Awesome work. I’m hoping this approximates the best one could hope for, but I also speculate there are limitations impossible to get around: (a) appropriateness of intervention—how do I know if e.g. ACT makes sense for me? Are there indicators, or triggers, likely to make it useful? The more particular the intervention the more pertinent this seems (in contrast with e.g. ‘exercise’), and (b) the typical psychology study may be a pretty different environment from some ideal case where someone agentically, systematically tries lots of things. To address both of these items, I think one would have to become more educated on these ‘interventions’ in order to think through them and make better decisions. I notice that Ngo’s self-paced AGI safety fundamentals curriculum sorta does what I have in mind for AI safety—curated readings, ideally paired with discussion, sustained over several weeks to give one a sort of baseline for sense-making. Perhaps Effective Self-Help could look into structuring a similar curriculum in the future.
I intentionally tried to include details on interventions, when I found them, such that one could get an idea of whether the intervention is suited given one’s personal situation, characteristics or preferences.
But indeed, methodically trying out the recommendations seems like quite a good way to get that knowledge, as I write in the paragraph “So we suggest you adopt an open-minded and curious approach…” from the same section. The suggestion I give there to first try a Multi-component Positive Psychology intervention is inspired by this consideration, and for instance the first book and first online program I recommend for this intervention take this approach (i.e. a multi-week and relatively methodical exploration of some of the main happiness-enhancing strategies).
Awesome work. I’m hoping this approximates the best one could hope for, but I also speculate there are limitations impossible to get around: (a) appropriateness of intervention—how do I know if e.g. ACT makes sense for me? Are there indicators, or triggers, likely to make it useful? The more particular the intervention the more pertinent this seems (in contrast with e.g. ‘exercise’), and (b) the typical psychology study may be a pretty different environment from some ideal case where someone agentically, systematically tries lots of things. To address both of these items, I think one would have to become more educated on these ‘interventions’ in order to think through them and make better decisions. I notice that Ngo’s self-paced AGI safety fundamentals curriculum sorta does what I have in mind for AI safety—curated readings, ideally paired with discussion, sustained over several weeks to give one a sort of baseline for sense-making. Perhaps Effective Self-Help could look into structuring a similar curriculum in the future.
Thank you!
I agree your points are relevant concerns. :)
I think David Althaus addresses them well in his comment from another Forum post that I cite in the section Suggestions on how to implement our advice on interventions.
I intentionally tried to include details on interventions, when I found them, such that one could get an idea of whether the intervention is suited given one’s personal situation, characteristics or preferences.
But indeed, methodically trying out the recommendations seems like quite a good way to get that knowledge, as I write in the paragraph “So we suggest you adopt an open-minded and curious approach…” from the same section. The suggestion I give there to first try a Multi-component Positive Psychology intervention is inspired by this consideration, and for instance the first book and first online program I recommend for this intervention take this approach (i.e. a multi-week and relatively methodical exploration of some of the main happiness-enhancing strategies).