In response to recent news from METR on possible RSI and likely 1-3 year timelines, I am feeling it. Heaviness in my chest, watery eyes, the works. I realized I'm currently not psychologically prepared for the world to get crazier than it already has.[1]

I think most people reading this already know ~what's best for them and this post will mostly serve as a reminder. What follows is my current plan and advice for myself.

For me, the most important things are:

  1. Morning Routine
  2. Bedtime Routine
  3. Exercising
  4. Living meditation practice (ie throughout the day)

And the most important thing to NOT do is be on my phone/screens.

[Note on getting "stuck": if you do feel emotionally awful and no IFS/CBT seems to work, I recommend "How to Reset"]

Morning Routine

I have a sunrise alarm clock (shines light to wake you up) and enjoy writing in the morning.

Bedtime Routine

At 8:30 an alarm goes off, and I watch an episode of Empress in the Palace with my wife, then we get ready for bed. Also like to journal then.

Exercising

Rock climbing some days & jogging to the bus stop

Living Meditation Practice

There are 3 traits I'd like to cultivate more:

  1. Aliveness
  2. Gratitude
  3. Relaxation

For me, aliveness is about being aware of local-details that you're experience right now ("being present") and the extreme amount of options you have available to you. This can be painful (eg if I'm feeling a lot of pain), but I do have a choice on what my mind sticks to.

While typing this, I do notice my jaw & stomach are tense (so I automatically relaxed them) and my eye hurts (so I lowered the brightness). Noticing, for me, is most of the battle.

I shoudl have dedicated sessions for gratitude (ie gratitude journaling) and relaxation (for me, "doing nothing" is nice), but my main focus is making this a living practice: something I intentionally practice throughout the day.

Most of what I've mentioned is (intentionally) obvious advice (what might be novel is the idea of a living meditation practice throughout the day, that can be sustained by journaling in the night/morning).

Again, I think most people reading this are already aware of what you should be doing to be robust to our crazy future. I highly recommend setting a 5 min timer (on the clock) now to access that wisdom of how you work best.[2] As we approach the singularity, those 5 minutes might be the most valuable time you ever spent.

(So seriously, turn a 5 min timer on).

  1. ^

    This post is intended to complement Nikola's Orienting to 1 year AGI timelines post, which has a lot of great, object-level things to actually do. Very grateful for him, and hope this post helps others achieve those objectives.

  2. ^

    My advice is for you to listen to your advice.