Practical on Pablo Parguiña's Website

You can self-experiment too, actually

Mon, 25 May 2026 23:27:06 +0200

You are having trouble with something in your life like falling asleep, or focusing, or whatever, and you decide to take some supplement or drug. The problem that you will often face, unless it’s something with really strong effects, is that you don’t quite know if it’s working. It might feel like it does, but how can you know that it’s not a placebo?

Oh, you don’t care because it seems to be working anyway? Sure, but placebo effects will fluctuate based on your mood: how confident are you today that the supplement/drug is working? And how confident will you be tomorrow? Placebo effects are unreliable and we can and should do better. In this post I’ll show you how to estimate the actual effects to be able to rely on those instead. I will illustrate step by step with my own example, since I’m currently running one.¹

Some Thoughts on Commitment

Sat, 16 May 2026 13:41:27 +0200

Commitment is difficult, among other things, because you will be re-evaluating when you have to perform the pre-committed actions. This is especially true of commitments you make to yourself.

I’ve been thinking about this in the context of math. When I study math, I’m painfully aware of how big of a commitment it is in terms of time. And each session feels a little pointless sometimes. “Ah! Now I know how to solve this specific class of ordinary differential equation that is never going to come up IRL, and even if it did, I could always probably simulate it, or maybe use a symbolic calculator, or ask AI! Hurray!” But over the long term, I think these pointless little sessions do add up to make me more like the person I want to be. It’s just that, when it’s finally time to put in the effort, it somehow doesn’t feel so clear anymore.