June 2008

Critical Thinking Rocks, But Don’t Overdo It! – A Conversation With Ben Seeley

by Vlad Dolezal on June 28, 2008

Dear readers, today I’ve got a very special post for you! I’ve convinced Ben Seeley to co-write today’s blog post with me. Ben is a screenwriter, and has twice won the World Othello Championships (the board game – nothing to do with Shakespeare’s play!). He’s also very interested in using the human mind to its full potential (wink wink ^^. In case you haven’t noticed, that’s the new tagline of my blog). In this post we discuss critical thinking, and what happens when we overdo it!

Vlad: Hi Ben, thanks for agreeing to co-write this post with me.

Ben: My pleasure! I’ve been admiring your blog from afar, and now I can’t help but seize the opportunity to jump in, head first.

Vlad: So, what got you interested in the human mind?

Ben: Well, we’ve all got one, so what is it good for? How can we have as much fun with it as possible? If we don’t understand it, we can’t use it wisely!
One basic trick I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of is to notice when an unusual urge arises. For example, if I suddenly want to eat Mexican food, even though I normally have no attraction for it, I go for it (and I’m usually glad that I did, enjoying it much more than I normally do). If the urge doesn’t come from strong conditioning, there is probably a very good reason for it.

Vlad: Hey, I like that trick!

Ben: Now, Mexican food is a very mundane example, but I’m a firm believer that we can’t be creative and intelligent on the macro level, if we have no practice on the micro level. Following our inexplicable, spontaneous urges is just as valid for things like- talking to an unfamiliar person, learning a foreign language, playing a musical instrument, or even changing careers (if you do what you safely can, and the urge persists as you keep pulling on the thread of interest, you will be surprised how much your life can change for the better). It’s precisely because you can’t explain the urge, that it has the potential to rock your world!

Vlad: Yeah, I agree. I found that stuff doesn’t need to be rational to be useful. I enjoy acting on irrational desires. Like, I read somewhere online that Toastmasters public speaking classes are great. So I figured “Hey, I’ll give them a shot!”. I found my local Toastmasters club, went there for one meeting as a guest, and I loved it, so I signed up to be a member. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself!
Or, some time ago, I heard about the artificial language Esperanto (it’s designed to be clean and simple. Apparently it’s six times easier to learn than English). So I figured I’d learn it. I learned a bit from on-line courses, and this summer I’m going to a summer camp for Esperanto learners. It’s not something you can find a logical reason for. It just felt right, so I went for it! Maybe it will be the next “Toastmasters” for me :)

Ben: That’s wonderful, and a great example of what I’m talking about! A critical person would probably mock you for learning a made-up language that has few speakers. Hell, learning Esperanto is pretty inexplicable even to me. But, if you don’t have any conscious idea of why you are attracted to it, you will probably find out by doing it. Maybe learning Esperanto will make it easier for you to learn other languages. Or, as happens with a lot of hobbies, you will meet people you like a lot, which rocks!

Ben: I think modern life makes optimism more rewarding. And we need to adapt our minds to the new world, rather than let our brains stay stuck in old-world approaches.
Today, getting separated from the herd doesn’t make you prey to wild animals or another tribe, like it once did. With our modern medical care, breaking a bone on an adventure, or getting sick, is not nearly as life-threatening as it once was. You also aren’t going to get stoned to death if you offend other people, just by living your life how you want to live it. It isn’t even a real problem to get shunned- with 7 billion people out there, there’s always lots more potential friends, just WAITING to find another rare, interesting person who is willing to be himself or herself.
In the past, even if being pessimistic, angry, or cautious, was the less rewarding strategy 99% of the time, but it saved your life 1% of the time, it was probably worth keeping. But today, optimism is the better way to go – no matter how stupid a person may be, almost everyone in modern society lives past 50, and hardly anyone ever has trouble finding shelter and food. But, most people don’t recognize the new reality, and adjust their instincts to the better life available to them.

Vlad: Yeah, I’ve written about optimism before. Interestingly, most pessimists I know call themselves “realistic”. But I read somewhere that 90% of all negative expectations we have never come true. (And my experiences with the pessimists confirm this.) Who’s being realistic now, huh? :)

Ben: Haha, right. The optimist is thinking “Realistic? You’re blocking the better reality”. I suppose the pessimist’s rejoinder is “better safe than sorry”, “live to fight another day”, and all that jazz.

Vlad: Sure, you need a bit of caution, like not walking on narrow slippery ledges above 200 meter drops, but most pessimists just overkill it. Ever died of talking to a stranger in a public place?

Ben: Sometimes old instincts get triggered for completely inappropriate reasons. For example, some people have a strong fight-or-flight escape urge when confronted by social situations. A sense of overwhelm which used to represent a lion attack, is now triggered by something quite harmless.
This shows up a lot in the realm of “new ideas”. A new haircut, a new scientific idea, a new software program- these are not like going into unknown wilderness, or trying to eat an unknown plant. There’s very little survival risk; at worst a little time and energy are “wasted”. But with our long lifespans, we have plenty of time and energy to spare !

Vlad: Yeah. It’s interesting that when you propose something new or unusual, lots of people start to attack you as if you wanted to use their energy or time. I read this excellent article by Bill Beaty, who’s a scientist. He’s had first-hand experience of the establishment attacking new ideas before even examining the evidence, simply because they didn’t fit in with the current ideas. That’s critical thinking gone haywire.
Here, let me paste an interesting quote from that article:

In the Encyclopedia of Ignorance, R. A. Lyttleton proposes that one’s belief in a particular hypothesis is like a bead which slides along a wire. One end of the wire represents 100% disbelief, and the other end shows 0% disbelief (or 100% acceptance.) Nothing prevents the bead from falling off the ends of the wire. Since all theories are tentative, proper scientists should strive to keep their “beads” somewhere between 0% and 100%. However, many otherwise intelligent people have been convinced to move their beads regarding contemporary science theories to the position of 100% belief, whereupon their “beads” fall off the wire and their beliefs can can no longer be altered. At the same time, they move their “fringe science” beads to 100% disbelief, whereupon the beads fall off the other end of the wire and are nearly impossible to restore. Then, whenever a piece of “fringe” science gives signs of being proved valid, those fallen-bead skeptics must launch remorseless emotional attacks against it. Or, when a piece of solid mainstream science starts to look shaky, they must leap to blind defense of the dogma. This is entirely sensible, because their alternative is to court insanity.


Vlad: You can read the rest of the article. It’s really interesting. And I think it applies to everyday life as well as science. Most people realize it’s a bad idea to let your bead fall off the end that says “100% belief”. We call these people gullible. But we, as a society, haven’t fully realized that 100% disbelief is just as dangerous. (By the way there’s a great article called My favorite liar. It’s about a teacher who had an awesome way of teaching his students critical thinking.)

Ben: Very true. Reflexively critical people have an egotistic, rankist urge. They want to adopt a posture which makes it appear they have superior judgment. They’re no different than dogs, always trying to assert dominance by mounting any new dog.
Interestingly, so-called “ignorant” people are usually more willing to entertain the possibility of wacky things being true. Life teaches them humility more frequently than it teaches the intelligentsia.

Vlad: Speaking of pathologically critical people being egoistic, I think it’s similar with pessimists. They make themselves feel worse 95% of the time. But the one time out of twenty, they get to say “I told you so!” and feel good. It’s almost like gambling. You get to feel good once in a while, so you keep doing it, even though overall you lose.

Ben: Wow, that’s an amazing point! I never considered that pessimism could be a form of addiction. But “the feeling of being right” absolutely has the potential to be addictive. So much so, that people would be tempted to assume they were right too soon, just to cut straight to the rush of “Yeah, I’m right, suck that!”.
Pessimists also get the idea of “risk” all wrong, because caution is NOT safer than adventurousness. I learned this as a passenger in my friend Eric’s car. I have never, ever seen him get passed on the freeway. One day we were on a long road trip, and I asked him how many accidents he had been in, and how many speeding tickets he had gotten. He replied “none, and none”. I was shocked! I realized then that since he was always pushing the edge, he was more alert, which made him less vulnerable to accidents and cops. I always felt safe as a passenger when he was driving, and boy was it so much more fun.
So do what wakes you up and makes you feel alive, and don’t worry so much about what seems like extra risk. And besides, the conscious mind is not responsible for safety reflexes- our unconscious, autonomous nervous system is responsible for basic physical safety. Evolution does not trust our conscious mind, the slowest one, to do this job. So, relax your conscious worries, and let your reptilian brain worry about the gory stuff.

Vlad: You just totally reminded me of one quote:


“There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”
- John F. Kennedy

I used to be a shy don’t-stir-any-waves don’t-get-noticed kind of guy. But I found it’s much better to take action. It leads to a better life than just coasting along within your comfort zones. Yes, I often get rejected. Yes, I often look dumb in front of other people. I realized that’s no big deal. Getting what I want in life is more important than looking “cool”.

Ben: People probably admire you for it, anyway. It makes you much more interesting.

Vlad: Okay, back to critical thinking. I always make it a point to keep some doubt about what people say, even if they’re world class experts. (I never let my bead slide off the 100% belief side of the wire.) Yes, I trust them. I trust them a lot. But even if they’re right a hundred times, they could still be wrong the next time. I watch for that.

Ben: Have there been any times that has paid off big, when you kept the tiniest bit of doubt or hope about something?

Vlad: Off the top of my head, this happened in my high school economics class. The teacher taught us something I thought was wrong. I tried correcting him, but he wouldn’t listen, so I just wrote down in my notebook what he said, and I noted down what I thought was really right. Then, when an exam came up, I was the only one who got the right answer. Everybody else just copied what the teacher said. (The teacher meanwhile forgot he taught us the wrong answer.) Sort of reminds you of My Favorite Liar. (except my teacher wasn’t doing it on purpose)

Ben: When I was in high school, I was an avid runner. And when I would read accounts of famous runners in history, the authors would always chalk up their performance to “talent”, especially the great times they had when they first started competing. But, I really didn’t see how genetic talent could explain why they were so fast right off the bat, when most healthy athletes did not have those times after several years of hard training.
So, I researched the backgrounds these “superathletes” had when they were young. It turned out, every superathlete had done a tremendous amount of exercise, usually in some other sport, starting when they were very young. Roger Bannister, the first man to run the mile in under 4 minutes, did no real training until he joined the Cambridge track team at 19. And right away, he was running the mile in under 4:20. But, in his autobiography, he mentioned that as a youth he would ride an old, heavy bicycle around the beautiful countryside, “up to 70 miles in a day”. That’s a lot! It also explained his ridiculously long, bounding stride.

Vlad: Oh, I just remembered! I’m very very careful when I hear “everybody knows that” truths. Everybody knows that to be a top pianist you need to practice ten hours a day. (Nope. One hour is more than enough. See Fundamentals of Piano Exercise.) Everybody knows you can’t gain 34 lbs. of muscle in 4 weeks without taking steroids. (Nope. Read Tim Ferris’ account of how he did it. Plus, he only went to the gym for a total of 4 hours!) Everybody knows it’s impossible to get by with just two hours of sleep every day. (Nope. Check out my post about Uberman’s Sleep Schedule.)
It’s one thing believing experts. But believing some ethereal “everybody”, that’s just silly :)

Ben: Just a couple more examples (I could list dozens)- Alan Webb, American record holder in the mile, didn’t start running until his freshman year in high school. But he had been a competitive swimmer before that, and by his sophomore track season he ran the mile in under 4:07, setting the national record for sophomores. Lance Armstrong, winner of 7 Tour de France cycling titles, was a triathlete from a young age. If someone looked at his initial cycling times in his late teens, with no idea he had been running, cycling, and swimming thousands of miles before the switch, they would have assumed he was pure talent. Not true. There is such a thing as talent, but most things are really some form of effort, when it comes right down to it.
I put this insight to good use. I hadn’t done much exercising as a kid, but I immediately started bicycling, weightlifting, calisthenics, swimming, swimming with flippers, trampolining, tai chi, even running on the road with a wood pallet strapped behind me (thank God we lived in the country!). Whatever parts of my body had been less-used after running, I used on cross-training. In one year I went from being the slowest runner on my team to the fastest runner my age, for our region.

Vlad: There’s one more related thing we talked about that would probably interest our readers. You said that a lot of criticism comes from stress.

Ben: Stress is a feeling of lacking resources, of inherently being at risk. This makes us cautious and critical of anything outside our very narrow comfort zone. Unfortunately, it’s easy to feel stressed out, even if we have a great deal of resources. I’ve personally known at least three millionaires who were so stressed out (from work, poor health, loneliness, paranoia), that they were unwilling to use the resource which they had in abundance (money), to invest in the area which was stressing them out (necessary medical care, a vacation or some other relaxant, fulfilling promises to others).
The physical mechanisms of stress, the hormone cortisol, the higher heart rate, the brain state of stress (which narrows a person’s focus, preventing them from seeing the big picture), all impede good judgment. The Programmer’s Stone has a lot of information about this phenomena. It mostly deals with the context of programming, but really it applies to any kind of thinking that isn’t habitual, easy stuff.

Vlad: Yeah, I can see why depressed or low-energy people would act critical. They’re defending their already limited energy reserves. So, if someone feels like being critical a lot of the time, the first thing I would recommend is checking their diet and doing some exercise. It’s amazing how much your diet affects your energy levels. And the great thing about exercise is that it leaves you with more energy, not less. (If you’re not used to exercising, even a brisk walk does wonders).

Ben: Even using a relaxation technique (like what you detailed in your relaxation article), can do wonders. Feeling good makes it easier to think well, and thus do well. Just to relax improves judgment.

Vlad: Alright, we’re running over time, it’s time to wrap up. Do you have any last words you’d like to say to the readers?

Ben: My experience, my feeling, is that good critical thinking usually opens better doors than it shuts. The critical consensus of the athletic community, that talent is the best explanation for superathletes, is wrong. And it shuts doors in people’s faces, giving them no useful information. My critical thinking about this consensus, my doubt, was different- it opened doors, leading me to discover cross-training, which was very effective for me.
If critical thinking is causing you to be skeptical about every single opportunity, it’s almost certainly wrong. Good critical thinking may shut a lot of doors along the way, but in the end it will help you find the door which is worth opening. Life should steadily become bigger and better, not smaller.

Vlad: Ah, yes. As Bill Beaty said: be skeptical of excess skepticism.

Ben: Well said.

Vlad: Thanks for the conversation. I got a lot from you, and I’m sure the readers got a lot, too. Bye, and good luck with your screenwriting!

Ben: Adios, amigo :) .

Vlad: plop

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Uberman’s sleep schedule – (Six Incredibly Awesome Mind States You Can Experience)

by Vlad Dolezal on June 25, 2008

How much time do you spend sleeping every day? I’m guessing it’s about 8 hours. Would you like to spend less time sleeping, and more time doing stuff you enjoy? Without being tired?

One guy called Uberman thought he would like exactly that. So he did some research into sleep, and found that of the 5 sleep phases that happen during normal sleep, only one is absolutely vitally important. It’s the 5th phase, called REM (rapid eye movement). It’s the phase during which dreaming happens.

You get about one and a half hours of REM sleep every night, spaced out throughout the night in 10-20 minute chunks. Uberman figured that if you could remove all the non-essential sleep, and only keep the REM, you would have 22-hour waking days. He experimented for a long time,and finally found a method that works.

It involves taking a 20-minute nap every 4 hours. That’s a total of 2 hours of sleep every 24-hour period.

It takes about a week for your brain to adjust. At first, it’s trying to go through the sleep phases in normal order. But it never gets to the REM sleep because you wake yourself up after 20 minutes. After a week (by this time you’re feeling like a total zombie), the brain finally realizes what you’re up to and adjusts. It jumps straight into REM the moment you fall asleep. And voila, you have 22 hours of waking time. Plus, you have actually more energy than normally! By the time you start feeling tired, it’s time for another nap.

When I first heard about it, I just knew I had to try it! It’s sooo totally nuts! So I did some preparation (like a huge to-do list to keep myself busy during the time it takes to switch) and gave it a shot. I thought I would make it.

Right. I got through my to-do list in about a day and a half, and started getting bored. I aborted the try after 4 days, since I realized I had no idea how I would fill 22-hour days.

Uberman’s sleep schedule is not for everyone. In fact, it’s for about one person in a thousand. But hey, it’s so totally nuts I just had to include it here!

Benefits of the Uberman sleep schedule:

  • 22-hour waking days. Seriously, what else do you want?
  • more energy than usual (unless you miss a nap). By the time you start getting tired, it’s time for another nap. So on average, each hour of your 22-hour day will be more productive than during your usual 16-hour days.

Drawbacks:

  • 22 hours is a lot of time. You can get bored very easily.
  • if you miss a nap, you’ll become a complete zombie until you get the next two naps in on time.
  • the schedule is very inflexible. You can’t move the naps around much.
  • it one week of getting used to. During this week, you’ll be a total zombie from sleep deprivation. It takes time for your brain to adjust and realize you want to get your REM sleep as soon as you lie down.

You can see there are some heavy drawbacks. The schedule is only for someone determined enough to stick through the transition period (one week is a lot longer than you think). You also need to be the kind of person who can fill a 22-hour day full of meaningful action and still complain about lack of time. Basically the mad genius type who’d accomplish twice as much as a normal human being anyway.

When I tried the switch, I went through some serious sleep deprivation (that’s normal for the transition period). I had some fun experiences with that, though.

Like one day I set my alarm clock, lied down on my bed, laid my head on my pillow, and the alarm clock sounded. I slowly got up and looked at it. Twenty minutes had passed in what felt like one second. It was the fastest I’ve ever gone to sleep in my life.

If you want to know a lot more about Uberman’s sleep schedule, check out Steve Pavlina’s account of his experiences. He successfully switched to the schedule and slept according to it for about five months. In the end he stopped because he had some changes in his life and couldn’t fit in the one-nap-every-four-hours anymore.

You can also find a lot more info there that would help you make the switch yourself, if you want to.

I’ll probably try switching again at some point in my life. But before that, I need to figure out how I would fill a 22-hour day!

Update, October 2010: More than two years since writing this post, I finally got a chance to try switching to Uberman! You can read all about my experiences here.

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Accept Responsibility for Your Own Life

by Vlad Dolezal on June 21, 2008

It was early spring in Northern Europe. Two brothers, called Chirrup and Spish were born. They were birds. They had a happy childhood. They ate together and slept together. They learned to fly for the first time together. Then their father taught them good places where to hunt worms. Fall came. And then, one day, their father died in a hunting accident, where a cat leaped at him out of a nearby bush as he was fighting a worm. The brothers were decimated.

Winter came near, and the weather grew increasingly cold. Chirrup told Spish: “Come on, we’ve go to travel south, we’ll freeze if we stay here.”
“No, thanks, I’ll be fine right here. I’ve lived here my whole life, there’s no point moving somewhere now.”
“But the winter’s coming!”
“No, I prefer staying here. I know all the hunting spots and hideouts here. I don’t want to travel to unknown lands.”
“Whatever.”

So Chirrup flew south, and Spish eventually froze to death. Because he preferred to stay within his comfort zones, even when circumstances changed. He refused to take responsibility for his own life.

Lots of people refuse to accept the responsibility for their own lives. They go through life in denial, or acting like a victim. (“Why does this always happen to me?”) By doing that they give up any chance for changing their own life for the better. Because that’s the first requirement of self-improvement – accepting responsibility for your own life.

Sure, you don’t control the weather. You can’t accept responsibility for the fact that it rains. (You could technically accept blamee for rain. But you can’t accept responsibility for it. Unless you own one of those airplanes with which you fly above the clouds and drop salt crystals on them to make them rain. But that’s not my point.) You’re not responsible for the rain. But you’re responsible for how you react to the rain.

Do you get angry and upset when rain ruins your plans? Or do you just go “Meh, can’t control the weather.” and then go do something else?

Accept things as they are

A large part of accepting responsibility for your own life is accepting things as they are. If you suck at singing (like me), don’t go around pretending you’re the greatest singer in the world. Accept you suck. Then you have a chance to change it, if you care about it. You could get advice or take singing classes. You definitely wouldn’t allow yourself to take singing classes if you went around pretending your singing is perfect.

That’s the amazing effect of accepting things the way they are. You can start working on changing them. You’ll no longer feel compelled to say “Hey, I’m a great singer. I don’t need to work on it.” I for example suck at improvisation and being spontaneous. I’m often too analytical, too much in my head. I accept it, and I’m working on becoming more spontaneous. I’ll take comedy improv classes as soon as I get a chance.

Imagine a kid who wants to be a doctor. He could either buy a white robe and a stethoscope and go around listening to people’s breath, pretending to be a doctor. Or he could accept that he’s not a doctor yet, and take the necessary steps to get there. Go to college, study medicine, do doctor training, whatever it takes.

Now I’m not saying it’s wrong for a kid to pretend to be a doctor. It’s fine, as long as the kid isn’t using that as a substitute for actually becoming a doctor, if that’s what he really wants. I certainly wouldn’t want to become a professional evil overlord. But I’d bloody well love to dress up in a Darth Vader costume and walk around going… *loud breath in*… *loud breath out* … *loud breath in* “I … am … your … father!”

Are you stuck in the future?

A long time ago, one man lived in small town. When he turned thirty, he grew restless. He told his friends and family: “I am tired of this small town. I want to see new places. I will travel to the end of the world.” They urged him to stay, but he was adamant, so finally they let him go.

He travelled for a long time. He visited exotic countries where fruits were as big as a man’s head, countries where steeds of sheep were counted in thousands, countries with mountains so high that their peaks reached above the clouds. But he was never satisfied. He always grew restless after a few days, and looked longingly at the horizon. Soon he found himself travelling again. The end of the world was much farther than he’d expected, but he was going to reach it.

So he travelled further, and when he reached an ocean, he didn’t even pause to look in awe at the huge mass of water. He immediately searched for a way to keep travelling. He found help from traders in a port, and crossed the ocean.

He travelled for ten ten years, every day looking at the horizon, hoping he would finally reach the end of the world. And then, one sunny spring morning, he thought to himself “This place looks familiar.” He had reached his home town.

He went to his friends and family, and they had a huge celebration of his return. He started telling them of his journey, and only now he realized how many amazing things he’d seen and experienced. He marvelled at how far he’d come. Yet he didn’t even think of that while he was travelling, he was set too firmly on his target, the horizon. He never paused to smell the roses along the road, so to speak.

At that moment, he was enlightened, and spent the rest of his time in this world enjoying every single day as it came.

Like the above man, some people are permanently stuck in the future. Want to feel really bad about yourself? Do this quick exercise: Think of where you would ideally like to be. The skills you would like to have. The people you would like to know. Stuff you would like to own. Imagine it really vividly. (Really, do.) Now look at where you are now. Isn’t that really far from your ideal life? … Dude, you suck! :)

Ok, now let’s feel good about ourselves. Think of your life one year ago. Who were you back then? What did you know? Realize how far you have come since. How much you have learned, how much you have grown in character. If you’re like me, you’ll be amazed at how far you’ve come in one year.

Now think of what you have now (yet again). Think of all the things you wished for in the past, and have now. A stable job, or a nice wide-screen TV, or someone special in your life. Take a moment to marvel at all the good things in your life. This is something I talked about in my 5 Simple Ways to Increase Your Happiness. Regularly focusing on the good things you have in your life, rather than all the things you don’t have, will make you much happier.

Now I’m not saying you should spend all your time in the present, like a ship without a steering wheel and maps. The past is useful because it contains valuable lessons, and the future is useful because you can plan where you’re heading. But similarly to the man in the above story, getting stuck in the future will only result in you waking up one day, being seventy years old, and realizing you never took the chance to enjoy your life.

You can’t control the past. You can’t directly control the future. Therefore if you accept the responsibility for your own life, you might want to spend more time in the present. Because you can only make changes and decisions in the present moment. You are shaping your future now!

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Random News:

I’m doing the one hundred push-ups challenge. Basically it’s a training program that promises that six weeks from now, I’ll be able to do one hundred good form push-ups in a row. (I can do twenty now). You can check out their website: One hundred pushups.

I’m not 100% convinced I can get to a hundred push-ups in just six weeks. But I’m keeping an open mind. Right now I feel about 80% confident it’s going to work. I’ll post an update on how I’m doing in two weeks.

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Complete Relaxation – (Six Incredibly Awesome Mind States You Can Experience)

by Vlad Dolezal on June 18, 2008

The first Incredibly Awesome mind state I talked about is Lucid Dreaming. Today’s post is about the second one.

I first read about complete relaxation in a book about yoga. The gist of it is that you lie down comfortably on your back, then stay completely still and systematically relax every part of your body. After a few minutes, you stop feeling your legs and arms (in a good way. Sort of like going to sleep.), and then other parts of your body. You stay in this state for some 15-30 minutes, and then slowly come back to normal life. You feel absolutely awesome. Refreshed, amazingly relaxed, full of energy and happy.

If you’re thinking this would take up too much of your time, you might ponder this koan:

Cemil was driving his car along a country road at 60 mph. He was going on holiday, and he wanted to drive as far as possible by sunset, to have a shorter journey ahead of him tomorrow. He was driving behind a bright yellow minivan, and saw it signal as it turned to a gas station. He considered refuelling too, but then he thought “No, I’m not going to stop, I want to get as far as possible by sunset.”

Two hours later, Cemil’s car started to run out of gas. He decided to slow down to a more efficient speed so that it wouldn’t run out completely. He slowed down to 40 mph, a bit later to 20, and edged along the road that way. Then, all of a sudden, he saw the bright yellow minivan come up behind him and overtake him.

At that moment, Cemil was enlightened.

Spending time with complete relaxation is like spending time refuelling your car. It’s going to make the rest of your day much happier and more effective. If you take half an hour to relax, you will get more done, not less.

I’ll also explain the science behind it. It’s not some mushy squishy spiritual stuff. The reason you stop feeling your body is all real physical phenomena – motor neurons, sensory neurons and what happens to them when you relax completely. More detail later.

I’m not saying you should try this. I don’t believe in the word should. I’m saying that it’s an awesome experience and I believe you’ll love it if you try it. It’s really easy, just read through the following instructions once, then find a quiet place for 20-30 minutes, and you’re ready!

Detailed instructions

1. Lie down comfortably on your back.
I usually do this in my bed. Don’t use a pillow, it bends your spine in a wrong way for this, and prevents you from relaxing completely. Shuffle yourself around until you find a comfortable position. Your legs should be slightly spread apart, your arms parallel to your body with palms turned slightly upward. Cover yourself with a blanket or something, because your body temperature will drop as you relax. You don’t want to start feeling cold.

2. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing.
First notice your breath going in and out. Just notice it without changing it for three full breaths (in and out). Then start slowing your breathing down, especially the outbreath. The goal is to have every outbreath last about twice as long as every inbreath. You might notice you automatically start breathing deeper. That’s a good thing.

3. Start systematically relaxing your body from the bottom up.
Start with your legs, because they contain the biggest muscles. Those are the easiest to relax. It also leaves your face, with hundreds of little muscles, till the end. Start by focusing on your toes, your sole of the foot, the muscles around your ankles, your shins, and so on. The more individual muscles you focus on, the better. Follow the relaxation upwards this way, from your legs, your torso (front and back, the back can be tricky at first), then your shoulders, neck and the head (described in point 4.). Then relax your arms from the fingers to the shoulders, then the shoulders, neck, and your head again. Your face contains lots of little hard-to-relax muscles, that’s why we relax it twice.

Repeat relaxing your whole body (starting with legs) for a second and maybe even a third time. You might notice that when you go through for the second time around, some of the muscles have contracted again. That’s normal. Gently relax them once more.

Pay special attention to the following:

  • your lower back (it’s tricky to relax at first)
  • your shoulders (they accumulate lots of tension during the day)
  • your neck (same as the shoulders)

By the time you’re done with the third tour, you might stop feeling some of the parts of your body. How and why this works is described in more detail later on.

4. Relaxing your head and face

Start with your cheeks. Gently relax all the muscles in your cheeks. Then relax your jaw, and your tongue. Your tongue will lie down in your mouth completely relaxed. Let your jaw drop a bit, but without opening your mouth. Move along the line of your jaw, relaxing all the muscles along the way, ending behind your ears.

The general direction you follow in relaxing your face is starting at your cheeks, moving down to the mouth, along the jaw, behind the ears, up to your temples, towards the middle of your forehead, then down along your nose, and your eyes. Just imagine two big curly arrows on each side of your head starting from your cheeks, going behind the ears, up, and ending at your nose. That’s the direction.

After your jaw, relax the place under your ears. Then behind the ears, and back of the head. Then the ears themselves. After that, move up to your temples, and relax those. Then slowly move towards the center of your forehead, relaxing the whole forehead along the way. Then relax the top of your head. After that, relax the place between your eyes. Then your eyelids for good ten seconds. They’re tricky to relax. After them, move your attention to your eyes themselves. Relax those and the muscles controlling them for about fifteen seconds. Start at the front, then slowly move your attention all the way to the back to your eyeballs, then come to the front again.

Then relax your eyelids again. Then your nose, the muscles around the nose, and the top of your cheeks. Relax your mouth and tongue again. And voila! You’re done! You now have a completely relaxed face.

The different stages of relaxation

You’ll go from normally feeling parts of your body to not feeling them at all. There are a couple of stages in between too. They not only help you track your progress, but are quite enjoyable.

1. Heaviness

First you start feeling heaviness in parts of your body. Probably legs at first, and then arms, and then the rest.

The feeling of heaviness shows you that you are completely relaxed. The heaviness you feel is the pull of gravity on every cell of your body. It’s always there, you just normally don’t notice it because of tension in your muscles.

You could try feeling it right now. Just pick one of your arms, and relax it completely, from fingers to shoulder. Mentally go through the muscles one by one, starting with each finger, the palm, all the muscles in the forearm, the biceps, the triceps, and the muscles around your shoulder.

Go through all the muscles again. And after that focus on the gravity relentlessly pulling your arm down towards the ground. Give it about half a minute at first.

If you can’t feel the heaviness just yet, don’t worry about it. It’s hard to relax the muscles really well at first, let alone feel the heaviness.

There’s also an easier way to feel this. Next time you’re taking a bath, at the end, let the water run out while you simply lie there. You will already be warm and completely relaxed. As the water level slowly descends, the parts of your body that emerge above the water will feel incredibly heavy. This is exactly the feeling I’m talking about. (btw. ever since I read about this trick, I always do it when taking a bath. It’s fun!)

2. Warmth

Some time after the heaviness, you’ll also feel warmth in your body. You will likely start feeling it in your arms or legs first. This feeling of warmth is because your blood vessels are dilating. Your body has realized you’re not going anywhere, and it’s starting to enjoy the deep relaxation. You will wake up really refreshed and full of energy after this.

3. No feeling at all

This is the pinnacle. The motor neurons in your body have shut down, and now the sensory neurons reacting to touch are also shutting down. Your body has gone from standby mode (where you could jump up in a fraction of a second in case a sabre toothed tiger appeared in your bedroom doorway) into complete relaxation (where it would take you a second or two to get up).

It’s like your body has shut down for a reboot. It’s also why you will feel full of energy and totally awesome afterwards. You’re literally starting a new day as far as your body is concerned.

Oh, by the way, don’t worry if you still feel some bits of your body. It happens to me too. We’re not monks in some Tibetan temple, going partway is good enough for us. It’s also fun when I start feeling a remote part of my body because of some small movement I did. For example I could be feeling my foot… and nothing else until my torso. It’s like the foot is floating in mid-air. Fun stuff!

Odds and Ends about complete relaxation

Here are just a few bits and pieces that I didn’t fit in along the way.

1. If your mind starts to wander

You’re lying down, relaxing. You go through your whole body once. Then you go through it again, but the second time around, your mind starts to wander. You find it a bit hard to keep focus on the relaxation.

If this happens, don’t worry. Just let your mind wander. Chances are, it can use some rest too. If you just let it wander, it will come back to you in about 10-15 minutes, and when it does, you might notice that meanwhile you stopped feeling some parts of your body. Awesome!

When your mind starts to wander, that’s its own way of relaxing. After this, you will not only have a relaxed and alert body, but also the mind!

Enjoy the relaxation. And if you’re going to try this (or any of the other “incredibly awesome mind states”), leave a comment or drop me an e-mail at vlad.dolezal at the gmail. I’d like to know.

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Some info about my blog

Last week, I had a guest post published on The Positivity Blog. It’s some of my best stuff – it’s called Whose reality are YOU living in?. Check it out!

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Show, don’t tell

by Vlad Dolezal on June 14, 2008


“Does a good writer tell you his character is tough and mean? Hell, no! A good writer doesn’t need to tell you. It’s obvious from what the character does!”
- M. N. Maydep

Summary: Telling your readers plain facts is boring. Showing them through stories and metaphors invokes their emotions – making your writing more fun and more persuasive.

It doesn’t matter if you’re writing fiction or non-fiction. (or even telling someone a story in person, which I talk about at the end.) If you just keep telling your readers plain facts like “good leader inspires by example”, half of them will die of boredom before they finish reading the first four paragraphs. They will be the lucky ones.

Show your readers indirectly, through stories, quotes and metaphors. This keeps them interested, and makes your writing more persuasive. Just like plain bread can be made so much more by adding butter… and ham… and cheese, and tomatoes, and salad… your writing can become much juicier and tastier by adding metaphors and stories.

I’m just a blogger, not a fiction writer, so I’ll focus on writing non-fiction in this article.

Stories


“A short story from real life makes a better point than a thousand statements.”
- Vlad Dolezal (yes, that’s me ^^)

When I first started blogging, I decided to tackle the blogosphere armed with just a few pieces of advice and some ideas to share. I was lucky that my writing was already clear and concise, as I had done some writing for the web before.

I thought having good ideas was enough. After all, I had heard the first three rules of writing for the web are the following:

  1. Content
  2. Content
  3. Content

It’s true, but it’s not enough. Saying that content is all you need is like saying that to be a top golfer you only need good putting. There’s plenty of good putters out there – you need more than that to be at the top. There’s plenty of good ideas on the web – you need more.

If you combine good ideas with great presentation, then you really stand out.

And so I went and found out more about being a good writer, and started putting the advice into use. I started using quotes, metaphors and stories. And boom chugga wugga! People started really enjoying my writing!

Notice how I use a personal story above to make my point. I could just tell you “Great writing is about presentation as much as about content”, but that would be about as exciting as cold soup.

Also, I prefer using a first-person experience if I have one. I heard somewhere it has more impact than telling someone else’s story. Or maybe I’m too lazy to look up the story of someone else. :)

Metaphors

A non-fiction piece of writing without metaphors is like a movie without colors. Sure, it works, but it’s much less exciting and leaves a smaller impression on the audience. (note for you language purists – Yes, that’s a simile, not a metaphor. I know the difference. But I don’t care about the distinction, the effect on the reader is the same.)

Some people say metaphors are like spices – chuck in a few here and there, and your writing will be much better. But go overboard, and the flavor of the point you’re making will be lost in all the spicy metaphors.

Why metaphors and stories are so awesome

Ok, here comes my usual dissecting of what’s going on underneath. If you’re a regular reader, you might know I don’t like plain tactics. I prefer understanding the underlying strategy to get a full picture of why these things work. Then I can tweak the tactics to my liking, because I know what’s the important part.

If you just tell your readers the facts, you’ll reach them on an intellectual level. But facts are a thousand times easier to remember when mixed with emotion. What’s easier to remember – first picture the formula for calculating the volume of a sphere (if you don’t know it, never mind, keep reading on.) Ok, now instead imagine you’re standing in front of an audience of eight hundred people, giving a speech… really imagine it… and now imagine your belt buckle breaks and your pants fall off, dragging your underpants with them. Feel it?

The second image is much easier to remember – and it’s quite likely that you’ll remember any point I make right now, so here it is - engaging readers’ emotions makes your writing memorable. (Still see yourself standing there? Ok, you can stop now.)

Saying something is boring gets across the idea. But saying it’s “as exciting as cold soup”, or “as boring as a Friday afternoon class on a bright summer day” – that’s real description. When your readers see this, they pause and imagine the thing you describe. This invokes the emotion you’re trying to get across.

Saying something’s boring invokes the intellectual concept “boring”. Describing it through a metaphor gets your reader to experience the emotion of boredom. And that’s the key to great writing.

But that’s not the holy grail of metaphors yet. The real masters pick a metaphor, and then string it throughout the text, making references to it again and again. I’m not very good at it myself yet. But I’ve heard a speaker at my Toastmasters club who’s great at this, and it was a fascinating experience. If you want to see an example, check out Scott H. Young’s article How To Ace Your Finals Without Studying. Notice how he uses the road network analogy – pure mastery.

Show, don’t tell – in person

Ever seen someone who’s great at telling stories? They don’t just tell you the facts of what happened. They almost turn it into a movie. They use their voice and their bodies to show you what happened.

Let’s say you’re telling a story of how you were running away from a mafia gang. As you’re saying “I was running for my life”, do a slow-motion running impression, like you might see in a movie. As you’re saying “I ran across the street and did this huge-ass jump over a parked car”, show the jump in slow motion (don’t actually jump, just show as much as possible).

This draws your listeners into the story and lets them form a clear picture. Again, it’s about getting across the emotion, not just the facts.

Remember, whether you’re a writer, a public speaker, or you’re just telling a story to your friends… Show, don’t tell!

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Lucid Dreaming

by Vlad Dolezal on June 11, 2008

When I was a kid, I wanted to know how to fly, or to be a powerful wizard in a fantasy world. I wanted to fight evil sorcerers and rescue princesses and all that usual stuff. I can’t say any of these has come true in my real life. And I don’t think they will, either. I’d need a virtual reality machine for that.

A lot of us probably wish the scientists invented a virtual reality machine. Well, guess what…

You already have a virtual reality machine in your head. It’s called your brain. Or, more specifically, the part responsible for dreaming.

Sure, there’s one major problem with dreaming. You don’t control what you dream about. But imagine for a second you could. Imagine you could become fully aware of the fact that you’re dreaming, while you’re dreaming, and decide what you want to dream about next. Wouldn’t that be totally awesome?

It is totally awesome! And it’s called lucid dreaming, and you can do it!

Lucid dreaming

If you ever tried getting yourself to exercise or run regularly, you’ll know the first step is the hardest. It takes incredible amount of effort to put on your running shoes and step out the door. Once you’re out there, the running itself is trivial by comparison.

Similarly, lucid dreaming itself is as easy as riding a bike downhill. The tricky part is becoming aware of the fact that you’re dreaming.

Becoming lucid

If you want to become lucid, you’ll have to notice you’re dreaming. And to do that, you’ll need to notice inconsistencies around you. Stuff that makes you say “hey, this absolutely couldn’t happen in real life. This must be a dream!”.

How often during the day do you check if you’re dreaming? If you’re like most people, then never. And that means that you won’t check it while you’re dreaming either. Dreaming is, after all, just a rehash of your daily experiences.

The first and basic method for achieving lucid dreaming is called reality check. It involves checking whether or not you’re dreaming during the day. And doing it often.

1. Reality check

In movies, the traditional way of checking if you’re dreaming seems to be pinching yourself. Too bad it doesn’t work in real life (or rather, real dreams). You can imagine the pain quite vividly.

Then how do you check? After all you can imagine anything.

It turns out reading something in dreams is damn difficult. The letters tend to blend and jump around, and if you turn away and look back the text will usually change to something completely different. (I can also confirm that you can’t play chess in dreams. Quite a shame, since I was hoping to get some chess practice during dreams. Then again… I could imagine anything in the whole world… and I wanted to play chess??? Talk about unimaginative…)

Therefore a good way of doing your reality check is to carry around a special piece of paper for that. Write a text on both sides, something like “Reality check! Am I dreaming?” on one side, and on the other side “Hmmm… apparently not.”

Then, during the day, simply often check the piece of paper. Read one side, then flip over, read that side, then look away and look back. If the text is still the same, you’re probably awake. If the text has changed and now says “Soviet submarines cause cancer” or “gurbuz mbodut qgzup cthulhu!”, it’s pretty damn likely that you’re dreaming.

Reality check also makes you more sensitive to other inconsistencies around you. When I had my first lucid dream, I became aware of the fact that I’m dreaming precisely because there was an inconsistency. I was locking the door of my flat. I turned the key once. I turned it twice. I turned it a third time. Then I was like “Wait a second, my lock only turns twice.” And bam! I became aware of the fact that I’m dreaming!

2. Wake up and go back to sleep

Another technique that really worked great for me is waking up and getting back to sleep. It works as follows:

1. Set your alarm clock an hour earlier than usual
You could try different times too. Maybe an hour and a half earlier than usual would work better for you.

2. Do something for 20 minutes
Go grab something to eat, or write a journal, or do anything else you’d like. Just avoid activities that could stop you from going back to sleep (like exercise).

3. Go back to sleep

This method is supposed to make you about 20 times more likely to have a lucid dream afterwards. I have no idea how accurate that figure is, but from my experience it could be pretty damn close.

My first couple of lucid dreams always happened in this situation. Sometimes even not on purpose. Like one night, I woke up at about 4 am to go to the bathroom. I was awake for about 5 minutes, then went back to sleep. It was enough – I had a lucid dream afterwards.

What to do once you’re lucid

Ok, now you’re aware of the fact you’re dreaming, while you’re inside that dream. Go wild!

To quote from DreamViews, a website about lucid dreaming:

To fully experience lucid dreaming, you have to remember that you are not governed by any laws in your dreams: you have complete freedom. Instead of walking to school or work, you can fly. While in mid-flight you may spontaneously decide you’d rather explore the elusive depths of the ocean without a breathing apparatus, or travel at incomprehensible speeds and explore the endless heavens around us without a ship. Or perhaps you’ll remember a book or a movie that captured your soul—perhaps you’ll become the main character of that book or movie and live for a short while in that story. Or maybe you’d just like to live your own life, with the added bonus of not being restricted by any consequences of your actions. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to tell off your boss, or push your car to its maximum speed (and beyond) on an open stretch of highway. Regardless, it will likely take a while for you to fully appreciate the idea that you can do whatever you imagine—you’ll likely think things are not possible during your first few lucid dreams, and be unable to do them.

One of my personal favorites is flying. I definitely recommend you to give it a try.

Things to watch out for

Don’t worry. Lucid dreaming is perfectly safe. The only things you need to “watch out for” is things that could prevent you from having lucid dreams.

1. Becoming too excited

This isn’t from my own experience. But I heard that some people, when they first became lucid, were like “Yeey! Yippee! Woohoo! I’m having my first lucid dream!” – and woke up from the excitement.

So, when you first have a lucid dream, try to stay calm. Of course you’ll be terribly excited. Just try to enjoy a calm exhilaration, without jumping around going “Weeeee!”.

2. False awakening

This one was huge for me. I think that most of my lucid dreams ended in a false awakening. Definitely more than half of them.

The thing with lucid dreams is that they’re extremely vivid. And I mean extremely. You can’t easily tell a difference between lucid dreams and real life (that’s why reality check is so tricky).

Often, you’ll have a lucid dream… and then you’ll dream that you wake up (false awakening). You’ll lose your lucid dream. And if you don’t realize you’re still dreaming, you’ll go back to normal dreamless sleep.

Let me repeat – this experience will be extremely life-like. I fell for it the first couple of times, and even later, when I was well aware of it, it still often got me.

So here’s what to do. When you wake up from a lucid dream, do a very, very thorough reality check. The chances are, you’re still dreaming. Best keep some text to read by your bed at night, so you can immediately do a reality check when you wake up.

One time, I had a lucid dream. Then I had a false awakening. But I spotted it (there was some inconsistency, can’t remember what), so I enjoyed another lucid dream. Then I woke up. At least that’s what I thought. Actually, it was another false awakening, but I didn’t realize it this time. Shame, I wonder how many false awakenings I could string in a row :)

Odds and Ends about lucid dreaming

If you want to find out more, check out this website about lucid dreaming. You will find more detailed explanations, more reasons to try lucid dreaming, more techniques, more personal stories, and other stuff related to lucid dreaming. (You’ll also finally get to find out what that bloody word lucid means :) )

And one more thing…

If you had any personal experiences with lucid dreaming, or are going to give it a try after reading this article, please leave a comment or drop me an e-mail. I’d really like to know.

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On my last post a reader suggested I make summaries. I’m giving it a try. Following twitter’s example, I’ll make it 140 characters or less.

Summary: Lucid dreaming means consciously being able to control your dreams as you’re dreaming. You can then enjoy the unlimited dream world.

Stay tuned for the second of six incredibly awesome mind states you can experience. We’ll explore a state very similar to sleep – relaxation. But a kind of relaxation you’ve likely never done before.

Update: Hi StumbleUpon users!

If you enjoyed this article, I would appreciate a thumbs up. And if you have any personal experiences with lucid dreaming, feel free to share them in the comments. I read all the comments, and they make me feel warm inside. I finally found lots of fellow lucid dreamers through writing this article :D

Click below to tweet this post:

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Learning Mastery 4 – Teach it and hypothesise

by Vlad Dolezal on June 7, 2008

Hi! This is part of a series of posts on learning new skills quickly and effectively. You might also want to check out:

Enjoy!

Teach it

“Take 10 people who are worse than you [at Othello], and teach them what you know. I can guarantee you that you will improve far more than any single one of them.”
- Ben Seeley, world champion in Othello

Teaching someone what you know has some amazing effects. Firstly, it forces you to organize the knowledge in your brain. It’s one thing being sort of able to use your insights. It’s completely different being able to explain them to someone else.

You’ll develop new and better ways to use your ideas, or you’ll describe them in a way that you never realized before. You’ll learn yourself as you explain.

Also, when you’re teaching someone, they’ll have lots of questions about what you’re explaining. As you think of answers to those questions, it’ll open your horizons. You’ll consider things you never thought about before. You’ll learn a lot in the process.

My favorite example of this comes from the book Robinson Crusoe. Robinson starts explaining Christianity to his servant Friday. And Friday asks him all sorts of questions that nobody from a Christian environment really thinks about. Like if God is almighty, why doesn’t he just smite the Devil. (Robinson figured out it’s because God is also forgiving, and wants to give Devil a chance for redemption)

I’ve followed the world champion’s advice and started teaching others what I know. And it works.

Want a proof instead of promises? Try it yourself! Pick any skill in your life, and go teach it to several people who are slightly worse than you. You’ll be amazed at the results.

Hypothesise

Hypothesising is a natural process, and we all use it every day. Then again, breathing is a natural process, but most people breath shallowly and sub-optimally for their health. Walking is a natural process, but if you take a stroll through city streets, you’ll see people hunched over, staring at their feet, hurting their spines and their mood.

Similarly, as we get older, we fall into habits and routines, and slowly forget how to hypothesise.

Okay, enough prep-talk. What do I mean by hypothesising?

Let’s say you’re practicing basketball. You might say “Ok, for the next ten shots, I’ll try giving the ball a lot of backward spin, and see what happens.” Then you watch the feedback and learn.

Or you’re a writer, and say “In my next three articles, I’ll use plenty of quotes to support my point, and see if my writing becomes more persuasive.”

Hypothesising is basically saying “I’ll do this one thing differently, and see what happens.”

(btw. I’m doing it myself in this article. I decided to put all quotes in italics (“like this”), to see if it looks clearer. (Update: Yes, it does.))

One characteristic of top achievers is that they never do a thing the same way for long. They’re always slightly changing it, and looking for a better way to do things.

This mindset is what regularly brings us faster processors, longer lasting batteries and more efficient cars. If the companies simply made a good product, and then stopped, we’d still be living in the middle ages.

You too can use this to improve your life. The obvious way to start hypothesising more is just doing whatever you do a bit differently. For example if you type a lot, try moving your hands less, and use as many fingers as possible.

Then there are some not-so-obvious effects related to hypothesising. One of them is breaking routine (see the article for full explanation of how and why this is a great thing to do). Here are a few things you might want to try. Breaking the routine and testing out new things is the key:

  • take a different route to work
  • eat unusual foods (unusual for you, that is)
  • shuffle around your morning/evening routine (do you always have coffee? Try having tea instead. Do you shower before breakfast? Try it the other way around.)

And remember, whenever you’re learning something new, hypothesise. Just say “I wonder what will happen if…”, and do it!

Previous: Learning Mastery 3 – Fail Early, Fail Often

Next: Learning Mastery 5 – Back to the Basics

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News about my blog:

Great news! From now on, I’ll post to my blog twice a week instead of once. And the next article, coming this Wednesday, is something you won’t want to miss. It’s about an awesome mind state you can experience (no drugs involved). It’s something that truly justifies you having “an amazing mind”.

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