In this column I share articles, books, research, and thoughts related to the science of self-help, along with experiments and random rabbit holes I’ve gone down across the previous month.

This month I was happy to be invited as a guest on another podcast with Nate Sleger (linked below) on becoming a morning person. I visited Lydia’s family in New Mexico for a family reunion and Thanksgiving. I also had significant issues with depression.

One day when I was driving around in a massive depressive pit, I realized how much music was affecting me. I thought about how hard it was to make decisions in this state, and it struck me how similar all of it was to low willpower. Wouldn’t be interesting if depression worked in similar ways?

In a previous article, I talked about how there are things that are actually optimized in low willpower states. Certain psychological primes have a higher uptake and impact, which might explain how music might affect me more when I’m depressed. Does depression improve creativity like tiredness? Is it every OPTIMAL to be depressed? And can we take advantage of it rather than just fight against it?

I’ve also completely switched to a seated desk, and am loving Mark Sisson’s concept of archetypical rest postures (linked below). While normal seated has been recently vilified, Sisson believes that sitting on the ground has even more benefits that standing desks because you naturally switch between a number of hip opening, gravity enhanced, passive stretches for longer times. For him, it might even negate the need to mobilize at all (though I’m not sure if I fully agree with him on this).

Interesting Stuff

Simple Steps to Becoming a Morning Person [Begin Within with Nate Sleger]
A memory champion’s tricks on how to remember almost anything [Wired]
7 types of rest every person needs [Ted]
Herman Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve [Wikipedia]
Envy for productivity [Discover]
Why staring at screens elongates your eyeballs and how to stop it [The Guardian]
Differential learning - can too much repetition and consistency be bad? [Bulletproof Musician]
How to get flexible through science [Yiannis Christoulas on Youtube]

Research

Passive stretching through archetypical rest postures [video | article | paper]

Social

Self Improvement books that changed the way I looked at things [Reddit]
How the Spacing Effect can help you learn more efficiently [Instagram]
How to renew willpower [Reddit]
Can negative emotions be productive? [Reddit]
How to quit eating sugar [Reddit]
How to meditate longer [Reddit]
How to make better use of mornings if you’re a night owl [Reddit]
The science of productive background noise [Reddit]
A quick trick to silence your inner voice [Reddit]
How to build a community [Reddit]
How to ensure you have a productive day [Reddit]
The theory of becoming a successful polymath [Reddit]
How to counter morning anxiety [Reddit]
Building a better morning and bedtime sleep routine [Reddit]
How to observe thoughts and feelings without attachment in meditation [Reddit]

Miscellaneous and Esoteric

Bioelectric Qigong: A Critical Approach from an Insider - My buddy Barnaby’s recent podcast on his insider experience with high level qigong practitioners.

If you’ve got any interesting links, books, comments, or suggestions, shoot me an email at scienceofselfhelp (at) gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you!