Articles like this are hard to write because the cause of stress and the solution for stress varies for different individuals, and you did seem to try to put the "taking stress personally" as a section which is good, but perhaps I think there could be more. Or perhaps I felt like this article didn't seem to speak to me personally as much. However, it is evidence that you put in a lot of work to write up this article.

Thoughts on why this article didn't really speak to me as much.

I do think that underlying causes matter a lot, and would appreciate if there were more elaborations on it. I agree that CBT in general is a good intervention to address a lot of these underlying causes, but therapist searching is extremely difficult, and therapy can be costly in terms of time and money.

Regarding elaborating on underlying causes: For instance, some people find it impossible to get enough sleep due to demands or perceived demands of their work or school. Some people might believe that they need to feel stressed or else they just wouldn't get anything done. Some might be deficient in B vitamins, magnesium, etc. Some may have social anxiety. Some may be many of the ones I listed above.

Again, this article might not speak to everyone, which is ok. But just wanted to put in some thoughts in case you find it helpful. I think it's great and inspiring that you took the initiative to start Effective Self-Help and it's clear that you want to make it good! :)

This comment is late, but anyway...

Though I think there is value to having a more comprehensive survey like the one you have, I do want to pitch having a shorter survey for general comments with maybe 1 textbox.

The survey could be useful to collect new ideas, or just quick thoughts people wanted to share to Effective Self-Help. That way whenever someone has a new idea, they don't have to click through a bunch of buttons on whether or not they've read the Effective Self-Help articles. I know that there is an option to email, but I find myself much more averse to emailing vs. filling out a form.

Although I do want to say that I make this comment as someone who sometimes has random ideas and wants to fill out a short form if I wanted to share something quick.

You can share screen on gathertown (I think I managed to do it before.) However, it seems like in the current gathertown setup (the way the desks are arranged and where videos can be streamed), I haven't really found a way to see other people's videos while working in the desk working area, though you can work in other areas and maybe see nearby people's videos.

I do have a shameless plug to the EA coworking discord server though: https://discord.gg/5FGY4PyEcT where you can share screen! :)

There is also an EA coworking discord server: https://discord.gg/5FGY4PyEcT

You can share screen + there are pomodoro bots that people can sync up working/taking breaks together if they want to.

One great thing about the EA coworking discord is that you can get to know people can connect with them because you have their discord handle :)

I run the EA coworking discord server and was curious if you would be open to collaboration opportunities. At the moment, there seems to be at least one person on the coworking server every other day if not every day. Here's the link to the EA coworking server: https://discord.gg/5FGY4PyEcT

Possibilities:

• having regular coworking sessions on the EA coworking server
• matching people on the EA coworking server to be accountability buddies
• having daily check-ins on the server
• hosting events about executive dysfunction / productivity

Let me know what you think!

@Chris Lakin?

I'm surprised that this is the case because from what I've seen at EA meetups in both the Bay Area and Boston is that the majority of people seem to be software engineers. Is it because the software engineers who go to the Bay Area / Boston meetups may not have as much ML background? Is it because the software engineers in EA meetups don't realize that this is a problem?

Same here. I feel like I don't have the executive function to do so since I tend to be interested in a bunch of things at once and generally have generalist tendencies. I'd also be curious to hear more about the niche of being a generalist in the EA community, since they do provide value in our society.

Agree that the quality of magnesium matters!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfeiBd8h6Xw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTiXVGwZLO4