93 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
93 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: "Cell Phone Experiment"
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date: 2020-03-09T22:02:07Z
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draft: true
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---
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### TL;DR
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I will not use my cell phone during March to challenge myself and learn more
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about how much I depend on my device.
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### Background
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Ever since I read Charles Duhigg's book, [The Power of Habit](poh), I try to
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habituate as many aspects of my life that I can.
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The *exploit* axis of the [explore/exploit tradeoff](exp-exp) endows habits with
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their power. If you are interested in learning more about the explore/exploit
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tradeoff, Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths explain this concept more clearly
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than I could in Chapter 2 of their exceptional book, [Algorithms to Live
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By](algos).
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One pitfall of overly exploiting an activity, however, is neglecting global
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optima in favor of local optima. Thus we must also explore. Is it possible to
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habituate exploration? I think so.
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Every month since October 2018, I commit to a monthly challenge. In the past,
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monthly challenges have been things like:
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- sign up and take Brazilian Jiu Jitsu lessons
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- buy a guitar and learn [Freight Train by Elizabeth Cotton](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUK8emiWabU)
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- study Italian
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- attempt to learn a handstand
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Typically for an activity to qualify as a challenge, I must spend at least
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fifteen minutes working on it at least five days each week. Oftentimes
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challenges have concrete deliverables (e.g. playing the "Freight Train" song
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from start-to-finish). Other times, with Jiu Jitsu, the challenge consists of
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attending classes five days a week without any absences.
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This month I'm challenging myself to avoid using my cell phone for the entire
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month. I am interested in partially digitally detoxing.
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My parents gave me a cell phone when when I was a freshman in High School; those
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days, I was fourteen years old. I am now twenty-eight years old, which means I
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have been using a cell phone semi-daily for over ten years.
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While I enjoy the convenience that my cell phone provides me, I am curious to
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suspend my usage aiming to more clearly understand how much I depend on it.
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### What was different?
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Things that I am missing:
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- Alarm clock: I decided to avoid buying an alarm clock. I theorize that alarms
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and caffeine may distort my reality. An excuse to sleep in? Twist my arm...
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- Waking Up with Sam Harris: Thankfully, Waking Up supports web browsers, so
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this was easy to replace.
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- Banking with Monzo: Monzo has a web client for doing simple banking tasks. I
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needed to internationally transfer GBP to my USD account.
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- Spotify: I either read while taking public transport, attempted to briefly
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meditate, or (most commonly) started blankly.
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- Taking notes
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- Timers
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- Google Calendar for meeting room information
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Things that I did miss:
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- Phone calls: My birthday is March 5, and I wanted to talk to my family then
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since I'm currently living abroad in London; I'm originally from a suburb
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outside of Washington D.C.
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Things that I thought I would miss but I didn't miss:
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- Email: I prefer checking my emails minimally anyhow.
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- Text messaging: Maybe I enjoyed this because I knew the whole time it was
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temporary. I'm unsure if I'd feel this way if it was permanent.
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Exploits
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- Telegram native client
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- Instagram's web client
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### What was bad?
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Not much.
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### Will I use a cell phone in April?
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Probably. I think this exercise removed some of the long-standing barnacles, but
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some of the old habits and triggers exist. Also with web browser and native
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client alternatives to mobile apps, the partial digital detox felt even more
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partial.
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[pod]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12609433-the-power-of-habit
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[exp-exp]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-armed_bandit
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[algos]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25666050-algorithms-to-live-by
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