Competing Instincts

I recently finished a Master of Biostatistics degree at the University of Sydney. The last task was to use advanced statistical techniques to analyse health related data in collaboration with researchers. I ended up doing two separate analyses. The first related to patient data from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Unit in Sydney (where I work). The second related to some of my own health related data. The analysis of my data is covered in the second part of the report and is available here . The main aim was to discover, from my data, ways to reduce one of my common symptoms – nausea (usually mild luckily). Using time series analysis methods I found various ways that should help including reducing my caffeine intake and getting more sleep. What soon surprised me however was that I found it hard to do this despite knowing I would likely feel healthier as a result! This led me to further explore the idea of competing instincts that seemed to be influencing my actions in

It’s been a while since the original posts last year but I’m back to it now with many more related topics I’d like to write about – but all in good time. For me it’s often an hour or so between home and work in the car and I usually listen to audiobooks to both entertain and sometimes educate. At the moment I’m listening to The Willpower Instinct as we all like to be more productive to, amongst various goals, improve our social status (as outlined in earlier posts). I highly recommend this book as it outlines many ways to enhance your quality of life by overcoming counterproductive habits of thinking as discovered through scientific studies. If I write many more posts in the coming months you can rightly suspect it’s working for me! Other productivity related audiobooks I’ve listened to recently and recommend include Your Brain at Work and Mastery .