Cognitive readiness

[not obviously coherent]

There’s cognitive effort, which is, approximately, “thinking hard”, using your System 2, dilating your pupils. This should vary second to second, minute to minute, as you switch tasks, and as difficulty changes within tasks.

But there’s something like “willingness to exert effort”, or what I’m tentatively calling “cognitive readiness.” This accounts for how much resistance you have to increasing cognitive effort.

When I have a spare minute at the airport, how do I feel about processing tasks, vs. continuing to mostly-passively listen to an audio book.

It’s possible that cognitive readiness is just a matter of not being in an unproductive state + having your goals loaded up. But it might still be useful to ask what the inputs to cognitive readiness are.

• Available mental energy
• Cutting off easy attractor?
  • You are lazy, and there is always an attractor toward passivity?
• Good posture?
• Clear planning?
• …