Reason and emotions are often seen as opposing forces, with reason being associated with logic, and emotions being seen as irrational and unpredictable. However, this perception is a misconception. In reality, reason and emotions are not opposed, but are allies that improve our understanding of the world.
Emotions play a crucial role in our decision-making process and help us to evaluate and prioritize information. They help us to identify and respond to important events, and provide us with the motivation to take action. Without them, we would be unable to quickly detect significant events, and would be less likely to act on them. Imagine if you had to reason your way through everything — your life would quickly grind to a halt.
On the other hand, reason helps us to evaluate and interpret information objectively and make logical decisions based on evidence. It helps us to critically assess our emotions and understand why we feel a certain way. When reason and emotions work together, they can help us better predict the world and make better decisions.
Instructional Material
Cohort Activity
Arriving at better estimates of how-the-world-is can diminish feelings or intensify them. Sometimes we run away from strong feelings by denying the facts, by flinching away from the view of the world that gave rise to the powerful emotion. If so, then as you train yourself not to deny facts, your feelings will become stronger.
— Feeling Rational, by Eliezer Yudkowsky
Today's activities will focus on feeling and acknowledging emotions, from the strong to the subtle. To help, here is an "emotion wheel", which we will reference as we dig deeper and deeper throughout the session:
Identifying Strong Emotions [20 minutes]
In my early days I was never quite certain whether it was all right to feel things strongly—whether it was allowed, whether it was proper. I have observed similar troubles in people who do not even aspire to be rationalists; when they are happy, they wonder if they are really allowed to be happy, and when they are sad, they are never quite sure whether to run away from the emotion or not.
— Feeling Rational, by Eliezer Yudkowsky
Take turns sharing something you feel strongly about, such as a subject or an item. Try to show the other members of your cohort why you feel so strongly, so that they can feel a little of the emotion, like the moon reflecting the sun's light. You may need to talk to them and answer questions for this to work. Don't worry about sharing something obscure or strange.
The goal of this activity is to get you in the headspace for the following activities.
Example. Programming feels like magic. No, not metaphorically, literally. It doesn't happen every time, but sometimes after building something my hands will tingle slightly and I'll be overcome with this sense of awe. It's not a mystical feeling, but the thrill of creation, of power, of taking the world and changing it. Of having a vision in my mind and forcing it bit by bit into reality.
I've always imagined that that's what witches in books feel like when they cast a spell — like they're a conduit filled with energy and all they have to do is let it loose into the world.
These are the hands that channel magic.
The Merely Real [20 minutes]
Everything that actually exists is liable to end up in "the dull catalogue of common things," sooner or later.
Your choice is either:
- Decide that things are allowed to be unmagical, knowable, scientifically explicable—in a word, real—and yet still worth caring about;
- Or go about the rest of your life suffering from existential ennui that is unresolvable.
— Joy in the Merely Real, by Eliezer Yudkowsky
Take turns sharing something mundane and ordinary in your life that evokes a sense of beauty within you. Share the thing with the other members of your cohort, or try to describe the thing well enough that they can feel a little of that beauty too.
The goal of this activity is to help elicit the emotion of "wonder" or its cousin "curiosity", both of which are important to those of us who wish to expand the way we see the world.
Example. Have you ever stopped to notice a puddle of water makes on a breezy day? The surface of the water makes these incredibly intricate patterns and ripples as the faint wind blows it slowly from side to side. If it's sunny out, they'll sparkle like diamonds but even when it's overcast the refractions are still there, like a hundred shifting layers stacked atop each other.
Break [10 minutes]
Take a ten-minute break.
Identifying Subtle Emotions [40 minutes]
For each of the stories below, read the story and then try to predict what will happen next. Have each member of the cohort state their prediction. (You may also discuss the story and come to a group consensus.)
After making the prediction, the cohort facilitator should read aloud the associated Facilitator block.
Story 1
You're having trouble staying asleep at night. While researching online, you find a broad consensus among people like you that weighted blankets helped them sleep better. You decide to try one for yourself.
Make the following prediction before reading the Facilitator block below.
How do you think the weighted blanket will affect your sleep quality?
Story 2
A friend of yours has always been a good listener, and you go to them to vent. Today, however, they don't seem to be very "present". Their eyes wander to other things, and they ask you to repeat yourself multiple times.
Make the following prediction before reading the Facilitator block below.
Why do you think your friend is behaving this way?
Story 3
Your best friend recommends a book, praising it as one of the best sci-fi books she's ever read. However, she refuses to go into detail to avoid spoiling you. Upon downloading a copy from LibGen, you discover that it's a disjointed time travel story and nothing like the sort of book your friend normally enjoys.
Make the following prediction before reading the Facilitator block below.
What do you think the friend will say when you ask her why she enjoyed such an unusual book?
Story 4
Shortly after turning on your brand-new gas stove, you notice a faint gas smell in the air nearby. You vaguely remember that this is a bad sign, but rather than panic, you search the internet to learn more. Several sites state that it's common to have a faint smell shortly after ignition since some gas can escape in the split second before the burner ignites.
Make the following prediction before reading the Facilitator block below.
Is the stove broken or functioning correctly?
Story 5
You are making one of your favorite recipes for dinner, a rather involved dish that takes an hour to prepare. Upon sitting down and eating it, you notice that it tastes completely different than usual, and not in a good way.
Make the following prediction before reading the Facilitator block below.
What do you think happened to the food?
Story 6
You're considering upgrading your low end gaming monitor to a high refresh rate one. When you look for reviews, you find most people praising its color quality and lack of backlight glow. However, about 1% of the reviews criticize the color, saying that they tested it with a colorimeter and found it to be poorly calibrated. After some more deliberation, you decide to buy the monitor.
Make the following prediction before reading the Facilitator block below.
What experience do you think you'll have with the new monitor?
Story 7
You're suffering from grass pollen allergies. You've heard that air purifiers can help, so you ask your friends for advice. One of them links you to a heavy duty industrial grade air purifier and says that it helped with her allergy issue. Another friend says that he tried several air purifiers, none of them helped, and recommends not buying one. You decide to give your first friend's advice a try.
Make the following prediction before reading the Facilitator block below.
How do you think the recommended air purifier will affect your pollen allergy symptoms?
Story 8
You go to your doctor with excruciating pain in your arm. After hours of tests, scans, and xrays, nothing shows as wrong. In fact, a CT scan of your brain shows that your pain centers aren't even active.
Make the following prediction before reading the Facilitator block below.
What do you think is causing this?
Story 9
Ryan, A coworker who you have been on friendly terms with, starts behaving nastily towards you. When you ask another coworker (Jen) about it, she say that Ryan is just normally that way.
Make the following prediction before reading the Facilitator block below.
What do you think would happen if you kept talking to Ryan?
Some of the above stories were intended to elicit the emotion of "confusion". Confusion is an invaluable emotion to get in touch with, as it means either your model of the world is wrong or the information you are being shown is wrong.
Conclusion
Hopefully you will walk away from this workshop primed to be more mindful of your emotions. The next time you feel an emotion, practice saying "I notice that I am feeling [x]".
Sometime over the next week, we encourage you to read our workshop on Felt Sense Introspection, which will provide a framework for identifying your emotions in a more systematic way.