The unreasonable effectiveness of my self-experimentation

• Published in: Medical hypotheses 2010-12, Vol.75 (6), p.482-489
• Main Author: Roberts, Seth
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Affect - physiology; Autoexperimentation; Brain - physiology; Data Collection - methods; Humans; Internal Medicine; Motivation; Research Design; Sleep - physiology; Weight Loss - physiology
• ISSN: 0306-9877; 1532-2777
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2010.04.030

Summary 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.