Accountability

I’m going to jot down some notes regarding my habit journaling below for my own sake:

Cues include: transitions during lecture, starting a new assignment, just coming back to my room from somewhere, having to start working again. I can normally kick it if there’s some sort of exigency.

When I feel the urge to procrastinat, slow down and think about what I’m about to do. Try to do something on my list instead that’s really simple (read or something). I can watch YouTube later at night or whenever I have actual time.

I’ll keep track of my habit rework for the month, and however positive it is, I get to buy something for myself for that price.

I might start adding a new section regarding habit journaling below–I’m realizing that I should probably be more cognizant of what I’m doing to be productive, so I can analyze/replicate it.

Productive Thinking

Coming from a very quantitative STEM background, I think mostly in a very logical way that can be construed as utilitarian. If I reflect on things I’ve done or things I plan to do, I often will analyze the pros and cons of every decision–subconsciouly or not.

Yet, most of the time I don’t feel like I’m very utilitarian. I value a lot of things solely based off of human factors, relationships with friends, or just general things that make me happy but aren’t technically the most economical. Yet, every time we make a decision, aren’t we subsciously weighing the pros and cons of it? And depending on the person, certain pros are weighted heavier and certain cons are also weighted differently. Isn’t every decision, even “non-utilitarian” ones, founded upon the same logic as utilitarian decisions?

Furthermore, what’s even better? Namely, if everyone acted in a utilitarian fashion (in a way that Richard Thaler dubs acting like an “Econ,” an individual who understands economics perfectly), would this even be good? The short answer is no–we can easily see this through altruism. If everyone performed selfishly/optimized themselves, then all of society suffers relative to if everyone was altruistic. We need that human side that’s not coldly calculating every decision in order to make the best decision.

For me, I think this means that I should think more about…well, the way I think. Of course I want to make myself the best person possible, but at the end of the day, my main reason for doing that is to be able to benefit society and the people around me as much as possible. And even if that means that I as an individual do not get to an as “OP” of a point, then it still feels like an absolute win to me. :)