Comfort Zone Exploration — LessWrong
The concepts which inspired the CoZE unit (such as exposure therapy and the explore/exploit problem in probability) are generally well-researched and under- stood. However, our combination of these concepts with an outlook of curiosity and epistemic uncertainty has changed their application somewhat. We have received promising feedback from alumni, but the activity continues to benefit from iteration. The experience of comfort is in many ways a non-experience. It’s often easier to describe what it isn’t than what it is—it’s a lack of irritation, a lack of pain or discomfort, a lack of negative emotions like fear or anxiety or despair or defensiveness. When we’re in our “comfort zone,” we feel calm, agentic, optimistic, and confident. Often, it’s a confidence born of experience—since most of us spend the majority of our time doing things that are comfortable, then the majority of the things we’re comfortable with will be things we’ve experienced many times, and are intimately familiar w