is that the “should” doesn’t cause action directly; it’s the prompt to *think about X*.
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I’ve noticed that often I don’t want to open my terminal window to start writing code. But if I ask myself, “If I *did* code the next part of this project, where would I start?” And once I answer the question, I *do* want to start.
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Replying to @s_r_constantin
What is a good level of resolution to the "where would I start" here? i.e. is "open the terminal and look at file X" sufficient or do you need to simulate a legit plan (or set of possible plans) for how to complete the task before you feel motivated to begin?
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In my case? I need to, before opening the file, recollect "ok, where did I leave off? what was broken/buggy when I last stopped working on this? What's the next thing I can do to solve said bug?"
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