title: The unreasonable effectiveness of my self-experimentation.
abstract: Over 12 years, my self-experimentation found new and useful ways to improve sleep, mood, health, and weight. Why did it work so well? First, my position was unusual. I had the subject-matter knowledge of an insider, the freedom of an outsider, and the motivation of a person with the problem. I did not need to publish regularly. I did not want to display status via my research. Second, I used a powerful tool. Self-experimentation about the brain can test ideas much more easily (by a factor of about 500,000) than conventional research about other parts of the body. When you gather data, you sample from a power-law-like distribution of progress. Most data helps a little; a tiny fraction of data helps a lot. My subject-matter knowledge and methodological skills (e.g., in data analysis) improved the distribution from which I sampled (i.e., increased the average amount of progress per sample). Self-experimentation allowed me to sample from it much more often than conventional research. Another reason my self-experimentation was unusually effective is that, unlike professional science, it resembled the exploration of our ancestors, including foragers, hobbyists, and artisans.
authors.affiliation: Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. twoutopias@gmail.com
authors.forename: Seth
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D032762:Autoexperimentation; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D012107:Research Design; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D015431:Weight Loss / Q000502:physiology