{"slug": "slack-and-slack-again-but-less", "title": "Slack, and Slack Again, but Less", "summary": "A meta-analysis by Cochrane found that behavioural therapy (BT) is as effective as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for depression, and the article argues that making effort a secondary reinforcer is the key mechanism. The author, writing on LessWrong, applies reinforcement learning concepts to human behaviour, suggesting that creating a maximally disjoint environment with cues that reinforce effort can help overcome akrasia, citing the Manhattan Project's ~75-hour work-weeks as an example.", "body_md": "It is widely known that *cognitive behavioural therapy* (CBT) is a standard treatment for depression. A little-known fact, however, is that its subcomponent, *behavioural therapy* (BT), is equally effective [1], according to a meta-analysis by Cochrane\n\nIf the term “reinforcement learning” makes you think of Sutton & Barto, or the newest shiny model release, then, ugh, fine, I’ll explain it in their terms:\n\nSequences of actions are graded according to a *reward function*. For example, DeepSeek spits out sequences of tokens, called chains-of-thought (CoT), and sequences that yield a correct answer are *reinforced* over those that do not.\n\nAnything that is positively associated with getting the answer right, with getting the reward, such as correctly multiplying 322 by 214, is called a *secondary reinforcer*.\n\nBehavioural therapy (BT) works by making *effort* a *secondary reinforcer* of your actions. That’s it.\n\nTo get started, you need *morale* [3], that is, you need to believe that effortful actions are associated with reward. If your level of morale is very low, you have come to believe there are no such actions, and taking very ambitious actions that then fail will only reinforce that belief\n\nIf you are unsure what gives humans reward, please consult Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Surely things like “having sex” or “gaining status” may not sound quite as idealistic as “making the singularity go well” to you.\n\nBut again, we can reach for the power of association: Say there is a subculture with the aim of “making the singularity go well”, then “gaining status” may bring you closer to your terminal goal than initially assumed.\n\nIn fact, this principle extends way beyond any rigid DSM-5 definition [5], to all human behaviour. I posit the existence of two attractor states, existing alongside the middle ground of normalcy:\n\nAny behaviour has a set of *cues* associated with it, e.g. a cue for DeepSeek is ‘322 × 214’. The *environment* is the set of all cues. Therefore, to change behaviour, a *maximally disjoint environment* needs to be created, whose cues must *secondarily reinforce effort*.\n\nDuring the Manhattan Project, the Los Alamos Laboratory reliably created a strong effort spiral in its subjects, with ~75-hour work-weeks being common. *Finding a modern equivalent is left as an exercise for the reader. Hint: Try to farm LessWrong karma, or, idk, do this “cold email” thing.*\n\nUnfortunately, other factors also play a significant role. For instance, we know *executive function* [8] mediates the degree of effort one puts forth. The trait involves the ability to self-regulate and is highly heritable. The most effective intervention, stimulants, suffers from unclear long-term effectiveness\n\nAnother slap in the face is that *interventional negative reinforcement* (whose exertion by other people is called dominance) may be useful [10]. Fortunately, its sting may fade out in aggregation, that is, thanks to the hedonic treadmill.\n\nAll this leaves us with, well, my bad attempts at poetry:\n\n*The road from akrasia? — Well, it’s plain*\n\n*and simple to express:*\n\n*Slack*\n\n*and slack*\n\n*and slack again*\n\n*but less*\n\n*and less*\n\n*and less*[[11]](https://www.lesswrong.com/feed.xml#fnr3y1nzxnv4p)*.*\n\nThe pharmacology people sometimes talk about “active ingredients” here, idk.\n\nIf the name “Cochrane” is unknown to you, just nod along approvingly, because they are very high-status wizards of meta-analytic black magic. cf. [Behavioural therapies versus other psychological therapies for depression, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews](https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD008696.pub2/full)\n\nA well-known psychiatrist says this is a common failure mode he experiences, so you better believe it, m’kay? cf. [Peer Review Request: Depression, S. Alexander, AstralCodexTen](https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/peer-review-request-depression), Point 2.1.5\n\nAt which point it is also prudent to clarify that the subject of this article is ‘behavioural depression’, and it does not aim to engage with the many subtleties of ‘depression’ as defined by the DSM-5.\n\nWhich is the subject of, and a shameless ad for, my [last article](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iBN8uQi9zbPkdR29Q/adderall-tolerance-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/slack-and-slack-again-but-less", "canonical_source": "https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/j8zxC3ZgEBbR9bDH8/slack-and-slack-again-but-less", "published_at": "2026-08-03 18:48:09+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-03 18:58:12.125403+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "machine-learning"], "entities": ["Cochrane", "DeepSeek", "Los Alamos Laboratory", "LessWrong", "AstralCodexTen", "S. Alexander"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/slack-and-slack-again-but-less", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/slack-and-slack-again-but-less.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/slack-and-slack-again-but-less.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/slack-and-slack-again-but-less.jsonld"}}