To keep people on track, CFAR holds online practice sessions for 10 weeks after a workshop and also assigns ‘‘accountability buddies’’ to encourage participation. The center is debating whether to develop an online version of its workshops that anyone can access. At the same time, it is also considering whether it would be ‘‘higher impact’’ to focus on teaching rationality to a small group of influential people, like policy makers, scientists and tech titans. ‘‘When I think about the things that have caused human society to advance, many of them seem to stem from new and better ways of thinking,’’ Galef added. ‘‘And while the self-help function of the workshops is great, I wouldn’t be devoting my life to this if that was all that I thought we were doing.’’

I hadn’t planned to practice the techniques myself, but in the weeks after the workshop ended, I found myself using them often. I began to notice when I was avoiding work — ‘‘finishing’’ a section of the newspaper (unit bias!) or doing other unproductive foot-dragging — and then rationalizing the lost time as mental ‘‘preparation.’’ I also found myself experimenting more and noting the results: working in a library rather than a coffee shop (more effective); signing up and paying for spin classes in advance (ditto); going to a museum on the weekend rather than doing something outdoors (so-so). Against all odds, the workshop had cracked open a mental window: Instead of merely muddling through, I began to consider how my habits might be changed. And while it was hard to tell whether this shift was because of the techniques themselves or simply because I had spent four days focusing intensely on those habits, the effect was the same. Instead of feeling stuck in familiar ruts, I felt productive, open and willing to try new things. I even felt a bit happier.

When I emailed some of the other participants, most reported a similar experience. Mike Plotz, the juggler turned coder, told me that he had recently done ‘‘a flurry of goal-factoring.’’ Among other things, he wanted to understand why he spent so much time checking Facebook every morning before work. Plotz said that he knew the Facebook habit wasn’t helping him and that he often ended up running late and feeling harried. After goal-factoring the problem, Plotz said, he realized that what he really wanted was autonomy: the feeling of being able to choose what he did each morning. Now, he said, rather than passively resisting work through Facebook, he gets up an hour earlier and does whatever he wants. ‘‘This morning I got up, made coffee and listened to ‘Moby-Dick,’ ’’ Plotz said when we spoke. ‘‘So I’d say that, so far, it’s going well.’’

I asked Plotz if he could tell whether the changes he made were due to the applied-rationality techniques or simply the product of a more active, problem-solving mind-set. ‘‘In some ways, I think the techniques are that: a way to kick you into a more productive state of mind,’’ he told me. But he also noted that they supplied a framework, a strategy for working through the questions that such a mind-set might raise. ‘‘It’s one thing to notice your thoughts and behaviors,’’ Plotz said. ‘‘Turning that into a technique that actually lets you accomplish stuff? That’s hard.’’