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50 Things I Learned

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 01:02:05 GMT

This is a special version of Weekly I/O. In this Rumination, I will pick learnings that I found worth reviewing in all 50 inputs from Weekly I/O#61 to #70, categorize them, and connect some with their related inputs from the Weekly I/O learning archive.

Hope you enjoy it!

Product and Design

People aren't buying your product for the molecules. They're buying it for the way it makes them feel. The subjective experience matters more than the objective characteristics of the product. [Experience not Characteristic] | Related: [Feel] [Game Design]
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. [Design is How It Works]
How Apple develops products? A chain of demos and feedback continuously evolves an idea towards a product. No brainstorming session and no whiteboard discussion. [Creative Selection]
A/B testing cannot substitute for taste in creating appealing products. Relying solely on A/B testing is abdicating your responsibility to the users. [No A/B testing]
Algorithms and heuristics are two sides of the same coin in product development, with algorithms providing objective measurements and heuristics offering subjective judgment. [Algorithms and Heuristics]
What makes a design good? Examine it using the Discoverability and Understanding Framework. [Discoverability and Understanding]

Psychology and Human Behavior

Parkinson's Law of Triviality: The time spent discussing various topics within an organization is usually inversely proportional to their level of importance. [Parkinson's Law of Triviality]
Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. The more time we allot for a work, the more time it will take to finish it. [Parkinson's Law]
Random Intermittent Reward is the most powerful mechanism to keep people repeating the same behavior. Social media triggers dopamine hits intermittently to keep us scrolling. [Random Intermittent Reward]
We can never know the actual reasons why we do anything. The observations of split-brain patients reveal that our true motivations are unknown behind all logical decisions. [Split-brain and Made-up Reason]
The shortest path to transfer from shame to normalcy is through pride. [From Shame to Normal through Proud]
Our envy is like WiFi. It is usually limited to a hyperlocal network. We are jealous of our friends, but not celebrities. [Envy is WiFi] | Related: [Mimetic Theory]
Getting rewards without effort or achievement is detrimental and destroys people's motivation. [Reward without Effort]

Writing and Creativity

How to express your thoughts clearly? The 3x3 rules: make less than 3 points, explain in 3 ways, and repeat 3 times. [3x3 Rules]
If you want to use an exclamation mark while writing, it means your words aren't strong enough on their own. Strengthen your sentences instead of compensating with a mark. [Drop Exclamation Mark]
To write well, delete most of what you put on the page, as films often shoot 50 to 100 times more footage than what actually appears in the final cut. [Delete Most in Draft]
The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable. [Make Art Inevitably]
No amount of technology will make a bad story good. [Technology and Story] | Related: [not Correctness] [Only Imperfect Produces Art]
Generative AI is to digital art as photography was to traditional art. The value of having good ideas grows when new technology lowers the need for technical skills. [Gen AI and Photography to Art]
Regarding sharing creative work, the word "release" carries a double meaning. It signifies that the work is made available to the public and that the author is liberated from the pursuit of perfection. [Double meaning of Release]

Decision-making and Career

Region-beta Paradox: People can be better off when things are much worse. While moderate situations prompt endurance, crisis triggers action. [Region-beta Paradox]
The XY problem: Avoid focusing on the attempted solution rather than the actual problem. People don't want a faster horse. They want to get to their destination faster. [XY Problem]
70-20-10 Rule: Spend 70% on your core business, 20% on adjacent or nearby things, and 10% on wild bets. [70-20-10 Rule] | Related: [Look Up and Around] [Career as Portfolio]
A useful introspective question for choosing projects: What would you do if you knew you would fail? [Choice when Doomed to Fail] | Related: [Three Questions for Evaluating Projects]
Our twenties are about watching our dreams go up in flames and learning from the ashes. Sometimes failure is the only way to learn, and what if the worst case is just moving back with our parents? [Failure in 20s]

Business Strategy and Marketing

7 Powers Framework for business strategy: Counter-Positioning, Cornered Resource, Scale Economies, Network Economies, Switching Costs, Branding, Process Power. [7 Powers Framework]
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.” - John Wanamaker [Money Wasted on Advertisement]
The margin you can charge for a product depends on how much extra social status it gives the user. The gross margin on living room furniture is three times higher compared to bedroom furniture. [Gross Margin and Social Status]
Dollar Auction Paradox: Understanding why companies spend more than what they can potentially earn and why we pay more than the actual value of a product. [Dollar Auction Paradox]
How Tim Ferriss identifies the next big thing? Understand what technical nerds and rich people are doing, and where people are patching together awkward solutions. [Spot Next Big Thing]
Capital is not a solution to problems. Capital is a means of scaling solutions. [Capital and Problem and Solution]

Observation and Culture

Deep connections between people are formed through a trifecta of ambition, vulnerability, and intense shared emotion, each representing a different aspect of time: the future, the past, and the present. [Deep Connection]
You cannot preach minimalism to people who don't feel the pain and haven't had too much stuff. [Cannot Preach Minimalism]
Diversity is multifaceted. People with correct points of view can be less diverse than those who are wrong because there are many more ways to be wrong. [Diversity is Multifaceted] | Related: [Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis]
Perfect seating arrangement and room temperature for comedy show: a little bit tighter and colder than comfortable. [Seat and Temperature for Comedy]
Places with no repeat customer behavior are designed to optimize for short-term behavior. That's why scammy businesses are usually found around tourist places. [Scam and Tourist] | Related: [Environment and Discount Future Rewards]
Why do the top 10 companies change every decade, but the top 10 schools remain unchanged? [Top Schools Unchanged] | Related: [Baumol's Cost Disease]

Science and Engineering

If Math is the perfect description language for physics, AI might be the perfect description language for biology. [AI Describes Biology]
Overview Effect: Sudden and dramatic shifts in perspective can make the observer into a state of awe with self-transcendent qualities, especially for astronauts viewing Earth from space. [Overview Effect]
How do robotic mice navigate to solve mazes in the shortest time? Three interesting strategies invented in the Micromouse competition history. [Micromouse Maze-Solving]
What does the Earth get from the Sun? While the total energy remains constant, we get low entropy energy that fuels life and natural processes before radiating it back into space as high entropy energy. [Entropy and Sun] | Related: [Information and Energy]
Every breakthrough is at first laughable and ridiculous. In fact, if it did not start out laughable and ridiculous, it is not a breakthrough. [Breakthrough and Laughability] | Related: [Clarke's Three Laws]

Life Tips and Learning

Would I still do it if I could never talk about this with anyone? Assess whether our motivation stems from intrinsic or extrinsic factors. [Intrinsic or Extrinsic Motivation] | Related: [Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation]
To raise our energy and get more things done, do energy audits to find out what makes us energized or drained. Double down on energizing one and eliminate the draining one. [Energy Audits]
Anger is a cover of pain. When people cross our boundaries, we should focus on expressing our pain instead of anger. [Focus on Pain not Anger]
Most of the pleasure in a dessert comes in the first three bites. After that, you should stop eating it. As a reward, you can eat dessert more often because you don’t binge it. [Dessert Eating Tips]
The combination of big ambitions, high standards, and low expectations serves as a heuristic for a fulfilling life [3 Heuristic for Fulfilling Life]
Procedural knowledge tends to be retained longer than declarative knowledge in our memory. All skills start as declarative knowledge and gradually transition to procedural through practice. [Procedural and Declarative Knowledge] | Related: [Knowledge Pyramid] [Skill and Knowledge]
When assembling furniture, start by tightening all the screws to 75%, then fully tighten them once all components fit together. This principle extends beyond furniture. [Assemble Furniture Principle]

Recap

Try recalling 1 learning you found most interesting from each category and reinforce what you've learned:

On Taiwanese Names or: Call me Cheng-Wei not Cheng, thank you

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 05:08:59 GMT

This guy with the name tag "Cheng-Wei Hu" just joined the virtual meeting. How will people greet him?

In a "scientific" study, 74% of the people called him Cheng and 21% called him Cheng-Wei.¹ I'm not a big fan of this result, so I am writing this article.

Call me by my name

My written name in English is Cheng-Wei Hu. Cheng-Wei is my given name, and Hu is my family name.

My preference for how to be called verbally is Cheng-Wei > Hu Cheng-Wei > Wei > Cheng-Wei Hu >> Cheng.² Unfortunately, so many people call me Cheng, which is not a world I wish I lived in.

Everyone in the world has those pieces of knowledge that we don't know we don't know yet, just like I don't know that Bill is a short form of the name William, and Ikea is pronounced Ikea.³

So I'm totally fine when you call me Cheng if you happen to haven't learned this critical piece of information in the world. You can still call me Cheng if that's your true calling, but I believe the world will be a better place if you call me Cheng-Wei.

And for the written format, my name should be, in descending order of preference, as

Cheng-Wei (10/10)
CW (If you want to skip some finger exercises)
Chengwei (Understandable when you cannot find the key for the hyphen)
Cheng (I'm sorry, but really please, no)

Addressing me as Cheng in written language is, again, unacceptable but forgivable. Putting all letters lowercase is fine, and I'd prefer Cheng-Wei over Chengwei because I like that little rebellious and nonsensical hyphen.

But why do my given name and most Taiwanese names have that symbol?

Understanding Taiwanese Names

Unlike most hyphenated Western names like Anya Taylor-Joy⁴ or Claude Lévi-Strauss, which combine different "self-standing" family names, the hyphens in Taiwanese names combine two syllables. For example, Cheng-Wei consists of two syllables, "Cheng" and "Wei," with that hyphen combining the two as one given name, "Cheng-Wei".

Because "Cheng" and "Wei" together are my given name, calling me Cheng will sound like calling Noah "No" or calling Marie "Ma" in my ear. Some Taiwanese can be more okay with this when it feels like William being called Will, but you probably won't greet someone with their short name when you first meet.

This usage of hyphens in the name originated from the Wade–Giles romanization system for Mandarin Chinese.⁵ And the hyphen in Taiwanese names serves two important functions.

Firstly, the hyphen helps non-Mandarin speakers identify syllable breaks. Imagine how an alien would pronounce the name "Obama" if they'd never heard it before. Would it be "O-BaMa" or "Ob-Ama"?

Because our given names often consist of two syllables, the hyphen in Taiwanese names helps prevent this kind of ambiguity by clearly marking syllable boundaries.

Secondly, the hyphenated format sometimes also serves as a marker of Taiwanese identity. Because the naming conventions in China (PRC) typically omit hyphens (e.g., Xi Jinping not Xi Jin-Ping), some people use this small punctuation mark to distinguish Taiwanese names from Chinese names.

So, having a stylish hyphen in our name is just like how Americans like to spell center as the center, color as color, or kilometers as miles. Next time, if you see some East Asian names with a hyphen in their name, there's a high chance they are from Taiwan.⁶

Other cool naming rules

If you want to know more fun facts about naming, there's a whole field of study called Onomastics. Here are some interesting rules that I've collected. If you have any rules you'd like to share, please send me a message via facebook, twitter or email so I can add them here.

In an Icelandic name, generally, a person's last name indicates the first name of their father or, in some cases, mother, followed by -son ("son"), -dóttir ("daughter"), or -bur ("child of"). For example, the female singer Björk Guðmundsdóttir's last name comes from her father Guðmundur Gunnarsson's first name. Also, since 1925, it has been illegal for Icelanders to adopt a family name unless they have a right to do so through inheritance.
In Spanish-speaking countries, people usually have two surnames, the first surname is the father's first surname, and the second is the mother's first surname. In Ecuador, a couple can choose the order of their children's two surnames.
Arabic names can consist of four names or more, identifying the name of the person, the father's name, the grandfather's name, and finally, the family name. They can also have an adjective surname indicating the person's place of origin (Nisba), or indicating their eldest son or daughter (Kunya)

A Simple Request

"Hey Cheng!"

Every time someone greets me this way, I question my self-identity for a millisecond.

Therefore, I hope if you have read this far, next time you encounter another East Asian-looking dude with a hyphen in their name, you know how to address them.

But of course, I believe most of us will not feel offended if you don't know our Taiwanese naming convention before. And it's also great if you ask anyone how to address them. We are all learning something about the world every day!

Love and peace.

^
The rest 5% asked him first. Personally, I believe in "It never hurts to ask" unless it's "Hi teacher, are you going to collect the homework you assigned last week that you forgot to collect?"
^
I prefer Hu Cheng-Wei over Cheng-Wei Hu because Taiwanese family names are actually put before given names. So Hu is my "first name" in Mandarin, although it's also my family name. And I prefer Wei over Cheng for family reasons (which means I don't know why).
^
Follow me to learn more words I mispronounce. Also A poem about pronunciation.
^
It might be worth noting that, according to Wikipedia, her full name is actually Anya-Josephine Marie Taylor-Joy. Double the hyphens, double the fun.
^
Technically, most Taiwanese romanize our names using a variation of Wade–Giles, which is simplified to get rid of diacritics, tone marks, and apostrophes. Most importantly, most people don't follow the standard capitalization conventions of Wade–Giles where the first letter in the second character of the given names is generally lowercase. That said, our former presidents weirdly follow Wade–Giles's original capitalization rule: Tsai Ing-wen, Ma Ying-jeou, Chen Shui-bian. The reason remains a mystery to me.
^
If it were that simple. Some people in Hong Kong and Korea also have hyphenated names. Some people in Taiwan now opt to choose a name without the hyphen. And a lot of people in these places have anglicized names. I wish it could be simpler, just like I wish the past tense of "go" is "goed" not "went", the cooked pig is still pig not pork, everyone knew how to use turn signals, and every date format is YYYY:MM:DD.

Thanks to Marie Friberger, Chris Wong, Kevin Hsu and Angelica Kosasih for reading the draft of this and giving feedback.

Emotional Freedom

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 06:07:21 GMT

One day, you decide that your life's goal is to be depressed.

Would you first focus on earning a lot of money to afford the best resources for sadness? Or would you study and practice how to be depressed? If you want to be depressed successfully, learning and practicing depression directly would likely be more effective than accumulating wealth first.

What if your life's goal is to be happy instead of depressed? Interestingly, we often take the indirect route, prioritizing financial rewards over emotional well-being towards happiness.

The underinvested path to happiness

Regardless of whether you want to cry in a Ferrari, a bus, or a Toyota, the tears taste the same. But think about how much time we spend on learning skills to earn more money, and how little time we spend on learning skills to be happier.¹

We are underinvesting in happiness skills.

Making a living matters, but if happiness is our goal, developing emotional freedom offers a more direct path than pursuing financial freedom.²

And this freedom of emotion is not the traditional freedom that you are free to do whatever you want.

Two types of freedom

There are two types of freedom: external freedom and internal freedom.³

External freedom focuses on external factors. It represents the freedom to act without other's interference. It's the "freedom to" do anything you want.

On the other hand, internal freedom focuses on the internal factors. It represents the freedom to act without our own destructive impulses. It's the "freedom from" being controlled by our inner drives.

For example, a smoker driving to the store to buy cigarettes has external freedom. No laws or physical barriers prevent their purchase. However, the driver may be considered lacking internal freedom if their addiction to cigarettes drives them to the store against their better judgment. They may wish to quit, but their craving forces them to act against their long-term interests.

The freedom we should pursue is internal. Emotional freedom is free from, not free to. We should be "free from" being controlled by our emotional turmoil, not "free to" indulge in every feeling.

Emotional freedom protects us from speaking harsh words to loved ones when being hijacked by anger, from making irrational decisions we'll regret when frustrated, from drowning in self-rejection when disappointed.

The goal isn't to eliminate these feelings but to prevent them from controlling our actions. Bad moods remain part of life, as they should. But we should practice and build the strength to protect us from being consumed by our emotions.

The practice of emotional freedom

It's not easy to control your emotions though. When I first started practicing it, I kept struggling with my emotions. I consciously tried to control my emotions, but they still often led me to irrational behavior. Sometimes I was stressing about things beyond my control, and sometimes I was upset about trivial things unnecessarily.

I was fortunate to have the chance to study with Venerable Guo Jing when I was in Taipei four years ago. Every week for 5 months, she answered my questions about practicing emotion.

Ven. Guo Jing made me realize one thing: It's okay to be carried away by emotions as long as you're aware of it.

Think of your mind as a train station platform. Different trains of emotions, anxiety, anger, depression, and paranoia, constantly pull through and head to various destinations. The ideal response is to stay on the platform when you spot an unwanted emotional train. You remain composed, choosing not to board trains that would carry you toward regret.

However, I learned that it's fine when you can't help but board those trains. We are human, and we do get triggered and irritated. But the key is practicing awareness. First, we need to notice when we get on the train we don't want. Then, practice jumping off the train before it leaves the station. With time, we will get back control faster, and the time we spend on the train will be shorter and shorter until we can mindfully choose not to get on the wrong train.

The process is like meditation for beginners. Thoughts will always slip into your mind when you are trying not to think about anything. But don't be harsh on yourself when it happens. You can always get a little bit better through practice.

I still struggle with emotion from time to time. For example, when my partner did something I found unreasonable, my first impulse could be to react with frustration.⁴ However, because of practice, now I can often catch myself before saying words I'll regret. Sometimes it could take more time to jump off that unwanted emotion train, then I know I need to take a walk or spend some time alone first so we don't fight unnecessarily.

So, although I still feel those surges of regrettable emotion, at least I've improved from the untrained mind that gets on every single train that pulls through the station towards regret.

Prioritize emotional freedom

Today, we can remind ourselves that our life's goal is happiness.

Don't take the detour to focus solely on earning money and treat emotional well-being as an afterthought. Practice managing your emotions like you would practice any other important skill.

It's perfectly fine if you are not able to control your temper perfectly now. Accept that you won't reach emotional freedom overnight, but commit to the practice. Each time you pause before reacting in anger, each moment you choose awareness over impulse, you are getting closer to your goal.

And pursuing happiness isn't about giving up financial security. It's about getting our priorities right. If happiness is truly our goal, our priorities should align with this goal.⁵

Prioritize emotional freedom over financial freedom.

Appendix: How to practice

I've been exploring ways to practice emotional freedom. Here are some resources I found helpful.

Stoicism

Stoicism is perhaps the philosophy you can learn the most about emotional freedom.

The Daily Stoic is a good website to get started with stoic exercises.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is the personal reflections of a Roman Emperor. It's the most classic Stoic book.
Letters from a Stoic by Seneca is another Stoic classic.
Tao of Seneca by Tim Ferriss is another helpful free online resource.

Buddhism

The philosophical part of Buddhism is almost the Eastern equivalent of Stoicism.⁶

Why Buddhism Is True explains many useful Buddhist practices from an evolutionary psychology perspective.
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind teaches fundamental practices of Zen Buddhism.
Master Sheng Yen's free online books are great for diving deeper into Buddhist wisdom.

Psychology and Psychotherapy

Learning modern psychology and psychotherapy can also be helpful, especially if you want to know the science behind happiness.

The Happiness Hypothesis is a book that touches on all Stoicism, Buddhism, and psychotherapy from a modern lens.
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy is a type of psychotherapy quite closely related to emotional freedom.
Zen Therapy is a Western psychotherapist's perspective on Buddhist psychology.

^
My assumption behind this statement is that happiness is a learnable skill, but I understand some people might believe happiness is determined by things they cannot change.
^
We can think of managing money like the Doughnut Economic Model: we set a minimum to meet our basic needs and an upper limit where additional wealth brings diminishing returns to our happiness. Within this range, we can focus our remaining energy on emotional freedom.
^
My definitions of external freedom and internal freedom are inspired by the concepts of positive and negative liberty from the British philosopher Isaiah Berlin, though his two forms of freedom are more often discussed in the context of political philosophy.
^
But of course, she is always right :)
^
Remember, don't trust what we say about our priorities; see where and how we spend our time.
^
Although Taoism is also quite similar, I prefer what Nassim Taleb said: "A Stoic is a Buddhist with attitude."

Thanks to Rick Lewis, Chris Wong, Kuriakin Zeng and Angelica Kosasih for reading the draft of this and giving feedback.

Attachment is Enemy of Love

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 03:14:36 GMT

The near enemy of love is attachment. True love allows, honors, and appreciates. Attachment grasps, demands, needs, and aims to possess.

Book: Atlas of the Heart

I believe originally from Jack Kornfield:

"The near enemy of love is attachment. Attachment masquerades as love. It says, “I will love this person (because I need something from them)." Or, "I'll love you if you'll love me back. I'll love you, but only if you will be the way I want."

This isn't the fullness of love. Instead there is attachment-there is clinging and fear. True love allows, honors, and appreciates; attachment grasps, demands, needs, and aims to possess."

This reminds me of the concept of Clean Love from The Ethical Slut:

Clean love is love without expectations. Washing your love clean doesn’t require advanced spirituality or weekly psychoanalysis.

You’ll probably never let go of every single attachment—at least we’ve never managed it. But maybe you can let go just for an instant: your history, worries, frets, and yearnings will still be there to come back to when you need them. Just for now, take a look at the wonderful person who is standing right in front of you.

Again, I think it all ties back to the best way to get a good spouse is to deserve one. To love more, to love without expectation, to love just for the sake of it.

Collaborative Math Engineering

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The paradigm of mathematical proof is shifting from solitary genius to collaborative software engineering. AI and formalization are turning proofs into blueprints that can be crowdsourced.

Podcast: A 4-hour Interview with Carina Hong: AI for Math, Lean, Proofs from The Book, and Intuition

The romantic image of math is a lonely genius solving a centuries-old problem at a chalkboard for 10 years.

But today, that image is quietly being replaced.

Modern proofs are increasingly broken down into massive, formalized projects. Terence Tao and Alex Kontorovich have started decomposing big theorems into "blueprints" that cut the proof into hundreds of smaller, well-defined tasks that anyone in the world can pick up and contribute to.

Carina Hong says proof now resembles collaborative software engineering more than solitary insight.

This is powered by formal verification languages like Lean. Through the Curry-Howard correspondence, every mathematical proof can be mapped to a computer program.

Furthermore, AI approaches math proofs through a completely different philosophy. In a recent Putnam-style problem, a human solved a geometry question with a single elegant drawing. The AI produced thousands of lines of brute-force enumeration. Same answer, but completely different method.

Therefore, the future role of the mathematician will likely rely less on mechanical labor and more on elite intuition about which conjectures to pursue and where to direct the AI's computing power.

Math as Civilization

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Mathematics is a civilization humans built upward from a small set of shared axioms. Like a contract, mathematicians agree on what feels "natural" enough to take for granted, and then construct everything else on top.

Podcast: A 4-hour Interview with Carina Hong: AI for Math, Lean, Proofs from The Book, and Intuition

Carina Hong describes math as a language of structure.

That feels more accurate than saying math is about numbers. A lot of higher math is not about calculating faster. It is about building a world carefully.

Mathematicians begin with axioms. These are the starting assumptions everyone agrees to accept. From there, they define objects, notice patterns, form conjectures, and prove theorems.

And the deeper image she uses is civilization.

Mathematicians sign a kind of contract. They agree on which axioms count as fundamentally true. Some try to use the fewest possible axioms. Others look for the most interesting combination. Either way, the foundation is chosen, not discovered.

Then a theorem becomes a road, tool, or building block for future work. From that foundation, the civilization is built upward.

You observe examples. You notice a pattern. You guess what the next theorem "should" be. Then you prove it. This upward construction is what makes math feel less like calculation and more like art.

Math as Art

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The essence of math lies in the artistic progression from observation to theoretical construction. Aesthetics and beauty are diagnostic tools for evaluating mathematical truth.

Podcast: A 4-hour Interview with Carina Hong: AI for Math, Lean, Proofs from The Book, and Intuition

We oftentimes picture math as right or wrong. But Mathematicians have a third axis: beauty.

Aesthetics play a central role. Even if a proof is logically correct, mathematicians will debate whether it is "beautiful" or "natural."

Beauty often signals that two seemingly distinct fields have found a deep, hidden connection. (like the Modularity Theorem as a famous example of elegance. It links algebraic equations with the geometry of elliptic curves.)

This shared artistic intuition acts as a guiding force. Because mathematicians share similar training, they develop a profound sense of what a "natural" progression should look like.

This pairs with Buckminster Fuller's idea that when a finished solution isn't beautiful, something is still wrong.

Mantra for Running Companies

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Frank Slootman's rules for running companies: increase the tempo, raise the standards, narrow the focus.

Article: Performance Culture by Frank Slootman

Rewatching The Devil Wears Prada reminds me of this essay from Frank Slootman.

These three things are especially important because they are against an organization's natural inertia.

You can always finish a project if you can keep extending the deadline or lowering the standard. That's an organization's natural tendency. But a leader's responsibility is to drive for excellence by combating that inertia.

Also related: CEOs Don't Steer.

Beautiful Solutions

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 03:14:36 GMT

"When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong." — Richard Buckminster Fuller

Quote

I learned this from Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, in his book Let My People Go Surfing.

Buckminster Fuller, the architect and systems thinker behind the geodesic dome, never chased elegance for its own sake.

He focused entirely on solving the problem. But he treated beauty as a diagnostic. If the finished solution felt clunky, something was still wrong.

Why would beauty signal correctness? One reason is Occam's razor. Between two competing explanations, the simpler one is preferred. A beautiful solution oftentimes strips away unnecessary complexity and captures only what matters. The clutter is gone, and what remains feels inevitable.

This also reminds me of what David Hilbert said about the importance of scientific work:

"One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of earlier publications rendered superfluous by it."

Equal Odds Rule

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The Equal Odds Rule: The likelihood of any single work becoming a major hit stays roughly the same across a creator's career. Most great creatives become great not by cracking a secret formula, but simply by producing a lot.

Podcast: Michael Nielsen – How science actually progresses

Psychologist Dean Keith Simonton proposed the equal odds rule: across a creator's lifetime, the probability that any individual work becomes a major hit stays roughly the same.

What really determines which era they're most productive in is how much they're publishing. Any given thing has equal odds of being extremely important.

Of course, there are exceptions. Gödel published almost nothing, yet rewrote the foundations of logic. However, Michael Nielsen believes you need a very good reason not to follow the Equal Odds Rule.

The most successful creatives, Shakespeare, Mozart, and Picasso, did not crack a secret formula. They simply produced an enormous volume of work and let the math do its job.

Nielsen observed that brilliant people who fail to produce anything are often allergic to public judgment. They wait endlessly for the "great project" that will make them famous.

The waiting becomes the work. Nothing ever ships. This echoes Quantity Predicts Quality.

Alien Tech Trees

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The science tech tree is far bigger and more branched than we realize. Most of it will never be explored. An alien civilization's technology stack would likely be radically different from ours, shaped by different senses and environments.

Podcast: Michael Nielsen – How science actually progresses

There is a popular picture of science as a single linear "tech tree." First electricity. Then computers. Then AI. As if every advanced civilization eventually walks the same path in roughly the same order.

However, this picture can be too narrow.

The actual tech tree is enormous and densely branched. The path we take is highly contingent on our environment and sensory biases. In other words, scientific progress can be path-dependent and far from inevitable.

For example, the foundations of computer science were laid in the 1930s. But almost a century later, we are still discovering profound and foundational ideas inside those foundations, such as public-key cryptography, decentralized ledgers, and quantum computing. One small branch keeps unfolding into more branches.

Therefore, an alien civilization might have a completely different tech stack. Perhaps they master biology or complex systems long before discovering radio.

If this assumption is true, the corollary is that we have significant agency over the future. Because most of the tech tree will never be explored, we aren't actually following a map. Instead, we are choosing which branches to grow and which ones to cut off.

This optimistic view on human agency feels close to Definite Optimism.

Slow Verification Loops

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Good ideas can wait a very long time for clean proof. In science, verification loops are often slow, noisy, and sometimes hostile to the truth.

Podcast: Michael Nielsen – How science actually progresses

We tend to imagine that experiments quickly confirm or kill theories. Unfortunately, reality is much messier.

Good ideas can wait a very long time for clean proof.

In the 3rd century BC, Aristarchus of Samos proposed that the Earth orbits the Sun. The Athenians rejected it because they couldn't observe stellar parallax (the tiny apparent shift of stars as Earth moves).

In the end, heliocentrism waited 2,000 years to be verified by Friedrich Bessel in 1838.

Sometimes verification is not just slow. It is actively hostile to the correct answer. In 1815, William Prout hypothesized that all atomic nuclei were made of hydrogen and should therefore have whole-number weights. Chemists kept measuring elements like chlorine at 35.46.

For 85 years, the data seemed to flatly contradict him. Only when isotopes were discovered did people realize Prout had been mostly right all along, hidden behind a confounder nobody knew existed.

So how did science move forward? Scientists relied on "explanatory aesthetics" and internal consistency. Einstein developed Special Relativity through thought experiments, often ignoring experimental anomalies he considered "minor errors."

If we trained an AI purely on data, it might never make these leaps. AI thrives where verification loops are tight: code (unit tests) and protein folding (the PDB). It might struggle in domains where the loop spans decades.

It could just keep refining the wrong model to fit the noisy observations, while true discovery requires sustaining independent research programs even when the data is silent or hostile.

Moving Bottlenecks

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Bottlenecks shift but they rarely vanish. When a new tool unblocks one constraint, it exposes the next one. Major discoveries often emerge in parallel because the prerequisites finally fall into place at the same time.

Podcast: Michael Nielsen – How science actually progresses

When a new tool arrives, we oftentimes say it removes a bottleneck. That is only half true. More often, it just moves the bottleneck upward.

For example, programmers who once spent weeks on a prototype can now ship one in hours because of AI coding assistants. But they are now bottlenecked on something else: deciding which prototype is worth building. There is no unit test for "Is this idea good?"

This pattern appears throughout the history of science.

Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace landed on the mechanism of natural selection at almost the same moment after geology proved the Earth was millions of years old.

Quantum computing was bottlenecked since von Neumann's day in the 1950s until personal computers made the concept of "computation" salient.

As fields get harder, bottlenecks also become less individual and more collective. Large Hadron Collider papers can have thousands of authors because no single person can master accelerator physics, detector physics, vacuum systems, inverse problems, and theory simultaneously.

At that point, progress depends not only on ideas but on institutions that allocate capital, credit, time, and freedom well.

That is why the next great era of science may come less from a single brilliant thought and more from better systems for many minds, tying us back to Doug's observation in Augmenting Human Intellect.

Spaced Repetition for Better Learning

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 05:19:53 GMT

This is still an evolving draft. If you have any feedback or suggestion, welcome to comment on Substack, or send me a message via twitter, facebook or email :)

Memory for learning complex subjects

What makes learning complex subjects like quantum computing hard?

Many people assume they struggle due to the inherent complexity of the subject. However, the real problem is often that they're having a hard time with basic notation and terminology. It's challenging to comprehend any subject when it takes effort to recall the definition of a notation or concept you might bump into every three words.

If learners focused on committing the basics into their memory first and worried less about the complicated conceptual relationship, they'd find high-level concepts become more manageable.

Experiments have shown using tools like flashcards (spaced repetition system in broader terms) to enhance memory can effectively help people learn quantum computing and quantum mechanics. Many math, physics, and medical students also use flashcards to learn.

What's spaced repetition

Spaced repetition is a learning technique that optimizes reviewing previously learned material by scheduling reviews at increasing intervals over time. This method is based on the psychological principle of the forgetting curve, which states that we forget information exponentially unless we reinforce it.

By strategically timing reviews just before forgetting occurs, spaced repetition enhances long-term retention. Each time a learner successfully recalls information, the intervals between subsequent reviews can be extended, allowing for more efficient study sessions.

Research has shown that using spaced repetition techniques can significantly improve memory retention, with participants demonstrating between 10% and 50% better recall compared to those using massed practice methods. See more research supporting Spaced Repetition in the appendix.

Given the effectiveness of spaced repetition, such a system is still used only for memorizing trivial facts, language learning, and memory-intensive disciplines like medicine currently.

This raises the question: Why isn't spaced repetition more widely adopted?

The opportunities in spaced repetition

Despite its potential benefits, there are several problems for the learners to use spaced repetition systems currently:

Creating high-quality flashcards is time-consuming.
Reviewing flashcards can become tedious and requires motivation or discipline.
Determining what's essential to remember toward the learner's goal can be difficult.
Knowing how to apply what the learner remembers is hard.
There's no good support for the learner's metacognition.

Besides these problems, some cognitive principles can be implemented in such a system:

Our brain remembers things by linking new ideas to existing knowledge. Can we help the user do this encoding?
Simultaneously processing both verbal and nonverbal representations of an idea helps us remember better (Dual-coding theory). Can we generate good visuals to help memorization?
We remember things (semantic memory) better when reviewing the concept in different contexts. Can we vary the wording, the font, the visuals, and even the type of cards every time the user reviews?
Learners often give up learning things with a steeper learning curve before they get their first sense of accomplishment. Can we make the first dose of dopamine come before they give up?

There are many more opportunities we can help people learn better and get more fulfillment in the learning process.

Appendix: Research supporting Spaced Repetition

1885: Hermann Ebbinghaus published pioneering work on memory, including the concept of the forgetting curve (exponential loss of information over time).
- Memory. A Contribution to Experimental Psychology
1939: Herbert F. Spitzer studied how spacing the material and tests affects retention and how to use it in education.
- Studies in retention
1989: Frank N. Dempster reviews scholarly literature, concluding that spaced repetition is highly effective across various settings and materials
- Spacing effects and their implications for theory and practice
1991: a research team at Villanova University ran experiments concluding that spaced repetition increases recall for anyone at any age.
- The effect of spacing repetitions on the recognition memory of young children and adults
2014: Janell R. Blunt and Jeffrey D. Karpicke researched that the act of retrieving knowledge was the primary driver of learning effects, not the act of writing itself. The format of the activity (via concept mapping or paragraph writing) was less important than the act of retrieval itself.
- Learning with retrieval-based concept mapping
2016: Sean Kang recommended organizations capitalize on spaced repetition as a cost-effective learning strategy because greater retention of material is achieved in the same amount of time.
- Spaced Repetition Promotes Efficient and Effective Learning: Policy Implications for Instruction
2017: Christopher D. Smith and Damian Scarf published that the effects of spaced repetition can be age- and goal-dependent. Spacing enhances word and grammar learning more for children than for adults, though they admitted that contextual variability and retrieval difficulty accounts struggle to explain these findings
- Spacing Repetitions Over Long Timescales: A Review and a Reconsolidation Explanation
2019: Beijing Normal University researchers use EEG data to reveal the neurological basis of spaced repetition's effectiveness. Spaced learning enhances memory by enhancing pattern reinstatement of prior neural representations. In comparison, massed learning has stronger momentary retrieval strength while reducing the need for memory retrieval and reactivation of prior memory traces.
- Spaced Learning Enhances Episodic Memory by Increasing Neural Pattern Similarity Across Repetitions
2020: A study from the University of Leicester quantifies the benefits of spaced repetition in exam performance by building a web app for students.
- Spaced Repetition: Towards More Effective Learning in STEM

Become Me More and More

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 03:14:36 GMT

"I am Me, and I hope to become Me more and more. That is surely the goal of all our struggles." — Paula Modersohn-Becker

Quote

From German Expressionist painter Paula Modersohn-Becker:

And now, I don’t even know how I should sign my name. I’m not Modersohn and I’m not Paula Becker anymore either. I am Me, and I hope to become Me more and more. That is surely the goal of all our struggles.

She wrote these words in 1906 while in Paris, having temporarily left her husband to pursue an artistic independence that rejected both her maiden name (Becker) and her married name (Modersohn) as external labels.

We perhaps shouldn't view "self" as a destination we reach. It's more of a process of uncovering that requires the courage to be "unlabeled".

This reminds me of Nietzsche's "the end of a melody is not its goal". Also, "We should stop asking about the meaning of life and think of ourselves as those being questioned".

Drama Triangle

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The Drama Triangle: If you cannot face another person directly, you will drag a third person in and call it "process". The three roles of Victim, Persecutor, and Rescuer rotate endlessly and rot companies from the inside.

Paper: Fairy Tales and Script Drama Analysis

Have you ever seen someone bring a complaint to a manager instead of talking to the person directly?

In 1968, psychiatrist Stephen Karpman published a model called the Drama Triangle. It describes three roles people unconsciously rotate through: the Victim ("poor me"), the Persecutor ("it's your fault"), and the Rescuer ("let me help you").

The roles are not fixed. They shift constantly. A Rescuer who feels unappreciated flips to Persecutor. A Victim who accumulates enough resentment also becomes the Persecutor. No matter where you start on the triangle, everyone ends up feeling like a victim.

In organizations, this becomes triangulation. Person A has an issue with Person B, so A goes to a manager instead of talking to B directly. The manager now holds anxiety that belongs to A and B.

And the worst part: the triangulation gets legitimized. It becomes "process."

Anonymous feedback tools, mediation protocols, and escalation frameworks absorb the anxiety that two adults could resolve in a 15-minute conversation. Once the process exists, going direct is seen as aggressive. The triangle has eaten the culture.

David Emerald's Empowerment Dynamic offers an easy antidote: speak directly!

Therefore, the Victim becomes a Creator who asks, "What do I want?" The Persecutor becomes a Challenger who holds others accountable with care. And the Rescuer becomes a Coach who asks, "Have you spoken to them about this?"

PMF Survey

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Define Product-market fit beyond just feelings: Ask users how they would feel if your product disappeared. If 40% say "very disappointed," you have found it. This way, you define it as a number you can hillclimb.

Article: How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product-Market Fit

Marc Andreessen famously defined Product-Market Fit(PMF):

“You can always feel when product-market fit is not happening. The customers aren't quite getting value out of the product, word of mouth isn't spreading, usage isn't growing that fast, press reviews are kind of ‘blah,’ the sales cycle takes too long, and lots of deals never close.

And you can always feel product-market fit when it is happening. The customers are buying the product just as fast as you can make it — or usage is growing just as fast as you can add more servers. Money from customers is piling up in your company checking account. You're hiring sales and customer support staff as fast as you can. Reporters are calling because they've heard about your hot new thing and they want to talk to you about it. You start getting entrepreneur of the year awards from Harvard Business School. Investment bankers are staking out your house.”

Rahul Vohra turned it into a metric by asking users: "How would you feel if you could no longer use this product?" with a PMF threshold of 40% "very disappointed."

Superhuman started at 22%. But his first move wasn't to build anything. He segmented users to find which personas appeared most in the "very disappointed" group. By narrowing the target audience, the score jumped to 33% without a single product change.

Then he analyzed feedback to extract the product's core value: speed, focus, keyboard shortcuts. From users who are still on the fence to be "very disappointed", he identified blockers.

He split the roadmap 50/50: half doubling down on what fans loved, half removing barriers. And after three quarters of execution, Superhuman hit 58%.

In the four-step framework (segment users, find out what they love or hate, build for both, and keep going), most people skip over the segmentation part. However, you can improve your score without building anything new just by reorganizing who you're talking to. You then just need to find more of those people!

Elaborative Encoding

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Elaborative Encoding: We remember what is meaningful. Memory is not a recording but a translation. The more you connect new information to what you already know, the stronger the memory becomes.

Book: Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting

Why is it easier to remember that someone is a baker than that someone's last name is Baker?

Lisa Genova uses this example to illustrate a key insight about memory. The occupation "baker" connects to a rich web of associations: bakeries, fresh bread, flour, ovens, and the smell of baking. But the surname "Baker" is what Genova calls a neurological dead-end. It leads nowhere in your memory unless you deliberately create connections.

This is the idea behind elaborative encoding. Instead of passively repeating information, you actively connect new ideas to knowledge you already have: prior knowledge, examples, images, categories, stories, or personal experience.

A fact with one hook is easy to lose. A fact with five hooks is easier to find.

That is why self-explanation works. That is why analogies work. That is why coming up with your own example is oftentimes better than rereading somebody else's.

Therefore, if you want to remember something, do not just ask, "Can I repeat it?" Ask, "What does it connect to?" Memory often improves not when we add more exposure, but when we add more meaning.

This also explains why retrieval practice is more effective than rereading. It forces your brain to build pathways rather than passively absorb.

Constructive Confrontation

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Constructive Confrontation: Be blunt with ideas, but kind to people. Politeness is often just a mask for fear.

Book: High Output Management

Andy Grove, Intel's legendary CEO, believed that politeness oftentimes masks fear. People avoid saying what they really think because they worry about offending someone above them.

Therefore, bad ideas survive unchallenged, and bad news cannot be communicated fast enough.

His solution was a practice he called "constructive confrontation." In Grove's words:

"We developed a style of ferociously arguing with one another while remaining friends."

The rule: attack the idea, never the person. You could and should challenge anyone's proposal, regardless of rank. But you are expected to bring data and a defensible opinion to the table.

This only works if the argument stays on the issue and if the culture focuses on reaching the truth as quickly as possible rather than winning the argument.

When teams avoid this, problems usually come back later in a more expensive form.

Joy and Aliveness

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Discovering more joy does not save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will also laugh more easily. We are more alive, and perhaps that's the ultimate goal of life: to be more alive.

Book: The Book of Joy

From archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu:

Discovering more joy does not, save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will laugh more easily too. Perhaps we are just more alive. Yet as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreaks without being broken.

Joy and hardship are not mutually exclusive. If anything, joy may make us cry more easily. But it also makes us laugh more easily. We become more sensitive to the full spectrum of human experience.

Therefore, the goal of a meaningful life is not to avoid the inevitability of suffering. Instead, it is to develop internal resilience to withstand heartbreak without being broken.

The opposite of dead is to be alive. Perhaps the ultimate goal of life is just to be more alive.

This also reminds me of Leibniz's Best Possible Worlds, where he tries to answer the question, "Why do tragedies exist if God is omnipotent?"

Three Circles of Authentic Positioning

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Good positioning is not manufacturing a persona. It is selecting and amplifying the three circles of positioning: what is true, relevant, and strategically useful.

Podcast: Helping Founders Go Direct in a New Era of PR & Comms with Lulu Cheng Meservey | Ep. 25 - YouTube

Good positioning shouldn't be fake packaging. If the message does not match the person, people feel the mismatch.

Positioning stops working the moment it drifts too far from reality.

For example, if a founder is naturally sharp, intense, and technical, you cannot convincingly package them as a warm, fuzzy people-manager. People may not be able to explain why it feels off, but they can feel the mismatch.

That is what I found useful in Lulu Cheng Meservey's framing. Instead of inventing a character, positioning should focus on compression and amplification. The world cannot absorb the full complexity of a person, so you choose which true parts to make more legible.

She describes a useful filter: your messaging should select and amplify the overlap of three circles: what is true, what is relevant, and what is strategic.

If it is true but irrelevant, nobody cares.
If it is relevant but untrue, it feels manipulative.
If it is true and relevant but not strategically useful, it may get attention without helping the actual mission.

So don't just say whatever will go viral. The goal is to make the right truths louder.

Four Types of Knowledge

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Knowledge comes in four core types: facts (what), procedures (how), concepts (why), and strategies (when). Knowing when to apply the right knowledge is oftentimes harder than knowing what or how.

Paper: The Knowledge‐Learning‐Instruction Framework: Bridging the Science‐Practice Chasm to Enhance Robust Student Learning

One reason teaching advice is so messy is that people talk as if "learning" were one thing.

The KLI framework starts with a cleaner question: what kind of knowledge are we trying to build? The KLI framework identifies four types of "Knowledge Components" (KCs):

Declarative (Facts): The static "what." (e.g., knowing Python is a language).
Procedural (Skills): The "how-to." (e.g., knowing the syntax for a loop).
Conceptual (Principles): The "why." (e.g., the logic of iteration).
Strategic (Conditional): The "when." (e.g., knowing when to use a loop vs. recursion).

The paper emphasizes that learning the conditions of application, the "when", is oftentimes harder than learning the "what" or "how."

You might know every data structure and every algorithm, but still struggle to pick the right one for a specific problem.

This also relates to the Knowledge Component Taxonomy noted a few weeks ago, which categorized knowledge by whether conditions and responses are constant or variable.

The four types here map roughly to increasing complexity: facts are constant-constant, while strategies involve variable conditions and variable responses.

Instructional and Learning Events

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Instructional vs. Learning Events: Teaching is an external catalyst for an internal change. Instructional events are the visible things teachers design. Learning events are the invisible mental changes those designs are trying to trigger.

Paper: The Knowledge‐Learning‐Instruction Framework

We often confuse the act of teaching with the act of learning.

In the KLI framework, Instructional Events (IE) are observable activities, such as a lecture, a hint from a tutor, or a practice problem. These are external factors controlled by the instructor.

However, you should treat these events as "learning" itself. They are just planned changes in the environment.

The fundamental goal of every IE is to trigger an unobservable Learning Event (LE) inside the student's brain.

These internal cognitive changes are what actually build or modify Knowledge Components.

For example, changing a practice problem to include a prompt for "self-explanation" is a shift in the IE. This forces the student's mind to engage in a different internal LE, which ultimately builds more robust and transferable knowledge than simple repetition.

It's also worth noting that an IE could be a 10-second hint delivered by a computer tutor when a student gets stuck. Alternatively, it could be a 45-minute lecture or a complex simulation. Whether short or long, the goal remains the same: to cause a specific Learning Event in the student's mind.

Also related: CCAF Instructional Design Model

Robust Learning Needs Varied Assessment

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Measuring Robust Learning: True mastery lasts over time, transfers to new situations, and accelerates future learning.

Paper: The Knowledge‐Learning‐Instruction Framework

A single quiz right after instruction is weak evidence of learning. Robust learning has three markers:

Retention: It lasts over time.
Transfer: It works in novel situations.
Acceleration: It makes learning related things faster.

Since we can't see internal learning, we must use diverse Assessment Events (AE). Varying both the timing (long-term, not just short-term) and the format (fluency, transfer, generation, not just accuracy) in different contexts is the only way to confirm real understanding.

Intelligence Augmentation Framework

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 01:58:13 GMT

This is part 2 of the Revisiting Augmenting Human Intellect series, where I break down Douglas Engelbart's Augmenting Human Intellect, the classic paper on how computers can improve human intellectual effectiveness.

In this post, we will explore the framework Doug used to break down the intelligence augmentation problem, including the nature of intelligence, the tools we use to augment it, and three principles for optimizing our capabilities.

For an introduction to this series and the background of Augmenting Human Intellect, start with Part 1.

Because this series is still evolving, I'd love to hear your suggestions, feedback, or questions! Feel free to send me a message via twitter, facebook, or email.

You can also subscribe to get new posts when they come out.

The Source of Intelligence
Four Classes of Augmentation Means
H-LAM/T system
First Principle: Basic Capability Repertoire Hierarchy
Second Principle: Executive and Direct-Contributive Capabilities
Third Principle: Synergetic Structuring
The Relationship between Synergetic Structuring and Augmentation Means
Understand Symbol and Concept through Semiotics

The Source of Intelligence

Imagine someone from 1824 suddenly teleported to 2024 and using Uber on an iPhone for the first time. They might wonder:

How does this shiny glass (when the word screen hasn't acquired its modern meaning yet) know where I'm touching?
How does this small box know the maps and where other cars are?
How does the driver know where I am and the best route to pick me up?
How can I pay with just numbers from a metal card?
And why is it so expensive when it suddenly rains?

A small box capable of performing all these complex tasks seems too magical. It must possess god-like, omniscient intelligence¹, right? Perhaps that half-bitten apple logo on the back is from an advanced extraterrestrial civilization with all this unfathomable power to gather and process information?

The misconception of intelligence

To augment any intelligence, we need to know the source of the intelligence first. When we see a computer system performing complex tasks, we often attribute its intelligence to a single, mysterious power.

However, if we examine this system closely, we'll find that its intelligence actually comes from layers of simple functions instead of a single inherent intelligence capability.

Hierarchy of functional components

The source of intelligence is distributed across a hierarchy of functional processes that breaks down complexity through layers of organization.

When we request an Uber ride, thousands of different functional components work together. Uber's app communicates with its servers, which are composed of thousands of small software components called microservices². Each microservice performs a specific function and communicates with others.

For example, one component uses algorithms to determine the closest driver, while another considers real-time traffic data and optimal routes. You can see their architecture graph below to understand the number of these components and how they interact.

Uber’s microservice architecture in mid-2018, from Introducing Domain-Oriented Microservice Architecture

These software components can be broken down into at least six more layers of hierarchy. For example:

At the top level, a software system architect designs how each component fits into the overall architecture.
At the second level, a software engineer implements the component using high-level programming languages like Java or Python.
At the third level, the compiler translates high-level code into low-level machine code.
At the fourth level, a hardware systems architect designs how different hardware components (CPU cores, RAM, SSDs, etc.) work together.
At the fifth level, a hardware engineer designs the internal organization of these components.
At the sixth level, an electrical engineer deals with the foundational electronic components like transistors, capacitors, and integrated circuits.

Artificial Intelligence's Intelligence

Similarly, for an artificial intelligence (AI) system like a self-driving car, what enables an autonomous vehicle to drive isn't one big machine learning model that processes inputs from cameras and uses a mysterious power to make decisions like turning right or accelerating as output.

Instead, the system's intelligence comes from multiple machine learning (ML) models working together in a hierarchical structure. For instance, there will be ML models for object detection, object tracking, prediction, decision-making, and many other components for non-ML functions like data processing.

Beyond the software and hardware aspects, each social, life, or physical phenomenon also derives from a hierarchy of organized functions. Human intelligence, for instance, ultimately comes from the characteristics of individual nerve cells. Even remembering the first thing we did after waking up today (an episodic memory) requires multiple parts of our brain, like the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus, to work together.

Now that we've demystified the source of intelligence within a system, let's explore the components of enhancing the capabilities of groups of humans as systems to solve complex problems.

Four Classes of Augmentation Means

Doug Engelbart defined four fundamental classes of "augmentation means" that enhance human capabilities:

Artifact

Artifacts are physical objects and digital tools³ designed to enhance human capabilities to manipulate physical things or symbols.

For example, a hammer is an artifact that helps us drive nails, and Google Docs software is an artifact that expands our capacity to edit and organize text.

Language

Languages are systems of symbols and concepts we use to understand, think, and communicate.

For instance, spoken and written English is one of our most common languages. Other forms of symbolic representation, like mathematical notation or musical scores, are also examples of languages.

Methodology

Methodologies are organized methods, procedures, or strategies we use to achieve specific goals and solve problems.

For example, a recipe is a methodology for cooking a specific dish, and the scientific method is a methodology for investigating and understanding the natural world.

Training

Training is the process of learning and practicing the skills needed to use artifacts, languages, and methodologies effectively.

For instance, learning to ride a bicycle requires training to develop the physical coordination needed to use the artifact effectively. Similarly, learning a new programming language requires training to understand its syntax and concepts.

H-LAM/T system

The four classes of augmentation means are interconnected. We use language to communicate about artifacts and methodologies, and training is essential to use them effectively. Together, these augmentation means form a system that enables us to understand and interact with the world.

Let's recap the goal of Augmenting Human Intellect:

Use computers to enhance humans' ability to solve more complex problems together.

To achieve this, Doug proposed treating "a group of trained humans together with their artifacts, language, and methodology" as an entire system, which he called the H-LAM/T system (Human using Language, Artifacts, Methodology / Training).

This allows us to approach the augmentation of collective intelligence as an optimization problem for a unified system.

There are three principles of optimizing this H-LAM/T system.

First Principle: Basic Capability Repertoire Hierarchy

The first principle of optimizing the H-LAM/T system is identifying the fundamental building blocks of human intellect and the tools we create. These building blocks are the basic capabilities we use to interact with the world and solve problems. These capabilities exist in two domains:

Human domain: Our natural abilities like thinking, remembering, and using our senses.
Artifact domain: The capabilities of the tools we create, like computers and pencils.

To identify basic capabilities, we can break down complex abilities in both domains through a recursive decomposition process:

Start with a complex ability.
Ask if this ability can be improved with any augmentation means.
If yes, break it down into simpler components.
If no, we've found a basic capability.
Repeat until reaching abilities that cannot be effectively improved.

For example, writing an essay in the human domain can be broken down into typing, which involves pressing keys, ultimately requiring finger movements (a basic human capability). In the artifact domain, writing involves editing information, which can be broken down into storing data (a basic artifact capability).

This decomposition reveals two classes of basic capabilities within each domain:

Used Capabilities: Abilities actively utilized in our daily problem-solving and tool use.
Unused Capabilities: Potential abilities yet to be utilized or discovered.

By identifying these basic capabilities, we can construct a basic capability repertoire hierarchy. This hierarchical collection of basic capabilities allows us to explore our natural limits and envision new ways to augment our abilities.

Furthermore, by decomposing both domains, we can leverage the combined capabilities of humans and artifacts to optimize our collective problem-solving.

Second Principle: Executive and Direct-Contributive Capabilities

The second principle of optimizing the H-LAM/T system is understanding capabilities' distinct roles within a hierarchical network. These roles are divided into two primary classes: executive and direct-contributive.

Executive Class Capabilities

Executive capabilities are responsible for planning, comprehending, and executing processes. They include high-level decision-making, strategy formulation, and overall supervision.

The executive class delegates tasks to executive classes in lower levels or direct-contributive classes.

Direct-contributive Class Capabilities

Direct-contributive capabilities are organized by the executive class and directed towards the realization of specific tasks within the capabilities hierarchy.

For example, when we pick up and answer a phone, deciding to pick up is an executive capability, and physically picking up the phone is a direct-contributive capability.

Executive Class Automation

Capabilities vary across different levels in the H-LAM/T system. Lower-level capabilities are more automatic, while higher-level ones require conscious effort and planning.

Humans need organization and management to divide finite capabilities between executive and direct-contributive activities. For complex problems, the executive class must frequently update its plans as new options emerge and our comprehension evolves.

While humans often prefer to retain control over high-level decision-making, it can be helpful to let computers automate some executive functions. This can free up our time and cognitive resources from being misallocated to the wrong direct-contributive processes.

Therefore, technological augmentation should not only enhance our direct capabilities but also optimize the management and allocation of our cognitive resources.

Third Principle: Synergetic Structuring

The third principle of optimizing the H-LAM/T system is synergetic structuring, which refers to the organization of elements that produces an effect greater than the sum of their individual effects. Synergism occurs when the entire structure is more effective than the sum of its parts.

This principle is fundamental to building sophisticated capabilities from basic ones. In Doug's words, it is "our most likely candidate for representing the actual source of intelligence".

Synergetic structuring applies to five interconnected types of structures within the H-LAM/T system:

Mental Structuring

Mental structuring is the internal organization of conscious and unconscious mental images that provide intuition, judgment, and inference.

For example, a chess player recognizing patterns on the board relies on mental structuring to anticipate and plan moves, demonstrating more effective strategies than considering each piece in isolation.

Concept Structuring

Concept structuring is the capacity to use concepts as tools for mental processes and combine basic concepts into complex ideas for problem-solving.

For instance, we can use mathematical operations to solve equations, and combining the concepts of subtraction and multiplication allows us to solve more complicated equations.

Symbol Structuring

Symbol structuring is the structured representations of concepts that enable communication and externalization of thought.

For instance, a flowchart uses symbols like arrows, circles, and rectangles to represent the steps in a process, their sequence, and their inputs/outputs. The periodic table in chemistry uses letters and numbers to organize elements and demonstrate relationships between their properties.

Process Structuring

Process structuring is the organization and execution of processes to manipulate symbols and coordinate actions toward specific goals efficiently.

For example, in the agile project management framework, tasks are typically structured into fixed-length sprints with planning, standup, and retrospective meetings to ensure the project can be delivered on time.

Physical Structuring

Physical structuring is the physical construction and arrangement of artifacts in the system, representing the tangible aspects of augmentation means.

For instance, a car engine assembly arranges individual parts into a functional system. Bret Victor's Communal computing for 21st century science is a novel example where projectors and laser pointers are arranged to turn the whole biomolecular lab space into a computer.

Five types of structures are interdependent

These five types of structuring are interdependent and cyclic. Each type relies on and influences the others, creating a dynamic system that continually enhances human intellectual capabilities.

For example, improvements in process structuring through advanced artifacts like computers can lead to better concept and mental structuring, which in turn can further enhance process structuring.

The Relationship between Synergetic Structuring and Augmentation Means

Having explored the four classes of augmentation means and the five types of synergetic structuring, let's review them together to understand their relationship.

Physical structuring to Artifact

Physical structuring directly relates to the artifact component in our augmentation means, focusing on the construction of tools and technologies.

Process structuring to Methodology

Process structuring represents the methodology component in our augmentation means but extends beyond it. It involves not only the organization of processes but also their execution. Therefore, process structuring serves as both the theoretical framework for how things should be done and the actual implementation of doing them.

Symbol and concept structuring to Language

Symbol structuring and concept structuring together form the language component in our augmentation means. Symbol structuring deals with the symbolic representation of a language, while concept structuring organizes the internal representation of ideas and their relationships in a language.

Mental structuring to Symbol and Concept

Though not directly mapped to a specific augmentation means, mental structuring forms the foundation of the entire system.

We can view mental structuring as the space where we find concepts in the form of conscious or unconscious feelings, scenes, and images humans have experienced. Concepts, therefore, serve as the medium of exchange between mental structures and their symbolic expression.

Because symbol structuring and concept structuring are crucial to language, our primary tool for thought, let's explore their relationship from a different angle.

Understand Symbol and Concept through Semiotics

I found studying semiotics, the study of signs, helpful to better understand the relationship between Symbol and Concept.

Augustine, sometimes credited as the founder of semiotics, wrote in De Doctrina Christiana to explain what is a sign:

“A sign is a thing which causes us to think of something beyond the impression the thing itself makes upon the senses. [...] All instruction is either about things or about signs; but things are learnt by means of signs."

Signifier and Signified

Ferdinand de Saussure, a linguist and one of the most influential figures in the development of semiotics, defined a sign as being composed of two parts:

Signifier: the form which the sign takes.
Signified: the concept which the sign represents.

Together, the signifier and signified make up the sign, the smallest unit of meaning that can be used to communicate.

For example, the word "Open" on a shop doorway is a sign consisting of the English word "Open" as the signifier and the concept that the shop is open for business as the signified.

Using Saussure's Dyadic Model, we can roughly think of concepts as the signified and symbols as the signifier⁴. Concepts and symbols together form the unit for us to think and communicate with each other.⁵

Take written communication as an example. When writing, the writer encodes concepts (signified) in their head into symbols (signifier) on the paper. Conversely, the reader decodes the symbols (signifier) into concepts (signified) when reading.

Charles Sanders Peirce's Three types of signs

While Saussure mainly focused on the linguistic part of semiotics and the arbitrary nature of the linguistic sign, Charles Sanders Peirce, another key figure in semiotics, focused on a broader range of signs.

Indexical sign: Based on causality or correlation, like smoke indicating fire.
Iconic sign: Based on resemblance, like portraits, cartoons, scale models, onomatopoeia.
Symbolic sign: Based on conventions (which are arbitrary and must be learned), like language, numbers, morse code, and national flags.

These categories show that the relationship between concepts and symbols is not one-to-one. For example, the concept of fire can be represented by the word "fire" (symbolic), a fire emoji (iconic), a burned object (indexical), or even another word "flame" (symbolic).

There can be one-to-many, many-to-one, and many-to-many mappings between concepts and symbols. This complex interplay of meanings is crucial for human thinking, as Peirce put it: "We think only in signs".

In the next post, I will explain how better mapping between concepts and symbols enhances our thinking. We will explore the four elements of symbol manipulation, three ways modern computers "think," the distinction between Intelligence Amplification and Intelligence Augmentation, and finally, the three directions for augmenting human intellect. Stay tuned!

^
Despite being useful, current AI researchers might not qualify this kind of machine ability as intelligence. In the 2007 paper A Collection of Definitions of Intelligence, Shane Legg and Marcus Hutter surveyed more than 70 definitions of intelligence and summarized: "Intelligence measures an agent's ability to achieve goals in a wide range of environments." Also recommend reading François Chollet's On the Measure of Intelligence.
^
Although Uber has moved away from a completely microservices structure, that's more of a software engineering consideration. In essence, the whole service is still a hierarchy of functional components.
^
Note that Doug originally included only physical objects in this category, but I have added digital tools to align with current usage.
^
Note that the signifier is now commonly seen as the material (or physical) form of the sign. However, for Saussure, both the signifier and the signified were purely psychological. Both were form rather than substance. For more details, read Saussure's Course in General Linguistics.
^
One difference between signified/signifier and concept/symbol is, for Saussure, it's meaningless to speak of a signifier without a signified or a sign or to speak of a signified without a signifier or a sign. However, both Doug's Concept and Symbol can be examined separately.
^
It's an oversimplification here. Peirce's work are more complicated and he formed his own triadic model of the sign consisting of Representamen, Interpretant and Object.

Thanks to Angelica Kosasih for reading the draft of this and giving feedback.

Euphemism Treadmill

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 03:14:36 GMT

The Euphemism Treadmill: Replacing an offensive word with a neutral one doesn't remove the stigma. Because concepts, not words, drive how people feel, any new term will eventually absorb the same negativity as the one it replaced.

Book: The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

Why do polite words keep becoming impolite?

Steven Pinker popularized a useful idea: the euphemism treadmill. The pattern: we replace an offensive word with a neutral one, but the new word eventually absorbs the same stigma. So we replace it again.

For example, "Imbecile" was replaced by "retarded," which was replaced by "mentally challenged," which was replaced by "intellectually disabled."

Each term starts clean and ends tainted. The underlying condition hasn't changed much. But the label constantly changes.

First, we introduce a cleaner term. Then, social stigma "contaminates" it through repeated use. Eventually, that term feels insulting too. Then we create another term and restart the cycle.

The same happens with "water closet" → "toilet" → "bathroom" → "restroom." The room is the same. We just keep renaming it.

Pinker argues that concepts, not words, are primary in our minds. In his words

"Give a concept a new name, and the name becomes colored by the concept; the concept does not become freshened by the name."

Updating language matters because words can reduce unnecessary harm in the short run. But Pinker's deeper point is still useful: concepts are sticky. If we want better language over the long run, we also need better institutions, better incentives, and better norms.

And again, this is related to our favorite philosopher Wittgenstein's two concepts: Family Resemblance and Language Games.

Also relate: replacing the "R-Word" (though I don't think Steven Pinker actually "coined" the word Euphemism Treadmill)

Disney Language

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Disney created a theatrical vocabulary for Disneyland: guests not customers, cast members not employees, attractions not rides. The words we use to describe an experience shape how we perceive it.

Book: Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World

When Walt Disney toured existing amusement parks before building Disneyland, he found them disgusting. The employees called paying visitors "marks."

Disney wanted the opposite. He saw Disneyland as a "three-dimensional film" and refused to hire anyone with amusement park experience. Instead, he brought in Van Arsdale France to train employees from scratch around one goal: creating happiness.

The key tool was language, borrowed from the theater. Visitors became guests. Employees became cast members. The park was a show. Breaks were taken backstage. The parking lot was the outer lobby. And the word "ride" was banned. Disneyland offered attractions and adventures.

The words inside a company quietly define what people pay attention to. If people are called users, teams optimize usage. If they are called guests, teams may optimize experience and hospitality.

Similarly, when a janitor thinks of themselves as a cast member, they clean differently. When a visitor is treated as a guest, they behave differently.

80 Percent Finish

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Disneyland opened at less than 80% completion, and Opening Day was a disaster. But Walt Disney saw the park as a living thing and embraced the idea that his creations would never be truly "done.".

Book: Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World

Disneyland's opening day on July 17, 1955, was a famous disaster. Because the opening was tied to a live TV broadcast, the deadline was absolute. Disney had to open even though the park was only 80% finished.

Crews spray-painted dead grass green. Asphalt melted in 100-degree heat, trapping women's heels. The park ran out of food and water. A boat went off track, and passengers swam to shore. A gas leak shut down part of the park.

Critics called it a "nightmare," but Disney wasn't discouraged. He viewed Disneyland as a "living, breathing, constantly evolving story." Unlike a movie, which is finished once it's on film, a park could be continuously improved.

He called this process "plussing": the endless act of adding to and improving what was already there.

This aligns with the idea that Ready is not Feeling. By shipping at 80%, he allowed the park to start living and growing with its audience. The finishing movie part also reminds me of the Double meaning of Release.

Gen Z on AI Companions

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Paper: Talk, Trust and Trade-Offs: How and Why Teens Use AI Companions

I found this report on how teenagers use AI companions interesting. 72% of US teens have used an AI companion at least once, and 13% use AI companions daily.

What's more interesting is how teens feel about these conversations.

Among teens who use AI companions, 30% say they do so because it's entertaining, while nearly as many use them simply because they are curious about how the technology works. Here are the full stats:

It's entertaining: 30%
I'm curious about the technology: 28%
It gives advice: 18%
They're always available when I need someone to talk to: 17%
They don't judge me: 14%
I can say things I wouldn't tell my friends or family: 12%
It's easier than talking to real people: 9%
It helps me practice social skills: 7%
It helps me feel less lonely: 6%

However, many teens aren't using AI as a replacement. They're using it as a rehearsal space. 39% of users apply social skills they practiced with AI to real-world situations: conversation starters (18%), giving advice (14%), expressing emotions (13%), and resolving conflicts (11%). They rehearse with AI and perform with humans.

Therefore, it's less like "AI is replacing human connection" and more like "AI is filling gaps that human connection leaves open."

Teens still want real friends. But for the moments when real friends aren't available, aren't safe, or feel too hard, AI is there.

Joy as Competitive Advantage

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Bring Joy = Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Hard work builds skill. Joy builds resilience.

Article: Alfred Lin on X: "Bring Joy = Ultimate Competitive Advantage"

This past week, Alysa Liu won Olympic gold by skating with unmistakable joy. I like Alfred Lin's take here: Bringing joy is the ultimate competitive advantage. Hard work builds skill. Joy builds resilience.

This reminds me of what Peter Steinberger said on the Lex Fridman Podcast: "It's hard to compete with someone who is just there to have fun."

Discovery Ads for AI

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 03:14:36 GMT

AI products like ChatGPT are doing Google-style search ads, but they should learn from Instagram's discovery model instead. Discovery ads build user profiles to anticipate needs rather than react to what someone just asked, which can create a conflict of interest.

Podcast: Ben Thompson from Stratechery on AI ads, the end of SaaS, and the future of media

How should AI companies make money from ads?

Ben Thompson argues AI platforms like ChatGPT are doing it wrong. Currently, they are experimenting with ads targeted to the context of a user's conversation, much like Google Search ads.

They match ads to the current prompt. It is easier to implement, but it creates two problems:

First, trust: users may doubt whether answers are objective. They will wonder whether the AI shaped its answer to serve the ad.

Second, scale: ad opportunities are limited to narrow prompt contexts. You can only show an ad if the user happens to ask about something an advertiser targets.

The alternative is Meta's model, like Instagram and Facebook ads. Instead of reacting to what you are doing right now, it builds a profile of your broader interests and shows you products you didn't know you wanted.

In other words, the strength should be discovery, not intent.

The ideal AI ad model would not wait for you to ask about winter jackets. It would know your interests and the changing seasons and show you the perfect jacket before you even search.

Five Ws Communication

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The Five Ws: Always tell people who is going to do what, where, when, and why. If you skip the why, people won't understand, won't care, and won't comply.

Book: Poor Charlie's Almanack

Charlie Munger tells the story of Carl Braun, who built oil refineries on time and on budget.

His rule for all the company's communications was called the five Ws: You had to tell who was going to do what, where, when, and why.

If you wrote a letter or directive in the company telling somebody to do something and you didn't tell him why, you could get fired.

In fact, you would get fired if you did it twice.

When you tell people why, they understand it better, consider it more important, and are more likely to comply.

Even if they don't fully grasp your reason, they are still more likely to follow through.

Ego-Depletion is Myth

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Ego depletion, the idea that willpower is a limited resource, faces a crisis deeper than failed replications. The field cannot even agree on what self-control is or how to measure it.

Paper: Challenges to Ego-Depletion Research Go beyond the Replication Crisis

Is willpower like a battery that can run out? The popular theory of ego depletion says yes.

However, a major replication with 23 labs and over 2,000 participants failed to reproduce the effect.

What's worse, researchers Lurquin and Miyake argue that the replication failure is only the surface. There are three more conceptual problems beneath.

First, there is no clear definition of self-control. The same task, such as three-digit multiplication, has been used as a self-control task in some studies and as a non-depleting control in others.

Second, the tasks have never been independently validated as measures of self-control. The assumption that all self-control draws on a single shared resource relies on circular logic.

Last, the models are too vague to test. The "strength model" does not specify how resources are consumed. A recent update made it so flexible that it can explain any result. If a model explains everything, it explains nothing.

Therefore, even larger samples cannot save this field because it has not clearly defined what it studies.

This also reminds me of Augustine's divided will. The experience of conflicting wants is real, but the battery metaphor may not be.

Four Levels of Agentic Commerce

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

E-commerce will evolve through four levels with AI: from filling out forms to anticipating needs. But when AI agents do all the research, it could create perfect competition and squeeze out products with soul.

Podcast: Ben Thompson from Stratechery on AI ads, the end of SaaS, and the future of media

What happens when AI starts being integrated into your online shopping experience?

Stripe cofounder John Collison describes four levels:

Just-in-time UI: AI fills out web forms for you.
Parameter-based search: AI replaces keyword searches with specific queries, such as "a jacket rated for minus ten degrees in Tokyo next week."
Anticipatory commerce: AI profiles your preferences and recommends things before you search.
Perfect matching: AI finds a hyper-specialized product from a random seller anywhere in the world and matches it to your exact need.

Here's an implied structural risk: If AI agents do all the research, every product gets compared purely on measurable specs.

The unmeasurable qualities, the craft and soul, fall by the wayside. More information can mean better decisions, but it can also flatten everything.

I also like Zuckerberg's perspective that "Meta's ad system is the largest and most successful agent in the world today" because it can match specialized products with people who didn't even know they wanted them.

It's also interesting to use the lens to understand why Meta chose to acquire Manus.

Humble After Not During

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"Be humble after but not during the action." — Ernest Hemingway

Quote

Hemingway warned writers about premature humility in a lecture on the art of the short story. When you are in the middle of doing something, act with conviction. Once the work is done, return to humility.

This also reminds me of zooming in with notes and zooming out with faith.

Micro-Pessimist Macro-Optimist

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Zoom in with notes to improve the craft, zoom out with faith to protect the momentum. Be a micro-pessimist to critique the details ruthlessly and a macro-optimist to protect the vision endlessly.

Podcast: 35: Brie Wolfson - Loving Attention & Ease in Craft

Great feedback holds two opposing perspectives simultaneously.

Brie Wolfson, former Head of Editorial at Stripe Press, describes this as being "a micro-pessimist and a macro-optimist." When you zoom in, you should ruthlessly critique the details. Nothing escapes scrutiny.

But when you zoom out, you protect the vision. You keep the creator excited about the work. You remind them why this matters.

This balance is hard because most people default to one extreme or the other.

Pure pessimists kill projects before they can breathe. Pure optimists let mediocrity ship. The best feedback needs to do both: scrutinize like a critic, believe like a champion.

I find this framework useful beyond giving feedback. When evaluating my own work, I tend to be either too harsh or too generous, depending on my mood. Zooming in with notes and zooming out with faith gives me a structured way to do both.

And when receiving feedback, I remind myself: we should push for harsher feedback while staying macro-optimistic ourselves.

This also connects to two previous inputs on feedback (three feedback questions, four types of feedback) and the two on holding opposing ideas (scientists and ambiguity, Augustine's divided will).

Dyslexia and Delegation

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

35% of entrepreneurs have dyslexia compared to less than 1% of corporate managers. The coping strategies dyslexics develop early, especially delegation and learning from mentors.

Paper: Dyslexic entrepreneurs: the incidence; their coping strategies and their business skills

Why do so many entrepreneurs have dyslexia?

A 2009 study by Julie Logan found a higher incidence of dyslexic traits among entrepreneurs than among corporate managers.

While less than 1% of the corporate managers reported being dyslexic, 35% of the US entrepreneurs identified as having dyslexia. Dyslexic entrepreneurs also reported managing significantly more staff than non-dyslexics.

Julie Logan argues that coping strategies in childhood can become business strengths. Delegation is the big one. If reading and writing are harder, you learn to ask for help early, build a team, and focus on what you do best.

Dyslexic entrepreneurs were also heavily influenced by role models (oftentimes within a family business) and mentors. Conversely, non-dyslexics were more likely to cite education as a primary influence.

I found this paper through Conversation with Tyler where Brendan Foody describes a similar story. Dyslexia forced him to delegate sooner, and it taught him comparative advantage in a very personal way. This does not mean dyslexia causes entrepreneurship, but it does show how constraints can shape useful skills.

Children as Scientists

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Children learn more like scientists than adults. Children are "high-temperature" learners who explore wild possibilities with flatter priors, while adults are "low-temperature" learners who exploit known solutions with peaked priors. This makes children better at overturning established beliefs.

Podcast: Alison Gopnik on Childhood Learning, AI as a Cultural Technology, and Rethinking Nature vs. Nurture (Ep. 265) | Conversations with Tyler

Children are oftentimes better scientists than adults.

Alison Gopnik, a psychologist and philosopher studying how children construct theories of the world, argued that children actively construct theories of the world, much as researchers do. They observe patterns, form hypotheses, and update their beliefs when evidence contradicts expectations.

The difference is in what Gopnik calls "priors." Adults have "peaked priors," meaning their extensive experience makes them stubborn. They've seen a lot, so they require massive evidence to overturn an established belief. When they change views, they do so incrementally.

Children have "flatter priors." They haven't accumulated as much experience, so they're more willing to accept unusual outcomes. They're not yet anchored to a particular worldview. This makes them better learners in some ways, more open to data that would surprise an expert.

Gopnik uses the concept of "simulated annealing" to explain this. Children represent a "high-temperature" phase: noisy, bouncy, random. They explore wild possibilities without worrying about efficiency. Adults are in a "low-temperature" phase: making small adjustments to existing knowledge, filling in details.

This is similar to the difficulty of training one's thoughts lies not so much in developing new ideas but in escaping the old, and reminds me of the quote "You are only as young as the last time you changed your mind".

Loving Attention Beats LGTM

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Loving attention beats LGTM culture. "Looks good to me" means your work was skimmed. Loving attention means someone catches the typo and pushes back on lazy phrasing.

Podcast: 35: Brie Wolfson - Loving Attention & Ease in Craft

Most feedback is drive-by.

"LGTM" (Looks Good To Me) has become the default response in many workplaces. It sounds positive. It moves things forward. But it means your work was skimmed, not engaged with.

LGTM culture produces mediocrity at scale. Everything ships, but nothing sings.

Brie Wolfson contrasts this with "loving attention." Someone who gives loving attention catches the typo. They push back on lazy phrasing. They question the logic that seemed fine at first glance. They make your work better because they care enough to really look.

It requires friction. But that friction is a form of love. It says, "I am invested in this being great."

Principles not Methods

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

“As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The person who grasps principles can successfully select their own methods. The person who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble." — Harrington Emerson

Quote

From the book The Clothier And Furnisher. This also reminds me of forget goals, build system.

Augmenting Human Intellect and Douglas Engelbart

Sun, 25 Aug 2024 21:56:52 GMT

I've been learning tools for thought and intelligence amplification/augmentation¹ recently. After researching a bit more, I found myself frequently going back to Douglas Engelbart's Augmenting Human Intellect (AHI), the visionary manifesto on how computers can improve human intellectual effectiveness, and the paper behind the creation of computer mouse, networked computers, hyperlink, video conferencing, collaborative real-time editors and many more.

So, in this "Revisiting Augmenting Human Intellect" series, I want to break down AHI in an easier-to-understand way and draw connections to other things I've learned in adjacent fields like semiotics, cognitive science, machine learning, linguistics, information processing theory, and some philosophy.

My Interpretation of Augmenting Human Intellect

Because my interpretations are based on my understanding of the world and how I apply AHI in my context, this series might not be a direct translation or summary of AHI.

And remember Wittgenstein's Ruler: if you’re unfamiliar with my background, my interpretations of these works may say more about me than the works themselves,

Because this series is still evolving, I'd love to hear your suggestions, feedback, or questions! Feel free to send me a message via twitter, facebook, or email.

You can also subscribe to get new posts when they come out.

My Interpretation of Augmenting Human Intellect
Douglas Engelbart aka the Doug
Timeline of Important Work in Intelligence Amplification
Goal of Augmenting Human Intellect

Four stages where human intellectual capabilities evolve

Before we dive into Douglas Engelbart's background and Augmenting Human Intellect, let's think about the following three questions.

Three questions representing the three leaps in our intellectual capabilities

Question 1: Can you determine which side of the fence has more sheep without using any mathematical concepts to count them?

It's challenging, but by using symbols such as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, we know that the left side has 26 sheep while the right has only 25. Because 26 is greater than 25, the problem is solved.

Question 2: Now that we know the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, can you calculate 213 times 53 in your head?

It's not too easy, but if we write it down on paper, we can visualize the carry and calculate to find 213 x 53 = 11289.

Question 3: Now that we know how to manually calculate using external tools like pen and paper, can you calculate what's 42 to the power of 42?

It's almost impossible. But if we use a computer, we can easily input the number and get the answer automatically. 42^42 = 1.5013094e+68.

The above three questions roughly illustrate the three leaps in the historical progression of our intellectual capabilities, which evolve in the following four stages.

Stage 1: Concept Manipulation

This stage is when we can form and manipulate concepts in our minds without using words or symbols. It's about understanding relationships between objects and events, making predictions, and associating different thoughts.

For example, we can instinctively associate danger when we see a human running away from a chasing tiger without using any words.

And We don't need to know any language to know that the milk below is going to spill and that we would want to hold the glass.

From Fei-Fei Li's Spatial Intelligence talk.

At the Concept manipulation stage, it's like having a mental toolbox filled with unlabeled tools. We understand what each tool does, how they look, and how they interact with others, but we don't know their names. This makes it difficult to communicate with each other and remember things effectively.

Imagine if we had to herd 42 sheep without using any symbols for counting. We would need to remember the exact appearance of each sheep so that if the flock seemed smaller than expected, we could visualize each individual sheep to determine if any were missing. It would be even more difficult if we needed to communicate this to the next person in charge of herding these sheep.

Stage 2: Symbol Manipulation

In Stage 2, we learn how to represent concepts using symbols such as words or numbers. This makes thinking more efficient as it allows us to manipulate concepts more easily.

At the Symbol manipulation stage, it is like giving each tool in our mental toolbox a label. This enables us to organize the tools better and communicate their usage to others.

So now, if we need to herd 42 sheep, we can just remember the number 42 and count them using math. We don't have to remember the appearance of each sheep anymore to know if any were missing.

Stage 3: External Manual Symbol Manipulation

After learning to use symbols to represent concepts, the next stage involves learning to use physical tools and materials to represent and manipulate symbols outside our minds. This significantly improves our ability to solve more complex problems by externalizing our working memory and visualizing concepts with relationships.

At the External Manual Symbol Manipulation stage, it is like taking the labeled tools from our mental toolbox to the physical world so we don't have to remember every single tool in our brain all the time. Because we externalize part of our memory, we don't have to worry about losing our tool just because we forget where we put it in our brain or the information exceeds our working memory capacity.

Therefore, we can now draw a map on the sand with a stick to communicate the relative position of different locations or write a mathematical equation on paper to solve more complex math problems.

Stage 4: Automated External Symbol Manipulation

As we progress, we eventually reach stage 4, where we utilize technology to automate the manipulation of symbols. This allows us to instruct machines, such as computers, to manipulate symbols on our behalf.

At this Automated External Symbol Manipulation stage, it is like working with a robotic assistant who can use the tools with incredible speed and precision, following our commands.

For instance, we can use a calculator to perform complex calculations, a word processor to write and edit a document, or a spreadsheet to analyze data.

This stage has offered, and will continue to offer, countless opportunities for research on enhancing our intellectual capabilities with machines, potentially paving the way for the next phase of human intellectual evolution. And this is where Douglas Engelbart entered the scene and made his mark.

Douglas Engelbart aka the Doug

In the following text, we will refer to Douglas Engelbart by Doug for short as a convention like what I did in HyperLogLog, though I'm not close enough with him on a first-name basis. Hope you (and Mr. Engelbart) won't mind.

Happy Doug and his mouse. Photo from US News

Doug was born in 1925. At the end of World War II, 20-year-old Doug was a radar technician in the U.S. Navy, waiting to return home from the Philippines. That year, he read Vannevar Bush's article "As We May Think" in a Red Cross library, which significantly impacted his future work (see his blurry notes on As We May Think).

In 1951, he began designing computer-based problem-solving systems. Doug earned his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1955 and started a research position at Stanford Research Institute in 1957. Initially, he kept his ideas about enhancing human intellect to himself, fearing they might seem too radical. However, he began to explore these ideas seriously after receiving a small grant from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

"It was lonely work, not having anybody to bounce the ideas off," he said, "but I finally got it written down in a paper I finished in 1962 and published in 1963." He published "Augmenting Human Intellect" as part of his Program On Human Effectiveness in 1963 and demonstrated the "Mother of All Demos" in 1968.

Doug was a pioneer in computer and human-computer interaction (HCI). He either directly created or indirectly inspired the creation of the computer mouse, hypertext, networked computers, version control, word processing, video conferencing, collaborative real-time editors, graphical user interface (GUI), and more.

His work laid the foundation for the entire research field of tools for thought and HCI, inspiring people and companies such as Notion, Bret Victor, Alan Kay, Heptabase, and Logitech to work in this field².

Timeline of Important Work in Intelligence Amplification

I believe that one of the best ways to learn a new field is to study the timeline of the important works because science is built on top of each other³. With the timeline, we learn the context of how each work is related and how progress in other fields might contribute to the success of this field.

To better understand the context, here's a non-exhaustive timeline of some important works in the field of tools for thought and intelligence amplification. More can be found in the work-in-progress History of Intelligence Amplification note.⁴

In 1936, Alan Turing published "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem", introducing the Turing Machine and halting problem.
In 1945, Vannevar Bush published "As We May Think" in The Atlantic Monthly, proposing the Memex, a device that could store and retrieve information similar to how the human brain works.
In 1945, John von Neumann co-authored the "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC", outlining the von Neumann architecture.
In 1948, Claude Shannon published "A Mathematical Theory of Communication", laying the groundwork for modern information theory.
In 1951, Marvin Minsky designed the Stochastic Neural Analog Reinforcement Calculator (SNARC), the first artificial neural network (ANN) as an early attempt at simulating a network that could learn and potentially enhance intelligence
In 1955, John McCarthy coined the term "artificial intelligence" for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, which is considered the founding event of AI as a field.
In 1956, Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon, and Cliff Shaw developed the Logic Theorist, which proved theorems in symbolic logic and was described as the first artificial intelligence program.
In 1956, William Ross Ashby published "An Introduction to Cybernetics", introducing the term intelligence amplification (IA).
In 1960, J.C.R. Licklider published "Man-Computer Symbiosis," proposing a partnership between humans and computers where humans provide the initiative, direction, and integration while machines extend their capabilities.
In 1963, Douglas Engelbart published "Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework.", outlining the vision for technology that enhances human abilities to solve complex problems.
In 1963, Ivan Sutherland developed Sketchpad in his Ph.D. thesis, "Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System", as one of the earliest program to utilize a complete graphical interface for interacting with computers.
In 1965, Ted Nelson published "hypertext", a non-sequential way of linking information.
In 1968, Douglas Engelbart demonstrated "The Mother of All Demos", introducing a complete computer hardware and software system called the oN-Line System (NLS).
In 1969, Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon published "Human Problem Solving", explaining how humans think and solve problems with the information processing theory of human reasoning.
In 1972, Alan Kay developed the Smalltalk programming language and proposed the Dynabook concept in "A personal computer for children of all ages."
In 1973, Xerox PARC developed Xerox Alto, one of the first personal computers with GUI, WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) text editor, and desktop metaphor.
In 1976, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs released the Apple I.
In 1980, Seymour Papert published "Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas", advocating for computer literacy in education and introducing the Logo programming language.
In 1982, Autodesk launched AutoCAD, later became an essential tool for computer-aided design (CAD), used widely in architecture, engineering, and other fields.
In 1985, Howard Rheingold published "Tools for Thought", popularizing the term and exploring the history of computing for augmenting human thinking.
In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee proposed the World Wide Web.
In 1993, Kieran Egan published "The Educated Mind: How Cognitive Tools Shape Our Understanding", exploring the historical development of cognitive tools and their impact on human thinking and learning.

Goal of Augmenting Human Intellect

In 1962, Doug sketched out AHI based on the following observations and assumptions:

Human population and economic growth are increasing rapidly, but the complexity of problems is growing even faster.
Throughout history, complex problems have been solved by groups of people working together.
Human intellectual capabilities can be systematically improved by computers and digital tools.

Based on these observations and the assumption, Doug concluded that:

We must use computers to enhance humans' ability to solve more complex problems together.

To address this issue, Doug outlined AHI as a conceptual framework that advocates for further exploration and research to evolve the framework. In other words, it's research for more research. He particularly wants future research programs to achieve the following two goals:

Identify what limits the effectiveness of individuals' basic information-handling capabilities in meeting the various needs of society for problem-solving.
Develop new techniques, procedures, and systems to improve these basic capabilities for solving the latest problems in a progressing society.

Augmenting Human Intellect is rudimentary. It doesn't provide concrete solutions. Instead, it points out a direction and provides the mental model needed. Therefore, for potential example solutions in the following posts in this series, we will mainly brainstorm with Doug using connections to other great works.

In the next post, I will introduce the intelligence augmentation framework. We will explore the source of intelligence in any system, how Doug approaches the intelligence augmentation problem, the four elements of enhanced thinking, and the four classes of tools that help us think better. Stay tuned!

^
We will explore the difference between intelligence amplification and augmentation in the later post.
^
See references of Douglas Engelbart's influence on Notion (The crucial moments and decisions leading up to the launch of Notion AI), Bret Victor (A few words on Doug Engelbart), Alan Kay (Tools for Thought Chapter Eleven), Logitech (Remembering Doug Engelbart).
^
What Richard Hamming said might be worth noting here: "In computer science, we stand on each other's feet". However, it's easy to find counterexamples. For example, as Fei-Fei Li said in her book The World I See, AlexNet works because of advancements in all three components: GPU, large datasets, and deep learning algorithms.
^
Sources are mostly from The Dream Machine, The Worlds I See, The Innovators, and Tools for Thought.

Thanks to Angelica Kosasih, and Alan Chan for reading the draft of this and giving feedback.

Augustine's Divided Will

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Augustine's Divided Will: We sabotage our own goals not because we're weak, but because we genuinely want contradictory things at the same time. The conflict isn't a flaw to fix. It's what being human feels like.

Article: Augustine of Hippo (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Why do we skip the gym when we genuinely want to be fit? Why do we procrastinate on work we actually care about?

Augustine of Hippo, a 4th-century philosopher, observed that we simultaneously want contradictory things. He famously prayed, "Lord, make me chaste—but not yet."

He genuinely wanted spiritual purity while also craving physical pleasure. Both desires were real.

This is the divided will: humans don't have one unified will. We have multiple conflicting desires pulling us in different directions simultaneously.

We want to exercise and stay comfortable. Be productive and relax. Both are genuinely us.

Most people respond to failure with self-criticism: "I'm lazy. What's wrong with me?"

Augustine offers a different response. If inner division is universal and not a personal defect, then instead of asking "Why am I so weak?" ask "Which competing desires am I experiencing?", "What do I want now, and what do I want later?" These questions create space for strategy.

We are not broken. We are just divided.

Acknowledge both desires: "I want to exercise, AND I want comfort." Then find creative solutions that address both, like reducing friction to build a good habit or adding rest so the comfort side of us isn't ignored.

SUCCESs Framework for Ideas

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The SUCCESs framework: Ideas stick when they're Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and wrapped in Stories.

Book: Made to Stick

What makes some ideas survive while others die? Chip and Dan Heath proposed a six-trait framework of ideas that people remember. They call it SUCCESs:

Simple. Say one thing clearly. Find the core, not the summary. Most ideas fail because they try to say everything. Sticky ideas say one thing extremely clearly. The audience needs to remember only one sentence tomorrow.
Unexpected. Break predictions to grab attention. Go beyond shock with surprise plus insight.
Concrete. Abstract ideas vanish. Concrete ones stick. Replace "high performance culture" with "Every meeting ends with one decision, one owner, one deadline."
Credible. Help people believe without authority. Credibility doesn't always require experts. Use specific details or let people test it themselves. "Try it for seven days and see."
Emotional. Make people care before they think. People act when they feel. Logic justifies the action afterward. Tie ideas to identity. Show consequences to real people. "This policy decides whether Maria can afford insulin" is better than "Thousands are affected."
Stories. They're mental flight simulators. Stories prepare people to act. Show cause and effect and model action. Instead of listing principles of customer service, tell a story about an employee who bent the rules and what happened next.

The Heath brothers showed that smart ideas fail because they're poorly packaged, while average ideas win because they're well structured.

Don't treat stickiness as a talent problem. Treat it as a design problem.

Related: Four Elements of Storytelling

Zone of Proximal Development

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The Zone of Proximal Development: Learning happens best in the gap between what you can do alone and what you can achieve with guidance. Too easy breeds boredom. Too hard creates frustration. The sweet spot is in between.

Paper: Generative artificial intelligence: the 'more knowledgeable other' in a social constructivist framework of medical education and Zone of Proximal Development

Like the Cognitive Load Theory we noted last week, the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is another well-known theory in learning science. Hearing people in edtech mention ZPD always makes me happy because it shows they care about pedagogy.

Lev Vygotsky, a Soviet psychologist, introduced the Zone of Proximal Development to explain how learning actually works.

The core idea: there's a gap between what a learner can do independently and what they can achieve with help. That gap is where real learning happens.

Think of it as three zones:

The Comfort Zone contains tasks you can handle alone. These demonstrate mastery but don't promote growth because they're too easy.
The Zone of Proximal Development is the sweet spot. These are tasks you can't do alone but can achieve with guidance and support. This is where skills are stretched and internalized.
The Frustration Zone contains tasks that are too difficult even with help. Attempting to teach here leads to discouragement rather than growth.

The ZPD relies on what Vygotsky called the "More Knowledgeable Other" (MKO), someone who can bridge the gap. This is typically a teacher or mentor, but it can also be a peer or even technology (GenAI can be MKO too)

The key mechanism is scaffolding: temporary support structures that help learners accomplish what they couldn't alone. A teacher might model behaviors, provide hints, break complex tasks into smaller steps, or use visual aids.

As the learner gains competence, the scaffolding is gradually removed, just like physical scaffolding comes down when a building can stand on its own.

Vygotsky also saw learning as fundamentally social. Knowledge begins as something that happens between people and becomes internalized by the individual. The external conversation eventually becomes inner speech, allowing the learner to self-regulate and solve problems independently.

Seven Sins in Product

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Successful consumer products tap into one of the seven deadly sins. But the goal of good design is to sublimate those impulses into something that helps users become their better selves.

YouTube: The AI Use-Case No One is Talking About

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, shared his early investment thesis: look for products that tap into one or more of the seven deadly sins, because those drives are universal.

The seven are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.

A product that connects with these fundamental drives is more likely to capture attention and achieve scale.

Consider the examples: The earliest phase of the internet was driven by lust. Twitter runs on wrath. LinkedIn appeals to vanity.

The important nuance is what happens next. Hoffman argues that good technologists should not help people wallow in their vices. The goal is to help users move toward a better version of themselves. A product can use a strong motive to get attention, but it still needs a path that leaves the user better off.

This reminds me of Four Reasons to Post and Octalysis Motivation Framework.

Personal is Creative

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"The most personal is the most creative."

Quote

Specific, personal details are harder to copy. They give your work a texture that general BS advice cannot.

What feels embarrassingly specific to you often resonates most with others. The films and books that move us oftentimes contain vivid, particular details. Specificity creates originality. (Remember Originality is Being Obvious.)

When you share what's genuinely yours, you give others permission to recognize their own particularity.

I learned this from Bong Joon-ho's Oscar speech, where he credited Martin Scorsese though I cannot find the exact origin.

Octalysis Motivation Framework

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Book: Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards

Octalysis is an interesting human-focused framework for understanding how design motivates people. Instead of asking "what feature should we build," it asks "why would a person want to do anything in the first place?"

It breaks motivation into eight core drives:

Epic meaning and calling: feeling part of something bigger
Development and accomplishment: progress, mastery, challenges (related: Zeigarnik Effect)
Empowerment of creativity and feedback: creating, experimenting, seeing results
Ownership and possession: caring about what you own or build (e.g., the [Ikea effect](IKEA effect - Wikipedia))
Social influence and relatedness: connection, comparison, teamwork
Scarcity and impatience: wanting what is hard to obtain
Unpredictability and curiosity: surprises, mystery, curiosity (related: variable rewards in Hooked model)
Loss and avoidance: avoiding regret or losing progress

Octalysis also splits motivation into two axes:

White Hat vs. Black Hat. White Hat makes people feel fulfilled (meaning, mastery, creativity). Black Hat creates urgency or anxiety (scarcity, uncertainty, loss). The best systems balance both.
Right Brain vs. Left Brain. Right Brain is intrinsic and expressive (creativity, social). Left Brain is extrinsic and analytical (ownership, progress). Both matter, but Right Brain tends to sustain long-term engagement.

A good design does not need all eight. But it should be intentional about which ones it uses.

When I first learned this, I couldn't help but think about how some of the most intense motivations, like revenge, competition, or even just trying to prove oneself, are involved.

Though not core drives on their own, they are probably behavioral expressions that emerge when certain core drives are activated in specific ways.

Artful Leadership

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor. That sums up the progress of an artful leader." ― Max DePree

Quote

From the book Leadership Is an Art, Max DePree beautifully sums up the three phases of leadership, from power to stewardship.

First, you need to define reality. Before a leader can inspire or direct, they must provide clarity. This is oftentimes the most challenging part of the job because it requires confronting uncomfortable truths.

Then, in the day-to-day operations of a leader, it flips the traditional hierarchy upside down, making the leader the servant and debtor.

And at the end, it is about recognizing that results are rarely the work of one person.

Cognitive Load Theory

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Cognitive Load Theory: Learning fails when working memory is overloaded. Design should protect mental bandwidth.

Article: Cognitive Load Theory

Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) is one of the most well-known frameworks that explains how the brain processes and retains information by managing the limitations of working memory.

It starts from a simple constraint: working memory is limited. If we exceed it, learning slows or stops.

CLT breaks mental effort into three cognitive loads:

Intrinsic load: How easy or difficult the content presented inherently is to learn, which stays relatively constant.
Extraneous load: How easy or difficult it is to learn the content, considering the environment in which it is presented.
Germane load: How much effort is required to apply memory and the intelligence used to make schemas for permanent storage.

It's perhaps helpful to think of germane load as the result of managing the other two. For example, we reduce Extraneous load specifically to free up mental bandwidth for Germane load.

Intrinsic load is hard to reduce but can be managed. For example, breaking complex ideas into smaller parts and teaching prerequisites first.

Extraneous load is easier to reduce, but still, poor presentation or distractions are everywhere. We should use clean layouts, remove unnecessary steps, and avoid split attention.

We can also increase germane load. For example, we should use worked examples, reflection, and practice that forces sense-making.

GPA Decision Styles

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

GPA: Separate decisions into Goal, Priority, and Alternatives, and use a different decision style at each stage.

Podcast: Manus' Final Interview Before the Acquisition: Oh, the Surreal Odyssey of 2025… - YouTube

Manus co-founder described a GPA decision framework. It splits a decision into three stages:

Goal: decide what we are trying to achieve.
Priority: decide what matters most right now.
Alternatives: generate a wide set of options.

And each stage needs a different decision style.

The goal phase should be autocratic. The leader sets the target so everyone is aligned.

The priority phase should be mixed. The leader decides, but the team provides input and context.

The alternatives phase should be democratic. The team generates options as widely as possible.

Most arguments happen because people are in different stages. For example, someone might be debating the goal while someone else is already picking between options.

The alternatives stage is oftentimes overlooked, but it determines the quality of the outcome. A small option space leads to bad decisions, no matter how smart the team is. A wide option space gives the decision-maker real leverage.

One Damn Relatedness After Another

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"Life is just one damn relatedness after another." — Julian Huxley

Quote

I read this line from rereading Poor Charlie's Almanack.

For knowledge, I thought of Wittgenstein's Family Resemblance. Nothing is defined by a single common essence. Instead, they are all defined by how they are related to each other.

Even in my career, the best work I have ever done has come from connections. Without those connections, I likely would not have had the opportunity to do my best work. (Thank you Cathy and Enid!)

Munger’s Two-Track Analysis

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Two-Track Analysis: Examine both rational factors and psychological biases when making decisions. Munger identified 25 tendencies that distort our thinking.

Book: Poor Charlie's Almanack (Stripe Press edition)

How do you make better decisions? Charlie Munger uses what he calls "two-track analysis."

The first track is rationality: what do the facts say? You work out the problem like an engineer: calculating actual probabilities and weighing the evidence objectively.

The second track is psychology: what biases might be distorting your judgment? Munger identifies the subconscious influences where the brain automatically does things that are generally useful but often malfunction.

Munger identified 25 tendencies that he used as a checklist when making decisions:

Reward- and punishment-superresponse tendency
Liking/loving tendency
Disliking/hating tendency
Doubt-avoidance tendency
Inconsistency-avoidance tendency
Curiosity tendency
Kantian fairness tendency
Envy/jealousy tendency
Reciprocation tendency
Influence-from-mere-association tendency
Simple, pain-avoiding psychological denial
Excessive self-regard tendency
Overoptimism tendency
Deprival-superreaction tendency
Social-proof tendency
Contrast-misreaction tendency
Stress-influence tendency
Availability-misweighing tendency
Use-it-or-lose-it tendency
Drug-misinfluence tendency
Senescence-misinfluence tendency
Authority-misinfluence tendency
Twaddle tendency
Reason-respecting tendency
Lollapalooza tendency

You can read more details on each tendency here: Talk Eleven.

Prescriptions for Misery

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Seven prescriptions for guaranteed misery: Ingest chemicals to alter mood, harbor envy and resentment, be unreliable, learn only from your own experience, stay down after setbacks, and ignore the power of inversion.

Book: Poor Charlie's Almanack

Johnny Carson once gave a commencement speech where he said he couldn't tell graduates how to be happy, but he could tell them from personal experience how to guarantee misery.

Carson's three prescriptions for sure misery:

Ingesting chemicals in an effort to alter mood or perception
Envy
Resentment

Charlie Munger added four more prescriptions:

Be unreliable. Do not faithfully do what you have engaged to do. Master this habit, and you will be distrusted and excluded from the best human contributions and companies.
Learn everything from your own experience. Minimize what you learn vicariously from the good and bad experiences of others, living and dead. This prescription is a guarantee for misery and mediocrity.
Go down and stay down when you get your first, second, or third severe reverse in the battle of life. Because there is so much adversity out there, even for the lucky and wise, this will guarantee that you will be permanently trapped in misery.
Ignore the saying, "I wish I knew where I was going to die, and then I'd never go there." If you want fuzzy thinking and infelicity, discount this method of thinking backward from what you want to avoid.

Munger's prescriptions work because they compound. Unreliability destroys trust over time. Learning only from personal experience limits your sample size to one lifetime. Staying down after setbacks prevents the recovery that naturally follows persistence.

And inversion, thinking about what to avoid, is perhaps Munger's most powerful mental model. Instead of asking "How do I succeed?", ask "What would guarantee failure?" Then avoid those things.

You can read the whole talk here: Talk One.

Kolb’s Four Learning Styles

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Kolb's Four Learning Styles: People learn differently based on how they approach tasks (doing vs. watching) and how they process experiences (thinking vs. feeling). These create four types: Diverging, Assimilating, Converging, and Accommodating.

Paper: Learning Styles and Disciplinary Differences

Last week, we explored Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle, the four-stage loop of Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualization, and Active Experimentation.

But Kolb's theory goes further. He also identified that people have different preferences within this cycle.

These preferences emerge from two dimensions.

Processing: how you approach a task. Do you prefer doing (Active Experimentation) or watching (Reflective Observation)?
Perception: how you respond. Do you lean toward thinking (Abstract Conceptualization) or feeling (Concrete Experience)?

These create four styles:

Diverging (Feeling + Watching): Imaginative brainstormers who see multiple perspectives. The creative who generates ideas.
Assimilating (Thinking + Watching): Logical planners who organize information into theories. The architect of coherent plans.
Converging (Thinking + Doing): Practical problem-solvers who find uses for ideas. The engineer who makes things work.
Accommodating (Feeling + Doing): Hands-on executors who rely on intuition. The builder who learns by trial and error.

No one fits neatly into just one style. Effective learning engages all four. This also explains why diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones.

Two related past inputs: Learning Style Myth and Bartle Taxonomy of Player Types.

Investment Principles Checklist

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Munger's Investment Checklist: Great investing follows principles in nine categories: Risk, Independence, Preparation, Rigor, Allocation, Patience, Decisiveness, Change, and Focus.

Book: Poor Charlie's Almanack (Stripe Press edition)

Checklists minimize errors. Munger organizes his investment principles into nine themes:

Risk: Start by measuring risk, especially reputational. Avoid questionable characters. Shun permanent loss.
Independence: Just because others agree or disagree doesn't make you right or wrong. Only the correctness of your analysis matters.
Preparation: The only way to win is to work, work, work, and hope for a few insights. The will to prepare beats the will to win.
Analytic Rigor: Determine value apart from price, progress apart from activity. Invert, always invert.
Allocation: Your number one job. The best use is measured by the next best use. When odds favor you heavily, bet big.
Patience: Resist the bias to act. Compound interest is the eighth wonder. Never interrupt it unnecessarily.
Decisiveness: When circumstances are right, act with conviction. Opportunity meeting the prepared mind—that's the game.
Change: Accept unremovable complexity. Challenge your best-loved ideas. Recognize reality, especially when you don't like it.
Focus: Keep it simple. Reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets. Face your big troubles directly.

These apply beyond investing. They're a framework for any high-stakes decision.

You can find more details here: Chapter Three.

Score by How You Play

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Score yourself on how well you played the hand, not whether you won. While poor outcomes are excusable, sloppy preparation and decision-making are not.

Book: Poor Charlie's Almanack

In their words:

It is the blend of discipline and patience exhibited by true masters of a craft: an uncompromising commitment to “properly playing the hand.”

Like world-class bridge player Richard Zeckhauser, Charlie scores himself not so much on whether he won the hand but rather on how well he played it.

While poor outcomes are excusable in the Munger–Buffett world—given the fact that some outcomes are outside of their control—sloppy preparation and decision-making are never excusable because they are controllable.

While poor outcomes are excusable, sloppy preparation and decision-making are not. Therefore, you must have an uncompromising commitment to “properly playing the hand.”

Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle: Effective learning follows a four-stage loop of Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualization, and Active Experimentation. Most traditional teaching skips straight to concepts, missing the experience that makes learning stick.

Article: Kolb's Learning Styles & Experiential Learning Cycle

Why do we forget most lectures but remember lessons learned the hard way?

David Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory, published in 1984, explains that effective learning isn't just receiving information. It's a cycle with four stages:

Concrete Experience (Feeling). You try something. You attempt a task, encounter a problem, or engage directly with a new situation. This is the raw material of learning.
Reflective Observation (Watching). You step back and think about what just happened. What worked? What didn't? What surprised you?
Abstract Conceptualization (Thinking). You extract principles from your reflection. You form theories, identify patterns, and create mental models that explain your experience.
Active Experimentation (Doing). You take your new understanding and test it in a different situation. This generates new concrete experiences, and the cycle continues.

But there’s a problem with most education: it starts at stage three. Teachers jump straight to “here’s the concept” and “here’s what the research says.” Students receive abstract principles without the concrete experience that would make those principles meaningful.

Therefore, experiential learning flips this. Do first. Reflect. Then abstract. Then do it again. This is why hands-on training beats lectures. Case studies beat textbook definitions. The experience creates a hook for the concept.

This is closely related to the CCAF Instructional Design Model (Context, Challenge, Activity, and Feedback) and Bloom's Taxonomy.

After learning this, I’m reflecting on how Weekly I/O can incorporate these principles for readers. Stay tuned! If you are a paid subscriber, you will soon be able to try something I’m currently building!

Epistemic Emotions

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Learning that lasts requires cognitive conflict. When existing beliefs clash with new evidence, the discomfort forces you to update your mental model. Without this conflict, there's no motivation to change how you think.

Paper: On the cognitive conflict as an instructional strategy for conceptual change

Without friction, there is no reason to change what you think. Cognitive conflict creates that friction. When you expect one outcome and reality delivers another, your mind must reconcile the gap.

This process of reconciling leads to the Aha moment in learning: the sudden collapse of your old mental model and the birth of a new one.

The emotional peak from this Aha moment marks the memory and motivates you to keep going.

So, for learning design, a simple sequence can be:

Surface the learner's intuition.
Ask for a clear prediction or choice.
Reveal a result that is explainable yet counter to that prediction.
Name the conflict so it becomes conscious.
Offer the new principle that resolves it.
Let the learner apply it right away in a fresh scenario.

In this sequence, learning goes beyond simply acquiring information. It becomes active model-building (like Programming as Theory Building), fueled by cognitive conflict.

Entertain or Inspire or Educate

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Entertain, Inspire, or Educate, Simply: Every message must make people laugh, learn, or feel motivated to act. And it must do so without requiring explanation.

Podcast: Inside Tech's Water Cooler: Breaking Down the Magic Behind TBPN with John Coogan & Jordi Hays

To make a piece of content widespread, it should be filtered through three questions about its audience: Did they laugh? Did they learn something? Did they feel motivated? At least one must be true.

In Jordi Hays' words:

Is it wildly entertaining? Is it wildly inspirational? Is it wildly informative, and is it actually bringing novel information to people?

For me, if it doesn’t fit into those buckets, it’s just not going to hit. You can have something hit in any of those buckets. A poster, for example, can entertain. They can post something that’s super funny with perfect timing, and it can get a million views. It can feel emotional and inspiring, like the iconic Founders Fund vibe reel.

And there's an important modifier: simply.

Complexity kills virality. If an idea needs backstory to make sense, it won't spread.

Therefore, Jordi has a litmus test: "When people pitch us marketing ideas, I tell them, 'I have more context on your business than 99.9% of people in the world, and I'm going to need you to repeat that marketing idea back to me because I'm still confused.'"

If an expert is confused, imagine a stranger scrolling past. They won't stop to figure it out.

This is like telling a joke! If you have to explain the setup, it’s not funny. Marketing works the same way. The meaning must be immediately apparent.

Cognitive Conflict and Aha Moments

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Epistemic emotions like surprise, curiosity, and confusion signal that learning is happening. These uncomfortable feelings mean your mental model is being challenged, which is when the deepest learning occurs.

Paper: The Role of Epistemic Emotions in Personal Epistemology and Self-Regulated Learning

The moments when you feel most confused oftentimes come right before the most profound understanding.

Epistemic emotions are feelings tied to knowledge: surprise when expectations fail, curiosity when you sense gaps, confusion when information doesn't fit.

However, don't think of these emotions as obstacles. Think of them as signals.

Surprise means your mental model needs updating. Curiosity indicates a gap you're motivated to close. Confusion means you're wrestling with complexity rather than glossing over it.

Therefore, a learner who never feels confused probably isn't being challenged. A learner who never feels surprised is likely just confirming what they already believe.

The best learning experiences cultivate these emotions. They create surprise. They spark curiosity before giving answers. They let learners sit with confusion long enough to work through it.

Discipline Eliminates Inspiration as Bottleneck

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Discipline eliminates inspiration as a bottleneck. When you show up daily and work through the material before performing, creativity becomes execution rather than a waiting game.

Podcast: Inside Tech's Water Cooler: Breaking Down the Magic Behind TBPN with John Coogan & Jordi Hays

John Coogan and Jordi Hays host TBPN, a technology show streaming live from 11 - 2 PM every Monday to Friday.

Their secret to the daily show is the rigid routine behind it.

First, they meet at 6:30 AM every morning at the gym to talk broadly about what’s interesting.

Then they do breakfast at 8:00 AM to focus on key topics.

When they arrive at the studio at 9:00 AM, they’ve already spent nearly three hours sharpening their arguments. Now they just need to select specific angles and sources.

By the time the camera rolls, they’ve already "physically spoken the product into existence." Their routine makes the live show look effortless.

The structure creates a safeguard against human variability. Their personal mood or energy level on any given day doesn’t matter. They don’t have the luxury of negotiating with themselves about whether to work. The countdown starts. The show must happen. This is the same as writing like shopkeeper!

Coogan also adds that he’s never had writer’s block when writing their daily newsletter because he’s not generating ideas from scratch. He’s transcribing the discussion they already had that morning. When writing becomes documentation rather than invention, there’s no writer’s block.

Illusion of Transparency

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 03:14:36 GMT

The Illusion of Transparency: We overestimate how visible our thoughts and emotions are to others. When nervous, we think everyone notices. They usually don't. This affects how we communicate, lead, and even interact with AI.

Article: The Illusion of Transparency

Whenever you feel nervous during a presentation and think everyone can tell, remember this cognitive bias: illusion of transparency.

We oftentimes overestimate how visible our thoughts and emotions are to others.

Imagine someone pitching an idea. Their minds race with doubt. They're convinced everyone sees their nervousness. They interpret distracted looks as proof that people have tuned out.

In reality, people see them as confident. At the break, someone compliments their presentation.

This happens everywhere. In relationships, we assume our partner knows how we feel without us saying it. In an organization, leaders assume their intentions are clear to their teams.

The illusion of transparency relates to the spotlight effect, in which we overestimate how much others notice our appearance. The illusion of transparency is the overestimation of the visibility of internal states.

Both stem from egocentric bias. We naturally anchor to our own perspectives. It's more efficient to assume others' perspectives align with ours than to understand what they actually are.

Why does this happen? We spend so much time analyzing our internal states that we struggle to shift focus to others' perspectives.

This reminds me of three things:

"Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking about it."
When we talk to AI, we get annoyed when it gives an answer that doesn't match what we meant, even though our prompt was awfully vague. We are expecting it to read our minds.
When we talk to others, we often want to feel understood, even before we fully understand ourselves.

Hot-Cold Empathy Gap

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The Hot-Cold Empathy Gap: When calm, we overestimate how rational we'll be when emotional. When emotional, we assume we'll always feel this way. Both predictions are wrong.

Article: Empathy Gap

Imagine you're asked how you'd respond if someone unconscious needed help. You'd probably say you'd perform CPR. But if you actually found yourself in that situation, fear and anxiety might cause very different behavior.

This gap is the empathy gap, also known as the hot-cold empathy gap.

"Hot" states are emotional states, such as hunger, fear, and anger. "Cold" states are calm and rational.

The empathy gap describes our tendency to underestimate the influence of varying mental states on behavior and make decisions that only satisfy our current state.

Someone decides to quit drinking. A friend invites them to a party. When deciding to go, they're confident in their self-control. At the party, anxiety and temptation hit. They didn't predict this.

Psychologists identify three types of empathy gaps:

Intrapersonal Prospective (About Future): We can't predict our future behavior in different emotional states. A smoker who feels relaxed might assume quitting will be easy.
Intrapersonal Retrospective (About Past): We can't remember why we acted a certain way in the past. After an argument, we can't comprehend why we lost our temper.
Interpersonal (About Others): We can't understand others in different emotional states. A well-rested person struggles to understand a sleep-deprived parent's exhaustion.

Our Weekly I/O's old friend George Loewenstein tested this in 1999. He asked people how much money it would take to put their hands in ice water. Those experiencing pain right then needed the most money. Those who'd never felt it needed the least.

Our current state anchors our predictions. And the most reliable way to fix it is to use past behavior to predict the future. Visualize different emotional states before deciding.

Before a social event where you're worried, remember: last time you felt this way, how did it actually go?

Worse-Than-Average Effect

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The Worse-Than-Average Effect: In difficult tasks, we think we're worse than everyone else. But that difficulty is usually universal, not unique to us.

Article: The Worse-Than-Average Effect

Have you ever felt like everyone else was better at something, even when evidence said otherwise?

That's the worst-than-average effect. We underestimate our abilities compared to others, especially in areas where we lack confidence. In other words, when a task is difficult, we assume we are worse than average, even if the task might be challenging for everyone.

It's the opposite of the better-than-average effect, where we overestimate our abilities.

Easy tasks make us overconfident. Most people think they're better-than-average drivers. Challenging tasks make us underestimate ourselves. Learning a new language? We feel behind.

Difficulty acts as an anchor that changes our judgment regardless of low or high self-esteem.

This explains impostor syndrome. High achievers in challenging fields aren't incompetent. They're experiencing the worse-than-average effect.

Subadditivity Effect

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The Subadditivity Effect: We judge the probability of a whole to be less than the sum of its parts.

Article: The Subadditivity Effect

What's more likely: natural disasters, or hurricanes plus floods plus wildfires?

They're the same thing. But people assign a higher probability to the specific list.

This is the subadditivity effect. We judge the whole to be less than the sum of its parts.

In project planning, people say a report takes "two weeks." But when you list the parts, such as research, outlining, writing, and editing, it adds up to three weeks.

The same happens with risk. "Health risks" gets a lower estimate than "heart disease plus cancer plus diabetes." Why? Specific instances feel vivid and real. Abstract categories don't activate concrete scenarios in our minds.

The solution is to break estimates into parts. List specifics rather than thinking abstractly.

For instance, when planning a project, break it into specific tasks, estimate each one, then add them up. You'll get a more accurate estimate than if you had estimated the whole directly.

The same applies to risk assessment. Don't ask "What's the risk of this venture?" Ask "What's the risk of each specific failure mode?" Then add them up.

Sins to Fill Void

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"All sins are attempts to fill voids." — Simone Weil

Quote

This quote is from Gravity and Grace. If we search for the root cause, evil actions oftentimes stem from an inner emptiness or unmet need.

Also reminds me of Blaise Pascal's "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone".

Games are Tasty Patterns

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Games are tasty patterns for your brain to eat. Fun happens when your brain chunks information into mastery, moving from conscious learning to automatic pattern recognition. But once the patterns are solved, we need new ones to stay motivated.

Book: Theory of Fun for Game Design

In Five Definitions of Game, I talked about my favorite definition of game:

"A game is a problem solving activity, approached with a playful attitude".

But here's another one I recently learned from game designer Raph Koster:

"Games are just exceptionally tasty patterns to eat up."

Our brains constantly crave patterns. Games feed this hunger. (Related: Curiosity is pain.)

When you first learn a game, you process every rule separately. With practice, you begin to recognize patterns. You combine individual actions into meaningful units. In cognitive science, this is known as chunking.

For example, a beginner chess player thinks about each piece while an experienced player sees entire positions as single concepts.

As you refine your understanding, your chunk size gets bigger, and conscious learning becomes automatic. You don't just remember the facts.

You feel it instinctively, like a musician improvising, an athlete performing reflexively. Gameplay becomes fluid.

However, your brain's goal is efficiency. It turns repeated actions into automatic routines to save energy for new challenges. Once you've solved a game's patterns, your brain has "eaten" all the interesting bits.

This is why tutorials feel tedious once you know the game, why speedrunners keep finding new challenges.

This phenomenon extends beyond gaming. We enjoy activities most when we're still discovering, chunking, and growing. Once the patterns are solved, we need new ones.

KLI Framework

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The Knowledge-Learning-Instruction (KLI) framework connects three essential pieces in learning: Knowledge Components (what to learn) determine Learning Events (how learning happens), which then constrains Instructional Events (how teaching helps).

Paper: The Knowledge‐Learning‐Instruction Framework: Bridging the Science‐Practice Chasm to Enhance Robust Student Learning

Why do debates about teaching methods never end? For example, should we use spaced repetition, worked examples, or open discussion?

These debates persist because we treat teaching methods as always good or always bad. But effectiveness depends on what you're teaching.

In 2012, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh developed the Knowledge-Learning-Instruction (KLI) framework to provide a systematic answer. It connects three coordinated taxonomies:

Knowledge Components define what to learn. They are the units of cognitive function students must acquire, ranging from simple facts to complex skills.
Learning Events describe how learning happens. They are the unobservable cognitive changes that occur during learning, including memory strengthening, pattern induction, and sense-making.
Instructional Events create conditions for learning. They are the observable activities teachers design to trigger learning, such as spacing practice, providing feedback, or facilitating discussion.

The framework shows dependencies. Certain knowledge types require specific brain processes, which then require specific teaching methods. You can't teach vocabulary the same way you teach problem-solving.

Therefore, good teaching isn't finding one best method. It's matching instruction to what students need to learn.

The KLI framework reminds me of the common factors in psychotherapy, which have a somewhat opposite conclusion. Success in teaching has a high dependency on the type of knowledge and specific method, but success in psychotherapy is not so much about specific techniques, but rather common factors such as a sense of shared goals.

Knowledge Components Taxonomy

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Knowledge Components Taxonomy: Knowledge can be categorized by four key features: constant or variable application conditions, constant or variable responses, verbal or non-verbal expression, and rationalized or memorized understanding.

Paper: The Knowledge‐Learning‐Instruction Framework: Bridging the Science‐Practice Chasm to Enhance Robust Student Learning

We know that not all knowledge is equal, but how can we categorize knowledge in a way that helps us learn it?

The KLI framework identifies four distinctions:

Application conditions: Constant (always the same cue) or variable (cue changes by situation). This refers to when knowledge applies.

The Chinese word "月" always means "moon" (constant). Choosing the English word "the" or "a" depends on context (variable).

Response: Constant (same answer every time) or variable (answer changes). This refers to what the learner produces.

"What's Earth's gravity?" Always 9.8 m/s² (constant). Pluralizing rules depend on the word (variable). For example, "city" to "cities" ("y" to "ies.") and "cat" to "cats".

Expression: Verbal (can be stated in words) or non-verbal (shown through action). This distinguishes how knowledge is expressed.

You can say the circle area formula (verbal). You can balance on a bike but struggle to explain how (non-verbal).

Rationalizability: Can be logically understood or must be memorized. This refers to the extent to which knowledge can be rationalized.

Why we pluralize certain ways has phonological reasons (rationalized). Why "H" means hydrogen is just a convention (memorized).

These distinctions provide a framework for categorizing knowledge. For example, combining the first two distinctions (Application conditions-Response):

Constant condition, constant response: Facts like "9.8 m/s²" or "Paris is the capital of France"
Variable condition, constant response: Categories like "small volumes use milliliters"
Constant condition, variable response: Procedures like "given circle radius, calculate its area with formula"
Variable condition, variable response: Strategies like "to find the area of irregular shapes, decompose them into regular shapes, and sum"

Complexity increases from constant-constant facts to variable-variable strategies and different knowledge types need different teaching. This taxonomy provides a systematic language to discuss these differences and identify the most effective way to acquire a specific type of knowledge.

Three Classes of Learning

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Paper: The Knowledge‐Learning‐Instruction Framework: Bridging the Science‐Practice Chasm to Enhance Robust Student Learning

After introducing different types of knowledge, the KLI framework then identifies three learning processes:

Memory and fluency enhance and accelerate knowledge. Each recall makes information more accessible. You might start by calculating 7 × 8, but soon you just know 56.

They also link knowledge into chunks. Learning to drive requires focus on each action, but practice makes steps automatic. Methods such as spacing (spreading practice) and testing (retrieving information) enhance retention across most knowledge types.

Induction and refinement improve accuracy through generalization and discrimination. A child learns "dog" covers many breeds (generalization) but not cats (discrimination).

This process often happens implicitly. You detect patterns without consciously noticing change. Helpful methods include timely feedback, worked examples, and fading (gradually removing support). These build precise, flexible knowledge.

Understanding and sense-making create knowledge through reasoning. When students explain ideas, they form deeper connections.

This transforms learning. You might catch a ball through practice, but physics adds insight. Strategies like self-explanation, accountable talk (structured discussion), and contrasting cases (comparing approaches) deepen conceptual understanding.

Each process supports different kinds of knowledge. Facts rely on memory, variables on induction, and principles on sense-making. Different methods fit different knowledge types.

Instruction-Knowledge Asymmetry

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The Asymmetry Hypothesis suggests that complex knowledge benefits from both complex and straightforward learning methods. But simple knowledge only benefits from simple methods.

Paper: The Knowledge‐Learning‐Instruction Framework: Bridging the Science‐Practice Chasm to Enhance Robust Student Learning

Consider two possible relationships between knowledge and teaching:

The Alignment Hypothesis suggests instructional complexity should match knowledge complexity. Simple knowledge needs simple instruction. Complex knowledge needs complex instruction.
The Asymmetry Hypothesis suggests a different pattern. Simple instructions remain effective even for complex knowledge. But complex instruction only works for complex knowledge.

The KLI framework proposes that the Asymmetry Hypothesis is the correct relationship.

Spaced practice is simple. It works for facts (memorizing vocabulary) and principles (retaining understanding of evolution). Even complex knowledge must be remembered. (like using memory technique to learn quantum computing)

Argumentation is complex. It works for principles (discussing why evolution happens) but not facts (arguing why "H" represents hydrogen is pointless—there's no rationale).

Complex knowledge benefits from both complex and straightforward methods. Simple knowledge only benefits from simple methods.

This explains patterns in research. Worked examples help novices learn algebra, but don't help memorize facts. They show "expertise reversal": beneficial early, but later, straight practice works better.

Spaces Between Sentences

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 03:14:36 GMT

The spaces between sentences are where meaning grows. Writers use these gaps intentionally to invite readers to fill in what's missing, creating surprise, tension, or emotional depth through what remains unsaid.

Podcast: 083. Edward Yang: Yi Yi

Why does some writing make us pause between sentences when reading?

This is the "spaces between sentences", gaps in thought when one sentence ends and another begins. Sometimes the connection is clear. Other times, the reader must pause and imagine what connects them.

In writing, those "spaces" invite the reader to do part of the work. Instead of being told everything, the reader senses what's missing and fills in the gaps. The meaning or emotion often grows in that moment of quiet thinking.

For example:

"It started raining. We ran inside." Clear cause and effect.
"It started raining. She smiled." Why? You fill in the reason.
"He set the photograph on the table. The room felt colder." You feel the grief without being told.
"Everyone clapped. She was already gone." You imagine what happened between.
"He closed the door. Ten years later, she knocked." That one space holds a decade.

Writers use this intentionally. Spaces between sentences are not empty. They're where the reader's imagination steps in. The space holds what's not said.

Hawthorne Effect

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The Hawthorne Effect: People change their behavior simply because they know they're being observed. Attention itself influences performance.

Article: Joanne Yatvin: Let More Teachers Re-Invent the Wheel, Or Why We Don’t Need Standardization

Why do we suddenly become more productive when someone is watching?

The Hawthorne Effect was discovered in the 1920s factory studies, where Researchers found that the workers' productivity improved simply because they knew they were being studied. The effect suggests that people tend to change their behavior due to awareness of being watched.

We are social creatures, and being watched oftentimes matters more than we think.

And in educator Joanne Yatvin's words:

"When people believe they are important in a project, anything works, and, conversely, when they don’t believe they are important, nothing works."

Hawthorne Effect can be found almost everywhere. Supervisors improve performance by showing interest. Teachers see temporary gains when students know evaluation is coming.

In more modern settings, people also apply this effect to productivity monitoring software to increase performance. It also explains why some people perform better in public commitments or accountability groups. The act of being seen changes how we act.

However, there's a catch. The effect is often temporary. Once the novelty of observation wears off, behavior tends to return to baseline. Unfortunately, sustainable improvement requires more than just attention.

This also reminds me of the Elevator Mirrors Psychology.

The Kindest Thing

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The kindest thing any of us can do is to pursue something radically that serves others in some way, because you never know how it might change the course of human life.

Podcast: Find Your X, Nurture Your N

I love this response from Rick Buhrman when he was asked, "What is the kindest thing that anyone's ever done for you?":

Our oldest son, Theo, who just turned 7, spent the first 6 months of his life in several NICUs. He was eventually helicoptered to Indianapolis at Riley Children Hospital. And while we were living in that NICU for almost half a year, we saw a lot of kids who passed away. Most of those kids were not as sick as Theo was.

I don't know exactly why Theo survived, but I know that a major part of how he survived was because for several decades leading up to that moment, numerous nurses, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, doctors, surgeons have committed themselves wholeheartedly to mastering their craft. I could give you tons and tons of examples of these people.

And I know that in the moment, it wasn't necessarily viewed as kindness, but maybe in some sense, the kind of thing that all of us can do is to pursue something radically that in some ways in service to others because you just don't know how it's going to change the trajectory of human life. And so for all of those medical practitioners, none of whom I'm sure are listening to this, I owe everything to you because they gave me the gift of being

This reminds me of Steve Jobs' building wonderful products as a deep appreciation for the rest of our human species.

Four Conditions for Complex Systems

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Complex systems emerge when four conditions are met: sufficient interacting parts, local autonomy, negative feedback loops, and limited randomness. These universal rules explain how order arises from disorder across all scales, from atoms to societies.

Book: Notes on Complexity

What makes a city, a cell, and a galaxy similar?

Neil Theise explores complexity theory as a framework for understanding how order and structure arise in nature. He investigates how systems, either biological, physical, or social, self-organize.

He identifies four universal conditions that allow complexity to emerge:

Sufficient numbers of interacting parts: Too few elements yield randomness, while enough parts enable patterns. For example:

A single ant's behavior is simple, but thousands together form efficient networks that find food, regulate temperature, and adapt to change.
One neuron in our brain just fires or rests, but billions interacting create thought, memory, and consciousness.
Individual buyers and sellers make local decisions, but together they generate price systems and economic trends.

Local autonomy: Each component acts based on local information rather than global control. For example:

Each white blood cell acts on local information, attacking pathogens it encounters without central command, but the overall immune response remains coordinated.
Drivers make decisions based on nearby cars, not the entire system, but traffic patterns, such as waves, jams, or free flow, emerge.
Individual developers contribute to open-source software autonomously, following shared protocols, and complex platforms evolve organically.

Negative feedback loops: Systems self-correct by abandoning unproductive paths. For example

When you overheat, you sweat. When you're cold, you shiver. The body self-corrects to maintain homeostasis.
If rabbits multiply, foxes thrive. Too many foxes reduce rabbits, which then reduces the fox population again. Populations stabilize through feedback.
Advancing prices can suppress demand, which lowers prices again. Feedback loops stabilize markets (until they're disrupted).

Limited randomness: Systems require both constraint and flexibility. For example:

Random genetic mutations introduce novelty, but natural selection constrains which survive. That balance drives evolution.
A jazz band maintains a shared rhythm and key, but allows for spontaneous variation. The mix of order and freedom in artistic improvisation produces creativity.
Startups experiment (randomness) within structured markets and regulations (constraints), oftentimes leading to more innovation.

These rules apply everywhere: from cells to cities. When systems fail to meet these conditions, they become dysfunctional. For example, modern hierarchical organizations often violate local autonomy. When every decision flows through a central authority, the system becomes brittle.

This is also highly related to Antifragile.

Grateful for Not Wanting

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"Even if you don't have all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don't have that you don't want." — Bob Dylan

Quote

Not wanting or caring about something can oftentimes be a blessing.

I think about this a lot. I'm grateful I don't crave for good food or fancy stuff :)

LLMs are Ghosts not Creatures

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 03:14:36 GMT

LLMs are like ghosts, not creatures. They're digital entities trained by imitating human data on the internet, not through evolution. This difference shapes what they can and can't do.

Podcast: Andrej Karpathy — AGI is still a decade away

What kind of intelligence are we creating with large language models?

LLMs are digital entities. They're trained by imitating human data on the internet. Karpathy calls this "crappy evolution," but it's the practically possible version of creating intelligence with our current technology.

Animals evolved differently. Evolution baked capabilities into their hardware over millions of years. A zebra runs minutes after birth. That ability is built-in, not learned. (I believe the same for curiosity too.)

But we're not running that evolutionary process with AI.

Karpathy is hesitant to draw inspiration from animals because AI doesn't have the same foundations. Building systems that work like animals would be wonderful (Sutton's view), but it's not what animals actually do. Animals rely on evolution in ways we can't replicate.

Instead, we're building digital entities that learn by compressing and imitating human artifacts.

This is a fundamentally different form of intelligence. Understanding this difference helps us set realistic expectations for what AI can and cannot do for now.

The "ghost" metaphor also reminds us that LLMs are powerful but divorced from biological mechanisms. They don't have bodies, don't navigate physical space, and don't experience the world the way evolved creatures do.

I think LLM is going through a much slower form of natural selection, where humans exert their preferences on LLM's character. In this case, the selection pressure comes from how frontier AI labs interpret and predict their users' preferences. It's also important to remember that evolutionary success judges everything by the criteria of survival and reproduction, with no regard for individual suffering and happiness.

Instrumental and Engaged Tools

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Two types of tools: instrumental tools like magic buttons that do the work for you, and engaged tools like violins that help you master the work yourself. When picking tools, ask if you need results or understanding.

Podcast: Linus Lee - Engineering for Aliveness - Jackson Dahl

Every tool falls somewhere on a spectrum.

On one end: instrumental tools. These are magic buttons like ride-sharing apps, and AI agents. They take your goal and deliver results fast, cheap, and easy. You don't care how it works. You just want it done. For instance, when you're rushing somewhere, you use GPS. You don't care about the route. You want to arrive.

The perfect instrumental tool reads your mind and completes the task instantly.

On the other end: engaged tools. Musical instruments. Coding editors. Physical maps for exploration. These tools pull you into the complexity. They help you see clearly and express precisely. Mastery takes time, but that's the point. These tools are distributed cognition.

The choice between these tools isn't about expertise. It's situational. You want GPS when you're late. You want a paper map when you're exploring. Therefore, when picking tools, you should ask yourself:

Do I need results, or do I need understanding?

Pick the wrong tool and you'll either waste time learning when you should be executing, or lose agency when you should be building mastery.

Bitter Lesson or Garbage Can

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Organizations are messy. The Bitter Lesson says AI can bypass that mess and focus only on outputs. The Garbage Can Model says process matters. Which perspective wins will define the future of work.

Article: The Bitter Lesson versus The Garbage Can

Most companies are chaos. Unwritten rules. Informal networks. Undocumented workflows. Bespoke knowledge everywhere. Can AI work with that, or do you need to clean it up first?

This question sits at the heart of a clash between two perspectives: the Bitter Lesson and the Garbage Can Model.

The Garbage Can Model says organizations are messy by nature. If this is right, traditional automation needs clear processes. You'd spend years mapping workflows before AI could help. Enterprise AI adoption stays slow and expensive.

The Bitter Lesson says encoding human expertise into AI doesn't work as well as just letting AI learn through brute computational force. If this applies to organizations, you can skip the process mapping. Just define good outputs. AI finds its own path through the chaos, even if that path is opaque.

In other words, one says: process matters, understand the complexity first while the other says: outputs matter, let AI figure out the rest.

For now, I'm leaning more to The Bitter Lesson side. The models just want to learn, and humans are the bottleneck.

Interfaces Help See and Express

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Good interfaces help us see and express. Abstraction compresses reality into models we can hold in our heads. The best abstractions are necessarily lossy, but that's a feature, not a bug.

Podcast: Linus Lee - Engineering for Aliveness - Jackson Dahl

What makes a tool suitable for creative and exploratory work? Linus Lee defines good tools designed for creative and exploratory work around two core ideas: seeing and expressing.

A good interface lets you see information clearly from the right perspectives. It also enables you to express your intent as naturally and precisely as you desire. These two abilities define how human agency operates through tools.

Abstraction makes these two abilities possible because it gives us models we can fit in our heads and work with.

Think about different maps of the same city. Terrain maps. Transit maps. Road maps. Each abstracts differently. None is perfectly accurate. But each serves its purpose precisely because it's lossy in the right way. "All models are wrong, but some are useful."

This applies to programming languages as well. Python is easier than C because it hides more complexity. That makes it more powerful for most tasks. You can see what the system does and express what you want more clearly.

Innovation in tools often manifests as better abstraction and representation.

And that's why AI is such an interesting technology. LLMs think geometrically. They translate words into shapes in latent space. Most of their processing happens with ideas represented as shapes in high dimensional space, which can be a very powerful abstraction.

For Linus, the dream is to externalize this. Build interfaces where ideas are literally shapes. Incompatible concepts wouldn't fit together. Compatible ones would snap into place, and this might help us work with the complexity that our current tools can't handle.

Two further readings if you are interested:

Justify the Lack of Courage

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it." — Albert Camus

Quote

This reminds me of two things I noted before:

Sanity is Performance

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Book: Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre

What if the difference between sanity and insanity isn't about what you think, but about what you show?

Theatre director Keith Johnstone argues that sanity is a pretence, a way we learn to behave. We keep this act up because we don't want others to reject us.

Most people secretly believe they're a little crazier than average.

They understand the energy it takes to maintain their own shields, but not what others expend. They know their own sanity is a performance, but when they meet others, they confuse the person with the role.

Sanity has nothing to do with how you think. It's about presenting yourself as safe.

For example, an old men wander around hallucinating visibly, but no one gets upset. The same behavior in a younger, more vigorous person would get them institutionalized. A Canadian study found that communities reject someone when their behavior becomes unpredictable.

Johnstone shares a case about a man who believed he had a fish in his jaw. This fish moved around and caused discomfort. When he told people, they thought him crazy, leading to violent arguments and hospitalizations. The fish remained. Eventually, someone suggested he stop telling people. After all, it was the quarrels getting him locked up, not the delusion itself. Once he kept it secret, he lived normally.

His sanity is like ours. We may not have a fish in our jaw, but we all have its equivalent.

When Johnstone explains that sanity is about interaction rather than mental processes, students laugh hysterically. They realize they've been suppressing thoughts for years, classifying them as insane. This is also why originality is being obvious.

Osborne Effect

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Osborne Effect: Announce your future product too soon, and customers stop buying your current one. The company often dies before the new product ships. Tomorrow's promise kills today's revenue.

Article: Too Much, Too Soon: The Osborne Effect In Tech History

How to destroy your company with good news? Announce the better product you're building.

The Osborne Computer Corporation learned this the hard way in the 1980s. While selling the Osborne 1 computer, founder Adam Osborne announced the upcoming Osborne Executive. Customers stopped buying immediately. Why get the old model when an upgrade was coming?

Sales collapsed. Inventory piled up. The company went bankrupt before the new model could launch. This pattern has a name: the Osborne Effect.

It works through three steps. First, a premature announcement. The company reveals or leaks information about a new product before it's ready. Second, customers react. They delay or cancel purchases, anticipating the improved version. Third, revenue collapses. The sudden sales drop creates cash-flow problems, inventory surplus, and lost investor confidence.

Apple understands this well. They carefully time iPhone announcements to avoid cannibalizing current sales. Tesla occasionally faces criticism when Elon Musk teases future models or features, causing customers to delay purchases.

The solution is discipline. You must keep upcoming products secret until near release, use gradual transitions with discounts on old stock, stagger feature rollouts, and manage expectations through careful communication.

Three Worlds of Understanding

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Learning happens across three worlds: surface knowledge (facts), deep understanding (connecting ideas), and constructed knowledge (building theories). Each level builds on the previous, but you can't skip surface learning to reach depth.

Paper: Constructivism, Socioculturalism, and Popper's World 3

Philosopher Karl Popper proposed three worlds of reality: the physical world, the mental world of individual thoughts, and the world of objective knowledge and culture. Educator Carl Bereiter applied this to learning and proposed three levels of understanding:

Surface knowledge involves knowing facts and ideas. You recognize information, recall it, and understand basic concepts. This isn't superficial or bad. It's foundational.

Deep understanding requires connecting separate pieces of knowledge and going beyond given information to deduce principles. You integrate what you know into frameworks. You elaborate and make inferences.

Constructed knowledge happens when you build defensible theories based on your surface and deep knowledge. You create new understanding. This level is Popper's "World 3", the realm where knowledge becomes an object that exists independently, can be shared, criticized, and improved.

Balance is critical. Surface knowledge isn't inferior. It's necessary to achieve a deep understanding. Trying to skip to depth without a foundation fails.

The learning journey moves from ideas to understanding to constructing knowledge. Each stage prepares you for the next. Bereiter argued that education should focus less on individual mental states and more on collaborative creation of knowledge objects that live in this third world.

This explains why procedural and declarative knowledge work together in learning.

Artists Defy Education

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

To remain an artist in modern culture requires stubborn defiance of education. Great artists create by ignoring or going against expert advice and conventional training.

Book: Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre

Someone asked Stanley Kubrick if it was normal for a director to spend so much care on lighting each shot. He said, "I don't know. I've never seen anyone else light a film."

You have to be stubborn to remain an artist in modern culture. Playing the role of "artist" is easy, but actually creating means going against education.

Maybe artists are people who couldn't conform to teachers' demands. Pavlov found dogs he couldn't brainwash until he'd castrated them and starved them for three weeks. If teachers could do that to us, they could achieve Plato's dream of a republic with no artists left at all.

We see the artist as wild and aberrant. But perhaps artists are simply those constitutionally unable to accept what they were taught.

Once we believe art is self-expression, individuals can be criticized not just for lack of skill, but simply for being who they are. That's when education becomes destructive to creativity.

This connects to what we learned about education is not a substance, education or training, and art is like hair.

Hostage by Need

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"If I need things to be a certain way, I'm held hostage by them" — Jonny Wilkinson

Quote

This reminds me of you are as small as what you allow to annoy you, and also vaguely related to need for cognitive closure.

Originality is Being Obvious

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 03:14:36 GMT

True originality comes from trusting first thoughts and being obvious, instead of chasing unusual ideas or forcing cleverness. Trying too hard to be original often produces clichés and mediocrity.

Book: Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre

What if the most original thing you can do is stop trying to be original?

Theatre teacher Keith Johnstone found that many students, artists, and improvisers choke their creativity because they are desperate to impress with novelty and cleverness. They confuse originality with strangeness and forget that strangeness often comes from copying old tricks.

In theatre, audiences laugh hardest at the obvious line delivered with confidence. Asked "What's for dinner?", a bad improviser will desperately try to think up something original. But whatever they say, they will be too slow. They might finally drag up something like 'fried mermaid'. If they'd just said 'fish', the audience would have been more delighted because it feels authentic and human.

The more obvious a performer is, the more original they appear.

It sounds paradoxical, but because no two people are the same, leaning into what first comes to mind reveals individuality more than straining for cleverness. Attempts to be "avant-garde" by imitating the past oftentimes recycle clichés.

Keith Johnstone's point applies beyond theatre. An artist who is inspired is being obvious. They are not constantly weighing one idea against another. They are accepting their first thoughts. Beethoven said, "You ask me where I get my ideas? That I can't say with any certainty. They come unbidden, directly, I could grasp them with my hands." Mozart also admitted that he did not chase originality, but rather simply allowed ideas to come.

If Mozart had tried to be original, it would have been like a man at the North Pole trying to walk north. The effort moves him away from himself.

True originality arises when you stop reaching for it and work from what feels obvious and natural. Chasing originality can take you far away from your true self and result in mediocre work.

Can't Win by Arguing

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Most arguments are not really about the argument, so most arguments can’t be won by arguing.

Book: Excellent Advice for Living

In Empathy or Solution, neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett shared that when our partner or friends are feeling something like anxiety or anger, the first thing that we have to do is to figure out what they want.

Sometimes what people want is a solution, but most of the time what they want is empathy. People want to feel heard, but they rarely want to feel preached at.

This principle also applies to arguments. People want to feel understood, regardless of whether their arguments contain hundreds of logical gaps or none whatsoever. Most arguments are not really about the argument, so most arguments can't be won by arguing.

Education is not a substance

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Education is not a simple substance delivered in larger or smaller doses. Good and bad teachers are engaged in opposite activities. At its worst, it distorts imagination and leaves learners damaged rather than enriched.

Book: Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre

We oftentimes think of education as if it were water poured into a cup. A bad teacher poured too little, a good teacher poured plenty. This picture is misleading.

Bad teachers don't simply give less. They actively destroy talent. Good and bad teachers are engaged in opposite activities.

In the book:

Many teachers think of children as immature adults. It might lead to better and more ‘respectful’ teaching, if we thought of adults as atrophied children. Many ‘well adjusted’ adults are bitter, uncreative frightened, unimaginative, and rather hostile people. Instead of assuming they were born that way, or that that’s what being an adult entails, we might consider them as people damaged by their education and upbringing.

Education is not a neutral substance. It can be destructive. It's especially dangerous to our creativity.

E. Paul Torrance, the psychologist known for creativity research, has a theory that "many children with impoverished imaginations have been subjected to rather vigorous and stern efforts to eliminate fantasy too early. They are afraid to think." Once we eliminate fantasy, then we have no artists.

Torrance's observations also explain why intelligence is proportional to population, but creativity appears not to be related to population numbers.

Shakespeare's London produced great artists despite having limited education. Today's well-schooled societies, despite larger populations, struggle to do the same, let alone scale that creative output proportionally.

Effective but Unpredictable

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Work effectively, but be unpredictable. You are irreplaceable when you contribute in a way that AIs struggle to model or imitate.

Book: Excellent Advice for Living

Aim to be effective, but unpredictable. That is, you want to act in a way that AIs have trouble modeling or imitating. That makes you irreplaceable. Working differently is usually more productive than working harder.

I also like how Kevin Kelly put it in the context of storytelling: "To tell a good story, you must reveal a surprise;. otherwise it is just a report." AI is very good at writing a report.

Longer Table not Taller Fence

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

If you are more fortunate than others, build a longer table rather than a taller fence.

Book: Excellent Advice for Living

I found this phrase beautiful. If you've been lucky, how do you give back your good fortune?

Three feedback questions

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Good feedback should answer three questions: Where am I going, how am I going, and where to next. Effective feedback guides learning by clarifying goals (feed up), tracking progress(feed back), and planning future steps (feed forward).

Paper: The Power of Feedback - John Hattie, Helen Timperley, 2007

What makes feedback effective in our learning journey? In their 2007 paper, John Hattie and Helen Timperley state that feedback only drives learning if it answers three questions: Where am I going, how am I going, and where to next.

Asking "Where am I going?" sets the direction. What are the goals? Students need clear goals and success criteria, not vague statements. If the goal is to build suspense in writing, feedback about spelling is unhelpful.

Asking "how am I going?" helps students reflect on progress. What progress is being made toward the goal? They need to know how their current performance compares to past efforts or expectations. For instance, a student may find it motivating to learn that their essay now uses stronger transitions than before.

Asking "where to next?" builds momentum. What activities need to be undertaken to make better progress? Learners want to know what to try next, not just whether they succeeded or failed. Effective feedback suggests the next challenges, strategies, or adjustments to make.

These questions correspond to notions of feed up, feed back, and feed forward. When feedback connects these three components, it helps close the gap between current ability and desired learning.

These three questions help complement the CCAF Instructional Design Model.

Gaps in Fabric of Reality

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Deutsch's four strands (quantum physics, evolution, theory of computation, and epistemology) each, on its own, feels cold and incomplete. But together, they form a coherent picture of reality, as each strand fills the gaps of the others.

Book: The Fabric of Reality

In Four-strand Theory of Everything, we introduced how David Deutsch proposes reality is a fabric woven from four strands: quantum physics, evolution, theory of computation, and Popperian epistemology.

However, Deutsch acknowledged that each strand looks bleak and incomplete in isolation.

Quantum theory provides accurate numbers in theory but seems random and feels like chaos.
Evolution explains adaptation but looks purposeless as life is just blind selection.
Computation defines limits but appears as abstract mathematics detached from the material world.
Popper shows how knowledge grows through error correction but never grants certainty.

In Deutsch's view, each strand fills one another's gaps.

For example, quantum physics plus computation gives quantum computing. Deutsch argues that this computing is a physical process carried out across many branches of reality, and the final result comes from their interference.

This connection fills the explanatory gap: computation becomes a physical process embedded in the multiverse, and quantum mechanics is no longer a random mystery but a structured information flow.

Another example, evolution plus epistemology reframes ideas as populations. Knowledge growth itself can be seen as an evolutionary process. Just as species survive by adapting, ideas survive by resisting criticism.

This fills another gap: epistemology gains a biological grounding, while evolution is revealed as a general process that applies not just to organisms but also to culture and science.

Alone, each strand feels thin and leaves gaps. Together they form a single coherent picture of reality.

Four types of feedback

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Feedback falls into four types: task, process, self-regulation, and self. The closer the feedback is to the work itself, the stronger its effect. Therefore, self-feedback is usually least useful for learning outcomes.

Paper: The Power of Feedback - John Hattie, Helen Timperley, 2007

Not all feedback helps students in the same way. John Hattie and Helen Timperley proposed four levels of feedback, each with different effects on learning.

The first level is task feedback. This is information about correctness. For example, a teacher might say, "You need to include more detail about the WW2." for a writing assignment. Task feedback helps students fix mistakes, but often stays tied to the specific question. It is powerful when it points out errors in interpretation, but it rarely transfers to new problems. It explains why skills like poker are hard to transfer in other domain.

The second level is process feedback. Here, the teacher draws attention to strategies and approaches. For instance, "This essay may make more sense if you use the structure we practiced." This kind of feedback pushes students to think about how they are working, not just what they produced.

The third level is self-regulation feedback. This helps students monitor their own progress, build confidence, and develop habits of checking their work. An example might be, "You already know the features of a strong introduction. Check if your first paragraph includes them." This feedback improves self-efficacy and supports autonomy.

The last level is self feedback. Statements like "You are smart" or "Good job" focus on the person rather than the work. Praise of this type feels nice but adds little to learning. Studies show it rarely leads to real improvement because it carries little information that provides answers to any of the three questions good feedback should be able to answer (Where am I going, how am I going, and where to next).

The most effective pattern is to guide students from task feedback to process and then to self-regulation. This sequence helps them not only correct errors but also grow into independent learners.

Feedback to Teacher

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Student-to-teacher feedback drives compounding gains in learning because when teachers know how their teaching is landing and adjust, the effects ripple back to students. Same with learning software.

Paper: Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement

What if the fastest way to help a student is first to help the teacher? Students need feedback, but teachers can benefit from feedback even more.

In the Visible Learning paper, John Hattie found that the most critical feature in classrooms was the creation of situations for teachers to receive more feedback about their teaching.

Student-to-teacher feedback helps make learning visible for both sides. Teachers become learners of their own teaching and see learning through the eyes of the students. That drives teachers to adjust and makes students feel seen. The student-to-teacher feedback has a ripple effect that benefits both the student and the class, ultimately improving the teaching and the relationship with the learners.

The same principle applies to learning software as well. Software must adapt to learners' feedback and be able to determine whether the input should be used to improve the experience for all learners using the software or to personalize the experience for specific learners.

Bad Luck Saves Worse Luck

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from." — Cormac McCarthy

Quote

I believe this is from No Country for Old Men. Misfortune can be a shield.

2023 紀錄

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 17:27:59 GMT

這是開始做年度紀錄的第八年。一樣是流水帳形式。

在巴黎散步到 Orsay museum 的路上聽了 Walter Isaacson 上 Lex Fridman 的 podcast，談了他眼中的 Elon Musk 跟 Steve Jobs。我意識到我永遠不能，也不願意像 Elon 或是 Steve 那樣對待身邊的人，做一個徹底的混蛋。我還是時常被他們的想法所啟發，但就對待人的方式，我更欣賞 Benjamin Franklin、Ed Thorp 或是 Bill Campbell，即使那意味著當一定程度的好好先生（people pleaser）。我認爲「忽視別人感受地對待人」並不是一件值得做到極端的事情。我想要證明，「當混蛋不是創造偉大事物的必要條件」。我不需要當一個徹底的混蛋，也可以創造偉大的事物，為社會創造價值。

記住康德所說的，對待人時你永遠要把人當作本身最終的目的，而不僅是手段。¹

人生第一份全職工作。在 Google（下稱狗家）待滿一年，被迫地被換了四個團隊三個老闆。從 TypeScript 做 3D 特效，到用 GLSL 寫 Shader（電腦圖學的著色器），寫到 C++ 後端的服務，再換到用 C++ 寫 App 的跨平台前端介面，再用 C++ 寫資料庫的服務。最後一個季度，終於換到了現在的團隊寫一個全新的 iOS App。運氣可以算是很差，一年可以被 reorg（組織重組）四次，代表每兩三個月所有在前一個團隊累積的貢獻都要整碗端給別人，沒有辦法耕耘長期的影響力，還要負責任何支援、善後跟交接。

但在狗家運氣也可以算很好，到每個新的團隊都學新的東西，看新的 codebase（程式碼庫），跟新的人學習。GLSL、Objective-C 都是從零經驗開始上手，C++ 跟 TypeScript 也算是學了很不一樣的用法。只往好處想，一般人在大科技公司的第一份工作應該不容易比我的狀況學的技術更廣，看的 codebase 更雜，學習曲線更多元且陡峭了。也很幸運，在入職可以兩個禮拜就能上程式碼到 production，感謝老闆可以相信我不會把整個 YouTube 弄壞，也感謝在每個新團隊學到的東西，都能夠實際被用到產出，不會只是一直被公司付錢學東西，也可以回頭貢獻一點價值。

這年有看完了大概 30 本書，沒看完的可能更多。看了不少好看且不同類型的傳記，坂本龍一的《我還能再看到幾次滿月？》可能是讓我留下最大印象的，寫了他跟死亡的關係還有一些有趣的想法。Walter Isaacson 的兩本傳記 Elon Musk 跟 Benjamin Franklin 也都非常好看，可以看到這兩個人在個性上有多麼不同。Patagonia 創辦人 Yvon Chouinard 的自傳 Let My People Go Surfing 也很有趣，看一個不情願從商的戶外運動嬉皮，如何用離經叛道的商業哲學打造 Patagonia。也重溫了 Becoming Steve Jobs。

除了傳記類，The Ape that Understood the Universe 是用進化心理學（Evolutionary psychology）較同俗地解釋行為的好書，即使看過其他相關的書們（像是 Robert Wright 的 Why Buddhism Is True 和 The Moral Animal、Richard Dawkins 的 The Selfish Gene 或是 Steven Pinker 的 The Blank Slate 和 The Language Instinct）還是可以有些啟發。Outlive 是第一本認真在讀長壽科學（Longevity）相關的書。7 Powers 作為商業分析的框架，做初步快速的分析很實用。跟科技相關的看了歷史的 The Dream Machine 、現在式的 Impromptu，跟未來式的 Life 3.0、The Singularity is Near。但看完最常複習的還是 Doug Engelbart 的 Augmenting Human Intellect。

看了行銷經典 Scientific Advertising 跟相對新的《峰值體驗》，兩本東西方的書即使出版日期差了 100 年還是有很多通用之處。也看了不少跟 Apple 和 Pixar 相關的書，Creativity, Inc、Creative Selection、Tony Fadell 的 Build、Make Something Wonderful，寫了很多做產品的筆記散落在 Weekly I/O。

其他新看推薦的書還有 What I Talk About When I Talk About Running、Dopamine Nation、Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind、David Eagleman 的 Sum、Daniel Kahneman 的 Noise。重看了 The Design of Everyday Things、《超速學習》、How to Take Smart Notes、Jim Al-Khalili 的 Paradox。小說看了科幻經典《潰雪》跟《極限返航》，重溫了《天龍八部》跟《流浪者之歌》。雖然看書的主力還是用 Kindle，但漸漸在 Readmoo 上看了更多書。Readmoo 很棒，希望他們在閱讀體驗跟書源上可以再加油！

發現自己走路的時候通常比 google map 的預估時間快到達目的地，但是開車的時候通常比 google map 的預估時間慢。

去了 California College of Art（CCA）上了一學期 Video Art 的課，認識了很多人（包括 Apple 前 20 號員工，一個可愛的阿罵！）。每個禮拜六早八通勤到 SF，花三個小時的時間探索用影片作為媒介的藝術表達，感謝 Miguel Novelo 帶著我們實驗了各種想法。也趁這個機會嘗試了用 Runway ML 做影片編輯。Runway 作為 Figma for Video Editing 在網頁上做非線性編輯（NLE）是一個非常有趣的體驗，還順便看了 Minnesota Street Project 展。

也是在灣區待滿的第一年。在 Sunnyvale 住滿一年後決定搬到 San Francisco。感謝自己沒有買車。在一個城市裡有自己的工作咖啡廳輪值清單是擁有認同感的充分條件。SF 也能是很有魅力的，還記得搬來灣區前 Charlee 說他覺得 SF 比 NYC 的活動還要更多元，從一開始完全不能理解到現在可以慢慢體會。能在平日晚上邊聽著 DJ 放歌，邊在博物館、水族館、科博館喝酒是這種多元性的一點縮影。

被問到從 NYC 搬到 Bay Area 的心得時，總在開玩笑說在南灣有了非常多時間可以反省（reflection）。也許待在城市裡是要最大化自己的輸入刺激，而在南灣是要最大化自己的輸出。（Maybe city is for input while south bay is for output）

感激是所有負面情緒最後昇華的結果。在當下悲傷的情緒，如果在過一段時間後能夠轉變成對過去經歷的感謝，最後都能跟自己或是過去比較好的和解。類似於 2022 紀錄提到的 cherry-pickingism，又或是實用主義（Pragmatism），我們終究都能擅自地賦予任意事件自己的意義，並轉換成學習。我的狀況好像是預設感激，所以快樂來的容易一些。

這一年最常聽的專輯應該是草東的《瓦合》、國蛋的 GDNA，坂本龍一的 out of noise，跟 Bon Iver 的 For Emma, Forever Ago。《瓦合》在年中時發佈，還記得我在紐約 Williamsburg 晚上街上隨意漫步，一口氣把一整張專輯聽完有多感動。從狗家 Sunnyvale 的辦公室開著手排車回家，聽著國蛋的 GDNA，感受到非常平靜的狂喜（euphoria or a burst of intense happiness mixed paradoxically with relaxation）。聽著 out of noise，讀著坂本龍一的最後一本書。音樂的魔力真的是難以言喻卻又無比強大。年底開始聽了啊跨面，台語饒舌真的好讓人著迷。

每個禮拜都在 Google 打全場的籃球，認識一群好朋友。打籃球還是我最舒服交朋友的方式，也讓我想起大學留在學校很大一部份原因是因為想要打團隊籃球。

也趁著規律打全場的機會蒐集了很多籃球影片，花了一點時間複習電腦視覺，做了一個簡單的 demo 用機器學習剪輯籃球影片，雖然還是離 HomeCourt 的好用程度差了很遠。也去了 AGI House 參加了 UX 和 AI 的 Hackathon，做了一個 LLM 相關的瀏覽器插件（browser extension）。

人生的健康期（Healthspan）目標是我想要到 90 歲還能有身體條件可以享受打籃球，即使只是自己投投籃也行。讀完 Outlive，要專注在健康期（Healthspan）而不只是壽命（Lifespan）。

多虧了 Ev 讓我有機會學會開手排車，還有聽卡帶。除了學手排車，還學了法文，好久沒有學一個新的語言，能讓腦袋運動的感覺真好。

這年最常聽的 Podcast 是 Founders，感謝 Morris 最初的推薦。其他固定愛聽的還有 Stratechery、Metamuse、Conversation with Tyler、Acquired。

摸索了更多城市並嘗試跟當地人生活，透過探索世界去探索自己。像 2022 紀錄所說，「認識自己與認識這個世界是相輔相成的。從對於自己的現有認識去推論，或從對這個世界的探索經驗去歸納，都能拓展對自己理解的疆界。」年初去了日本，年中回了紐約，去了歐洲，去了雅加達，回了台灣。

在日本拜訪各種老朋友們，了解為何日本文化能讓台灣人（或不只是台灣人？）普遍嚮往，也了解為何在美國認識的日本朋友們最後傾向回日本，而不是留在美國。一部分紀錄在了 2022 紀錄，但忘記提了我最喜歡的美術館是東京都現代美術館（MOT）。

趁轉組的空擋，初次拜訪了歐洲，在倫敦、巴黎跟柏林待了快一個月。嘗試記下了對每個城市的第一印象、對於城市的思考以及我喜歡探索一個城市的旅遊方式：First Impressions of Paris、First Impressions of Berlin、First Impressions of London。感謝各路朋友的收留和推薦。

年末拜訪了雅加達，非常有趣的城市跟文化，超級友善的人們，有種八年前去印度的驚奇感。感謝 Angelica 一家的招待，希望之後可以常拜訪，特別是不會需要拐杖又腸胃炎的雙重加持下。

也重新思考了何謂文化的多元性（cultural diversity）。在世界上所謂的「國際」大城市都能找到美式、日式、越式和韓式餐廳。也許全球化其實造就了一種單一文化（monoculture），讓這些所謂「多元」文化們都在同一個維度上用相似的方式多元。文化之間的自由貿易讓每個原本不同的文化都遵從了同一種多元性，稀釋了原本的獨特性。這也許也發生在個人層面。

我們永遠沒辦法說服一個剛中樂透的人，買樂透在財務上不是個理性的好主意。如果身邊有更多的人中了樂透，「說服自己要相信理性」也會變得更難。這不只適用於財務相關的選擇。

年中回了紐約，希望維持著每年都可以回家一趟的節奏。見了好多好多朋友跟前輩。感謝 Carmem 的沙發。這次去紐約做了自己的能量審計（energy audit）。聊天接受刺激給我許多能量、跟 Harald 聊完天給了我超多的能量跟動力。消化資訊跟思考也給我同等的能量，每天早上八點去咖啡廳做研究或寫作是很好的充電，慢步在紐約給了我更多能量。反覆聽了《瓦合》專輯大概三百遍，每天都走二到三個小時的路卻不覺得需要聽 podcast。擠壓了所有見面在前幾天，後面幾天都彈性放鬆是很不錯的安排。

在回紐約的路上看了 Casey Neistat 回到紐約的影片，深深被他講的句子打到。「我們並非在紐約出生；我們是被紐約收養的。」（"We're not born in new york city, we were adopted by new york city."）「這是我們變成自己的地方。這不是我們出生的家，而是我們選擇的家。生活中很少有兩件事如此完美地契合在一起，但紐約是唯一一個讓我感到真正歸屬的地方。」（"It's the place where we became ourselves. It's not our home by birth it's our home by choice. It's rare in life for two things to fit so perfectly together but new york city it's the only place where i felt like i truly belong." ）「家從來不是指一棟房子、一個大院子或好天氣。家是一個讓你感覺像自己的地方。家是找到一個你完全適合的地方。」（"Home was never about a house, a great yard or good weather. Home is about a place that makes you feel like you. Home is about finding a location where you just fit."）

去了 Mount Madonna、Ravens Landing、Big Surr 露營，也住了一次 Big Surr 的小木屋，算是在 Bay Area 有物盡其用。也去了幾次 Napa，但家裡有專業的新銳調酒師 Jeff 更好，只是家裡沒有紅酒配的起司，只有麥克雞塊、papa john 或是先鋒茶餐廳。

看了人生第一場 NBA 的季後賽，Warriors 被 Kings 打爛。

來美國之後第一年沒有去 Pitchfork Music Festival，錯過了 Bon Iver。

感恩 YouTube 招待，跟 Angelica 去了 Great America，體驗了一天的遊樂園財富自由。

ChatGPT 橫空出世，大家都來學 ML，經歷短暫寫作的存在危機。

感恩節去 Denver 在 Rocky Mountain 玩雪橇，不小心弄傷了腳，開啟了兩個月的拐杖以及漫長的復健之旅。學了一課。

年末例行性地回台灣，第一次照 MRI，感嘆台灣醫療效率之快以及便捷，再次感謝台灣的醫護人員們，我們絕對不應該把這種好當作理所當然。

好愛在台灣的家人跟朋友們。歡迎多來美國玩！

也多虧腳殘了，體驗搭飛機都第一個登機，過安檢都走快速通道。也第一次這麼頻繁地注意各個地方的無障礙設施。

看了 18 部電影，最愛的新片 Oppenheimer 進了戲院看了兩次，Barbie、Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse、Return to Seoul、Super Mario Movie、Asteroid city 都還算喜歡，Avatar: The Way of Water 看的好痛苦。舊片喜歡的比較多，《宇宙探索編輯部》（Journey to the West）跟 Drive my car 都很愛，重溫經典的 American Psycho、Wall E、Big fish、your name.、Minority report，還有每年都會看的 About time。

多虧了完全聽不懂 Oppenheimer 裡 Albert 在講什麼英文，二刷的時候第一次知道在美國可以跟戲院索取個人的字幕棒。謝謝 Albert，除了你的相對論外又被你教育了。

拍了 7 卷底片，跟 2022 年比少了 4 卷，灣區還是沒有紐約那麼讓人想在路上拍照。

最愛的現場表演只能是在 SF 看了草東，沒辦法再更爽。多虧 Angelica，在 Santa Clara 看了 Taylor Swift，體驗一日 Swiftie，踏出獨立樂團的舒適圈，大開眼界。在 SF 還看了童年回憶 Yellowcard 的復出、不知道第幾次的 deca joins、Mild Orange 跟 Phum Viphurit。在 Stanford 的 Re:SET 看了好久不見的 LCD Soundsystem、Toro y Moi、Boy Genius、Clairo、Steve Lacy 跟 James Blake。沒想到竟然一整年都沒有聽到台語龐克或中文饒舌表演。

寫了 36 篇文章，其中包含了 28 篇的 Weekly I/O（140 個學習到的事）跟 8 篇的部落格文章。寫了對於標籤的想法（Remove Labels），六個關於 AI 的小故事（Six Tiny Musings on AI），英文寫作如何進步（Write Better Sentences），翻譯了 PG 的 How to do great work（如何成就偉大的事），兩篇關於坂本龍一（How Many More Times Will I Watch the Full Moon Rise?、Inside the Mind of the Legendary Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto）、兩篇學習的複習（Rumination #5: Anti-productivity, Decision heuristic and more、Rumination #4）。

我要寫得更多。²（連續第 X 年這麼說）

永遠要：表達自己的感激、欣賞、歉意、強迫自己做也許會尷尬且困難或些許不舒服的事。

我喜歡認識一個人的模式是：假設我們被困在一座孤島而只有彼此可以認識。如果在社交的時候永遠都覺得有下一個人可以認識，我們會花更多精力在打量而不是在理解。社交選項少（low social optionality）的場合更能有真誠的互動。

如果不確定自己做一件事的動機是內在還是外在，問自己：如果我永遠不能夠跟任何人分享我做過這件事，我還會去做這一件事嗎？³

學習在陳述想法的時候不要拐彎抹角（hedge）。記住自己會犯錯的同時，我應該把推測陳述得更像物理定律那樣確定。要真實，而不是中立。減少使用「或許我是錯的，但我覺得」和「這沒有絕對的對錯」等模稜兩可的表達。⁴

對於自己不在乎的事情就要保持不在乎，並善用自己的不在乎。如果對吃的不在乎，就讓對吃更在乎的人去點菜，即使他們點到我不想吃的東西也無妨，只要他們的享受大於我的不享受。⁵

洗澡時的冒出來的想法（shower thoughts）：人與人之間深刻的連結通常由三個要素組成：野心、脆弱性、強烈的共享情緒，依序代表了未來、過去、跟現在。

作為一個組織的獨立貢獻者（individual contributor），記得不要只低著頭工作。花百分之二十的時間向上看和向周圍看。就像公司的 70-20-10 規則，花 70% 資源在核心業務、20% 在鄰接的業務、10% 在大膽的賭注。

工作上好表現的獎勵通常是更多同樣的工作。專注去找我會享受花更多時間做的事，而不是專注在減少做現在工作所需要花的時間。⁶

重新試用了一輪各種個人知識管理（Personal Knowledge Management or PKM）的工具。體驗幾個月後，決定回歸並深耕於 Obsidian。我最大的需求還是要能在自己的 PKM 裡面寫程式插件（Plugin）。能自己做功能和界面的擴充和客製化，才能讓思考的工具跟我自己的資訊處理能力有更快的共同演化（co-evolve），特別是現在機器學習跟語言模型的超能力都可以更有效率地被實作和整合。但逢人我還是最推 Heptabase 啦，期待雨安可以持續穩定地實現願景！

從認識 MBTI 上學到的事：用最粗淺的劃分，世界上就有 16 種非常不同的個性。我覺得能激勵自己的事物，對別人來說可能會消耗能量。所以不只是己所不欲，勿施於人。更好但也能難的是要因人而異。

在狗家找了 Heron 聊天，感謝他從申請研究所到申請狗家一直以來的幫忙！問他問題時，讓我回想起了 Carl Rogers 跟 Gloria 的心理諮商過程，還有裡面的一句話：「去做一件你還沒有真正自己選擇去做的事情是毫無意義的。」（It's no damn good you're doing something that you haven't really chosen to do.）⁷

這也讓我想起來 Freya Stark 所說的「如果我們相信的事情與我們所做的事情不同，就不會有幸福」（"There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.")⁸

參加了岳涵辦的沙龍，用了四張投影片回顧了在灣區住的第一年。第一張投影片是探索世界與自己的框架：去除身上的所有標籤、嘗試所有我真心有興趣的、記下自己在嘗試時跟嘗試完的感覺（Weekly I/O 是紀錄學習感受的一部分）、在記錄下來感覺裡尋找核心主題。重複循環。

第二張投影片是 Arthur Rimbaud 的一句話：「One must be absolutely modern.」。

第三張投影片是坂本龍一書裡引用 Paul Bowles 在 The Sheltering Sky 的一段話：「死亡總是在向我們靠近，但不知道它何時來臨，似乎讓生命的有限性變得模糊不清。正是那種可怕的確定性，令我們如此厭惡。但因為我們不知道死亡何時到達，所以會把生命當成一座永不乾枯的井。然而，每件事都只會發生有限次數，而且實際上很少。你還會記得多少次，童年中某一個特定的下午、某個深深成為生命一部分的下午，如果沒有它，你甚至無法想像自己的人生？或許再有四、五次。或許甚至更少。你會看到滿月升起幾次呢？或許是二十次。然而，這些都看似無窮。」⁹

第四張投影片是三句自我提醒的密語，在 2024 年應該可以全部達成。

2022 紀錄在 2023 的七月才寫完，2023 的紀錄進步了一個月。但還是不免把去年跟今年的想法糊在一起。

村上春樹說，他能夠持續跑步超過 20 年，不是因為他有強大的意志。只是因為跑步適合他。我覺得學習新事物（也許還有打籃球）對我好像也是。好像不需要強大的意志或者紀律，單純只是沒比學東西更好玩或更適合我的事了。（雖然也不排除學習這個傾向其實對人類來說很普遍，而我很幸運，在對形塑習慣的的幾個關鍵學習經驗，都有得到正向的回饋。）

兩個對於評估伴侶關係的方法（heuristic）：如果雙方被別人說跟另一半很像的時候都會很開心。如果雙方都覺得從另一半得到的比付出的多。

如果把一個人嚮往的美德分成悼詞美德（Eulogy virtues）和履歷美德（Resume virtues），永遠不要為了後者犧牲前者。注重人們在葬禮上會描述的美德，而不是只有履歷表上列的事蹟。

感受愛與付出愛都是一種可以且需要練習的能力。愛一個人是給予他們能夠摧毀你的權力（permission），但相信他們不會。

新年快樂！

^
來自康德的其中一條定言令式（categorical imperative）："So act that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means."。
^
我要 Write More but Less："Write 5x more but write 5x less."。
^
也類似於 Why to Buy："Buy what you would buy if you were the only person on Earth."。
^
延伸閱讀：我為何寫作。
^
這也讓我想到 Reflect on Irritation："A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others." 和 As Big as Love："You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you."。
^
也類似於 Productivity is often a distraction. Don't aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible. Rather aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing.。
^
來自 Carl Rogers’ Session Transcripts，再次感謝江寧推薦！
^
同時也可以用 Leon Fesinger 的認知失調理論解釋。
^
來自 How Many More Times Will I Watch the Full Moon Rise?。

Four Stages of Memory

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Memory forms through four connected steps: encoding, consolidation, storage, and retrieval. Each stage has a unique role, and disruption in any part can weaken or erase the memory.

Book: Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting

Think about the last time you learned something new. That knowledge exists because your brain completed four key steps to form memory: encoding, consolidation, storage, and retrieval.

(1) Encoding

Encoding is the first step where your brain takes in information from your senses (sight, sound, smell, emotion, meaning). What you pay attention to gets translated into a neurological "code" so your brain can work with it. Without encoding, nothing new gets recorded in memory.

Attention is crucial here. You remember what you want to remember, and things you ignore are unlikely to be encoded.

(2) Consolidation

Once encoded, your brain organizes and links the scattered neural activity into a single pattern of associated connections, like weaving threads into a tapestry. Consolidation strengthens memory and reduces the likelihood of fading. Sleep and repetition both play important roles here.

The consolidation process can be fragile. If a boxer gets knocked out or a drinker blacked out, they often forget what happened during the event because their brain's capacity to consolidate recent events was disrupted.

(3) Storage

The consolidated memory becomes long-lasting through structural and chemical changes in neurons. This information isn't stored in a single location, but distributed across the brain regions that were active during the experience.

For example, visual details are stored in visual areas, sounds in auditory areas, and emotions in emotional circuits, all of which are interconnected. This is also related to the dual-coding theory we learned before.

(4) Retrieval

Retrieval is the process of calling a memory back into awareness. When you recall a memory, you reactivate the web of connections that formed it.

But memory retrieval isn't like pulling a video file from storage. Memory retrieval is reconstructive: the brain rebuilds the experience, often blending accurate recall with interpretation. That's why words can distort memory. Our memories are oftentimes not reliable because the retrieval process is error-prone.

These four steps must work together. A failure in one means the memory may never form or may be lost. The hippocampus is particularly crucial for forming new memories. Without it, people can remember their past but struggle to create new long-term memories, as shown by the famous case of patient H.M.

Psychotherapy Common Factors

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The biggest drivers of success in psychotherapy are not the specific techniques or styles, but the common factors, especially shared goals, empathy, alliance, positive regard, and therapist effects.

Paper: How important are the common factors in psychotherapy? An update

Why does one therapist succeed while another fails, even using the same methods?

Research shows that across different approaches, what often predicts success is not the unique techniques but the shared human factors. Meta-analyses indicate five reliable common factors with medium to strong effects, as measured by Cohen's d:

Goal consensus and collaboration show the strongest effect at d=0.72. This means the therapist and patient agree on goals and tasks, then work together with a purpose. When the plan feels shared and doable, hope rises and follow-through improves.
Empathy seconds at d=0.63 across 59 studies. The therapist tunes into feelings, reasons, and perspectives. Empathy strengthens genuine relationships and can heighten positive expectations. People feel understood, which reduces threat and opens space for change.
Alliance follows at d=0.57 from nearly 200 studies and over 14,000 patients. The alliance combines bonds, goals, and tasks. The effect remains even when researchers test for patient bias or halo effects.
Positive regard and affirmation have d=0.56. Respect, warmth, and validation encourage clients to take risks and be honest. Feeling valued moves behavior.
Therapist effects in naturalistic settings reach d=0.55. Some therapists get better results across many patients and methods. They form strong alliances widely, use flexible interpersonal skills, show useful self-doubt, and practice skills outside sessions.

Together these factors fit the effective contextual model: First, a real relationship. Second, credible expectations built on a shared story of the problem and the plan. Third, health-promoting actions that the client is willing to try.

Four-strand Theory of Everything

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Reality might be best understood as a multiverse, where quantum physics, evolution, theory of computation, and Popperian epistemology intertwine to explain knowledge, life, and progress.

Book: The Fabric of Reality

Theoretical physicist and the "maximum philosopher of freedom", David Deutsch, proposes that reality is not one thread but a fabric woven from four strands:

Quantum physics shows that every event branches into parallel universes (Hugh Everett's many-worlds interpretation) instead of collapsing into one outcome.
Epistemology following Karl Popper's philosophy argues that knowledge grows not by accumulating certainty, but through bold guesses tested against criticism. Error elimination is the engine of progress.
The theory of computation from Alan Turing shows the limits and possibilities of what can be simulated. Deutsch further argues that information and computation are not just human inventions but fundamental aspects of the universe. The universe itself can be understood as a form of computation.
Darwinian evolution explains how complexity and adaptation emerge across not just biology, but also knowledge, culture, and science, through variation and natural selection.

Taken together, these strands form the multiverse interpretation of reality.

Deutsch insists that parallel universes are not speculation but necessary for quantum mechanics to make sense. The universe itself can be understood as a vast computation, and a universal quantum computer could, in principle, model any physical process.

Two related notes: Deutsch and Popper on Knowledge and The Beginning of Infinity.

Reverse Everything Test

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

When you hear a statement, reverse it and see if the opposite is also true. Don't accept something just because it's the convenient option.

Book: Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre

From educator and theatre director Keith Johnstone:

At about the age of nine I decided never to believe anything because it was convenient. I began reversing every statement to see if the opposite was also true. This is so much a habit with me that I hardly notice I’m doing it any more. As soon as you put a ‘not’ into an assertion, a whole range of other possibilities opens out— especially in drama, where everything is supposition anyway.

When I began teaching, it was very natural for me to reverse everything my own teachers had done. I got my actors to make faces, insult each other, always leap before they looked, to scream and shout and misbehave in all sorts of ingenious ways. It was like having a whole tradition of improvisation teaching behind me. In a normal education everything is designed to suppress spontaneity, but I wanted to develop it.

Use it to examine most of the "wisdom" on social media and see how many pass.

Theory after Theory

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"It is amateurs who have one big bright beautiful idea that they can never abandon. Professionals know that they have to produce theory after theory before they are likely to hit the jackpot." — Francis Crick

Quote

Theoretical molecular biologist Francis Crick on the need to make more attempts. Similar to quantity predicts quality.

Remember, "amateur" originates from the Latin word amātor, meaning "lover." To be better, you must be able to abandon your one beloved idea and kill your darlings.

Also, "If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner."

Opposite of Addiction is Connection

Thu, 30 May 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Article: The Opposite of Addiction is Connection | Psychology Today

Most people believe addiction stems from the pleasurable effects of substances like alcohol, cocaine, or heroin. These substances trigger dopamine releases that make us feel good, so we naturally want more. But there's a problem with this theory: if pleasure alone caused addiction, everyone who tried alcohol would become alcoholic, and everyone prescribed opiates would end up addicted.

In reality, only about 10% of people who try potentially addictive substances become addicted. Why?

Bruce Alexander's Rat Park experiments tried to answer this question. Previous studies put single rats in empty cages with two water bottles: one plain, one with heroin. The rats always chose heroin until they died. Alexander wondered if isolation was the real problem.

He built a paradise for rats, 200 times larger than regular cages, with toys, food, and 20 rats together. Given the same choice, these social rats ignored the heroin. They preferred playing, mating, and interacting with one another. Even previously addicted rats stopped using once they joined the community.

It turns out addiction isn't about substances or their pleasurable effects. It's a social disorder rooted in the inability to connect with others. In other words, the opposite of addiction is connection.

This reminds me of what I learned from Dopamine Nation: connection with others activates our brain's reward system in healthier ways. Authentic relationships restore balance between pleasure and pain rather than tipping us into chronic craving.

An example is Portugal. After decriminalizing drugs in 2001, they focused on helping addicts reconnect through jobs and community. Replacing punishment with reintegration ends up leading to decreases in all drug deaths, adolescent use, and problematic consumption.

MDA Game Framework

Thu, 30 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The MDA framework breaks games into mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics, showing how rules create behavior and behavior creates emotion. Designers and players view these components in opposite orders, so designers must work backwards to make the right experience for the players.

Paper: MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research

Why does a game designer's intention not always match the player's experience?

The MDA framework, short for Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics, is a systematic approach to examining games from different perspectives. It formalizes the understanding of games by breaking them into three linked components:

Mechanics describe the particular components of the game at the level of data representation and algorithms. They are the rules, actions, and systems that define what players can do.
Dynamics describe the run-time behavior that emerges from the mechanics acting on player inputs and each other's outputs over time. They are the patterns that arise when players act within the rules.
Aesthetics describe the desirable emotional responses evoked in the player when they interact with the game system. Aesthetics represent the "fun" or emotional responses players feel, including excitement, challenge, fellowship, or discovery.

Take Monopoly as an example. Its mechanics include dice rolls, property buying, and trading. The dynamics involve luck, negotiation, and the accumulation of wealth. The aesthetics range from fun social play to frustration when one player dominates the game.

What makes the MDA framework powerful is that it accounts for both the designer's and the player's perspectives. Designers work forward, building mechanics to generate dynamics and then emotions. Players experience it in reverse. They first feel emotions, notice the dynamics, and only later perceive the underlying rules.

This gap explains why a designer's intention does not always match the player's experience. Therefore, to understand the player's experience, a designer must work backwards. For example, to maintain tension between players (Aesthetics) in Monopoly, the designer should work backwards to shift dynamics by adjusting mechanics, such as taxes or bonuses.

Daoism meets Wittgenstein

Thu, 30 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Daoism's "Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao" and Wittgenstein's "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent" converge on the idea that language cannot capture ultimate truth. If this is true, how far can large language models capture and understand reality?

Thoughts

Tao Te Ching opens with the famous: "Tao (The Way) that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao". Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus ends somewhat similarly: "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."

Words are useful, but they cannot grasp ultimate reality. We use language to think, and we cannot think through those we cannot express in language. But if this is true, how far can large language models alone capture and understand reality?

This similarity between Western and Eastern thinkers is what I recently realized while rereading The Timeless Way of Building, specifically regarding the concept of 'The Quality Cannot be Named'.

Three Game Loops

Thu, 30 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Great games run on three loops: micro, macro, and meta. A tight micro loop drives the feeling, a fitting macro loop shapes the journey, and a memorable meta loop gives it meaning.

Article: Designing with Loops: Why Your Game Isn’t Working Yet – The Design Lab Blog

While the MDA framework guides a game's tone and design decisions, the gameplay loop framework defines how the game plays, minute to minute. It suggests we think of a game as three loops that turn together.

The micro loop is the second-to-second core action the players repeat. It is the jump, the shot, the swap. Players spend about 60% of their playtime here. The designer must tune movement, inputs, timing, juice, and feedback until it leads to the mood they expected the players to feel.

The macro loop is the session-to-session objectives structure that unfolds over time. It delivers motivation and growth for the next hour. It can either be opening paths with upgrades, deepening choices through equipment enhancement, or resetting the session while progress remains in the player's knowledge.

The meta loop is the story, world, art, and identity that make actions matter. This layer creates most of the emotional impact and often carries the pitch.

Loops define how the game plays. When a project feels stuck, fix the loops before you add more content. Each loop must be satisfying in its own right while contributing to the larger goals.

Passion Exposed Mediocrity

Thu, 30 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"Mediocrity is always invisible until passion shows up and exposes it." ― Graham Cooke

Quote

Mediocre often goes unnoticed because it blends into the background. If everyone is doing just "enough" to get by, that becomes the norm.

However, when someone shows up with passion, the lack of enthusiasm in others becomes obvious. Suddenly, the "average" work is exposed as uninspired compared to what passion can achieve.

Passion acts like light in a dark room to reveal what was lifeless by forcing everyone to see the difference.

Win to Play Again

Thu, 23 May 2024 03:14:36 GMT

You don't need to build a killer product overnight. You just need to build a winning product, and the goal of winning is so that you can play again.

Video: The Importance of Execution

From Jensen Huang in 2003:

You have to decide as a company, you have to decide as an engineering team or as an innovator, to say, "You know what? I don't need to change the world overnight. I'm going to change the world over the next 50 years. I don't need to build a killer product overnight. I just need to build a winning product."

And the goal of winning is so that you can play again. It's just like pinball. If you could just play well enough to get another game, you can be there for a long time. Most companies just need to realize that in fact this is a long road and that you can't build that perfect product.

So, once you do that, that you keep the project scope confined, you keep the project now simple, you have a long-term vision, your product definition is rather simple, you execute flawlessly on that because your people now can execute flawlessly on a simple plan and you come back and do it again.

Jensen's reflections remind me of two things:

Don't pay attention to those fastest to 100M ARR in history stories. Focus on learning from great business that endures the test of time. No hurry, no pause.
Remember, a finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game is for the purpose of continuing the play. Play the infinite game and be educated, not trained.

FFWWDD questions

Thu, 23 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

To learn what users truly felt and experienced, use the six-question framework FFWWDD to collect emotional, practical, and interpretive feedback in a structured way.

Book: The Art of Game Design

How to get honest and useful feedback from user testing your product in a systematic way?

Game designer Shawn Patton proposed the FFWWDD framework to get what the players truly feel when testing their games. It asks the following six questions:

What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played?
What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played?
Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn't?
If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be?
What were you doing in the experience?
How would you describe this game to your friends and family?

You can remember the six questions with the mnemonic FFWWDD: Frustrating, Favorite, Wanted, Wand, Doing, and Describe.

The order of the questions matters. The first one lets players vent and release irritation before moving on. The second balances that by highlighting the peak of their enjoyment.

Questions three and four may seem similar, but they serve different roles. The third draws out small unmet desires while the fourth invites bold, outside-of-the-box answers.

Question five asks what the player thought their goal or role was, which may or may not match the designer's intention. The last question captures how players frame the whole experience when explaining it to others.

Together, these six prompts cover frustration, joy, unmet expectations, dreams, personal interpretation, and outside perspective. They form a simple but powerful lens for designers to understand how a game feels, not just how it functions.

Another book I found very useful for user interviews is The Mom Test.

Inner Contradiction in Design

Thu, 23 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Design succeeds when every element serves its purpose without inner contradictions. Therefore, designers must ask about the purpose first to avoid internal conflict in design.

Book: The Timeless Way of Building

Christopher Alexander suggested that things with the "The Quality Cannot be Named" feel alive, whole, comfortable, exact, free, egoless, and timeless. At the core of this quality is the absence of inner contradiction.

Inner contradictions destroy purpose. A device meant to save time but difficult to use has failed. A game that claims to be fun but structured to frustrate is fundamentally flawed.

Skilled designers resist the temptation to rationalize these flaws away. Instead, they hunt for contradictions relentlessly and eliminate them.

This requires asking fundamental questions. What is the purpose of the whole system? What is the purpose of each part? Does anything work against that purpose? If so, how can it be reshaped or removed?

For me, removing inner contradictions is the most essential design guidance because it forces clarity about purpose itself.

Any design can be brilliant for one purpose but terrible for another.

For example, complex interfaces fail for casual users, but are ideal when built for experts performing sophisticated tasks. Similarly, Inefficient approaches seem wasteful until you realize the purpose is creating something soulful rather than optimized. Therefore, purpose must come first, and the design must align with its purpose.

Moreover, inner contradiction not only kills design, but also undermines human fulfillment because "There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do."

Truly Comfortable

Thu, 23 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Book: The Timeless Way of Building

Christopher Alexander spent his life studying why some spaces feel alive. He observed that truly well-designed spaces share a unique quality: comfort. It goes beyond beauty or display.

In The Timeless Way of Building, he described a scene:

Imagine yourself on a winter afternoon with a pot of tea, a reading light, and two or three huge pillows to lean back against. Now make yourself comfortable.

Not in some way which you can show to other people, and say how much you like it. I mean so that you really like it, for yourself.

You put the tea where you can reach it: but in a place where you can’t possibly knock it over. You pull the light down, to shine on the book, but not too brightly, and so that you can’t see the naked bulb. You put the cushions behind you, and place them, carefully, one by one, just where you want them, to support your back, your neck, your arm: so that you are supported just comfortably, just as you want to sip your tea, and read, and dream.

When you take the trouble to do all that, and you do it carefully, with much attention, then it may begin to have the quality which has no name.

This quality cannot be shown off to others. It must be experienced directly. What matters is the care taken to shape the environment for genuine human ease. When design decisions come from this attention, the result is a place that feels whole.

Distant Mountain

Thu, 23 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Distant mountain: naming faraway places or events without explaining them in your story makes a world feel real because it invites imagination to extend beyond the story.

Book: The Art of Game Design

What is the right amount of detail for concept art or world-building?

Artists often wrestle with how much detail to add, but J. R. R. Tolkien believed that a world gains depth not from endless detail but from what is left unsaid. He called this the "distant mountain".

Just as real landscapes include peaks on the horizon you may never reach, he filled Middle-earth with names of faraway lands, forgotten battles, and unexplored stories. Readers sensed there was more beyond the map, and their imaginations did the rest.

This method avoids over-explaining. Tolkien himself admitted that if he fully described one "distant mountain," he would need to invent more beyond it. The point was not to finish the world but to leave it open, mysterious, and alive.

Writers and artists can learn from this. You don't have to detail every corner to make a setting feel grander. You can just name faraway places or events without explaining them and invite the audience's imagination to extend beyond the story.

Deploy Taste

Thu, 16 May 2024 03:14:36 GMT

If your taste is so good, why aren't you deploying it anywhere? We don't need more cultural critics. We need people who can deploy their taste and shape the world around them.

Podcast: Tamara Winter on tacit knowledge, taste, charisma, agency, social trust

Tamara Winter is the Commissioning Editor of Stripe Press, which published many of the books on my bookshelf, including The Art of Doing Science and Engineering, Pieces of the Action, Poor Charlie's Almanack, Scaling People, and The Dream Machine. Their books largely shape my taste.

In the podcast, Tamara talked about deploying taste. In her words:

"I don't think we need another cultural critic. I think we have enough. I am increasingly uninterested in cultural analysis and way more interested in whether you can deploy it.

It's like the joke, "If you're so smart, why aren't you happy?" If your taste is so good, why aren't you deploying it anywhere?"

This makes me think about "How to know if we have good taste" if nobody can examine our judgment beyond the yapping we have?

Taste should go beyond just knowing what you like. We should actively use our taste to create meaningful things so that we can get feedback to hone our taste and craft. And more importantly, as a wonderful side product of deploying our taste, we shape the world around us to be closer to what we enjoy.

Gap between Creation and Meaning

Thu, 16 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The advancement in AI narrows the gap between ideas and reality, but widens the gap between creation and meaning.

Thought

Artificial intelligence makes creating an essay, a website, an image, or even a video now just an LLM prompt away. It's never been easier to translate your ideas into reality.

Meanwhile, the amount of crappy content and products is also growing exponentially in the wild. Meaningless AI-generated images, generic AI articles, and videos are everywhere. Now there's even a Wikipedia page for this: AI slop.

The gap between idea and reality is bridged, but the distance between creation and meaning is enlarged like never before.

This makes an input I noted three years ago even more relevant now: efficient methods rarely create emotional arousal. AI as a creation tool can be too efficient and standardized. However, meaningful and soulful experiences are inefficient because they can't be standardized.

Startup Growth Priorities

Thu, 16 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

A startup creates sustainable growth by focusing on the five growth factors in the correct order: Activation > Engagement > Referral > Revenue > Acquisition. Don't increase spending on ads before solving your onboarding flow.

Podcast: The original growth hacker reveals his secrets | Sean Ellis (author of “Hacking Growth”)

When startups fail to grow, oftentimes the instinct is to spend more on ads and marketing. But Sean Ellis, one of the most influential operators in startup growth who coined the term "growth hacking" and the Sean Ellis Test, says that's the last place to look.

He believes you should tackle startup growth in this exact five-step order: Activation, Engagement, Referral, Revenue, and Acquisition.

Always start with activation. Make sure users perceive core value quickly and deliver the aha moment in the onboarding flow. For example, LogMeIn grew its core usage from 5% to 50% in three months by pausing everything and focusing on onboarding.

Next, improve engagement by reinforcing product value and identifying a meaningful North Star Metric. For example, tools like the Hooked Habit Model can help drive habits.

The third step is referral. Dropbox's referral mechanism worked because people already loved it. Incentives helped, but they weren't the reason it spread.

The fourth is revenue model. If users love your product and are willing to share it with their friends, ensure that monetization reflects real value delivered.

Only if you have solved the above four steps, then tackle acquisition. If earlier steps are weak, acquisition won't work well or scale affordably.

My takeaway from Sean Ellis's five steps: if you prioritize these growth factors in the wrong order, you are always creating a leaky bucket. Acquiring 10 users but with terrible activation will just churn all ten of the users.

It's interesting to see a growing school of thought in Silicon Valley focus on marketing way before solving the first four steps. I'm bearish on that even if they are playing the game to occupy mental mindshare.

Unconscious Competence

Thu, 16 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Tacit knowledge is acquired through a process of moving from conscious incompetence to conscious competence to unconscious competence.

Article: Why Tacit Knowledge is More Important Than Deliberate Practice

There's always something we know how to do, but can never describe how to do it. Oftentimes, experts struggle explaining skills they perform effortlessly as well. That's tacit knowledge, a form of expertise you gain through repeated experience, not words alone.

All tacit knowledge is acquired through these three stages: you move from conscious incompetence to conscious competence to unconscious competence.

Take learning to ride a bike as an example. Initially, you're conscious of your incompetence: you just cannot balance on the bike. Gradually, you consciously learn the balance through trial and error. And finally, you ride automatically without thinking. At the final stage, describing exactly how you balance is challenging.

The final stage, unconscious competence, appears in many different fields. Experienced software engineers can quickly evaluate code but stumble when asked to explain their judgments clearly. They rely on intuition developed from countless hours of coding.

Aircraft mechanics show the same pattern. They intuitively diagnose complex issues based on subtle cues, a skill computerized systems have failed to replicate because intuition can't be easily encoded.

Taste is very similar. You can easily tell what's good music/art/cloth/architecture, you name it, and what's a bad one, but you can't describe precisely what your criteria are, especially when no options are laid down in front of you.

This tacit knowledge is also related to the concept of Procedural and Declarative Knowledge.

Teach Yearning before Skill

Thu, 16 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Quote

Inspiring people to be mission-driven is way more important than giving orders in the long run. Missionaries go for the long-game marathon, while mercenaries take orders and go for the sprint, focusing on the short term.

Furthermore, for high agency mission-driven people, sometimes giving clear orders is detrimental. Figuring out the work themselves is part of what motivates them.

Excited about Work and Home

Thu, 09 May 2024 03:14:36 GMT

The goal of life is to be excited to go to work and excited to go home.

Article: Tweet

I love this simple yet beautifully rephrased "Love and work, work and love, that's all there is" from Sigmund Freud.

Three Processing Levels of Emotion and Behavior

Thu, 09 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Human emotions and behavior can be understood by examining three processing levels: visceral (instinctive reaction), behavioral (learned responses), and reflective (conscious thinking and memory).

Book: The Design of Everyday Things

In Emotional Design, cognitive scientist and usability engineer Donald Norman proposed three distinct layers of how your brain processes emotions and decisions: visceral, behavioral, and reflective.

The visceral level is your brain's instant reaction. For example, when hearing fingernails scratching a chalkboard, your immediate cringe is visceral. It's automatic and subconscious, designed to protect you by quickly classifying things as good or bad, safe or unsafe.

Designers oftentimes take care of users' visceral level of processing by crafting appealing aesthetics or pleasant sensations, so that they can draw you toward their products without requiring any conscious thought.

The next level is the behavioral level, where your actions are guided by learned skills and expectations. For instance, pressing an elevator button and expecting it to light up.

When reality matches your expectations, you feel satisfied. This level shapes your everyday interactions, from driving your car to navigating a smartphone interface.

Finally, the reflective level involves conscious thought and deep understanding. This is where you reflect on past experiences, assigning meaning, blame, or pride to them.

Suppose you initially struggled with a beautiful, sleek smartphone, but once you mastered it, you reflect positively, even proudly recommending it to friends. Memory and emotions at this level last the longest and have a strong influence on your decisions, often overriding momentary frustrations from the behavioral level.

Thinking of design in three levels helps us understand why, sometimes, beauty overshadows flaws in a product. An attractive visceral appeal, combined with positive reflective memories, can still leave users happily loyal even when the usability is suboptimal.

You can also combine this with the Seven Stages of the Action Cycle. "Plan and Compare" is at the reflective level, "Specify and Interpret" is at the behavioral level, and "Perform and Perceive" is at the visceral level.

Four Elements of Storytelling

Thu, 09 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The four essential elements for sustaining interest in storytelling: stakes, suspense, surprise, and humor.

Book: Storyworthy

American novelist Matthew Dicks believes that you should assume no one wants to hear anything you want to say unless you give them a reason to listen. It's the writer's responsibility to intrigue their readers and provide that reason.

He breaks down four key elements for maintaining interest in storytelling for the readers: Stakes, Suspense, Surprise, and Humor.

Stakes are what the audience worries about or roots for. They create the reason people want to listen.

Think of it as the elephant in the room that grabs attention. When Steve Jobs said he'd been waiting two and a half years to share something, he created stakes that made everyone wonder what it was. Without stakes, audiences simply don't care what happens next. Stakes are similar to Promises in Sanderson's 3P Storytelling.

Suspense is the strategic exclusion of information. It involves strategic information management.

You tell some things but not everything, creating anticipation. Use "breadcrumbs" to drop hints about what's coming without revealing the full picture. Deploy "hourglasses" to slow down pacing right before big moments, making audiences wait when you know you have their attention. This technique works because people love solving mysteries. Suspense is related to Hitchcock's Bomb Under the Table Theory.

Surprise is subverting expectations. It works by setting expectations, then deliberately breaking them.

Use "backpacks" to load audiences with plans or hopes, then subvert those expectations. The Ocean's Eleven movies excel at this by showing the heist plan upfront, making surprises more powerful when things go wrong. Audiences become emotionally invested in the expected outcome, making the unexpected twist more impactful. Surprise is also loosely related to the But and Therefore Rule.

Humor helps ease audience tension and improve engagement. It transforms brain chemistry, making audiences feel closer to speakers and perceive them as more intelligent.

Laugh within the first 60 seconds to put people at ease. Use humor to make boring data presentations engaging by creating characters or fake companies. Strategically place humor before difficult moments to increase emotional contrast, or after them to provide relief.

Here's an example of how Matthew Dicks deploys these elements to tell an engaging story: "The Spoon of Power."

Confidence is Status Fluidity

Thu, 09 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Real confidence is status fluidity. Truly confident people have internal comfort to be unapologetically themselves. They are at ease with both praise and critique without deflection and navigate status without chasing or avoiding it.

Article: real confidence is status fluidity

Confident people aren't afraid to be noticed. They are fluid with status. They can laugh at themselves, take a compliment, and step into the spotlight. But they don't chase attention either. They are just unapologetically themselves.

The difference between confidence and arrogance is comfort. A confident person feels safe in their own skin regardless of the situation. You can tease a confident person, and they won't bristle. They'll joke along. They can look silly and not flinch. That's why people say, "The less confident you are, the more serious you have to act."

But they also won't hide when they do something well. They are at ease with both praise and critique without deflection. They can navigate status without clinging or dodging attention.

Get Used to Don't Understand

Thu, 09 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them." — John von Neumann

Quote

This reflects how important it is to build your own intuition beyond theory and practice. Honestly, this quote also helps me accept how absurd our politics and society sometimes seem. I don't understand many things happening in society, and I'm not sure if I genuinely want to. But I might just get used to it.

Venue in Product Design

Thu, 02 May 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Book: The Art of Game Design

Game designers spend hours debating whether to focus on PC, console, or mobile, but they often overlook a fundamental question: where will people actually play this game?

Venue is the physical environment where gaming happens. The same game feels completely different in your living room versus your office desk versus the subway.

For example, private venues enable deep immersion. There are three major private venues:

The hearth (living room with TV) works for social games like Wii Sports.
The workbench (desk, workspace) supports intense, lengthy experiences that demand focused attention and connection with virtual communities rather than family.
Reading corners (comfy chairs away from distractions) prefer relaxing experiences like simple iPad games.

In public venues, games struggle to gain traction due to distractions, but hybrid places, like gaming tables or playgrounds, create unique interactive dynamics.

Then there is the new "anywhere" venue, which is wherever you are with your smartphone. Life in this venue is defined by constant interruptions. A successful mobile game is playable in tiny bites. Its interface has to be simple enough to use while standing on a crowded train.

Each venue has distinct properties driving design decisions. Therefore, a game designed for subway commutes needs completely different mechanics than one meant for family living rooms.

This venue concept is from the book about game design, but it applies to all product design in general.

For instance, consider designing a product for information absorption. In environments where people are driving or walking, podcast products with lower information density are more desirable. Short posts and videos are ideal for bathroom breaks, while places where individuals eat alone are perfect for mid-length YouTube videos.

Therefore, we can ask these three questions next time when designing a new product experience:

What venue best suits my intended experience?
What special properties does my venue have?
How can my product elements harmonize with the chosen space?

Three Factors in Entertainment Experience

Thu, 02 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Three factors that make an entertainment experience interesting: Inherent Interest (natural appeal), Poetry of Presentation (aesthetic quality), and Projection (audience immersion through empathy and imagination).

Book: The Art of Game Design

Why do we find some performance interesting while some not? Game designer Jesse Schell broke down what makes an entertainment experience enjoyable into three key factors: Inherent Interest, Poetry of Presentation, and Projection.

The first factor is Inherent Interest. Some ideas are more naturally engaging than others.

Wrestling an alligator beats eating a cheese sandwich every time. Our brains are more curious about risk over safety, unusual over ordinary, and dramatic change over stability. Some content simply has built-in appeal that matches our psychological drives. That's why a daring rescue in an action movie always commands our attention more than everyday events.

The second factor is Poetry of Presentation, the artistry and aesthetic quality of the experience.

How is the story told? Beautiful writing, clever cinematography, and masterful design can elevate any concept. Even inherently interesting material can fail due to poor presentation, while exceptional artistry can make ordinary moments truly memorable. However, keep in mind "Don't make a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept".

Finally, there's Projection, the magic that happens when an experience invites you to use your empathy and imagination to become a part of its world. We care more about events happening to us than to others.

Storytellers create this connection by developing characters we can relate to and care about. When we feel what the character feels, we are projecting ourselves into the story. This sense of immersion, where we mentally enter the world of the experience, is what makes us feel truly invested.

Let’s use this framework to examine some entertainment experiences.

Street performers juggling running chainsaws is an inherently interesting event despite its limited poetry. But there's some projection: as it is easy to imagine what it would be like to catch the wrong end of a chainsaw.

On the other hand, a violin concerto relies heavily on the poetry of presentation because two sticks rubbing together isn't usually inherently interesting, and the projection isn't common.

How about the popular video game Tetris? An endless sequence of falling blocks leaves little room for inherent interest or poetry of presentation. However, the projection can be intense because you make all the decisions. Whether you beat the game or not solely depends on your performance. This is a shortcut that traditional storytelling cannot take.

New Eyes not Lands

Thu, 02 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes." — Marcel Proust

Quote

Three things came to my mind when I first read this quote.

You should write more, but don't hinge on what you have written. The writing is not the final product. Instead, the writer is the product, being iterated, improved, and honed through all the published writing.
The job of the startup is to grow the founder so that the founder can develop and continue to lead the startup.
A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points.

Give Reason to Listen

Thu, 02 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

No one wants to hear anything you ever have to say unless you give them a reason to listen. It's your responsibility to entertain them and give them a reason.

Podcast: The Storytelling Expert: Hidden Triggers That Make People Act | Matthew Dicks

You should assume that no one wants to hear anything you say unless you give them a reason to listen. It's your responsibility to engage them and provide that reason.

Just like researchers should spend the same time on selling their work as doing their research, writers must not avoid selling their work.

Moreover, spending time selling the work is not enough. You must understand your readers' emotions and make sure they resonate with your delivery. You must hone the craft of ensuring they can perceive the value you provide.

As a writer, it is your responsibility to find your readers, not your readers' responsibility to find you.

It's your responsibility to help readers understand the value of your work, not your readers' responsibility to understand the value themselves.

Intensity is Price of Excellence

Thu, 02 May 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"Intensity is the price of excellence." — Warren Buffet

Quote

This quote is from the book Snowball, where Warren Buffett explains his reasons for acquiring Ben Rosner's company.

During a luxury dinner party, Rosner's business rival mentioned the costs associated with his toilet paper. Although Rosner had purchased his toilet paper inventory at a much lower price, the price gap raised his suspicions.

Instead of enjoying the festivities, Rosner excused himself, drove to his warehouse, and started counting toilet paper sheets. His instincts were correct: vendors had claimed there were 500 sheets per roll, but they were shortchanging him.

Warren Buffett found this story fascinating. Why would anyone abandon a ballroom to count toilet paper?

Buffett bought Rosner's business for $6 million, believing that such intensity was non-negotiable for excellence. As he put it: "Intensity is the price of excellence."

Bomb Under the Table Theory

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Bomb Under the Table Theory: If you want the audience to care deeply and stay hooked, create 15 minutes of suspense instead of 15 seconds of surprise. Build tensions through dramatic irony and leverage the gap in knowledge between the audience and the character.

Podcast: McFly's Movie House: Mastering Film Suspense with Hitchcock’s Bomb Theory

Two people sit at a table, talking. If a bomb suddenly explodes without warning, the audience is shocked. That's a surprise. Brief and intense.

But if the audience sees someone place the bomb under the table and notices it's set to explode in 15 minutes, while the characters talk unaware. That same conversation becomes nerve-wracking. The clock is ticking. The tension builds. That's suspense.

Alfred Hitchcock, known as the master of suspense, coined this as the "bomb under the table" theory. Giving the audience more information can create more emotional involvement. He called it the difference between "15 seconds of surprise" and "15 minutes of suspense."

Suspense builds through dramatic irony, a literary device that leverages a gap in what the audience knows and what the character doesn't. The audience knows more, waits longer, and feels deeper tension.

Therefore, if you want the audience to care deeply and stay hooked, give them the danger early. Let them WAIT for the boom.

Kuleshov Effect is another cognitive phenomenon used by filmmakers, I learned from Hitchcock in I/O #60.

Bartle Taxonomy of Player Types

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Bartle's taxonomy breaks down game players' motivations by how they engage with game elements (Act/Interact) and where they focus on (World/Players). Game designers should create goals for Achievers, secrets for Explorers, chat tools for Socializers, and competitive arenas for Killers.

Paper: HEARTS, CLUBS, DIAMONDS, SPADES: PLAYERS WHO SUIT MUDS

Ask anyone who plays games why they play, and their response is likely to be to have fun.

But what do people find fun in games?

Game researcher and professor Richard Bartle proposed a taxonomy in his 1996 paper to break down what different players find using two axes:

Act/Interact: How players prefer to engage with game elements? Act means taking direct control and imposing your will on the game or others, while Interact means engaging in two-way participation like connecting, collaborating, exploring, or socializing.
World/Players: Where do players focus their attention? World refers to the game's environment, including rules, lore, systems, and tasks. Players, on the other hand, represent human interaction, such as how you connect with or influence other players.

Therefore, when you combine these two axes, you get four distinct types:

Achievers (Act + World): These players like acting on the world and typically play to win or reach goals.
Explorers (Interact + World): These players enjoy interacting with the world and discovering new things.
Socializers (Interact + Players): These players like interacting with other players and spend a lot of time chatting.
Killers (Act + Players): These players enjoy acting on other players and aim to compete and dominate them through bullying or politicking.

Bartle's taxonomy is useful for game design to balance games and accommodate different player types. For instance, having goals for Achievers, secrets for Explorers, chat tools for Socializers, and competitive arenas for Killers.

According to Interaction Design Foundation, most players are Socializers (~80 %) with Achievers and Explorers each around 10 %, and few are Killers (<1 %). However, this is a simplified distribution because most players blend types. An Explorer may enjoy social chat, while a Socializer may want some achievements.

There are also some updated taxonomies like Yee's, the HEXAD, or the new 3D Player Types Model, but Bartle's four player types remain fundamental.

Age and Adaptivity for Building

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Age plus adaptability is what makes a building come to be loved. The building learns from its occupants, and the occupants learn from it too.

Book: How Buildings Learn

Why do older buildings oftentimes feel comforting and personal despite their imperfection?

Buildings, like living beings, are meant to evolve. A truly cherished building isn't perfect or static. Instead, it tells a story of continuous adaptation and growth alongside its residents.

Age adds charm. Whether it's worn bricks, polished steps, or faded paint, signs of time make us curious about a building's past. Such structures have outlasted transient fashions and become more timeless and relatable.

Adaptation is the other key ingredient. People constantly adjust buildings to fit their lives. They add rooms, modernize kitchens, or convert old factories into trendy apartments. These changes reflect practical needs and creative expression.

Age and adaptation deepen the bond between building and occupant.

MIT's Building 20 is a famous example. Shabby yet beloved. Its imperfections allowed occupants to adapt spaces in unconventional ways. Such buildings teach people how to live and work differently, shaping their habits, routines, and identities. Occupants, in turn, continually shape the building through small modifications.

Ultimately, this reciprocal relationship between a building and its occupants creates a lasting emotional connection. It's why adaptable, aging buildings often feel more like home than perfect, static ones, and architectural design should create adaptable spaces rather than attempting to predict and design for future needs perfectly.

This also reminds me of how languages evolve when there are more people learn it as a second language and evolutionary success with individual suffering.

Omnibus of Art

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"Life is an obscure hobo, bumming a ride on the omnibus of art." — Maxwell H. Brock

Quote

Love these beautiful opening lines from Maxwell H. Brock in the movie A Bucket of Blood:

I will talk to you of Art, For there is nothing else to talk about, For there is nothing else.

Life is an obscure hobo bumming a ride On the omnibus of Art.

Burn gas, buggies and whip your sour cream of circumstance And hope, and go ahead and sleep your bloody heads off.

Creation is, all else is not. Creation is graham crackers;

Let it all crumble to feed the creator; Feed him that he may be satisfied. The Artist is, all others are not.

A canvas is a canvas or a painting. A rock is a rock or a statue. A sound is a sound or is music. A preacher is a preacher, or an Artist.

Perfect Image with Fuzzy Concept

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"There's nothing worse than a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept" — Ansel Adams

Quote

Beautiful slide decks with no real message. Articles with stylish wordplay that say nothing. We’ve all seen it.

American photographer Ansel Adams said those are brilliant images of fuzzy concepts. When you focus solely on the form and don't think about the substance, the work becomes soulless.

I first learned about Ansel's work from his 1960 Moon Over Half Dome:

實用的個人規則

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 02:03:41 GMT

English Original Version

自訂個人規則可以把我們所期望的行為轉變成我們的預設行為。¹ 我們在最好的狀態下設定這些規則作為限制，以避免在壓力下或意志薄弱時做出糟糕的決策。

這些規則不需要是絕對正確的。它們只需要對我們有用，甚至可以是我們任意偏好的風格。² 我們只需要規則來自動化我們所期望的決策，並在特定條件下減少認知負荷。³

對我們不再有用的規則應該演變以維持其價值。我們必須根據我們在不同階段的目標，調整自己的個人規則。如同在 Finite and Infinite Games 中提到，無限遊戲的規則必須在進行的過程中改變。⁴

我寫這篇文章的主要目的是想拋磚引玉並蒐集各種實用或有趣的個人規則。如果你有任何規則願意分享，歡迎用 facebook、twitter 或 email 傳個訊息給我，我會把他們加到下面的「其他人的規則」章節。

以下是一些我自己訂下，對我有幫助的個人規則：

生活習慣

我每次吃飯前都會「非宗教性」禱告，單純表達對有食物吃的感恩，還有當下任何想感激的事物。通常會順便搭配幾下深呼吸。
我只有在有別人一起吃的時候才會吃甜點或甜食。從不單獨吃甜食。
我每天都會運動，不管強度多大，即使只是一個伏地挺身或一個深蹲。
在思考別人不好的行為時，我會假設對方沒有惡意，並試圖找一個合理的解釋或理由。⁵
我只買黑色沒有商標的衣服。⁶
我每一季跟每一年都會設定個人目標、回顧可衡量的指標並對結果評分。⁷

手機和社群媒體

我不在床上用手機。
跟別人相處的時候我不用手機。如果我一定需要用，我會讓別人知道為何我需要。
只要有可能會影響到我活在當下的感覺（sense of presence），我就不會在社群媒體上發文。⁸
我把體驗當下的時間跟回顧的時間區分開來，並只在回顧照片的時候在社群媒體發文。⁹
我把手機上幾乎所有 App 的通知都關掉。¹⁰
我的手機上沒有任何股票的 App。我只用網站看股票。

寫作

我不寫我不會發音的英文字。
如果我用的一個縮寫第一次出現在文章中，我會附上全稱。
寫中文的時候，我嚴格遵守《中文文案排版指北》。
在英文裡如果我要表達「因為」的意思，我用 because 而不用 since。¹¹
在英文裡如果我要稱呼讀者，我會用 we 而不是 you。¹²
我每年都會寫流水帳的年度回顧。
我不在英文寫作裡用分號。
我用編號清單（numbered lists）而不用項目符號清單（bullet points）並會在完整句子後面加上句點。

溝通

在英文裡，如果我要在別人的想法上加上我的意見，我會用 and 而不是 but。¹³
認識新朋友時，我會在他們介紹自己名字後附誦他們的名字。
英文的日期格式，我只用 YYYY-MM-DD（2024/04/20）或是把月份拼出來（April 20, 2024）的。
即使可能會有點唐突，但只要自己覺得有需要，我會強迫自己跨過一個檻表達自己對別人的感謝、欣賞或是歉意。
如果可以私下傳達，我不公開批評別人。

其他人的規則

以下是我蒐集的一些其他人的有趣規則。也歡迎推薦我各種有趣或實用規則。

Daniel Kahneman 從來不在電話上答應別人的邀約中，以避免在社交壓力或討好他人的心理下做出承諾。¹⁴
Tim Ferriss 不在中午之前安排會議，一天只檢查兩次電子郵件，只在無償或酬勞高於以往時接受演講邀請，並嘗試過避免在一年內讀新書。¹⁵
Christopher Nolan 在拍攝電影時不允許在片場擺放椅子，他本人也沒有手機或電子郵件地址。¹⁶
Kevin Kelly 只要看街頭表演者超過一分鐘就會捐款至少一美元。¹⁷
火車司機（尤其是在日本鐵路系統中）會指向並同時口頭確認重要的操作信號和指標來避免操作失誤。這也稱做指差確認。
Ali Abdaal 只允許自己在有別人一起時才能看電視。¹⁸

關於其他有趣的例子，請見 Style is consistent constraint。感謝 Steph Ango 啟發我寫這一篇文章。

^
來自 Daniel Kahneman： "I learned over the years that people don't argue with rules. We've been taught our whole lives to follow the rules, but we've never thought of how to create rules for ourselves that we just follow when we're at our worst. We all know no matter how bad our day is, we shouldn't speed on the highway because it's against the rules. What we don't think about is how do we use rules to our advantage?" 更多請見 [Personal Rules]。
^
哲學上，只要對我有用，我可以同時相信可能互相牴觸的想法，因為想法可以是 [Wrong but Useful]。
^
延伸閱讀請見 The Paradox of Choice，關於過多的選擇其實可能會增加壓力並減少快樂。
^
來自 Finite and Infinite Games："If the rules of a finite game are the contractual terms by which the players can agree who has won, the rules of an infinite game are the contractual terms by which the players agree to continue playing." And just like language, "The rules, or grammar, of a living language are always evolving to guarantee the meaningfulness of discourse, while the rules of debate must remain constant."
^
類似於 [Hanlon's Razor] 和在 [This is Water] 裡面講到的避免自我中心。
^
一部分源自於在 [Remove Labels] 講到的原則。
^
我用類似於 Objectives and Key Results(OKRs) 的框架設定目標。
^
舉例來說，我出去玩或是看表演的時候就不會用社群媒體，通常我不在家時就會把所有社群 App 刪掉。
^
類似於 [Deleting Photo] 更有效地記得生活的方法不是拍更多的照片，而是複習他們。想要有更沈浸的回憶並重溫當下的感受，我們應該設下不用相機的時間，單純用我們的大腦去紀錄經驗。
^
我能夠關掉幾乎所有的通知（包括工作相關的）的原因可能是因為我通常是用 [Maker's schedule 而不是 Manager's].
^
延伸閱讀請見 [Write Better Sentences]。
^
舉例來說，我比較喜歡用 "We need rules because rules are useful for us" 而不是 "You need rules because rules are useful for you"。但我比較太嚴格遵守這條規則，因為我知道有些人覺得在寫作傳達上用 you 比 we 更有效。
^
舉例來說，我說 "I like your suggestion, and I think exploring another option will also be helpful"，而不是 "I like your suggestion, but I think we should also explore another option"。也請見 [Let Go of Your Desire to Tell a Bigger Story When Listening]。
^
來自 Shane Parrish on Wisdom from Warren Buffett, Rules for Better Thinking, How to Reduce Blind Spots, The Dangers of Mental Models, and More (#695) - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss。
^
來自 Shane Parrish on Wisdom from Warren Buffett, Rules for Better Thinking, How to Reduce Blind Spots, The Dangers of Mental Models, and More (#695) - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss。
^
來自 The Nolan Variations。
^
來自 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known。
^
來自 My rule for watching TV。

Useful Personal Rules

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 23:50:55 GMT

中文翻譯版本

Personal rules turn desired behaviors into default behaviors.¹ They are constraints we set during our best moments to avoid making poor decisions under pressure or during moments of weakness.

These rules don't have to be absolutely right. They only need to be useful for us and can even be arbitrary styles we prefer.² We just need rules to automate desired decisions and reduce cognitive load³ under specific conditions.

Rules that are no longer helpful for us should evolve to remain meaningful. We must adapt our rules to our goals at different stages. As in Finite and Infinite Games, the rules of an infinite game must change in the course of play.⁴

I write this article to elicit helpful or interesting rules. If you have any rules you'd like to share, please send me a message via facebook, twitter or email so I can add them to the "Other people's rules" section below.

Here are some personal rules that have been helpful to me:

General habits

I pray non-religiously before every meal to express gratitude for the food and anything else I'm thankful for at that moment, often accompanied by some deep breaths.
I only eat desserts or sweets if it’s with other people. No sweets alone.
I do some form of exercise every day regardless of intensity, even just one push-up or squat.
When assessing others' negative behaviors, I avoid assuming malicious intent and try to find a reasonable explanation.⁵
I only buy black clothes without logos.⁶
I set personal objectives, review the metrics, and score the results every quarter and every year.⁷

I don't use my phone in bed.
I don't use my phone when hanging out with people. If I must use, I will let others know why I need to.
I don't post on social media when it might affect my sense of presence.⁸
I separate the time for experiencing the present and the time for revisiting memory, and post on social media only when reviewing photos.⁹
I turn off notifications for almost all apps on my phone.¹⁰
I don't have any stock trading apps on my phone. I only check them on their websites.

Writing

I don't use words I cannot pronounce.
I spell out abbreviations the first time they appear in an article.
I follow 中文文案排版指北 strictly when writing in Chinese.
I use "because" instead of "since" whenever they are interchangeable.¹¹
I use "we" instead of "you" to address the readers whenever possible.¹²
I write unstructured reviews of my life every year.
I don't use semicolons in writing.
I use numbered lists instead of bullet points and add a period at the end if the list item is a full sentence.

Communication

I say "and" instead of "but" when adding my opinions to others' opinions.¹³
When meeting new people, I repeat their names right after they are introduced.
I use the date format YYYY-MM-DD (2024/04/20) or spell out the month (April 20, 2024).
I express gratitude, appreciation, or apologies whenever I sincerely feel the need, even when it may seem abrupt.
I don't offer criticism publicly when I can give it privately.

Other people's rules

Here are some interesting rules from others that I've collected. Recommendations are always welcome.

Daniel Kahneman never says 'Yes' over the phone to avoid commitments made under social pressure or the desire to please.¹⁴
Tim Ferriss schedules no meetings before noon, checks email only twice a day, accepts speaking engagements only if they're free or paid more than he ever had, and avoids reading new books for a year.¹⁵
Christopher Nolan doesn't allow chairs on set when filming and doesn't own a phone or an email address.¹⁶
Kevin Kelly donates at least a dollar to any street performer he watches for over a minute.¹⁷
Train drivers (especially in the Japanese railway system) point at and verbally confirm key operational signals and indicators to avoid mistakes. This is also known as the pointing and calling rule.
Ali Abdaal only allowed himself to watch TV if it’s with other people.¹⁸

For more interesting examples, see Style is consistent constraint. Thanks to Steph Ango for inspiring me to write this post.

^
From Daniel Kahneman: "I learned over the years that people don't argue with rules. We've been taught our whole lives to follow the rules, but we've never thought of how to create rules for ourselves that we just follow when we're at our worst. We all know no matter how bad our day is, we shouldn't speed on the highway because it's against the rules. What we don't think about is how do we use rules to our advantage?" Read more in [Personal Rules].
^
Philosophically, I embrace conflicting ideas as long as they are useful to me, following the concept of [Wrong but Useful].
^
For further reading, see The Paradox of Choice, where it's argued that an abundance of choices actually increases stress and diminishes happiness.
^
From Finite and Infinite Games, "If the rules of a finite game are the contractual terms by which the players can agree who has won, the rules of an infinite game are the contractual terms by which the players agree to continue playing." And just like language, "The rules, or grammar, of a living language are always evolving to guarantee the meaningfulness of discourse, while the rules of debate must remain constant."
^
Similar to [Hanlon's Razor] and the concept of avoiding self-centeredness in [This is Water].
^
Partially due to the principles described in [Remove Labels].
^
I set using a framework similar to Objectives and Key Results(OKRs).
^
For instance, I don't use social media during trips or concerts and usually delete all social media apps when I'm not at home.
^
Similar to the thoughts in [Deleting Photo], we remember life more effectively not by taking more photos but by revisiting them. To have a more immersive memory and relive the experience, have some camera-free time and document the experience with your brain only.
^
I can disable notifications for nearly all the apps, including work-related ones, probably because I'm mainly operating in [Maker's schedule instead of Manager's].
^
For further reading, see [Write Better Sentences].
^
For example, I prefer "We need rules because rules are useful for us" instead of "You need rules because rules are useful for you". I follow this less strictly because some think "you" is more effective than "we" in writing.
^
For example, I say, "I like your suggestion, and I think exploring another option will also be helpful," instead of "I like your suggestion, but I think we should also explore another option." Also, see [Let Go of Your Desire to Tell a Bigger Story When Listening].
^
From Shane Parrish on Wisdom from Warren Buffett, Rules for Better Thinking, How to Reduce Blind Spots, The Dangers of Mental Models, and More (#695) - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.
^
From Shane Parrish on Wisdom from Warren Buffett, Rules for Better Thinking, How to Reduce Blind Spots, The Dangers of Mental Models, and More (#695) - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.
^
From The Nolan Variations.
^
From 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known.
^
From My rule for watching TV.

Thanks to Angelica Kosasih for reading the draft of this and giving feedback.

Predicted Utility and Memory Fidelity

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 03:14:36 GMT

How well we remember things is based on the brain's prediction of its usefulness in a given situation. Predicted utility influences fidelity of memory representations in the brain.

Paper: Predicted utility modulates working memory fidelity in the brain

Why do we remember important information easily while trivial details oftentimes quickly fade away almost unconsciously?

It turns out our brain anticipates which information we will likely need again and gives it extra attention in working memory. Researchers refer to this as "predicted utility."

Researchers studied this by presenting participants with patterns to remember. When participants knew beforehand exactly which pattern was important, they remembered it with higher precision. Conversely, when they learned afterward, the patterns were remembered less clearly.

Brain scans also backed this up. The researchers used fMRI to investigate whether predicted utility influences fidelity of memory representations in the brain. Patterns predicted to be most useful were maintained in memory with greater fidelity, even when memory load remained constant.

In simpler terms, our brain actively prioritizes important information by making it clearer and more precise in our memory, regardless of the number of things we're trying to remember.

Moreover, this occurred even when participants had only a single pattern to remember. This means the brain wasn't just redistributing limited resources among multiple items. Instead, the brain proactively allocates resources, almost like reserving memory space ahead of time for what matters most.

This study also perfectly explains why taking an exam before learning the subject can enhance future learning of that subject.

Foucault and Hidden Rules of Knowledge

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Historical periods have unique and often hidden assumptions that shape the structure of knowledge, making past ways of thinking fundamentally distinct from our own today.

Book: The Order of Things

“Historians want to write histories of biology in the eighteenth century; but they do not realize that biology did not exist then, and that the pattern of knowledge that has been familiar to us for a hundred and fifty years is not valid for a previous period.”

Why didn't biology exist before?

French philosopher Michel Foucault suggests that each historical era has its hidden assumptions that define what counts as knowledge. He called these invisible assumptions "epistemes".

For example, in the eighteenth century, the concept of biology as a systematic study of life did not exist. Instead, people studied "natural history". They categorize animals and plants, but never investigate the underlying biological processes. And surprisingly, this approach to understanding life was more closely connected to their economic ideas than to anything resembling modern biology.

Another example is how language changed over time. Previously, language was considered merely a representation of ideas. After Immanuel Kant, language evolved into its own distinct field of study. Mallarmé famously answered Nietzsche's question "Who is speaking?" with "Language itself." Literature is neither resemblance nor representation, but becomes a force of its own, with branches like analytical philosophy, with our Weekly I/O's best friend, Wittgenstein.

These changes demonstrate that knowledge is never timeless or universal. Rather, each era shapes its understanding through hidden rules it unconsciously accepts.

What we see as obvious truths today might be strange or even laughable to future generations. The other direction might also be true: every breakthrough is at first laughable and ridiculous.

HALT When Making Decisions

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Avoid making any important decision when you are either hungry, angry, lonely, or tired (HALT). Just halt when you are HALT.

Article: The Technium: 101 Additional Advices

Our decision-making quality is highly dependent on our conditions. Research shows that a judge who has just eaten a meal is significantly more likely to grant a defendant's request than a hungry judge. This phenomenon is known as the hungry judge effect.

The HALT (hungry, angry, lonely, or tired) is a useful checklist to help avoid making poor decisions under non-ideal circumstances.

Someone also told me that "If you feel like everyone hates you, you probably need some sleep. If you feel like you hate yourself, you probably need to eat."

Art is like Hair

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Art is like the hair of society. Although art and literature may seem optional in daily life, they are what endure when people and societies do not.

Article: The interview with Mo Yan - Nobel Prize in Literature 2012

From the Chinese novelist and 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature Laureate Mo Yan:

"I have an analogy to the relationship between literature and society, and that is the relationship people have with their hair: It is, of course, good to have a full head of hair. It looks nice and helps protect one's head. But if one doesn't have much hair, like me, that's fine, as I'm still healthy. So it is with literature. A society may have many novels, poems, poets, and writers, which is very good. But if there are fewer of them, life is still…survivable. So I think, whether it is literature or art, it's like human hair.

In the end, when a person dies, he gets buried in the ground. If he is dug up after many years, we find that his flesh has become earth but his hair remains. I mean, many things in society change and disappear, perhaps only literature and art will remain."

I found the analogy oddly compelling. It's almost too clunky to come from a novelist, yet strangely accurate in capturing what art is.

Art is not like air or water. You can live without it. A society with fewer writers or artists is still survivable. Art and writing do not matter because they are necessary for survival. They matter because they endure.

This reminds me that luxury is art that happens to have a little bit of functionality.

Also, hair does decompose. But Mo Yan didn't win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, did he?

Books are Friendship

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Books quietly offer friendship when you feel lonely, clarity when confused, and peace when troubled. Each book holds someone's living thoughts, preserved across time, and opening its pages is like entering a private conversation, just you and the author.

Article: A library is many things – Letters of Note

From E. B. White:

Books hold most of the secrets of the world, most of the thoughts that men and women have had. And when you are reading a book, you and the author are alone together—just the two of you. A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort.

A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people—people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.

I sometimes felt comforted by simply entering a bookstore. Each book holds someone's living thoughts, and opening its pages is like entering a private conversation, just you and the author spending time together.

In sadness, you find understanding. In confusion, you find clarity. A place with books thus becomes a quiet sanctuary where human experiences are shared, loneliness is healed, and comfort gently waits between each page.

I'm wondering if AI will offer these functions and replace books. Emotionally, I hope not. However, in reality, AI is improving in terms of understanding human emotion and offering clarity. It's oftentimes more welcoming and warmer than many books.

Seven Stages of Action Cycle

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 03:14:36 GMT

How does design help users achieve their goals? Examine your design using the framework of the Seven Stages of the Action Cycle: Goal, Plan, Specify, Perform, Perceive, Interpret, and Compare.

Book: The Design of Everyday Things

I oftentimes get annoyed by poor design in everyday life, whether it's a website form, an electronic controller, or door handles. I hate the confusing one more than the ugly one because design is how things work.

Cognitive scientist and usability engineer Donald Norman proposed the Seven Stages of the Action Cycle, a framework designers can use to understand how people interact with their design, particularly in the context of achieving goals. The seven stages are:

Goal: Decide what you want
Plan: Plan how to achieve the goal
Specify: Determine the exact steps
Perform: Execute your plan
Perceive: Notice what changes occur
Interpret: Understand what the changes mean
Compare: Check if the result matches your goal

Use watching a movie at home as an example. Initially, you form a goal: to enjoy a film. Next, you translate that goal into a clear plan: "I'll press the play button." Then, you determine precisely how to carry out this intention and pinpoint the right action. Finally, you physically execute the action by pressing the button.

These are the first four stages: Goal, Plan, Specify, and Perform.

Now, after the execution, you perceive the results, see the TV screen change, and then interpret what this means; perhaps the movie starts playing immediately, or a confusing error message appears. Finally, you evaluate whether your goal has been successfully met.

These are the last three stages: Perceive, Interpret, and Compare.

When a product is well-designed, the first four stages should enable users to easily figure out how to perform actions (Execution), and the last three stages should help users effortlessly understand the outcome (Evaluation).

Poor design fails because it leaves users confused about which actions to perform (execution failure) or unsure whether their actions succeeded (evaluation failure). This is tightly related to the six fundamental psychological concepts for good design.

Another framework I noted before for evaluating design is Discoverability and Understanding.

Six Psychological Concepts in Design

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Six fundamental psychological concepts for designing good products: Affordances, signifiers, constraints, mappings, feedback, and conceptual models.

Book: The Design of Everyday Things

In Discoverability and Understanding from I/O#62, we learned one of the essential characteristics of good design: discoverability (how easy it is to identify what actions are possible and know where and how to perform them).

Good discoverability relies on the following six fundamental psychological concepts:

Affordances indicate possible actions.

An affordance is a relationship between the properties of an object and the capabilities of the agent that determine how objects can be used.

For example, chairs afford sitting, buttons afford pressing, and handles afford pulling. A good affordance clearly shows the intended use without instructions.

Affordance is not a property but a relationship that depends on both the object and the agent. If an affordance is not perceivable, a signifier is needed to indicate its presence.

Signifiers guide you exactly where to perform an action.

For example, a flat door plate signals "push". Signifiers convey information about possible actions and how they should be done.

For signifiers to be effective, they must be easily perceivable. Otherwise, they fail to serve their purpose.

Distinguishing between signifiers and affordances can be challenging. The way I understand it is that "affordances define what actions are possible, while signifiers indicate where those actions should take place."

Constraints limit mistakes by restricting actions.

They limit our choices to guide us effortlessly. There are roughly four types of constraints:

Physical Constraints: USB connectors fit only one way.
Cultural Constraints: Red traffic lights universally mean "stop."
Semantic Constraints: Motorcycle windshields imply riders face forward.
Logical Constraints: Switches placed logically next to corresponding lights.

Mappings connect controls and their effects.

For example, imagine a classroom or auditorium with numerous ceiling lights and a row of light switches located on the front wall. Each switch controls a specific light, and this mapping defines which switch operates which light.

A good mapping to identify which control corresponds to each light in a large space is to arrange the controls in the same pattern as the lights. This also applies to stove knobs: If the knobs match the burner positions, turning on the correct burner is easy.

Feedback provides immediate clarity after actions.

For example, hearing a door shut, clicking a mouse, or seeing an icon change provides clear feedback. This feedback should be immediate because even a delay of just a tenth of a second can be disorienting. If the delay is too long, users may lose interest and move on to other activities.

Moreover, feedback must be informative. Feedback that is either vague or incorrect does not help the user.

However, it's important to note that too much feedback can be just as frustrating as too little. The annoyance caused by a "backseat driver" is widely recognized.

While backseat drivers may be correct, their constant comments can become distracting rather than helpful. Similarly, machines that provide excessive feedback can act like backseat drivers, ultimately hurting the user's experience.

Conceptual Models help users understand systems intuitively.

A conceptual model is a simplified explanation of how something functions.

It doesn't need to be complete or entirely accurate as long as it is useful.

For example, the files, folders, and icons displayed on a computer screen help users create a mental model of documents and folders stored on the computer. However, in reality, there are no physical folders inside the computer. These are just effective representations designed to enhance usability.

Designers must ensure that their conceptual models align with those of their users. That's why designers should always talk directly to the user to make sure their conceptual models are aligned.

Working Hard is Skill

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Working hard isn't just about attitude. Working hard and trying your best every time is a skill that can be trained to differentiate players and sustain successful careers.

YouTube: T.J. McConnell Is Still Trying to Prove He Belongs in the NBA - YouTube

I became a fan of T.J. McConnell for his performance in the 2025 NBA Finals. Despite not being the most physically gifted, this 6'1" guard displayed an incredible level of energy and hustle throughout the series.

In his words in a recent interview:

"I genuinely believe that playing hard is a skill because if it wasn't, everyone would do it."

"When I came in, and I'm trying to tell you about this guy, Chris Babcock, he's like, 'You need to stand out.' He's like, 'Nobody picks up full court. And you need to make that your calling card.' And so we got in the gym three times a day, got in elite shape, and he's like, 'You're going to pick everyone up full court, and that's what you're going to hang your hat on.' And it's something that I've created an identity about."

"If you play really hard, and make life hell for the other team, I mean the other stuff, the offense, that sh– will fall into place. But if you're going and playing to exhaustion every time you're out there, it gives you a chance to make a roster and get more minutes. I mean, I feel like I've made a 10-year NBA career on just outplaying people,"

I believe working hard is also a skill. If it weren't, everyone would do it. It's just not the traditional skill that you have a set of very tangible practice.

Instead, it's a skill that requires training your mental muscles to resist short-term gratification, curate an environment that prevents distractions, and cultivate the habits necessary for hard work.

Distributed Cognition

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Paper: Digital Humanities and Distributed Cognition: From a Lack of Theory to its Visual Augmentation | Published in Journal of Cultural Analytics

Why it's easier to remember something if you write it down? Why it's easier to solve a tough problem after talking it over with someone else?

These experiences illustrate Distributed Cognition (DC), a theory that expands the concept of thinking beyond the brain.

According to DC, our minds aren't confined to internal mental processes. Instead, cognition naturally spreads outward into external tools, collaborative interactions, and cultural practices.

For example, early sailors navigating oceans didn't just rely on memory. Instead, they integrated their thinking with external aids, such as maps, compasses, and teamwork, to turn navigation into a collective, externalized cognitive process.

Moreover, Distributed Cognition happens in three key dimensions:

Material distribution: We utilize external tools (such as calculators, computers, or even simple notepads) to handle tasks that our brains alone would find overwhelming.
Social distribution: We collaborate, sharing ideas and creating joint solutions that surpass what individuals achieve alone.
Temporal distribution: We leverage accumulated knowledge and cultural traditions stored externally, enabling us to learn from past generations.

Together, these dimensions illustrate how our intelligence naturally functions by interacting with external resources.

Four Factors for Fair Use

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Fair use decisions in copyright law rely on four factors: purpose of use, nature of work, amount taken, and market effect.

Article: Training AI is Fair Use, Product Protection Versus LLM Liability, Piracy and Competition – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

Can an AI legally learn from copyrighted books? Recently, a federal court tackled this issue in a case involving Anthropic's AI training process. And their answer is yes.

Copyright encourages creativity by granting exclusive rights, but these rights must balance incentive and public benefits. From the Stanford Library, U.S. judges assess fair use through four key factors:

The Purpose and Character of Your Use

How is the work being used? Transformative use, where the new work changes the original purpose or adds new insights, typically favors fair use. For instance, parodies or educational critiques are transformative.

The Nature of the Copyrighted Work

Is the original work factual or creative? Factual content, such as biographies or news articles, usually receives less protection, making fair use more likely. Creative works, such as novels and movies, receive stronger protection.

The Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Taken

How much content was used, and how important is that content? Even a small portion that's central or crucial, such as a song's iconic chorus, might not qualify as fair. On the other hand, using a larger amount that's necessary for commentary or criticism can still be fair.

The Effect of the Use Upon the Potential Market

Does the new work negatively affect the original's market value? If the secondary work directly competes with or replaces the original, judges usually rule against fair use. But if it targets a different market or enhances interest in the original, fair use is more likely.

In evaluating the fair use of AI, judges emphasized the transformative nature of training.

AI doesn't reproduce books. Instead, it learns to generate original content, similar to human education. Judges also acknowledged the necessity of using vast amounts of content for training, distinguishing this from direct copying.

Duolingo Prioritizes Engagement

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Duolingo prioritizes engagement over effectiveness because you cannot teach someone who has quit. Unlike schools that can keep students there even if they're bored, losing a learner for an app oftentimes means they will never be back.

Article: Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn on AI, gamification, and the power of freemium | The Verge

How does Duolingo balance the tradeoff between user engagement and learning effectiveness when designing the language learning app?

They always prioritize engagement. Why? Because it doesn't matter how effective you are. You can't teach somebody who's not there. When a user quits, they likely won't come back anymore.

Engagement and learning outcomes are not always at odds. But when they are, Duolingo prefers going for engagement. Intense lessons can have better outcomes but oftentimes lead to stress and frustration. Therefore, Duolingo tries to smooth frustration by converting short, intense lessons into longer, more enjoyable sessions.

Instead of teaching a complex grammar rule in a stressful five minutes, they stretch it over two hours with animations, playful interactions, and constant rewards to keep learners motivated with dopamine hits.

They opt for engagement because Duolingo is in an app rather than a school setting.

Unlike schools that hold students hostage there, even if it's boring, apps can easily lose users to other entertainment options. Even the tiniest frustration can drive users away to fall back on their easy TikTok scrolling, potentially forever. Therefore, they still teach you the material, but it will take longer and slower.

The Will to Think

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The "will to think" is the persistent unwillingness or inability to lie to yourself. It requires motivation and conviction to sustain the incessant need to go deeper until you have a higher resolution on the concept.

Podcast: Nabeel Qureshi on Slop, Care, Meaning, Learning, Palantir, Government, Art, and More

From How To Understand Things:

"The smartest person I’ve ever known had a habit that, as a teenager, I found striking. After he’d prove a theorem, or solve a problem, he’d go back and continue thinking about the problem and try to figure out different proofs of the same thing. Sometimes he’d spend hours on a problem he’d already solved.

I had the opposite tendency: as soon as I’d reached the end of the proof, I’d stop since I’d gotten the answer."

This habit is "the will to think", a compulsive unwillingness or inability to lie to yourself. As Richard Feynman put it: "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool."

It's an incessant need to go deeper until you have a higher resolution on an idea or concept, despite the brain's natural tendency to avoid such painful and resource-intensive processes.

Nobel laureate William Shockley believed that the "will to think" is critical to success in any field, but motivation is equally essential. A Capable thinker will be reluctant to commit themselves to tedious and precise thinking unless they believe their efforts will yield meaningful outcomes. Therefore, motivation and conviction are necessary to sustain the effort involved in deep, rigorous thinking.

Cultivate Deep Understanding

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

How to cultivate deep understanding: Defamiliarization, Original Seeing, Three Examples, Direct Experience, and Rapid Feedback Loops.

Podcast: Nabeel Qureshi on Slop, Care, Meaning, Learning, Palantir, Government, Art, and More

Deep understanding doesn't happen by accident. Even if you have "the will to think", it takes deliberate effort and specific strategies to grasp complex concepts. Nabeel talked about some ways I found helpful:

Defamiliarization and Original Seeing

Defamiliarization is a technique in art that allows individuals to experience common things in an unfamiliar environment to gain new perspectives and see the world differently. This ties into the idea that "strangeness" is an essential characteristic of good art.

Original seeing is about paying close attention to stuff you usually take for granted, like carefully observing a leaf, a mug, or even your phone. When you focus, you'll notice tiny details and complexities you never saw before.

Moving from Abstraction to Concreteness

Whenever something feels vague or abstract, think of three real-life examples.

For instance, if you're thinking about "good leadership," name three people you admire and figure out exactly what they did that impressed you. This makes abstract ideas practical and easier to understand.

Direct Experience and Rapid Feedback Loops

You learn things on a whole different level when you experience them. Reading recipes isn't the same as cooking. Watching travel vlogs is cool, but traveling somewhere new gives you deeper insights.

This is also related to fast feedback loops. Immediate feedback makes learning faster and deeper. Video games are perfect examples because they are essentially a simulation of reality with fast feedback loops.

Say the Thing

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Say the Thing: Getting to the truth is more important than making people comfortable. When seeing bad ideas or bad execution in the team, say it. Say it now, succinctly, and about the thing, not the person.

Tweet: Say the Thing

Shopify’s COO Kaz Nejatian sent this note to his team a month after he joined:

I've been working on Money for over a month now. It is incredible how kind and welcoming everyone has been. Everyone has gone really far to make me feel at home and comfortable. Almost too comfortable.

I am now pretty sure that this is not just folks being kind to the nO0b, but also a fundamental character of our team. We are nice people. That is fantastic. But we need to be mindful not to confuse "being nice" with "making sure everyone is comfortable". In order for us to succeed, we frequently need to make people uncomfortable. That is a lot of what thriving on change is about.

Change is uncomfortable. You can't fix that. But you can get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

For the past month, l've held lots of meetings. In none of those meetings has anyone said "that is a terrible idea" or "we are screwing this up." I assume that we have some bad ideas as a team and that we are in fact screwing some things up. I assume all of us know this.

Why aren't we speaking up?

Start with me. When you hear me say something that is a bad idea, say so.

When you see me screwing something up, say so. Say the thing. Make me uncomfortable. I will not take it personally. Let us all assume that we are talking about ideas and products, not people.

Here are some guidelines for how to say the thing:

Say it now. We don't have time to wait. As soon as you know something, say it. You are doing everyone a favour. Say it now. Say it again. Say it until you feel you have been heard. (People don't need to agree with you, but they do need to hear you.)

Say it succinctly. You don't need to say "this may be dumb" or "I'm just putting it out there." Don't do that. Give yourself credit and everyone else will too.

Say it about the thing, not the person. If a product is bad, say so. If a meeting is a waste of time, say so. Assume good intent about the person working on it, but say this thing sucks for x, y or z reason.

You can get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I also think being nice is not being kind. Being nice sometimes means sugarcoating things and masking problems. Being kind means telling the truth with care and without being a jerk.

It's harder to be kind because it's painful to learn how to tell the truth, but it doesn't mean we should be more concerned with not offending each other than getting to the truth of problems they were trying to solve.

This is "the desire to be right and the desire to have been right are two desires" on an organizational level. Also remember: "People may forget what you said, people may forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel".

Trade Dream for Feedback

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"By far the dominant reason for not releasing sooner was a reluctance to trade the dream of success for the reality of feedback" — Kent Beck

Quote

This is from software engineer Kent Beck on releasing minimum viable products, but it also explains why content creators and artists struggle to release projects and why people don't take action in general.

Jim Simons on Taste

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Success in science depends less on raw intelligence and more on good taste. Knowing what’s a good problem to pursue and understanding your unique strengths determine long-term success.

Podcast: Renaissance Technologies: The Complete History and Strategy

Jim Simons wasn't the best mathematician at MIT. Reflecting on his abilities, he said, "I was a good mathematician. I wasn’t the greatest in the world, but I was pretty good." However, he became immensely influential, perhaps the most influential of his generation.

He recognized early that he had a different advantage that most of the super geniuses lacked: good taste. In his words:

"Taste in science is very important. To distinguish what’s a good problem and what’s a problem that no one’s going to care about the answer to anyway, that’s taste. And I think I have good taste."

Jeff Bezos had a similar realization. He wanted to become a theoretical physicist while he was attending college but noticed his peers who effortlessly outpaced him intellectually. Realizing he couldn’t outmatch the best theoretical physicists, he switched to computer science.

Jim may not have been the Michael Jordan of math, but he was a Hall of Famer. He even has a theorem named after him that became part of the foundation of string theory. But what truly set him apart, especially at MIT in the late 1950s, was how he could move between worlds. He was brilliant, but also cool, charismatic, and relatable. He could speak the language of the super-genius while understanding the world beyond academia. He wasn’t just another mind in the room. He was someone people wanted to follow.

That combination of brains, taste, and people skills, was essential in what would later become the magic behind Renaissance Technologies, the single best performing investment firm of all time.

This reminds me of people who want to be smart oftentimes think being smart and having important new ideas are identical and how Richard Hamming tried to answer "Why do so few scientists make significant contributions and so many are forgotten in the long run" in You And Your Research.

This also brings to mind Noam Shazeer, co-author of the Transformer paper and founder of Character.ai, who is praised for his research taste in this Dwarkesh podcast episode.

Best Possible Worlds

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

We live in the best of all possible worlds regardless of what happens. Imperfections contribute to greater beneficial outcomes because events perceived negatively are essential conditions for realizing an optimal overall reality.

Book: Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man, and the Origin of Evil

Why do tragedies and imperfections exist at all if God is omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good?

German philosopher Leibniz, the guy who happened to also invent calculus and binary arithmetic, faced this challenging question. He argued that the presence of suffering or imperfection could be required elements within an optimally balanced system. It's just like a chess player willing to sacrifice a piece to win the entire game.

Central to Leibniz's idea is the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which states that every event must have a valid explanation. In an infinite array of possible realities, only one arrangement can logically offer the greatest overall benefit, even if individual parts seem undesirable when viewed separately.

Critics like Voltaire in Candide mistakenly viewed Leibniz as saying every event is individually good. Instead, Leibniz emphasized holistic optimization. He emphasized that reality must be viewed as a complex network, and our frustration arises partly because human perspectives are limited, preventing us from seeing the full, intricate connections that justify seemingly imperfect details.

I found Leibniz's way of reconciling apparent contradictions in his belief interesting. At the end of the day, what we all need is meaning, and he tried to find the meaning by using the tools with which he's most familiar as a mathematician: forming a logical bridge between the existence of evil and the perfection of its creator.

I recalled this theory after finishing Permutation City, which also presents a different version of the Many-Worlds Theory. This also echoes what Viktor Frankl said about the Transitory Aspect of Life after surviving concentration camps.

Left-Brain Learning Myth

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"Left-brained" analytical thinkers are a myth. The idea that one hemisphere dominates math while the other handles creativity is scientifically unsupported because cognitive tasks always rely on integrated hemispheric cooperation.

Paper: Review on the Prevalence and Persistence of Neuromyths in Education

Have you heard someone describe themselves as more left-brained or right-brained?

The idea that one hemisphere dominates analytical thinking while the other handles creativity is appealing but not actually supported by neuroscience. This myth emerged because certain functions like language typically activate specific brain areas, especially in the left hemisphere for right-handed individuals.

However, brain imaging studies show that all cognitive tasks, from reading to problem-solving, utilize extensive neural networks across both brain hemispheres.

Even tasks once thought to be hemisphere-specific, like language, require constant interhemispheric communication through numerous nerve connections. For instance, when understanding spoken language, your brain employs the left hemisphere to decode words while simultaneously using the right hemisphere to grasp emotional tones or context.

The myth persists because it's comforting to simplify complex human abilities into neat categories. However, recognizing that the brain operates through cooperative hemispheric interaction rather than isolated dominance promotes better educational strategies.

This, along with the "I'm a visual learner" myth, are my two favorite neuromyths in education. It's also fun to learn that this myth is partially inspired by the fascinating split‑brain cases I noted before.

Procrastination and Head-Heart-Hand

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Procrastination is not laziness. It is a useful signal from the brain that something about the task, the mood, or the setting needs attention. Ask the Head, Heart, and Hand questions to debug and remove the cycle of shame and stall.

Book: Tiny Experiments

Procrastination always comes with a wave of guilt. However, we should treat the pause before work not as laziness, but as a useful signal from the brain to take a step back and run a quick diagnostic. Drop the blame and think about "What is this pause telling me?"

A useful way to check is to ask the Head, Heart, and Hand questions:

Head. Is the task reasonable or clearly helpful? If not, reshape the goal or speak with those who set it.
Heart. Does the task spark interest or feel safe? If fear, boredom, or irritation rules, name the feeling, pair the task with a pleasant act, or adjust the stakes.
Hand. Do you have the tools and skills to start? If not, seek training, support, or a smaller first step.

Fix the first “no” you find in these questions. When Head, Heart, and Hand click, work should feel like “aligned aliveness” and momentum will grow on its own.

However, if every box is ticked and you still feel stuck, the environment may be the culprit. Chronic delay in a rigid or overloaded system signals that the structure, not the worker, must change.

Cognitive Scripts

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Many of our life choices are unconsciously guided by cognitive scripts that feel like our own ideas but are actually inherited from past habits, cultural pressures, or exaggerated ideals.

Book: Tiny Experiments

Have you ever made a big life choice and later wondered, “Did I really choose that, or was I just following a script?”

Cognitive scripts are mental templates that tell us how to behave in familiar situations. They are like personal rules but set by others. They’re great when ordering food or waiting at the doctor. But when it comes to bigger life decisions, they can steer us off track.

We often make major life decisions without realizing we’re acting out scripts. In Tiny Experiments, neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff lists three of the most common cognitive scripts:

Sequel Script makes you feel like you must continue your past story. You studied finance, so now you must work in finance. You’ve dated a certain type, so you repeat it. It ignores change and shuts down growth.
Crowd Pleaser Script shapes your choices around what others expect. You pick a job to please your parents. It leads to jobs, lifestyles, and relationships picked for approval, not joy.
Epic Script insists everything you do must be huge and meaningful. Starting a café isn’t enough unless it “changes the world.” This pressure creates burnout and the false idea that a quiet life isn’t worth living.

We don’t notice these scripts because they feel normal. But questioning them can open the door to better, more personal decisions. Asking Would I still do it If I could never talk about this to anyone or if my 80-year-old self and 10-year-old self would be proud of can be more useful.

Why I Write

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 23:49:28 GMT

中文翻譯版本

Time dedicated to writing is my single most valuable investment in learning.

Having written over four hundred pieces in the past few years, I write this manifesto as a guideline for my future writing — on how to write, what to write, and why I should keep writing.

The purpose of my writing is to think better and deliver value.

Better thinking means clearer, deeper, and more interconnected thinking, leading to effective actions in my own context of use.

Value delivered means changing people's perspectives practically and positively, catalyzing meaningful interactions with others.

My writing should be authentic and opinionated.

I prioritize writing things I'm intrinsically passionate about with long-term value.

Think Better

I write to think better. Better thinking means clearer, deeper, and more interconnected thinking.

Write for clear thinking.

When we read, the author thinks for us. We can read so much and still read ourselves stupid if we just repeat the author's mental process.¹

Writing makes us realize we don't understand most things we thought we understood.²

To think clearly and internalize learning, we articulate and share the information we absorb with others.

Simple note-taking is insufficient because we can take notes without content comprehension.³

Explaining our thinking exposes our blind spots by pushing us to explore different narratives, shift perspectives, and discover connections.⁴

Concepts in our brain are stored in spatial structures, whereas writing is linear.

Through writing, we encode a network of ideas into a sequence of words using a hierarchy of phrases.⁵

This process serves as a forcing function for us to transform information into knowledge.⁶

Write for deep thinking.

Writing not only makes complex thinking easier. It makes it possible.⁷

Our limited working memory constrains complex thinking ⁸, and a writing surface offloads our cognitive workload to an external medium.

Writing augments our ability to memorize and visualize information⁹, helping us think the unthinkable.¹⁰

Writing itself is thinking. Ideas don’t come out fully formed. They only become clear as we work on them. ¹¹

To think deeper, we must write.¹²

Write for interconnected thinking.

Standalone concepts are harder to retain in our memory.¹³

Writing helps us link new ideas to those we already know, improving memory retention.¹⁴

Memory is essential for discovering new connections. A constantly evolving network of writing creates a reinforcement loop to learn and retain ideas.¹⁵

A mesh of ideas enhances creativity. Insights oftentimes flash from finding surprising connections from new things to existing thoughts we retain in our brains.

Effective actions

Better thinking driven by writing must lead to effective actions.

Insights without action are just lifeless abstractions.¹⁶

We must act on our thoughts derived from writing.¹⁷

Applying better thinking to solve problems through actions makes writing and learning truly effective.¹⁸

Effective action, in turn, improves our thinking.

Action produces measurable outcomes for our thinking.¹⁹

Measurable outcomes are essential to form effective feedback loops.²⁰

With direct feedback from actions, we can improve our thinking systematically.²¹

Action provides stronger feedback than note-taking.

Beyond note-taking, we need actions because taking notes offers weak feedback for our learning.²²

After finishing a note, we may not review it for a long time, let alone apply it.

Moreover, feedback from note-taking is ambiguous because the result of good note-taking is not obvious.

Same for thought journals. Since my first annual review²³ in 2016, I've noticed improvements in my thoughts and writing over time and used that as my benchmark for growth.²⁴

However, like note-taking, these reflections only provide delayed and indirect feedback.²⁵

Actions offer more timely and direct feedback, enabling systematic improvement in our thinking.

Effective actions should be meaningful and relevant to my context.

Effective actions towards a meaningful goal should be the outcome of better thinking.

I see myself not primarily as a writer but as a thinker and builder. Time taken in writing is time taken away from building.

Therefore, my writing must align with my own context of use²⁶ to build better things. I build to create more value.²⁷

Writing is a means to an end.

Deliver Value

Good writing delivers value. My writing should be useful and impact people's lives positively.

My writing should be useful.

Writing should consider the area under the usefulness curve.

I can write in a simple way, offering a bit of value to many people. Alternatively, I can write in-depth, offering more value to fewer people.²⁸

While both ways can maximize usefulness, I should lean toward the latter and pursue the mental equivalent of sweating.²⁹

I strive for truthfulness, yet when abstraction helps understanding, I should prioritize usefulness over truthfulness.

When opting for oversimplification, I should explicitly note the trade-off and provide references for further exploration.

My writing should have a positive impact on people's lives.

Positive impact means readers change their perspective on themselves or the world in a practically positive way.

Writing should inspire action and change what people know, believe, feel, or do.³⁰

Meaningful interactions

My writing should be the catalytic surface area of meaningful interaction with interesting people.

Writing creates opportunities to be helped.

Public writing puts me in the arena ³¹, enabling people to see my imperfect work and give me feedback. ³²

So much valuable advice, assistance, and resources I've received are only possible because I show my work.³³

The secret of life is people are way more willing to help than we think.

Writing creates opportunities to help others.

Public writing signals what areas I'm interested in and have experience in.

This ensures that people seeking help in these areas are aware of how I can help them.

It's my pleasure to share my experience and opinions as a reference or data point.

Sharing decreases information asymmetry.

Writing creates connections.

Public writing invites people to connect with me.

Most importantly, many close friendships would not have existed if I had never shared my thoughts online.

Be authentic

My writing should be authentic and reflect who I am.

Authenticity is for the long game.

Being true to myself is the easiest because I don't need to fake to impress anyone.

If I build on an extension of myself, no one can compete with me in the long term.³⁴

Focus less on competition.³⁵ Different is better than better.³⁶

Authenticity defines the value.

In the age of advanced technology, ideas outweigh skills.³⁷ However, tools like generative AI cannot represent who I am because they lack the personal essence that defines me.³⁸

“There are no unique messages, only unique messengers.”³⁹

My work must reflect who I am because authenticity with genuine expressions creates unique value.

Writing should embrace vulnerability.

Independent thinking oftentimes leads to opinions we're reluctant to share.⁴⁰

Presenting not well-established ideas puts us in a vulnerable position.

Being fully ourselves is weird and vulnerable.

So, if we feel zero vulnerability, we are not authentically ourselves.⁴¹

True authenticity involves embracing our quirks and vulnerabilities.

Be opinionated

My writing should be opinionated.

I should prioritize my opinion over summarizing others.

For second-hand information, I should add value by connecting ideas or sharing my thoughts.

I should make educated guesses with falsifiable explanations.

I must suppress the urge to dodge the responsibility of being wrong.

Owning my mistakes offers the most honest feedback for learning.

I should make public predictions to log my mistakes.

Predictions must be judged by their quality, not just by their outcome.⁴²

I aim to make quality predictions with good explanations⁴³ that are falsifiable.

I should avoid hedging to spark meaningful discussions.

Acknowledging fallibility in mind, I should state my conjecture more like the laws of physics.⁴⁴

"Be truthful, not neutral."⁴⁵

Hedged phrases like "this might be wrong, but I think" and "there can be no right answer" push arguments toward tautology and entail less practical value.

Tautological statements rarely spark meaningful discussion because there's no substance to debate.

Meaningful discussions are essential because they invite more readers to collaborate on the intellectual quest.

What to write

I prioritize things with invariant importance or incremental long-term value.

I should avoid chasing news or trends solely for broader audience reach.

I should wait for new things to unfold before commenting unless I'm genuinely intrigued and eager to explore firsthand.

I only write about things I intrinsically care about, not what's popular.

I write about anything under the sun that interests me, and that shouldn't change.

But I must be selective, focusing on things that spark not just interest but also passion.⁴⁶

Each article I publish aims to be the best on the internet at something⁴⁷, however specific.⁴⁸

How to write

Below are some learning I wrote before, and I will update this list regularly to make it evergreen.

Write with the door closed. Once ideas are formed independently, rewrite with the door open to gather feedback. [Stephen King on Write and Rewrite]
To write well, delete most of what you put on the page, as films often shoot 50 to 100 times more footage than what actually appears in the final cut. [Delete Most in Draft]
If you want to use an exclamation mark while writing, it means your words aren't strong enough on their own. Strengthen your sentences instead of compensating with a mark. [Drop Exclamation Mark]
The secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. [Sit Down to Write]
Write 5x more but write 5x less. [Write More but Less]
“A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes." - Ludwig Wittgenstein [Philosophical Jokes]
Marathon runners compete with no one but a time they want to be. Writers compete with no one but a standard they want to attain. Sustainable motivation requires following something we won't compete with. [Noncompetitiveness]
Stop every day right after we feel like we can write more. Save the excitement and carry it over to the next day to let momentum kick off tomorrow's work smoothly. [Running and Writing]
Set aside time to write regardless of how you feel that day. It doesn't matter if it's good or not. Sit down and type. Refuse to bargain with your subconscious that says, "I'm dry. Let's try tomorrow". [Writing like Shopkeeper]
Derek Sivers' writing advice: Try writing one sentence per line. [One Sentence per Line]
To get over perfectionism to write and publish more, try writing without capitalization and using the 10-Point Scale. [Get over Perfectionism]
Writing is thinking. You can write first then derive clear perspectives from your own writing. [Writing Is Thinking]
Kill your darlings. Fall in love with the problem, not the solution. [Kill Your Darlings]
When drafting, write FBR: Fast, Bad, Wrong. [Write FBR]
Regarding sharing creative work, the word "release" carries a double meaning. It signifies that the work is made available to the public and that the author is liberated from the pursuit of perfection. [Double meaning of Release]
Creators need immediate connections to what they are creating because so much creation is discovery. We discover nothing if we cannot see the process of our changes effectively. [Immediate Connection to Creation]
“Language can become a screen which stands between the thinker and reality. This is the reason why true creativity often starts where language ends.” - Arthur Koestler [Language and Creativity]
The But and Therefore Rule for Storytelling [The But and Therefore Rule]
No amount of technology will make a bad story good. [Technology and Story]
We have to learn to separate the facts from the story. [Fact and Story]
Best ideas emerge when we balance the inhale of beer mode with the exhale of coffee mode. On any given day, coffee mode lets us be more productive. But over the long arc of time, beer mode rewards serendipity and intellectual breakthrough. [Beer and Coffee Mode]
How to express your thoughts clearly? The 3x3 rules: make less than 3 points, explain in 3 ways, and repeat 3 times. [3x3 Rules]

Future

Some of my most fulfilling moments have been when friends and readers told me how my writing has positively influenced their lives.

Having a positive impact on others is such a meaningful honor.

Writing brings fulfillment to me. I believe my writing can also help bring fulfillment to others, whether directly or indirectly.

My mission is to enhance human fulfillment.

While building things towards enhancing human fulfillment, I will keep writing.

Read. Write. Build.

^
From Schopenhauer in Parerga and Paralipomena Chapter 24 on reading and books. See [Read Yourself Stupid]: When we read, the author thinks for us. We can read ourselves stupid if we just repeat the author's mental process. People who just let their own thoughts wander can be more creative than those who just read.
^
Related to the Illusion of explanatory depth (IOED). See [Illusion of Explanatory Depth].
^
This reminds me of Tyler Cowen, who doesn't take notes. He writes a lot, and maybe that's how he takes notes: through writing and applying what he has learned. Also, see Tyler Cowen on Reading and this interview with Andy Matuschak on Tyler's writing obligations.
^
Related to Mortimer Adler's words: "The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks."
^
Rephrased what Steven Pinker wrote in The Sense of Style: "The writer’s goal is to encode a web of ideas into a string of words using a tree of phrases." See [Write Web to String] with Ted Nelson's critique.
^
Information only becomes knowledge after we interpret and understand it. See [No Knowledge in Book]: There is no knowledge in books, only information. Information only becomes knowledge after we interpret and understand it.
^
From Neil Levy in Oxford Handbook of Neuroethics Chapter 18 Neuroethics and the Extended Mind. See [Notes Make Intellectual Possible]: Taking notes on paper or screens doesn't merely simplify complex tasks like contemporary physics or other intellectual pursuits. Taking notes makes them possible.
^
See [Working and External Memory]: Our working memory has a limited capacity for task-related information. To perform complex tasks, we should offload some mental load onto an external medium.
^
Inspired by Douglas Engelbart's Augmenting Human Intellect. Pen and paper, as the third stage in the development of our intellectual capabilities, enable manual and external symbol manipulation. Refer also to Information processing theory.
^
But we should remember that paper, as the media for us to think, is a "low-bandwidth channel." See Bret Victor's Media for Thinking the Unthinkable. The creation of great ideas requires great representation with powerful mediums, and paper might not be enough.
^
See [Writing Is Thinking]: Writing is thinking. You write first and derive clear perspectives from your own writing.
^
From Niklas Luhmann in Kommunikation Mit Zettelkästen: "Without writing, you cannot think; at least not in a sophisticated and scientific way."
^
Because isolated concepts, lacking context or connection to familiar ideas, are more difficult to encode effectively in our memory. See How Memory Functions and Information Processing Theory- Memory, Encoding, and Storage.
^
That's also why mnemonic link system can be helpful.
^
See How the brain builds on prior knowledge.
^
See [Actionable Truth]: Insight is the smallest unit of truth that is actionable. If you cannot act on it, it is just an abstraction.
^
See [Action-Thoughts Alignment]: "There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do."
^
See [True Learning]: True learning is understanding. True understanding is linking new information to existing knowledge and applying it to problems.
^
Related to Brian Armstrong in this interview, "action produces information".
^
Inspired by: Deliberate Practice.
^
Feedback loops enable systematic improvement. See Thinking in Systems.
^
See Note-writing practices provide weak feedback.
^
My first annual review back in 2016: [2016 紀錄].
^
Whenever I see how embarrassing some of my previous thoughts and writing are, I cringe. But I keep them as a record of progress to remind myself of the growth mindset and run my own race.
^
That said, writing down your thoughts is still a great tool to think and as a measure of growth to align your direction with long term goal.
^
In addition to building better things, my other focus is the lifelong goal of being a better person and living consciously.
^
Inspired by Sam Altman's Value is created by doing, where he wrote: "Writing can be a marginal use of time, but being good at it is important. If you are already good at writing, maybe the marginal utility of writing is diminishing and you should create value by doing."
^
Or, I can write very deeply on topics that only interest me, offering value primarily to myself, though that might be closer to note-taking.
^
Inspired by Andrej Karpathy's on shortification of "learning".
^
Writing that inspires no action is less meaningful. It's like you pitch an idea to a VC, and they understand you perfectly. But they just don't invest in you.
^
See [Luck and Arena Razors]: When choosing between two paths, choose the one with a larger luck surface area and/or the one that puts you in the arena.
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Inspired by: Learn In Public.
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Inspired by: Show Your Work!.
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From Naval Ravikant in The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: "If you are fundamentally building and marketing something that is an extension of who you are, no one can compete with you on that." Also in my 2022 review: [2022 紀錄].
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Inspired by Finite and Infinite Games: A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.
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From Sally Hogshead. Also, in my 2022 review: [2022 紀錄].
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See [Gen AI and Photography to Art]: Generative AI is to digital art as photography was to traditional art. The value of having good ideas grows when new technology lowers the need for technical skills.
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Though one may argue that DreamBooth and other techniques can represent oneself or that it requires taste to train a large language model, I won't say it can make people feel "authentic" in those works yet.
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From Jadah Sellner: “There are no unique messages, only unique messengers.” See [Unique Messenger not Message].
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See [Opinions Afraid to Share]: Do you hold opinions you're afraid to share with peers? If not, maybe you just believe what you're told rather than think independently.
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See [Marketing Cringe]: When marketing our work, we must feel a bit cringe. Zero cringe can be suboptimal because it either means we are not being authentic or we are tasteless.
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Good prediction should specify assumption with probability and remember the luck fool from Fooled by Randomness.
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From The Beginning of Infinity: a good explanation is one that accounts for observations while being hard to vary.
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See [No Hedged Words]: State your conjecture in a way that sounds like the laws of physics. Avoid mealy-mouthed allusions because ChatGPT can do all the hedged answers already. Solid and arbitrary statement sparks more comments and feedback.
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From Christiane Amanpour. I first heard about this line from Kara Swisher.
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Inspired by Douglas Hofstadter in Metamagical Themas: "I was beginning to wonder how long I could sustain it without seriously jeopardizing my research. I decided to divide up my long list of prospective topics into categories: columns I would love to do, columns I would simply enjoy doing, and columns I could write with interest but no real passion."
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From Robert Heaton's How to come up with blog post ideas.
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However specific, this can be done by creating an imaginary category. My [HyperLogLog] is the easiest-to-understand written introduction online to that algorithm. [Remove Labels], [I Don't Have Time], and [Let Go of Your Desire to Tell a Bigger Story When Listening] are the best articles that explore weird takes on those simple but less discussed ideas. See, you can be that specific.

Thanks to Angelica Kosasih, Scott Chen and Simon Tsai for reading the draft of this and giving feedback.

我為何寫作

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 19:02:28 GMT

English Original Version

投入時間在寫作，是我對於學習最有價值的投資，沒有之一。

在過去幾年寫了四百多篇文字後，我寫了這份宣言當作對我未來寫作的提醒：關於如何寫作、該寫什麼、以及我為何應該繼續寫。

我寫作的目的是為了更好的思考並提供價值。

更好的思考指的是更清晰、更深入、更連結性（interconnected）的思考，產生對我的使用情境有效的行動。

提供價值指的是實際地、正向地改變人們的觀點，並促進與他人之間有意義的互動。

我的寫作要是真誠且有主見。

我優先寫我內心真正在乎且具有長期價值的東西。

更好地思考

我寫作是為了更好地思考。更好的思維意味著更清晰、更深入、更連結性的思考。

為清晰的思考而寫。

當我們閱讀時，作者為我們思考。如果我們只是重複作者的思考過程，我們可以讀了很多書但仍然把自己讀笨。¹

寫作讓我們意識到我們並不理解大多數我們自以為理解的事情。²

為了更清晰的思考和內化學習，我們要跟他人解釋並分享我們吸收的訊息。

簡單地做筆記是不夠的，因為我們不需要理解內容也可以完成筆記。³

解釋我們的想法促使我們探索不同的敘事方法、轉變觀點和探索新關聯，從而揭露我們原來有的盲點。⁴

我們的大腦將概念以空間形式儲存，但寫作卻需按照線性進行。

透過寫作，我們將網絡結構的想法，透過階層結構的詞句，轉化成序列結構文字。⁵

這個過程強迫我們將資訊轉換成知識。⁶

為深入的思考而寫。

寫作不只是讓複雜的思考變得更容易。寫作讓複雜的思考可能。⁷

有限的工作記憶（working memory）限制了我們複雜思考的能力⁸ ，而一個書寫表面將我們的認知負荷轉嫁到外部媒介上。

寫作增強我們記憶和視覺化的能力⁹，幫助我們思考那些難以思考的事物。¹⁰

寫作本身就是思考。想法不會一開始就完全成形。只有當我們琢磨它時，它才會變得清晰。¹¹

要想地更深，我們必須寫作。¹²

為連結性的思考而寫。

單獨的概念較難留存於我們的記憶裡。¹³

透過寫作，我們能將新的想法與我們已知的想法連結，從而增強記憶的留存。¹⁴

記憶是能否發現新連結的關鍵。一個持續演化的想法網絡可以建立一個學習和保留想法的增強迴路（reinforcement loop）。¹⁵

交錯的想法網絡有助於創意的產生。有趣的洞察常常來自於在新事物與我們大腦中保留的現有思想之間找到令人驚喜的連結。

有效行動

由寫作驅動的更好思考必須帶來有效的行動。

沒有行動的洞見只是無生命的抽象概念。¹⁶

我們需要將寫作中產生的思想轉化為行動。¹⁷

應用更好的思考去產生行動並解決問題，才能使寫作和學習真正有效。¹⁸

有效的行動反過來又可以提升我們的思考。

行動讓我們能夠量化思考的結果。¹⁹

有了可量化的成果，我們才能建立起有效的反饋循環（feedback loops）。²⁰

行動所帶來的直接反饋，能使我們的思考過程系統化地進步。²¹

行動比做筆記提供更強的反饋。

做筆記是不夠的。我們需要採取行動，因為做筆記只能提供較弱的學習反饋。²²

寫完一篇筆記後，我們可能很少回頭看，更不用說應用它了。

此外，做筆記的反饋往往不明確，因為好筆記的成效通常並不明顯。

單純記錄自已的想法也是如此。自從 2016 年我開始寫年度紀錄²³以來，我注意到我的思考和寫作隨著時間有所進步，並將紀錄作為衡量自己成長的基準。²⁴

但是，就像記筆記一樣，這些反思只能提供延遲和間接的反饋。²⁵

而行動提供更及時、更直接的回饋，使我們的思考能夠系統性地進步。

有效的行動需要具有意義，並且與我的使用場景相關。

朝著有意義的目標邁進的有效行動，應是更好思考的結果。

我不認為自己主要是個寫作者，而是個思考者和建造者。投入寫作的時間就是從打造新事物抽走的時間。

因此，我的寫作必須與我使用的情境相符²⁶，以打造更好的事物。我是為了創造更多價值而建構事物。²⁷

寫作是達到目的的手段。

提供價值

好的寫作可以帶來價值。我的寫作應該是有用的，並且對人們的生活產生正面的影響。

我的寫作要是有用的。

寫作應該考慮到「實用性曲線」下的面積（area under the usefulness curve）。

我可以寫得很簡單，為很多人提供一點價值。或者，我可以寫得更深入些，為少一點人提供更多價值。²⁸

雖然這兩種方式都能最大化實用性，我應該傾向於後者，並追求心智上的動腦流汗（mental equivalent of sweating）。²⁹

我追求真實性，但當一定程度的簡化抽象能夠幫助理解時，我應該更重視實用性而非僅僅是真實性。

在選擇過度簡化時，我應該明確指出其中的取捨，並提供進一步深入的延伸資料。

我的寫作應該對人們的生活產生正面的影響。

正面影響指的是讀者實用且正面地改變他們對自己或世界的看法。

寫作需要啟發行動，改變人們所知道的、所相信的、所感受的或所做的。³⁰

有意義的互動

我的寫作應該成為催化我與有趣的人進行有意義互動的介面。

寫作創造獲得幫助的機會。

公開寫作把我放在競技場檢視（puts me in the arena）³¹，使人們能看見我不完美的想法並給予我回饋。³²

我一路上之所以能收到這麼多建議、幫助和資源，都是因為我願意展示我的作品。³³

人生的一個秘密在於人們遠比我們想像的更願意提供幫助。

寫作創造幫助別人的機會。

公開寫作明示了我對哪些領域感興趣並且有經驗。

這樣能確保在這些領域尋求幫助的人知道，我可能可以如何幫助他們。

能夠分享我的經驗與看法作為一點參考，永遠是我的榮幸。

透過分享，我們減少了資訊的不對稱。

寫作創造了連結。

公開寫作邀請人們與我建立連結。

最重要的是，如果我從未在網路上分享我的想法，許多我現在擁有的友誼不會存在。

保持真誠

我的寫作應該真誠並反映真實的我。

真誠是為了長遠的戰略。

忠於自己是最不費力的，因為我無需為了討好別人而假裝。

如果我建立在自我的延伸上，從長遠來看，沒有人能與我在我的基礎上競爭。³⁴

減少對競爭的關注。³⁵獨特比更好要更好。³⁶

真誠定義了價值。

在科技進步的時代，想法的價值將超過技術。³⁷然而，像生成式人工智慧這樣的工具無法代表我是誰，因為它們缺少定義我的個人本質。³⁸

「沒有獨一無二的訊息，只有獨一無二的傳達者。」³⁹

我的作品必須反映我是誰，因為真誠才能創造帶來獨特的價值。

寫作應該擁抱脆弱。

獨立思考常會讓我們產生不太願意大聲分享的觀點。⁴⁰

提出尚未確立的想法讓我們處於弱勢的位置。

完全做自己往往是奇怪且脆弱的。

所以，如果我們完全不覺得脆弱，我們可能不是最真誠地做自己。⁴¹

真正的真誠包含接納我們的古怪和脆弱性。

有主見

我的寫作應該是有主見的。

我應該優先考慮寫自己的想法而不是總結別人的觀點。

對於二手資訊，我應該結合不同想法或加上自己的思考來賦予其更多價值。

我應該做出有根據的推測並提供可被證偽的解釋。

我必須抑制自己的衝動，不要逃避承擔自己可能犯錯的責任。

承認自己的錯誤才能為學習提供最誠實的回饋。

我應該公開寫下我的推測，作為記錄我犯錯的方式。

要評價推測的好壞必須根據其品質，而非僅根據其結果。⁴²

我希望做出高品質的推測，並提供可證偽的好解釋⁴³。

為了激發有意義的討論，我不應該拐彎抹角

記住自己會犯錯的同時，我應該把推測陳述得更像物理定律那樣確定。⁴⁴

「要真實，而不是中立。」⁴⁵

使用「或許我是錯的，但我覺得」和「這沒有絕對的對錯」等模稜兩可的表達，會使得論點趨向於套套邏輯（tautology），且降低其實用價值。

套套邏輯的陳述難以引起有意義的討論，因其缺乏可辯論的實質內容。

有意義的討論是必要的，因為它們邀請更多讀者共同參與智識的探索。

寫什麼

我優先寫那些具有恆常重要性或逐漸增長長期價值的事物。

我應該避免僅僅為了吸引更廣泛的受眾而追逐新聞或趨勢。

我應該等待新事物的自行展開後再考慮評論，除非我真心好奇並渴望親自探索。

我只寫我真正在乎的事，而不是當下的流行。

我寫關於任何引起我興趣的事物，這一點不會改變。

但我必須更謹慎選擇，專注於那些不僅引起興趣，而且也點燃熱情的事物。⁴⁶

我發布的每篇文章都旨在成為網路上對某個特定領域最好的內容⁴⁷，不論這個特定領域有多麼特定。⁴⁸

如何寫

以下是我之前曾寫下的一些學習想法。我將定期更新這個清單，以保持其長期的價值。

關著門寫。一旦想法獨立形成，打開大門收集回饋來重寫。 [Stephen King on Write and Rewrite]
為了寫得更好，刪除草稿裡的大部分內容，像是電影拍攝的鏡頭通常比最終剪輯中實際出現的鏡頭多 50 到 100 倍。 [Delete Most in Draft]
如果你想在寫作時使用驚嘆號，表示你的文字本身不夠有力。加強你的句子而不是用符號來補償。 [Drop Exclamation Mark]
真正的作家知道，而想成為作家的人不知道的秘密：困難的不是寫作部分。難的是坐下來寫。 [Sit Down to Write]
多寫 5 倍數量，少寫 5 倍長度。 [Write More but Less]
「一部嚴肅而優秀的哲學著作可以完全由笑話組成。」——路德維希·維根斯坦 [Philosophical Jokes]
馬拉松選手只與他們目標的時間競爭。作家只與他們想要達到的標準競爭。可持續的動力需要來自追逐我們不會與之競爭的東西。 [Noncompetitiveness]
每天在我們覺得還可以寫更多的時候停下來。保存想寫更多的興奮給第二天，讓明天的工作順利開始。 [Running and Writing]
無論當天的感受如何，都要留時間寫作。好不好都沒關係。坐下來打字。拒絕與潛意識討價還價，無視潛意識說的「我沒有靈感。我們明天再試」。[Writing like Shopkeeper]
Derek Sivers 的寫作建議：嘗試每寫一個句子就換行。 [One Sentence per Line]
為了克服完美主義並發表更多內容，嘗試不要用大寫字母並使用 10 分制評估寫作。 [Get over Perfectionism]
寫作就是思考。你可以先寫作，然後從自己的寫作中得出更清晰的觀點。 [Writing Is Thinking]
殺死你的最愛。愛上問題，而不是解決方案。 [Kill Your Darlings]
草稿 FBR：快（Fast）、差（Bad）、錯（Wrong）。 [Write FBR]
對於分享創意作品，Release 一詞具有雙重意義。它代表作品向公眾發布，也代表作者從對完美的追求中解放。 [Double meaning of Release]
創作者需要與他們正在創造的東西建立直接連結，因為許多創作都其實是發現。如果我們不能有效地看到我們創作的變化過程，我們就什麼也發現不了。 [Immediate Connection to Creation]
「語言可以成為思考者與現實之間的一道屏障。這就是為什麼真正的創造力往往始於語言的終結。」 - Arthur Koestler [Language and Creativity]
講故事的「但是」和「因此」規則。 [The But and Therefore Rule]
再多的技術也無法讓壞故事變成好故事。 [Technology and Story]
我們必須學會將事實與故事分開。 [Fact and Story]
當我們平衡啤酒模式的吸入和咖啡模式的呼出時，最好的想法就會出現。在任何一天，咖啡模式都能讓我們提高工作效率。但從長遠來看，啤酒模式獎勵的是機緣巧合和智識上的突破。 [Beer and Coffee Mode]
如何清楚表達自己的想法？ 3x3 法則：提出少於 3 個點，用 3 種方式解釋，並重複 3 次。 [3x3 Rules]

未來

我最充實的時刻是當朋友和讀者告訴我，我的文字如何對他們的生活產生正面影響時。

對他人產生正面影響是非常有意義的榮譽。

寫作使我充實。我相信我的寫作也能夠直接或間接地幫助他人獲得充實感（fulfillment）。

我的使命是增強人們的充實感。

在建構能夠增強人們充實感的事物時，我會持續寫作。

閱讀。寫作。建造。

^
摘自叔本華在 Parerga and Paralipomena 中關於閱讀和書籍的第 24 章。請見 [Read Yourself Stupid]："When we read, the author thinks for us. We can read ourselves stupid if we just repeat the author's mental process. People who just let their own thoughts wander can be more creative than those who just read."。
^
與解釋性深度錯覺 (IOED) 有關。請見 [Illusion of Explanatory Depth]。
^
這讓我想起 Tyler Cowen，他不做筆記，但寫了非常多文章、論文與書，也許這就是他做筆記的方式：透過寫作和應用他所學到的東西。延伸閱讀：Tyler Cowen on Reading 和 Andy Matuschak 關於 Tyler 寫作義務的這個訪談。
^
與 Mortimer Adler 的話有關："The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks."。
^
改寫自 Steven Pinker 在 The Sense of Style 所寫："The writer’s goal is to encode a web of ideas into a string of words using a tree of phrases." 。請見 [Write Web to String] 和 Ted Nelson 的批評。
^
資訊只有在我們解釋和理解之後才成為知識。請見 [No Knowledge in Book]："There is no knowledge in books, only information. Information only becomes knowledge after we interpret and understand it."。
^
來自 Neil Levy 在 Oxford Handbook of Neuroethics 第 18 章 Neuroethics and the Extended Mind。請見 [Notes Make Intellectual Possible]："Taking notes on paper or screens doesn't merely simplify complex tasks like contemporary physics or other intellectual pursuits. Taking notes makes them possible."。
^
請見 [Working and External Memory]："Our working memory has a limited capacity for task-related information. To perform complex tasks, we should offload some mental load onto an external medium."。
^
請見 Douglas Engelbart 的 Augmenting Human Intellect ：筆和紙作為我們智力發展的第三階段，可以實現手動和外部符號操作。延伸閱讀：Information processing theory。
^
但我們應該記住，紙張作為我們思考的媒介，是一個「低頻寬的傳輸媒介」。請參閱 Bret Victor 的 Media for Thinking the Unthinkable。偉大創意的創作需要強大的媒介來展現，而紙張可能還不夠。
^
請見 [Writing Is Thinking]："Writing is thinking. You write first and derive clear perspectives from your own writing."。
^
來自 Niklas Luhmann 在 Kommunikation Mit Zettelkästen："Without writing, you cannot think; at least not in a sophisticated and scientific way."。
^
因為單獨的概念缺乏上下文或與熟悉的想法的聯繫，更難以在我們的記憶中有效編碼。請見 How Memory Functions 和 Information Processing Theory- Memory, Encoding, and Storage。
^
這也是為何 mnemonic link system 有用。
^
請見 How the brain builds on prior knowledge。
^
請見 [Actionable Truth]："Insight is the smallest unit of truth that is actionable. If you cannot act on it, it is just an abstraction."。
^
請見 [Action-Thoughts Alignment]："There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do."。
^
請見 [True Learning]："True learning is understanding. True understanding is linking new information to existing knowledge and applying it to problems."。
^
跟 Brian Armstrong 在這個訪談所說的 "action produces information" 有關。
^
請見 Deliberate Practice。
^
反饋迴路可實現系統改進。請見 Thinking in Systems。
^
請見 Note-writing practices provide weak feedback。
^
我在 2016 年的年度回顧：[2016 紀錄].
^
每當我看到我以前的一些想法和寫作有多麼丟臉時，我都會感到尷尬。但我把它們當作進步的記錄，提醒自己成長心態（Growth Mindset）並 run my own race。
^
話雖如此，寫下你的想法仍然是一個很好的思考工具，也是一種成長的衡量標準，可以讓你的方向與長期目標保持一致。
^
除了創造更好的事物之外，我的另一個人生目標是成為更好的人並有意識地生活的。
^
另見 Sam Altman 的 Value is created by doing："Writing can be a marginal use of time, but being good at it is important. If you are already good at writing, maybe the marginal utility of writing is diminishing and you should create value by doing."。
^
或者，我可以就我只感興趣的主題寫得很深入，主要為我自己提供價值，儘管這可能更接近於做筆記。
^
請見 Andrej Karpathy 的 on shortification of "learning" 。
^
不能啟發行動的寫作比較沒有意義。這就像你向創投提案你的創業想法，他們完全理解你。但他們就是不投資你。
^
請見 [Luck and Arena Razors]："When choosing between two paths, choose the one with a larger luck surface area and/or the one that puts you in the arena."。
^
另見：Learn In Public.
^
另見： Show Your Work!.
^
來自 The Almanack of Naval Ravikant："If you are fundamentally building and marketing something that is an extension of who you are, no one can compete with you on that."。也紀錄在我的 [2022 紀錄].
^
來自 Finite and Infinite Games: "A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play."。
^
來自 Sally Hogshead。也紀錄在我的 [2022 紀錄]。
^
請見 [Gen AI and Photography to Art]："Generative AI is to digital art as photography was to traditional art. The value of having good ideas grows when new technology lowers the need for technical skills."。
^
儘管有人可能會說 DreamBooth 和其他類似的技術可以代表自己，或者訓練大型語言模型需要品味，但我不會說目前它能讓人們在那些作品中感到「真誠」。
^
來自 Jadah Sellner："There are no unique messages, only unique messengers."。請見 [Unique Messenger not Message]。
^
請見 [Opinions Afraid to Share]："Do you hold opinions you're afraid to share with peers? If not, maybe you just believe what you're told rather than think independently."。
^
請見 [Marketing Cringe]："When marketing our work, we must feel a bit cringe. Zero cringe can be suboptimal because it either means we are not being authentic or we are tasteless."。
^
好的預測應該應用機率並說明假設前提，並記住 Fooled by Randomness 裡的[幸運傻瓜]。
^
來自 The Beginning of Infinity："A good explanation is one that accounts for observations while being hard to vary."。
^
請見 [No Hedged Words]："State your conjecture in a way that sounds like the laws of physics. Avoid mealy-mouthed allusions because ChatGPT can do all the hedged answers already. Solid and arbitrary statement sparks more comments and feedback."。
^
來自 Christiane Amanpour。我第一次從 Kara Swisher 聽到這句話。
^
來自 Douglas Hofstadter 在 Metamagical Themas："I was beginning to wonder how long I could sustain it without seriously jeopardizing my research. I decided to divide up my long list of prospective topics into categories: columns I would love to do, columns I would simply enjoy doing, and columns I could write with interest but no real passion."。
^
來自 Robert Heaton 的 How to come up with blog post ideas。
^
無論多特定，所以這可以透過定義一個虛構的特定類別來完成。我的 [HyperLogLog] 是該演算法最容易理解的線上介紹文章。[Remove Labels]、[I Don't Have Time] 和 [Let Go of Your Desire to Tell a Bigger Story When Listening] 是探索對這些簡單但較少討論的想法的奇怪看法的最佳文章。看吧，你可以這麼特定。

謝謝 Angelica Kosasih、Scott Chen 和 Simon Tsai 幫我看這篇的草稿與回饋。

Write with Ears not Eyes

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 03:14:36 GMT

C. S. Lewis writing advice: Turn off the Radio. Always write with the ear, not the eye. You should hear every sentence you write as if it were being read aloud or spoken.

Book: Letters of C. S. Lewis

Here's what C. S. Lewis advised about writing in 1959:

It is very hard to give any general advice about writing. Here’s my attempt.

Turn off the Radio.

Read all the good books you can, and avoid nearly all magazines.

Always write (and read) with the ear, not the eye. You should hear every sentence you write as if it was being read aloud or spoken. If it does not sound nice, try again.

Write about what really interests you, whether it is real things or imaginary things, and nothing else. (Notice this means that if you are interested only in writing you will never be a writer, because you will have nothing to write about. . . .)

Take great pains to be clear. Remember that though you start by knowing what you mean, the reader doesn’t, and a single ill-chosen word may lead him to a total misunderstanding. In a story it is terribly easy just to forget that you have not told the reader something that he wants to know—the whole picture is so clear in your own mind that you forget that it isn’t the same in his.

When you give up a bit of work don’t (unless it is hopelessly bad) throw it away. Put it in a drawer. It may come in useful later. Much of my best work, or what I think my best, is the re-writing of things begun and abandoned years earlier.

Don’t use a typewriter. The noise will destroy your sense of rhythm, which still needs years of training.

Be sure you know the meaning (or meanings) of every word you use.

I found his "Turn off the Radio", and "Write (and read) with the ear" advice very intriguing. That might explain why I prefer listening to the same few music albums when doing my creative writing.

"Be sure you know the meaning (or meanings) of every word you use." also resonates with one of my writing rules: Don't use words I cannot pronounce.

Programming as Theory Building

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Programming is not about writing code but about building a theory as a comprehensive mental map of how the pieces fit and why they matter. A program dies when the original team processing the theory leaves because new developers cannot construct that theory from code and artifacts.

Paper: Peter Naur, Programming as Theory Building

Why do some software projects thrive over time while others collapse under their own weight?

Peter Naur states that the fundamental nature of programming is not the creation of source code or documentation, but rather the construction and maintenance of an evolving "theory of the program" shared within the minds of the people working on it.

This theory is a mental map constructed through fixing bugs, developing features, and debating design tradeoffs. Developers learn how the pieces fit and why they matter so they can use this theory to predict how the software behaves, solve new problems, and make reasonable modifications.

The code and other artifacts are merely written representations of this theory. They are secondary products and are inherently "lossy". Therefore, the complete theory cannot be rebuilt solely from these artifacts.

This explains why software projects collapse. A program dies when the team possessing its theory is dissolved. While the software might continue to run, its death becomes inevitable when modifications or extensions are needed. A new team lacking the original theory will eventually cause changes that diverge from the original intent. To extend a program's life, new developers must build their own theory by working closely with existing developers.

To save "dead" programs, it might be more effective to discard all existing codes and solve the problem from scratch, rather than attempting a difficult, frustrating, and time-consuming effort to rebuild a theory for an existing, potentially obscure program text.

Seeing programming as theory building resembles how Deutsch and Popper think knowledge is from guesses we invented as theories and the process of turning mental construct into code resembles how writing is the process of encoding a web of ideas into a string of words using a tree of phrases.

The concept of the lifecycle of software projects also reminds me of Ted Chiang's novella The Lifecycle of Software Objects, which I've briefly noted here.

Only One Title for Engineers

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

When titles become goals, workers chase labels rather than mission success. Palantir uses a single title for all engineers to keep focus on outcomes instead of promotions.

Article: Reflections on Palantir

Goodhart's Law states that "when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure". This happened in big companies, where promotions meant launching shiny new products with your name on them, even if the products confused users.

The metric is launching new things, not user value. So people steer their efforts to win the metric. Because the badge of Product Lead mattered more than product quality, titles became trophies that caused a company to drift from its mission.

Palantir tried a simple fix. Apart from the CEO and a handful of directors, everyone was called a forward deployed engineer. No senior, principal or vice president badges to chase.

Need someone to lead a critical project? The role belonged to whoever earned trust through results. If you slip in performance, someone else could step in. The absence of ladders made politics less rewarding. If you wanted recognition you had to ship good code or solve a hard client problem.

The policy was not perfect. People still sought influence by bonding with leaders. However, the flat hierarchy made it hard to rest on status. You always had to earn your place in the company and earn the right to work on what you were working on.

Roles remained fluid, and the absence of titles became a quiet guardrail nudging efforts toward merit and away from mimetic status envy.

Growth Imperative

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Paper: Growth imperatives: Substantiating a contested concept

Why do even successful companies feel restless? If a successful mid-sized phone maker skips the next big upgrade, its competitors will take its customers, and its workers will start to leave. The company must pour earnings back into research and bigger factories just to stay in place.

Growth imperative is a fundamental principle embedded in modern capitalist economies, describing the systematic necessity for continuous economic growth.

The phone maker example demonstrates the growth imperative at the firm level. At the micro level, households feel a similar pressure. A worker must buy a laptop and better internet to keep a job that demands remote meetings. Falling behind on these efficiency purchases can risk unemployment or social exclusion.

At the macro level, governments must chase more output new industries, and ever-faster innovation to protect employment and social stability because, each year, rising labor productivity means the same tasks need fewer people. Without matching economic growth, jobs vanish and tax revenue drops, straining welfare budgets.

Across all three levels, the same pattern appears: survive by expanding resource use and capital or face existential costs.

Potential solutions to the growth imperative include degrowth, although I have yet to see a clear implementation path."

Some people also apply the growth imperative at the personal level. Bill Bain, founder of one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the world Bain & Company, introduced Morris Chang to the Experience Curve concept at Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

When leaving BCG in 1973, resigning as vice president to found Bain & Company, Bain was asked by Morris Chang why he wanted to leave. Bain replied: "We all have a growth imperative".

Love and Work

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"Love and work, work and love, that's all there is." — Sigmund Freud

Quote.

You can categorize things as either love or work. All there in life is love and work, and nothing else.

Build TikTok like New Country

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Building an influencer community is like founding a new country. Early TikTok attracted creators the way nations draw migrants with economic policies: First, it rewards a few users to demonstrate upward mobility and rapid successes, then spreads opportunities to grow a broad middle class.

Video: Musical ly's Alex Zhu on Igniting Viral Growth and Building a User Community 2016

How can an early social media platform solve the classic marketplace chicken-and-egg problem? Viewers want great content, but new creators need proof their effort will pay off, especially when considering a move to an unknown app.

Early TikTok viewed building an influencer community as building a new country and economy from the ground up. You want to grow the population by attracting people to migrate to your country.

Established platforms like Instagram and YouTube are like Europe, where social hierarchies are entrenched. The average citizen of Europe has almost zero opportunity to move upward in the social class. On the other hand, TikTok positioned itself like America, a new land promising opportunity and upward mobility.

Their strategy is a planned economy with a two-phase plan.

Phase one: Centralize fame.

In this new land, you must build a centralized economy in the early days.

The algorithm funneled traffic to a small percentage of people in your land. You ensure they successfully build an audience and wealth, making them role models for the country. You effectively create the American dream. For example, overnight successes like Baby Ariel served as living ads.

People in Europe (Instagram and YouTube) will start to realize that this "normal" person went to America (TikTok) and became super rich. Maybe I can do the same? Fear of missing out will lead to many people migrating to your country.

Phase two: Decentralize reach.

Having an American dream is good, but people will wake up eventually. Therefore, you have to decentralize the economy once the supply of hopeful newcomers grows.

Ranking rules shifted toward short-term engagement signals and random exploratory boosts. This let many clips land on the For You feed, giving most users a hit of validation. A middle class of semi-popular accounts kept uploading, which kept viewers scrolling and data flowing back into better recommendations.

Using this lens to examine the initial algorithm for all the new social media platforms is interesting. Do you think Threads use the same strategy?

The Quality Cannot be Named

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

There is a core quality that serves as the fundamental indicator of life and spirit in a person, town, building, or nature. This quality is objective and precise, differentiate the good from the bad, but cannot be named.

Book: The Timeless Way of Building

Have you ever walked into a place and instantly felt it was "alive" or "just right" without knowing why? You recognize a profound yet subtle difference between things that genuinely feel whole and vibrant and those that don't.

Christopher Alexander firmly believes there's an objective difference between good buildings and bad, good towns and bad. But why are people taught and believed that there is no single, solid basis for the difference between good and bad buildings?

It happens because the single central quality which makes the difference cannot be named.

Imagine an English country garden where a peach tree grows flat against a sunlit wall. The warm bricks heat the peaches, creating a delicate harmony between the tree, grass, and wall. Each element fits together naturally, effortlessly, and precisely. This exact yet fluid balance is what characterizes the elusive quality Alexander discusses, which he calls the "quality without a name."

This quality is the most essential characteristic present in anything. It is never the same between different things because it always adapts itself according to the specific place where it emerges.

In one location it is calm, in another stormy. In one individual it is orderly, in another casual. In one home it is bright, in another shadowy.

This quality can't be described by a single word because words tend to overshoot its exact meaning. Alexander tries to pin it down with words like "alive," "whole," "comfortable," "free," "exact," "egoless," and "eternal," but each one falls short.

"Alive" is too metaphorical; "whole" feels too enclosed; "comfortable" is easily misused; "free" risks artificiality; "exact" lacks fluidity; "egoless" implies self-denial; "eternal" feels too grand.

Yet, despite language's limitations, this unnamed quality remains undeniably real and profoundly important. It represents authenticity, unity, and harmony in systems. It guides us toward structures and environments that naturally sustain themselves and support vibrant life. Ultimately, recognizing and nurturing this quality, even though we can't name it, is central to creating spaces and lives that are truly meaningful.

You can find Taoist ideas in Christopher Alexander's philosophy of architecture, like the Tao (the way) in Tao Te Ching:

"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name".

This also connects to the language problems we have touched on in Wittgenstein and Language, Language Games and Wittgenstein's "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."

Product as Love for Human Species

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Building wonderful products with great care and love is a way of expressing our deep appreciation to the rest of our human species.

Book: Make Something Wonderful

From Steve Jobs:

“There’s lots of ways to be as a person, and some people express their deep appreciation in different ways, but one of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful and put it out there.

And you never meet the people, you never shake their hands, you never hear their story or tell yours, but somehow, in the act of making something with a great deal of care and love, something is transmitted there. And it’s a way of expressing to the rest of our species our deep appreciation. So, we need to be true to who we are and remember what’s really important to us. That's what's going to keep Apple Apple: is if we keep us us.”

I was reminded of this again when listening to this recent interview where Patrick Collison interviewed Jony Ive. This also reminds me of how humane Jobs is in the email he sent to himself a year before his passing:

I grow little of the food I eat, and of the little I do grow

I did not breed or perfect the seeds.

I do not make any of my own clothing.

I speak a language did not invent or refine

I did not discover the mathematics I use.

I am protected by freedoms and laws I did not conceive of or legislate, and do not enforce or adjudicate.

I am moved by music I did not create myself.

When I needed medical attention, I was helpless to help myself survive.

I did not invent the transistor, the microprocessor, object oriented programming, or most of the technology I work with,

I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being.

4X in Games

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Four verbs that define game design in popular strategy games: Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate.

Article: 4X

4X (abbreviation of Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate) is a subgenre of strategy-based games, including board games like Twilight Imperium and computer games like Civilization. The gameplay usually involves building an empire and making decisions on how to develop its economy and technology.

Each verb maps to a design pillar that guides the structure of any grand-scale strategy project:

Explore gives players information on goals. Blacked-out maps, unidentified relics, or hidden tech options feed curiosity and set early pacing. Designers must tune the reward cadence of discovery to keep choices coming without flooding the cognitive load.
Expand turns gathered knowledge into ownership. New cities or starbases raise production while stretching logistics, so every expansion decision changes the long-term economy. Territory pressure also seeds future conflict, teasing the final two verbs.
Exploit is the economic heart. Mines, farms, or trading posts convert space and time into multipliers like science or influence. Balancing short-term yield against delayed breakthroughs forces players to plan across eras and creates meaningful trade-offs.
Exterminate delivers resolution. Combat, cultural pressure, or diplomatic isolation lets players test the engine they built against rival engines. Victory conditions do not need to be pure conquest, yet a credible threat of removal raises the emotional stakes of every earlier decision.

What makes the 4X mechanism so powerful in game design? The 4X loop provides a clear progression that guides players through discovery, growth, resource management, and conflict resolution. This structure not only facilitates strategic depth but also encourages players to invest emotionally in developing their in-game civilizations. We see the Hooked Habit Model again in 4X!

By revisiting the four verbs during prototyping, designers can check that every feature either reveals, grows, converts, or resolves. Features that do not fit the rhythm can be cut or refocused, keeping the experience decisive and replayable.

However, the 4X formula won't make every game good. Here's another interesting post criticizing the 4X mechanism: The Curious Case of 4X Games, Efficiency Engines, and Missing Strategic Gambits.

Munger on Opportunity Cost

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"All intelligent people should think primarily in terms of opportunity cost. When deciding whether to do something compare it with the best opportunity you have."

Book: Buffett and Munger Unscripted

This quote is from Charlie Munger and resonates with one of the decision heuristics I use the most: When you are faced with a choice between two plans, choose the one that makes the most sense given the timing. Something you can only do during a certain time window, under certain circumstances, at a certain age.

You can only explain "Why now" well when you have considered your opportunity cost seriously.

Envy-free cake-cutting

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Envy-free cake-cutting shows that resources can be split so everyone thinks they got the best cut. The simple divide and choose method works for two people, while the Selfridge-Conway procedure can be generalized to N people.

Article: The Envy-Free Cake-Cutting Procedure

Imagine you and your sibling are splitting a cake, and both of you want the best slice possible because the cake is so famously good. How should you two divide the cake fairly?

In the context of game theory, this problem is known as envy-free cake-cutting, where fairness is defined as each person believing their piece is the best slice (or at least as good as everyone else's), effectively preventing envy altogether.

Now pause. Think about how to divide a cake for two people without causing envy?

The simplest envy-free method for two people is "Divide and Choose." One person cuts the cake into two pieces, which they feel are equal in value. The other person then chooses their favorite piece first. The Divide and Choose method works because both parties' best strategies inevitably lead to a fair cut.

The cutter will try to divide evenly because they know they'll get the leftover piece. The chooser will always pick the piece they prefer, so neither person envies the other.

However, with three people, ensuring envy-freeness gets trickier. Mathematicians John Selfridge and John Conway independently discovered the Selfridge-Conway procedure. Here's how it works:

Person A divides the cake into three equal slices (Slice 1, Slice 2, Slice 3).
If Person B thinks all three slices are equal, then each player chooses a slice in this order: Person A, Person B, Person C. Problem solved.
If Person B identifies the largest slice (said Slice 1), they then trim it slightly to be Slice 1' and match their second-choice slice (said Slice 2), setting aside the trimmings (called Slice 1T).
Person C selects a slice first, then Person B chooses next (must take the trimmed piece Slice 1' if still available), leaving Person A with the last piece.
Finally, if Person C picks Slice 1', Person B needs to divide Slice 1T into three. Then each player chooses a slice in this order: Person C, Person A, Person B. Problem solved. Vice versa, if Person B picks Slice 1'.

You can read an analysis of why the Selfridge-Conway procedure ensures envy-freeness here, and this method can even be generalized to N partners.

Moreover, envy-free cake-cutting is more than just a method for equitable division. Inspired by this, a common question raised in political science is whether it is truly necessary to get a third-party judge to ensure fairness in political conflicts.

Meaning not Money

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

You think what you want is money, but what you really want is meaning.

Thought

Many aspects of people's daily work can feel meaningless. We often rationalize this and learn to tolerate it because these seemingly pointless activities lead to a salary. In this case, the salary provides us with meaning. Money becomes a means to an end, serving as the source of that meaning.

I often reflect on the struggle Markus Persson, aka "Notch," faced after he sold Minecraft to Microsoft for $2.5 billion. It must have been incredibly difficult to turn down such a lucrative offer, but it can also be just as challenging to rediscover the same meaning Minecraft had given him. At the end of the day, we are not like Grigori Perelman, who can solve one of the Millennium Prize Problems but turned down both the Fields Medal and the Millennium Prize.

I first thought about this question more frequently during my compulsory military service in Taiwan, where many of my comrades felt like they were wasting their lives. It was during that time that I first understood what Friedrich Nietzsche meant when he said, "If you know why to live, you can bear almost any how."

No Hurry No Pause

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

No hurry, no pause. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

Article: Tim Ferriss on X

From Tim Ferriss:

I routinely write “No hurry, no pause” at the top of my notebooks as a daily reminder.

You can get 95% of the results you want by calmly putting one foot in front of the other.

One former Navy SEAL friend once texted me a principle used in their training: “Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.”

Perhaps I’m just getting old, but my definition of luxury has changed over time. Now, it’s not about owning a lot of stuff. Luxury, to me, is feeling unrushed.

No hurry, no pause.

It takes more energy to initiate motion when overcoming stiction than maintaining that motion, and I found this applies to many things in life.

This also reminds me of running. The main thing is to keep running and never walk. Also, Haruki Murakami on Running and Writing.

Challenge Assumptions and Get Data

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Two things to do when feeling stuck: Challenge assumptions or gather more data.

Thought

In my experience, the least helpful thing to do when feeling stuck is to make more plans or do more analysis. These oftentimes just lead to analysis paralysis.

Two things I found more helpful are challenging assumptions from first principles and taking action to gather more data.

Actions Speak So Loudly

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"Your actions speak so loudly, I cannot hear what you are saying." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quote

Don't tell me where your priorities are. Show me how you spend your time and I'll tell you what they are.

Flynn Effect

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Flynn effect: Average IQ scores increase each decade for most of the twentieth century. Intelligence tests capture not just the innate cognitive ability but also the environmental changes, including societal changes that allow and reward abstract thinking.

Article: On the Flynn Effect and Merit in Medicine

If you take the same IQ test your grandfather once faced, there's a high chance that you will outscore him without extra study.

James R. Flynn first discovered this phenomenon: both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores that were measured substantially and sustainedly increased over the 20th century. He saw average scores steadily climbing about three points every ten years from the 1930s to the 1970s. And this rise showed up almost everywhere: in the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other industrial nations.

From Mohamed Nagdy - https://web.archive.org/web/20220306071619/https://ourworldindata.org/intelligence

Why? Although the exact causes of the Flynn effect remain uncertain, several environmental factors are possible candidates: Education became more accessible, nutrition improved, and everyday life got more complex.

Nowadays, daily life is filled with puzzles, screens, and symbols, which naturally exercise people's abilities in abstract thinking and problem-solving. All those forces boosted fluid reasoning and stored knowledge, the very skills IQ tests measure. Therefore, rising IQ scores are not just adaptive to life in the modern world, but are also enabled by it.

Modern society also affords the "luxury" of being able to think about the world in abstract terms in the first place. Its economy further rewards individuals who can reason more in abstract terms.

Therefore, Flynn himself questioned whether the rise in IQ scores really meant that people were getting more intelligent. Perhaps, we are not "smarter" but are more privileged. This privilege comes from living in a society that allows and rewards abstract thinking.

Deutsch and Popper on Knowledge

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Knowledge doesn't originate from sensory experiences. Instead, it's from the guesses we invented as theories and the "conjecture and criticism" process. Observation helps us choose between existing theories but doesn't generate new ones.

Book: The Beginning of Infinity

Have you ever wondered how we actually gain knowledge? Traditional empiricism says we derive all our knowledge from sensory experience (observation). However, philosopher Karl Popper and physicist David Deutsch argue exactly the opposite: knowledge starts with guessing.

Imagine a child trying to understand why the sky changes color. They do not wait to collect perfect data. They blurt out a story, guessing that the sky changes color because it has mood swings. Scientists are grown-up children who do the same, just with better tools.

Karl Popper called this creativity phase "conjecture". He thinks all our observations are never theory-free. For instance, before you can say, "I see a table," you need prior theories about space, solidity, language, etc. As Popper put it, "All observation is theory-laden".

David Deutsch pushes it further and says the mind is a "guessing engine". We creatively rearrange, combine, alter, and invent theories to solve problems long before we gather data.

Once a guess exists, we try to break it. We look for contradictions. Observation's fundamental role is to show that some theories are false so we can provoke better ones. We compare it with rival guesses. If two solid conjectures make opposite predictions, we run experiments that force nature to choose. Observation enters as judge, not author. In other words, the role of observation is to choose between existing theories, not to be the source of new ones.

Popper calls this process "conjecture and criticism". First, we guess (conjecture) how things might work. Then, through observation and logical examination (criticism), we find out which guesses don't hold up. This cycle repeats, refining our understanding each time.

Consider theories like heliocentrism, relativity, and quantum mechanics. These ideas were proposed long before any definitive experiments existed. Scientists didn't derive these concepts from sensory experience. They guessed. Experiments later only served as crucial tests to see which theories hold.

Why does this matter? It reminds us that knowledge is inherently uncertain and fallible. Any finite set of observations supports infinitely many incompatible rules, so you cannot logically climb from raw data to a unique law. Therefore, rather than seeking absolute certainty from our senses, we should embrace open criticism and continuous examination.

Tyler on Stop Writing Book

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Stop writing traditional books because AI will answer questions faster than a book can reach readers. Focus on high-frequency writing or "Truly Human" books.

Podcast: The Most Practical Conversation About Writing With AI – Tyler Cowen

After writing over 20 books, Tyler Cowen mentioned that he might not write any more books because of AI.

AI is progressing rapidly, making many book topics obsolete by the time they can be written and published. Tyler specifically states that AI is already better than humans at answering questions about economics and economic models in many areas.

Many topics Tyler would have considered writing about are now obsolete because AI can handle information gathering or writing better. Predictive books or books about the near future, for example, no longer make sense due to the speed of AI development.

Therefore, Tyler is pivoting. Instead of writing books, Cowen plans to do more "super high-frequency writing" (like on Substack, blogging, and Twitter), which is better suited for covering rapidly changing topics, much of which will be about AI itself.

And for books, he believes the "truly human books" will stand out in the AI-rich future. These books require personal experience, subjective perspective, fieldwork, interviewing, or memoir/biography elements that AI cannot sincerely replicate.

Six Components of Game

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Six components of a Classic Game Model: Rules, Variable and measurable outcomes, Values on those outcomes, Player effort, Player attachment, and Negotiable Consequences

Paper: The Game, the Player, the World: Looking for a Heart of Gameness

In Five Definitions of Game, we learned about Jesper Juul's definition of game:

"A rule-based formal system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable"

In the Danish game researcher's paper, The Game, the Player, the World: Looking for a Heart of Gameness, he combines multiple game design perspectives into a formal definition he calls the "classic game model." According to this model, games contain six distinct features:

Fixed rules (Clear instructions limit what players may do.)
Variable, quantifiable outcomes (The ending can differ and we can tell who won.)
Values associated with each outcome (One ending is better than another, so victory matters)
Player effort (Winning demands skill, thought, or quick moves)
Player attachment (The result stirs real emotion in the player)
Negotiable Consequences (The winners may claim bragging rights or even prize money, yet the group can choose to keep it friendly.)

From https://jesperjuul.net/text/gameplayerworld

Juul's model highlights the relationship between the game, the player, and the world. While he admitted that games might be forever indefinable, this model helps us discuss how the boundaries defining a game can shift over time.

From this Classic Game Model, we can also see why games form addictive habits. The Hooked model outlines four steps in habit formation: triggers, actions, variable rewards, and investments.

The fixed rules described in the Classic Game Model dictate user actions. Similarly, the variable and measurable outcomes align closely with the variable rewards of the Hooked model. Additionally, player effort and attachment correspond directly to the investments identified in the Hooked model.

Ready is not Feeling

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Stop waiting to feel ready. Ready is not a feeling. It's a decision.

Quote

I forgot where I found this quote, but I hope this serves as your daily dose of motivational speaker drops.

Five Definitions of Game

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Best definition of Game: A problem-solving activity, approached with a playful attitude. Alternative: A rule-based formal system with a variable and quantifiable outcome.

Book: The Art of Game Design

Although there's no perfect definition of games (or perfect definition of anything; see Language Games and Family Resemblance), good definitions have value if they give you some insight into making better games. There are several different attempts to define what a game is.

Sid Meier, the game designer behind the Civilization series, has a simple definition:

"A game is a series of interesting choices".

Ernest Adams and Andrew Rollings's in Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design:

"One or more causally linked series of challenges in a simulated environment."

These two definitions remind me of Steve Jobs's "taste is a byproduct of the number of decisions you make", but a bit too abstract to be useful.

Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman define game in their Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals:

"A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome."

And Jesper Juul in his book Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds defines game as

"A rule-based formal system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable"

But my favorite one is from Jesse Schell in The Art of Game Design:

"A game is a problem solving activity, approached with a playful attitude"

I like this definition because it provides more philosophical depth compared to Jesper Juul's definition, which feels more prescriptive. It captures the essence of the game while allowing game designers the flexibility to establish their own rules

Jesse Schell also defines a Good Toy as "an object that is fun to play with ", Fun as "pleasure with surprises", and Play as "manipulation that indulges curiosity".

CCAF Instructional Design Model

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The CCAF Instructional Design Model: Engaging and meaningful learning experience requires Context, Challenge, Activity, and Feedback (CCAF).

Book: Michael Allen's Guide to E-Learning

Have you ever sat through a course or a training session that felt meaningless and time-wasting?

Michael Allen's CCAF model solves this by providing a clear instructional design framework to create a learning-by-doing experience that feels engaging and meaningful.

The CCAF model has four key components: Context, Challenge, Activity, and Feedback.

(1) Context: A meaningful situation.

Context immerses the learner in a relevant scenario right away. Context is used to provide meaning and relevance, and convey that the skills and knowledge have meaning and usefulness in the real world.

For example, for a training lesson about handling customer complaints, you can begin by saying:

"Imagine you're a cashier at a busy store, and an unhappy customer is demanding a refund loudly in front of other customers."

(2) Challenge: A stimulus to act within the context.

A challenge creates immediate tension by placing learners in a simulated scenario that demands action through risk, meaningful consequences, and achievable goals. A challenge is used to engage the learners' emotions, motivating them to engage with intention.

For example, continuing the customer complaints scenario, the challenge could ask learners:

"Decide how you will calm the customer down and address their complaint effectively without escalating the situation."

(3) Activity: An action required to address the challenges.

An activity involves practical, actionable steps learners must take. These actions reflect real-world tasks and enable learners to apply their knowledge practically, both within and beyond the course.

For example, you can provide an interactive simulation where learners practice selecting dialogue options to resolve the customer's complaint, observing immediate responses from the customer based on their choices

(4) Feedback: A reflection of the effectiveness of the action.

Feedback tells learners about their performance quality and highlights what they did correctly and how they can improve.

For example, After the customer interaction simulation, provide feedback that details how effectively the learner handled the scenario and offer specific suggestions from experienced customer service representatives on handling similar real-world complaints.

I found the CCAF framework to be quite useful as a checklist for examining whether others' learning designs are meaningful and motivational.

This framework also reminds me of how a reinforcement learning agent learns.

Three Rules for Great Copywriting

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Great copywriting passes three tests: Can you visualize the words? Can you falsify the words? Can nobody else write this?

Video: Learn Copywriting in 76 Minutes – Harry Dry

Ever skim an ad that promises to "change an industry" and feel nothing because your mind cannot grab intangible words?

Copywriter Harry Dry has three tests for every sentence he writes:

First, can you visualize it? For example, it's hard to visualize an ad saying, "Change an entire industry". But it's easy to close your eyes and see what New Balance said in their clever ad: "Worn by supermodels in London and dads in Ohio". Concrete and vivid ideas stick because our brains remember what they can clearly see. If the claim is too abstract, try to zoom in to find a more concrete description. Another example: "Couch to 5k" is way better than "Regain Fitness."

Second, can you falsify it? A claim that can be proved true or false catches our attention more because it's like putting the writer's head on the chopping board. It demands attention. Saying "He looks like Ryan Gosling" invites a check, while "He is handsome" does not. Making your copywriting be able to be objectively checked adds credibility and intrigue.

Last, ensure nobody else can say what you say. If competitors can easily copy your words, your message is too bland. For example, David Ogilvy's famous advertisement for Rolls-Royce: "At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in the new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock" is unique and perfectly aligned with Rolls-Royce's image. This uniqueness differentiates the message and makes the brand stick in people's minds.

Keynesian Beauty Contest

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The Keynesian Beauty Contest: How predicting what others will do rather than making personal judgments leads to seemingly irrational market behavior.

Article: The Keynesian Beauty Contest - The Decision Lab

Why do certain stocks skyrocket or crash, even though their underlying value doesn't seem to change? Long ago, we learned about Reflexivity Theory explaining this phenomenon. And here's a more concrete example from the famous economist John Maynard Keynes.

In the 1930s, newspapers ran contests asking people to pick the most beautiful faces from a selection of photographs. But there was a twist. Winners weren't those who picked faces they personally found most attractive. Instead, the winners were those who correctly predicted the faces most other people would find attractive.

Keynes realized the stock market works similarly. Investors often ignore the actual value and instead, try to guess which stocks other investors will choose. This behavior creates a cycle. Everyone tries to predict what everyone else is predicting, making stock prices swing wildly without reason.

That's why Benjamin Graham famously said that "In the short run, the market is a voting machine". But don't forget the latter part of his quote: "In the long run, it is a weighing machine."

Man in the Arena

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood." — Theodore Roosevelt

Quote

I first wrote about this in Luck and Arena Razors, but I found the origin beautiful. It comes from the speech Theodore Roosevelt delivered in Paris on April 23, 1910:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Rumination #6: Behavioral Economics, Creativity, Learning Theories and more

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 01:13:29 GMT

This is a special version of Weekly I/O. In this Rumination, I will pick some inputs that I found worth reviewing from Weekly I/O#51 to #60.

If you want to learn 5 learnings like these every week, sign up here!

Hope you enjoy it!

Writing

Write 5x more but write 5x less. [Write More but Less] | Related: [Quantity Predicts Quality]
State your conjecture in a way that sounds like the laws of physics. Avoid mealy-mouthed allusions because ChatGPT can do all the hedged answers already. Solid and arbitrary statement sparks more comments and feedback. [No Hedged Words] | Related: [Write Better Sentences]
Stop every day right after we feel like we can write more. Save the excitement and carry it over to the next day to let momentum kick off tomorrow's work smoothly. [Running and Writing] | Related: [Zeigarnik Effect]
The secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. [Sit Down to Write] | Related: [Writing like Shopkeeper]

Psychology, Economics, and the mix of both (aka Behavioral economics)

Kuleshov Effect: Viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation. [Kuleshov Effect]
Decoy Effect: When we are choosing between two options, introducing a third option can cause shifts in our preference between the first two items. [Decoy Effect]
Moral Hazard: People are more likely to take risks when they know they won't bear the full consequences of their actions. [Moral Hazard]
Adverse Selection: Asymmetric information in transactions can lead to the less-informed side potentially making bad choices. [Adverse Selection]
Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory: Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are independent. Improving factors that cause dissatisfaction does not necessarily lead to satisfaction, and vice versa. [Motivation-hygiene Theory]
Reflexivity theory: positive feedback loops between expectations and economic fundamentals can cause price trends that substantially and persistently deviate from equilibrium prices. [Reflexivity Theory]
Volatility is the emotional price you need to pay to get high average annual returns. View volatility as a fee, not a fine. [Volatility as Fee not Fine]
Principal-Agent problem occurs when one person hires another person to do a job but cannot fully monitor or control their actions, potentially leading to conflicts of interest or suboptimal outcomes. [Principal-Agent Problem]

Creativity and Storytelling

If all we have is structure, we won't have magic. What we also need is unintentionality, like a mistake. Unintentionality is the real secret of creating interesting work. [Unintentionality and Mistake]
“Language can become a screen which stands between the thinker and reality. This is the reason why true creativity often starts where language ends.” - Arthur Koestler [Language and Creativity] | Related: [Wittgenstein and Language]
Jonny Harris's storytelling formula: Visual anchor before contextual bridge. Experience it and then understand it. [Visual before Context] | Related: [Direct Learning]
Creators need immediate connections to what they are creating because so much creation is discovery. We discover nothing if we cannot see the process of our changes effectively. [Immediate Connection to Creation]
When new artists do weird work, their first followers are the curators who transform their individual weirdness into public art. Make your work easy to find and follow. [First Follower]
“A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes." - Ludwig Wittgenstein [Philosophical Jokes]

Work on ourselves and in case we need motivation

Approach social interactions as if we are stuck on a desert island with the other person because low social optionality situations make genuine connections. [Low Social Optionality]
What makes us strong are big things. What makes us vulnerable are little things. [Strong and Vulnerable Things]
You should never think you're too good to do a job, and you should be like that in everything you do. [Never Too Good]
"One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now." - Paulo Coelho [No More Time]
“It is a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves." — Simone Weil [Be Understood after being Clear]
A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others. [Reflect on Irritation] | Related: [As Big as Love]
How to throw away sentimental things? Take a photo. [Declutter with Photo] | Related: [Deleting Photo]
"The idea is to die young as late as possible." - Ashley Montagu [Die Young Late]
The opposite of courage is not cowardice but conformity. [Opposite of Courage]

Making better decision

Solomon's Paradox: When helping ourselves make decisions, imagine helping a friend. [Solomon's Paradox] | Related: [Orangutan Effect]
People thinking others are "just stupid" indicates that they are avoiding thinking by jumping to conclusions. [Smart and Stupid] | Related: [Hanlon's Razor]
Goodhart's Law: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. [Goodhart's Law]
If your opinions on one subject can be predicted from your opinions on another, you may be in the grip of an ideology. When you truly think for yourself, your conclusions will not be predictable. [Predictable by Ideology] | Related: [Opinions Afraid to Share]

Learning Theories

Dark Room Metaphor: Learning is a process of reconstruction (Constructionism), not transmission(Instructionism). Creating our mental 3D model of a room by exploring it in the dark is a slower but more effective learning method than being shown a picture of the room. [Dark Room Metaphor]
Desirable Difficulty in learning: Harder retrieval leads to better learning, given retrieval is successful. Test yourself before we think we are ready. Recall without a hint. [Desirable Difficulty]
Forward testing effect: Taking an exam before learning the subject can enhance future learning of that subject. [Forward Testing Effect]
True learning is understanding. True understanding is linking new information to existing knowledge and applying it to problems. [True Learning] | Related: [No Knowledge in Book], [Knowledge Pyramid], [Experience isn't Learning]
Learning new things is different from practicing new things. Passive learning brings knowledge while active practicing brings skills. [Skill and Knowledge] | Related: [Education or Training]
First step of learning: Learn directly by doing it and ensure the learning is tied to the context in which it will be used. Learn to speak a language by speaking it. [Direct Learning] | Related: [Visual before Context]

Running habits with Haruki Murakami

Having the kind of body that easily puts on weight can be a blessing in disguise. It forces you to stay healthier. [Body Blessing in Disguise]
The reason I can run for more than twenty years is not that I have a strong will. It just suits me. [Running Suits Me]
For habits, there are only a few reasons to keep on something and a truckload of reasons to quit. All we can do is keep those few reasons nicely polished. [Reason not to Quit] | Related: [Deliberate Habits]
I run to acquire a void. Emotions are not strong or consistent enough to sustain a vacuum. But thoughts and ideas that invade my emotions as I run remain subordinate to that void. [Running and Meditation]
Marathon runner competes with no one but a time they want to be. Writer competes with no one but a standard they want to attain. Sustainable motivation requires following something we won't compete with. [Noncompetitiveness]

Technology and AI

Claasen's law: Usefulness = log(Technology) [Claasen's law]
How does Bluetooth work? [Bluetooth]
ChatGPT is like a lossy compression of all the text on the Web. If it takes material generated by itself as training data for next model, the output will be worse. Can LLM's output be as good as its own input? [Lossy LLM]
Every quality that made a person more valuable than a database was a product of experience. [Experience Valuable than Database]
Rather than program an AI with what we want it to know, create ones capable of learning and have users teach them. Experience is the best teacher. Make AI charming so that users will be motivated to put effort into teaching them. [Make AI Charming to Learn]
When AI beat the chess world champion in 1997, it was claimed that "Chess is over". But 26 years later, chess is more popular than ever. [Chess Popularity after AI]
Humans are tool builders. We build tools like computers as the "Bicycle of the Mind" that take us beyond our inherent abilities. [Bicycle of the Mind]

First Impressions of London

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 23:29:20 GMT

This third note is about London and also includes what initially made me want to travel to Europe.

I've also shared my preferred way of traveling and how you should interpret my opinions on these cities in my note about Paris and Berlin.

London: A prettier New York City with a greater emphasis on society.

Below is a log of my first impressions of London, along with some photos I took with Fuji C200, and iPhone.

London strikes me as a more picturesque version of New York City that cares more about society and less about technology and possibly money.

Very first impression: riding a London tube from Heathrow Airport to King Cross can be overwhelmingly humid and packed, especially on a rainy day.

I'm always "amazed" by how uncomfortable and inconvenient the London tube (and Paris Metro) can be. Yet, considering the Tube was founded in 1863, 161 years ago, I'm actually amazed by its enduring functionality.

What would be the optimal design for a modern subway system today? If we are designing metro stations and strains today, what features should they have?

It would be helpful to have visual displays on the platform indicating real-time train capacity information to optimize boarding distribution between cars. Installing modern digital displays inside the train should make the information system more versatile and user-friendly and enable the "injection" of capitalism, unlocking more dynamic advertisements and allowing the metro system to be self-sufficient.

Additionally, better integration with mobile phones, smarter climate control and better energy efficiency, easier-to-clean design, and more reasonable safety features are all crucial. That said, implementing these features might make the metro system less "charismatic", as I questioned what makes a city "cultural" in my Berlin note.

The architecture and streetscape of this city are charming in various ways, and I can imagine myself living here long-term just due to how pleasant walking in the city is.

The historical area near Hyde Park and Baker Street reminds me of Paris, with simplicity and uniformity creating harmony. Modern areas around Canary Wharf feel like skyscrapers from Hudson Yards integrated with small bridges to float on water. The blend of old and new building styles near the Thames's south and around Tate further increases the architectural diversity.

Alexandra & Ainsworth Estate is one of the most interesting social housing projects I've ever been to. Walking from there towards Hampstead, I can feel the transition of the building's style to be increasingly posh.

Walking along the canal near Victoria Park and Hackney feels absolutely magical during the golden hour.

Camden Town and Borough Market are delightful to wander around despite being a bit touristy. And yes, most of my random thoughts here are about walking because I walked around 40km in London (I should have just run a marathon).

Watching American football in a British bar surrounded by Americans was amusing.

Gucci Cosmos at 180 Studios feels like a teamLab's exhibition exclusively sponsored by Gucci with impressive space design and curation by Es Devlin.

Seeing a double-decker bus made me feel like I was in a Harry Potter movie for a moment.

London shares many similarities with New York City but seems to be less ambitious about changing the world and more about having a better personal life. It's cleaner, more historical, and aesthetically pleasing, yet I'm unsure if this is the optimal place for ambitious young people.

Thank you Anil, Carlton, Cathy, Peishu, Steven, Victor, and anyone whom I met in London or who has given me recommendations!

Why travel to Europe

In this final reflection on my journey to Europe, I also want to mention the initial spark of curiosity that led me to Europe: a tradition from a venture capital firm.

Benchmark, one of the most successful venture capital firms in history, has this unique tradition of hosting long dinners every Monday with its venture partners and guests. And there's one rule: no agenda.

An agenda-free, long dinner fosters a space for random and roving conversations, enabling a dynamic range of open-ended and wild explorations into people's most unexpected topics of interest. This tradition is built on the belief that curiosity is the essential lifeblood of a firm. And these dinners become the perfect way to nurture curiosity systematically.

My fascination with this concept motivated me to further explore the French (and other European) tradition of lengthy dinners.¹ I'm curious about the cultural reasons behind the lengthy dinners and what I can learn from them, just like what I've learned from Benchmark's dinner tradition. And through my travels across Paris, Berlin, and London, I've begun to understand the appeal of such lengthy meals.

Soulful experiences usually require inefficiency because most meaningful and memorable moments are unstandardized and unproductive. Europe's longstanding relative prosperity has enabled a lifestyle that prioritizes soulful inquiry over mere survival. This lack of existential pressure in Europe (or, more precisely, Western Europe) allows room for inefficiency and people to seek for things that are unstandardized.²

Therefore, long dinners serve as a canvas for this exploration, allowing space for soulful engagement, shared complaints, and spirited debates on abstract ideas. They can go to a park and just chill for the whole day because they can afford the inefficiency.³ They can care about the environment for future generations because they are less worried about their own survival. To live a more meaningful life beyond just surviving, more advanced technology might not be a requirement.

The goal of exploring other cultures is always to understand myself better. My journey through European culture has confirmed that I still align more closely with American culture, specifically that of San Francisco or New York City. However, learning to appreciate things the way Europeans do has been valuable. If we have the chance to experience (or find ourselves stuck in) a three-hour dinner, we can learn to be present and enjoy those moments the way Europeans do. Sometimes, it's okay to slow down and not worry too much about productivity and efficiency.

^
Though Benchmark's tradition is actually stem from Benjamin Franklin's habits of having long dinners and going deep on finance, chemistry, life sciences and all kinds of topics, but you get the idea.
^
Similar to "Luxury is a necessity that begins where necessity ends."
^
This reminds me of Luxury is the symbol of the buyer's ability to afford items beyond practical necessities.

Memory Distorted by Words

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Our memories can be easily altered by simple changes in wording or external suggestions. When watching the same traffic accident, people recalled cars moving faster if asked how fast they were going when they "smashed into" each other instead of "contacted" each other.

Paper: Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction: An Example of the Interaction Between Language and Memory

This super fun paper shows how a single word can change our memory of an event.

In Elizabeth Loftus's 1970s study, she had a group of participants watch short videos about traffic collisions. Afterward, they were asked to estimate the speed of the cars involved in the collisions. However, they were asked with subtly different wording.

Without access to the actual speed, they could only make guesses based on what they remembered. One group of participants was asked to estimate how fast the cars were going when they "contacted" each other. Their average estimate was about 31 miles per hour.

Another group was asked how fast the cars were going when they "smashed into" each other. The average estimate for this group was about 41 miles per hour. Simply changing the wording from "contacted" to "smashed" inflated speed estimates by 33 percent!

And that's not all. One week later, Loftus asked the participants to recall the event and answer, "Did you see any broken glass?" Even though broken glass was not present in the video, those subjects who received the verb smashed were more likely to say "yes" to the question.

These results are consistent with the view that the questions asked after an event can cause a reconstruction in one's memory of that event. They also raise an important issue: Eyewitness testimony often significantly affects courtroom verdicts, yet Loftus's research reveals how unreliable these memories can be, easily influenced by lawyers, investigators, or even everyday discussions. How can we determine if eyewitness memories are truly reliable?

I first learned about this paper from Why We Remember.

Language Games

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Wittgenstein's language games: Words don't have fixed meanings tied to things or ideas but derive their meaning from how we use them in particular contexts, like playing different games with unique rules.

Book: Philosophical Investigations

Why do we misunderstand each other in seemingly simple conversations?

One of my favorite philosophers, Ludwig Wittgenstein, argued that words' meanings aren't simply a direct mapping to objects or abstract definitions. Instead, they come from how we use them in specific contexts, like games with unique rules and goals.

For example, when we say, "Don't worry, everything's gonna be fine," sometimes, we are not playing the "Rational Prediction from Facts" game but the "Comforting people with words first" game.

Not understanding what kind of "language game" someone is involved in oftentimes can lead to arguments. For instance, when one says to their partner, "You're so unreliable," their partner might think they're playing the "Stating Facts Game" while they are actually playing the "Seeking Reassurance Game." Similarly, when one says, "I hate you", they are usually playing the "Expressing emotion game" instead of the "Stating Facts Game".

Wittgenstein believed many philosophical problems also arise from confusing "language games" with "language as absolute truth." For example, when philosophers ponder on "Where does the present go when it becomes the past?" they often develop complex theories to explain the passage of time. However, Wittgenstein would argue we're playing the wrong language game here because they use spatial language to describe time, leading to confusing theories.

I find Ludwig Wittgenstein's concept of language games elegant because it explains many confusions and misunderstandings we encounter. I also find it useful to interpret this idea as "Sometimes you can only learn something by doing it because you will never understand it if you are not in that game."

Six Elements of Simplicity

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Book: Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Last week, we learned about the hook model and its related Fogg Behavior Model. In the Fogg Behavior Model, Fogg explains that behavior happens when three elements converge: motivation, ability, and prompt (MAP).

Fogg further breaks down the ability component into "six elements of simplicity" that influence how easy or difficult it is to perform a behavior.

Time: How long it takes to complete an action.
Money: How much money it costs to complete an action.
Physical effort: How much physical effort is required to complete an action.
Brain cycles: How much mental effort is required to complete an action.
Social deviance: How much the behavior aligns with social norms.
Non-routine: How well the behavior fits into existing routines.

Essentially, the more time, money, physical effort, mental effort, or social deviance required to complete an action or the less it conforms with societal expectations or existing routines, the more difficult it is.

Fogg also emphasizes that the simplicity is determined by the scarcest resource at the moment. For instance, if time is limited, even a task requiring minimal money and effort may be perceived as difficult. Therefore, you must consider all the elements of simplicity and their interrelationship when designing a behavior.

Innovation-to-Imitation Ratio and Patent

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Patent laws should be stronger in industries with a high "innovation-to-imitation cost ratio," like pharmaceuticals, and weaker in fields like software where costs are lower. One-size-fits-all Patent Law impedes innovation in some sectors.

Article: Why One-size-fits-all Patent Law Is a Bad Idea

In the early 2000s, an Oakland-based researcher envisioned using a cell phone to scan barcodes for instant product details. Excited, he quickly checked the patent database. To his surprise, similar ideas were already patented, despite seeming no more innovative than what he'd just dreamed up in the shower.

The problem is that the patent system doesn't require inventors to prove substantial effort or investment. According to economists, patents should be granted only when innovation costs far exceed imitation costs. In other words, patents should be granted only when the cost of creating something new is much higher than the cost of copying it.

Pharmaceuticals is a classic example. Developing a new drug might cost a billion dollars, while making copies afterward costs pennies. Patents protect innovators' investments by granting temporary monopolies, allowing recovery of research costs.

That said, actual patent law ignores this crucial balance between innovation and imitation. We give pharmaceutical products that cost $1 billion in research a 20-year patent, and one-click shopping gets the same 20-year patent. Adobe's vice president of intellectual property and litigation also had an interesting post on patent from the software perspective.

Having No Opinion

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

“You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can’t control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.” — Marcus Aurelius

Quote

You don't have to be right about everything. Oftentimes, you don't even need and better not to have an opinion on something. Carefully choose the things you care about and ignore the rest.

Antilibrary

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 03:14:36 GMT

An antilibrary is a collection of unread books reminding you how much you still don't know. Instead of being a trophy case for finished books, your bookshelf should be a daily reminder of what you haven't learned.

Book: The Black Swan

Ever feel guilty when piles of unopened books glare at you from the corner of the room? That guilt can be a gift from a different perspective.

The writer Umberto Eco had over 30,000 books in his private library. He said:

It is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read. It would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or screwdrivers or drill bits you bought before buying new ones.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb called the collection of unread books an antilibrary. A bookshelf should not be an ego-boosting device to show how many books you have read. Instead, it should be a daily reminder of what you haven't read yet.

If you think about it, already-read books are far less valuable than unread ones if they are equally well-written.

The more you know, the bigger your collection of unread books might become. But don't worry. The aim isn't to finish every book. Instead, it's about keeping unexplored ideas close at hand and reminding you that there are still things you have yet to learn.

Hooked Habit Model

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

User habits develop when products consistently guide users through triggers, actions, variable rewards, and investments. This four-step hook model shapes user habits by linking automatic behaviors to internal emotions.

Book: Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

In Nir Eyal's influential book Hooked, he explains how companies create products that help users effortlessly develop habits, such as opening an app without thinking or checking notifications out of boredom.

He introduces a four-step framework to analyze precisely how products subtly transform occasional usage into automatic habits.

The first step is Trigger. Triggers can be external, such as a phone notification directing you to an app, or internal, like feelings of loneliness or boredom prompting the same behavior without any external cues. The product designer aims to quickly transition users from relying on external triggers (alerts) to internal triggers (emotional states) to make the product usage instinctive.

The second step is Action, the simplest behavior a user can perform to continue forward. For example, tapping to refresh, swiping to match, or scrolling for more content. The designer's objective is to either increase motivation or reduce effort so that the action feels effortless. This is closely related to the Fogg behavior model we learned before.

The third step is Variable Reward. Meaningful unpredictability keeps the brain engaged, and variable rewards continuously activate the dopamine system because users never know exactly what they'll receive. Eyal categorizes these rewards into three archetypes:

Rewards of the Tribe (social validation and belonging, such as likes or comments)
Rewards of the Hunt (searching for resources or information, like endless feeds or pull-to-refresh)
Rewards of the Self (personal mastery and achievement, such as leveling up or maintaining streaks)

This is also highly related to the Random Intermittent Reward we learned before.

The final step is Investment. The product prompts users to make small contributions, such as adding a friend or saving a song. Each of these investments stores personal value within the product, serving four key purposes:

Enhances product usefulness: Giving a thumbs-up on Netflix refines its algorithm, ensuring you receive better recommendations next time.
Raises switching costs: Adding new notes to Notion makes switching to another note-taking app increasingly inconvenient.
Creates future triggers: Gaining a new follower on Instagram generates additional notifications in the future.
Signals progress: Duolingo's streak counter capitalizes on users' commitment to maintaining their progress.

When repeated often enough, this loop converts external prompts into internal impulses. Users begin opening apps automatically because their emotions now directly trigger the behavior. Products that effectively master these four steps build habits that become difficult to break.

No Expectation is Higher than Mine

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

When asked if he felt pressure from fans' expectations, Kobe Bryant responded, "Their expectations will never be higher than my own. Never, never, never."

Video: Kobe Bryant - The Interview With Ahmad Rashad

Setting a higher standard for yourself or placing more pressure on yourself than the external world ever could make handling outside expectations easier.

I always remember Kobe Bryant's response from this interview. Around the 40:40 mark, Ahmad Rashad asked Kobe if he ever worried about pressure from fans' expectations when struggling. Kobe interrupted before Ahmad could finish, almost disgusted by the thought, and replied:

Their expectations will never be higher than my own. Never, never, never, never, never, never.

Kobe Bryant did not care about others' opinions. Nobody could hold him to a higher standard than he held himself.

I first learned about this interview from this Founders podcast's episode.

Bounds for Work Love

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Happiness from work you love should be measured in weeks, even though you'd prefer immediate pleasure this second. It should also be cool enough that your friends say "wow" when you finish.

Article: How to Do What You Love

How much are you supposed to like your job? Paul Graham marks the sweet spot by defining the two boundaries:

Upper bound: Enjoying your work doesn't mean you'd pick crafting spreadsheets over relaxing with coffee in Bali this second. Almost everyone would prefer immediate pleasure over tackling challenging problems at any given moment.

Therefore, the advice to "do what you love" applies over a longer span. Not what brings instant happiness, but what makes you happiest across weeks or months.

Lower bound: However, your passion for work should consistently surpass effortless leisure. If scrolling social media, snacking, or watching Netflix consistently feels more appealing than your daily tasks, you'll slide into chronic procrastination and produce mediocre outcomes.

Between those bounds lies satisfying work, tasks you gladly return to after rest because they feel meaningful rather than like obligatory punishment.

Here's another filter: Choose activities you not only enjoy but also admire. After completing something, you should genuinely feel, "Wow, that's pretty cool."

For Paul Graham, learning to hang-glide or become fluent in another language is cool because you can objectively measure your progress. In contrast, simply reading books doesn't feel fully productive because there's no clear benchmark of achievement. To feel productive, you must apply or act upon what you've read.

Paul Graham's preferred alternative test comes from Gino Lee: to try to do things that would make your friends say wow.

Stripe's Operating Principle

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Stripe's Operating principle: Be politely relentless.

Book: Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building

I was reading the fascinating book Scaling People about Stripe's culture, and this principle really resonated with me: Be politely relentless.

You can be intense without being a jerk, and you can build a great product without acting like an asshole. That approach is not the only path, and I hope to prove that it is far from the best in the future.

If you are interested, you can explore the rest of Stripe's Operating Principles here.

Tinbergen's Four Questions

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Tinbergen's Four Questions: When understanding animal (or human) behaviors, ask how a behavior works, how it develops, why it is adaptive, and how it evolved.

Paper: On aims and methods of ethology

Why do dogs wave their tails when excited, and why do rabbits freeze when they are shocked?

In his 1963 paper "On Aims and Methods of Ethology," Nikolaas Tinbergen introduced a systematic framework for understanding animal behavior, known as Tinbergen's Four Questions. These questions examine animal behavior from four different perspectives: Mechanism (Causation), Ontogeny (Development), Function (Adaptation), and Phylogeny (Evolution).

The first two questions focus on how behaviors occur (referred to as “proximate” in Tinbergen's terminology), while the last two address why behaviors have evolved (referred to as “ultimate”).

Here are the four questions (simplified based on my interpretation):

(1) How does the behavior work? (Mechanism)

The question investigates the immediate causes of a behavior. It examines the internal and external stimuli that trigger the behavior, including hormonal, neurological, and environmental factors.

For example, a sudden noise might cause a rabbit to freeze because of neural pathways wired for fear responses.

(2) How does the behavior develop? (Ontogeny)

The question investigates the developmental processes that shape behavior. It explores how a behavior emerges and evolves over an individual's lifetime, considering factors such as genetic inheritance, learning, and environmental influences.

For example, does it learn to freeze by observing other rabbits, or is it mainly a built-in reflex?

(3) What is the adaptive value of the behavior? (Function)

The question seeks to understand the adaptive value of a behavior. It asks how the behavior contributes to an individual's survival and reproductive success.

For example, freezing might make the rabbit less noticeable to predators, increasing its odds of escaping. Over many generations, that survival advantage can shape how the species behaves.

(4) What is the evolutionary history of the behavior? (Phylogeny)

The question examines the evolutionary history of behavior. It looks at how a behavior has evolved over time and how it compares across related species.

For instance, how freezing has changed or been passed down across related species.

I personally like to think of the four questions as a way to understand human behavior from different perspectives. Why are we risk-averse? Why do we have so many attribution biases?

Bridge Jump and Regret

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Survivors of bridge jump suicide attempts often report immediate regret because the abrupt interruption of jumping takes them out of the intense and distorted thought processes that led to the decision to jump.

Paper: Where Are They Now? A Follow-up Study of Suicide Attempters from the Golden Gate Bridge

People who survive suicide attempts by jumping off bridges often report immediate regret and wish they hadn't jumped during the fall.

One notable example is Kevin Hines, who survived a jump from the Golden Gate Bridge in 2000. He mentioned:

"The millisecond my hands left the rail, it was instant regret for my actions."

Similarly, Ken Baldwin, another survivor, mentioned:

"I instantly realized that everything in my life that I'd thought was unfixable was totally fixable—except for having just jumped."

A sudden shift in perspective oftentimes occurs when an abrupt interruption (the act of jumping) takes them out of the intense and often distorted thought processes that led to the decision to jump.

When someone is contemplating suicide and decides to jump, they are likely in a highly aroused state with a narrow focus and a high "frame rate" of thought, possibly feeling trapped and without alternatives. The act of jumping is a final move made within this constricted mental landscape.

However, the moment they jump, the physical reality of the situation and the separation from the preceding thought process can bring a sudden clarity. They are no longer caught in the same mental trench.

From this new perspective, the decision that felt so compelling moments before can suddenly seem absurd, and the survival instinct can resurface, leading to immediate regret.

This highlights the power of being trapped within a specific mental state and how breaking free from it, even through such a drastic action, can lead to a completely different perspective.

Moreover, the findings from studying suicide attempters from the Golden Gate Bridge revealed that approximately 94% of these individuals don't commit suicide later. Therefore, preventing suicide attempts can have long-term benefits in these situations.

Learn more about this study in The Bridge (documentary film) and Jumpers (a The New Yorker article).

Teach Verbs not Nouns

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Teach verbs and principles instead of nouns. By teaching how things work and how they interact, we help students transform static facts into dynamic understanding that can be applied in multiple areas of life.

Podcast: Josh Waitzkin: The Art of Learning & Living Life

Think about how we traditionally learn: we often focus on remembering the names of things first.

Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist teaching at Stanford University, recommended the idea of "teaching verbs and rules instead of nouns". For example, instead of just knowing the names of molecules, we should first learn the rules and verbs of the molecules when learning about complex systems like the nervous or immune system.

This also aligned with my own learning experience.

When I was learning a new field, I found learning about "what can this thing do" and "what is the relationship between this thing and other things in this field" is more helpful than just knowing the names and definitions of the things.

Josh Waitzkin, a former chess grandmaster, also provided an example from the realm of chess. When teaching about the chess pieces, instead of just stating how the knight and bishop move, he will teach about the nature of relativity, interdependence, and dynamic quality through their interactions.

Waitzkin elaborated that by teaching through these broader principles (the "verbs" and underlying rules), the learner not only understands the specific aspects of chess but also universal principles that can be applied to various aspects of life.

He suggested that this approach prevents the mind from being trapped within the specific domain (in this case, the 64 squares of the chessboard) and instead teaches about life through that domain.

In essence, teaching verbs and rules instead of nouns is about going beyond mere identification to understand the dynamics, relationships, and actions within a system. This approach enables a deeper and more transferable understanding.

Not Wanting is Owning

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

If you don't have the desire to buy something, it's as good as already owning it.

Thought

Just a shower thought. If you don't want something, it's as good as having it. It can even be better because you don't have to deal with the maintenance and storage and don't have to worry about losing it.

This is also related to the concept of "happiness equals outcome minus expectation". If you don't expect to get something, the outcome is bound to be better than your expectation.

Death and Parenthesis

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"And death i think is no parenthesis" — E. E. Cummings

Poem: since feeling is first

Love this poem from E. E. Cummings (or stylized as e e cummings):

since feeling is first who pays any attention to the syntax of things will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool while Spring is in the world

my blood approves, and kisses are a better fate than wisdom lady i swear by all flowers. Don’t cry —the best gesture of my brain is less than your eyelids’ flutter which says

we are for each other: then laugh, leaning back in my arms for life’s not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

Another poem from e e cummings I really like is love is more thicker than forget.

First Impressions of Berlin

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 23:53:27 GMT

Last year, I had the opportunity to travel to Europe for the first time. During my trip, I spent about a month exploring the continent and stayed in three different cities: Paris, Berlin, and London. Inspired by Paul Graham's Cities and Ambition, I made a conscious effort to jot down my first impressions of each city, trying to guess the unique message that each one was trying to convey to me. This second note is about Berlin. I've also noted my preferred way to travel and how you should interpret my opinions on these cities in my first note about Paris.

Berlin: International young hippie gathering.

Below is a log of my first impressions of Berlin, along with some photos I took with Fuji C200, and iPhone.

Berlin has a vibe that feels like a big international young hippie gathering.

There are so many good coffee shops where you can work comfortably. Additionally, this city gives me the impression that it would be easy to survive here as a foreigner if I need to move and live here for a year because most of the essential things ¹ are easily accessible and English is widely spoken.

Sometimes in Berlin, it can just start pouring out of nowhere, just like it does in Taipei (or maybe I just miss Taipei too much to be drawing this parallel).

While using my "off-by-two" method² to explore new places randomly, I suddenly stumbled upon an unknown area with no tourists. There, I saw some beds under a kind of sketchy bridge, and for a moment, I was like, "What if zombies pop out and start chasing me?"

I had a conversation with a random Berliner I met in a ramen shop. We talked about various geopolitical issues, such as the tension between Taiwan and China, Ukraine and Russia's situation, and the dilemma of accepting immigrants and refugees in Germany. He also recommended some of his favorite local spots in Berlin, and one of them was Savignyplatz.

Savignyplatz is a lovely neighborhood that is perfect for wandering around. Walking from the Lietzenseepark towards Savignyplatz, you'll find lots of cute bookstores to check out, some even tucked under the train bridge.

Partying with friends in Berlin's techno scene is such a fun yet exhausting way to experience Berlin. Also, thank you, Resident Advisor.

Arab food and Kebab are surprisingly great. I feel like California and New York City are missing out on these delicious cuisine options (or I just haven't gone to a great one yet. Please recommend!).

In general, there are plenty of cool indie bookstores to discover throughout Berlin.

Visited some intriguing photography exhibitions in C/O Berlin. I absolutely love Mary Ellen Mark's work. Neue Nationalgalerie is fun to walk around if you like modern art. The Jewish Museum is tranquilly beautiful. The Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum is also worth checking out. However, the German Museum of Technology was not as fun as I had hoped.

There are quite a few Comebuy stores in Berlin.

I attended an AI developer meetup in Berlin. The lags between San Francisco and Berlin regarding AI trends are easily noticeable. It seems like the AI projects that people in Berlin are currently working on or interested in were what people in SF were working on three months ago. Similar to the situation in Paris, the number of software people here probably has not reached critical mass because the focus of the industry is just different.

That said, the designs of their websites are usually quite impressive and aesthetically pleasing. And interestingly, more people in Berlin are working on blockchain technology than AI.

The Boros Foundation, aka the bunker, is a unique place to visit as it houses some fascinating artworks. The building itself is an intriguing structure as the Nazis built the bunker above ground instead of underground just to signal that they were so powerful that they didn't need to hide.

The public toilets in Berlin (and probably in many cities in Europe) accept credit card payments and have automatic doors like a subway entrance.

St Christopher Berlin is a fantastic, clean, well-organized, and affordable hostel located in a great area.

The Berlin city walk is a chill way to explore the city while learning its history, though it could be more enjoyable with a smaller group. Biking aimlessly around Berlin on a sunny afternoon is also absolutely delightful.

When people say that "this city has a lot of cultures", what exactly do they mean? I have heard this statement multiple times when I mentioned that I'm traveling from the Bay Area. People usually say something like, "We may not be as focused on tech as San Francisco, but we have a lot of cultures." This makes me start pondering on some questions:

What does it mean when we refer to a city as "cultural"?
Does it refer to artistic and intellectual activities, or to a rich history?
What makes a city's history "rich"?
What qualities make things like art, architecture, cuisine, fashion, and literature more "cultural" than others?
Will people consider Taipei or New York City a cultural city?

Thanks to Varun, Tiger, Til, Sam, Yue Han, Eric, Wayne, and anyone whom I met in Berlin or who has given me recommendations!

^
To be honest, the most important thing for me to live in a city is probably just having cozy coffee shops where I can work comfortably every day.
^
From First Impressions of Paris, whenever I have a particular destination in mind, I oftentimes get off two stops before or after my intended destination intentionally. This way, I can explore more random places along the way. Some of my most cherished memories from my travels have been discovered through this "off-by-two-stops" method.

Position in Graphics

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Position is the most powerful visual variable in graphics because it leverages our innate spatial reasoning, making complex data instantly intuitive and easy to interpret.

Book: Semiology of Graphics

In Semiology of Graphics, Jacques Bertin identified a set of visual variables, such as position, size, shape, orientation, color, and texture, that are fundamental in the graphical representation of data. These variables serve as the building blocks for encoding information in visualizations.

Among them, position stands out as the most powerful.

Why? Because, unlike other variables that require interpretation or legends, position leverages our innate spatial reasoning. You don't need to explain what up and right mean on a scatterplot. People just get it.

Position lets us recognize patterns effortlessly. It's what makes scatter plots so intuitive. You can spot clusters, correlations, and outliers in an instant.

On a map, a symbol's position directly corresponds to a real place, making spatial distribution instantly readable.

Bertin describes position as both selective and associative. It helps us isolate points of interest while grouping them together meaningfully.

Therefore, if you want to communicate information clearly and quickly, don't just think about what to show. Think about where to show it.

Speed Reading Eyes

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

How to read 3X faster? Train your eyes instead of your brain to leverage peripheral vision and move faster line by line.

Article: Scientific Speed Reading: How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes

In 1998, Tim Ferriss showed a reading technique at Princeton that increased participants' average reading speed by 386% in just a three-hour experiment.

The idea is that improving reading speed isn't a matter of comprehension or intelligence. It's about training your eyes.

The method includes using a pen to track your reading and forcing your eyes to move faster line by line. Then it adds a twist: you begin each line a few words in, and end a few words early, letting your peripheral vision do the work. Most people read at 200–300 words per minute (wpm). Using his drills, some reach over 3,000 wpm.

It feels like cheating at first because you won't understand much during the speed reading training. That's expected. Like sprint training for runners, the purpose is to stretch your capabilities, not to fully understand the content.

Once you condition your eye movements, your natural pace improves. Comprehension returns. Time spent reading shrinks. Time gained compounds.

You can watch a video version here: How to Speed Read.

However, it's perhaps worth noting that this speed reading technique is not a shortcut as suggested by the article title.

Cognitive scientist Mark Seidenberg explains in his book "Language at the Speed of Sight" that our eyes can realistically focus on about 20 characters at a time. Reading an entire line with just two eye movements is usually unrealistic without practicing for a long time.

Here are three methods I've personally found helpful:

Try not to pronounce the words internally while reading.
Avoid backtracking and don't worry about missing minor details, unless crucial assumptions for understanding the author's argument are missing.
Just read more :)

Get Closer When in Doubt

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." When in doubt, get closer.

Article: Vintage prints by war photographer Robert Capa to headline Photo London

Known for his war photography, Robert Capa often placed himself in the most dangerous places. Not out of recklessness but out of commitment, he chased history with a camera and a fearless instinct for proximity from the Spanish Civil War to D-Day's Omaha Beach.

The Falling Soldier

Robert Capa's Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough" is one of Robert Capa's maxims. The closer he got, the more powerful the image. His famous D-Day photographs are chaotic, blurry, and raw, which is precisely what makes them so compelling. He wasn't an observer. He was inside the story.

And this is more than just a photography rule. Whether you're learning a new topic, trying to understand someone, or writing something meaningful, go closer. Getting into the details and the context is sometimes the only way to make sense of something.

So step toward it. Not away.

Look at the Horizon

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Looking at the horizon relaxes your brain. That's why walking outdoors oftentimes helps your thinking.

Podcast: Josh Waitzkin: The Art of Learning & Living Life

Have you ever noticed how your mind feels calmer when you're looking at the horizon?

When you look at the horizon, your visual field expands. According to neuroscientists, this broader view activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes relaxation. In contrast, tunnel vision (like staring at a screen) heightens arousal. That's helpful for concentration but can also keep your nervous system on edge.

This might explain why walking outdoors, especially in open areas, often feels mentally refreshing and helps people think. Aristotle and Darwin famously both used walking as a tool for thought. Aristotle taught while strolling, inspiring the term "Peripatetic," and Darwin walked his "Sandwalk" daily to reflect on his theories.

Essentially, you're not only moving your body but also your attention. The visual broadening helps your body downshift from "go-go-go" to "pause and reflect."

So while walking is often praised for boosting creativity, maybe it's not just the motion. It's the view field expansion that creates space for reflection and insight.

Disappoint People Not Yourself

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"Your job, throughout your entire life, is to disappoint as many people as it takes to avoid disappointing yourself." — Glennon Doyle

Quote

From the book Untamed by American author and activist Glennon Doyle.

First Impressions of Paris

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 10:12:13 GMT

Flâneur

I enjoy traveling alone in a flâneur¹ way. I maintain a very flexible travel schedule so that I can change my plans freely based on the people I meet and new information that I randomly bump into. I prefer to stay in hostels or on people's couches, and I love to wander aimlessly on the streets and talk to strangers.

Whenever I have a particular destination in mind, I oftentimes get off two stops before or after my intended destination intentionally. This way, I can explore more random places along the way. Some of my most cherished memories from my travels have been discovered through this "off-by-two-stops" method.

Wittgenstein’s Ruler

Remember Wittgenstein’s Ruler: if you don't know much about me, my opinions on these cities may reflect more on me than on the cities themselves. For reference, the only cities I have resided in for more than 1 month are Taipei, Chandigarh (India), New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Paris: A city of elegance that cherishes its legacy.

Below is a log of my first impressions of Paris, along with some photos I took with Fuji Industrial 100, Fuji C200, and iPhone.

It's overrated for tourists and underrated for flâneur.

The architecture of the city is exquisite. The simplicity and uniformity of the design in these yellow stone buildings create a unique harmony for Paris, which reminds me of what Steve Jobs observed when he visited Paris: you could parachute into any part of the city and immediately recognize that you were in Paris.

Many people who visit Paris complain about the rude behavior of Parisians towards tourists (the infamous tut-tut), especially when walking on the street. However, I believe that you can avoid these situations in a straightforward way: treat the sidewalk as a highway. ² The same applies to New York City as well.

When you want to slow down or stop on the sidewalk, look around and slowly pull over to the side. Keep up the pace with the crowd or pull over to the side. Don't make sharp brakes.
When you want to change direction, don't make a sharp turn and avoid going in the opposite direction, just like you wouldn't on a highway.

The city places a high value on its historical legacy, but this sometimes comes at the expense of convenience and comfort. For instance, even if the weather can be scorching hot, installing air conditioning in certain apartments remains a challenge due to restrictions on altering the building façades to preserve its historical character. This kind of policy, along with a strong emphasis on data privacy and environmental protection, gives the impression that the city is determined to hold onto its past, prioritizing historical heritage over convenience and comfort.

The city feels like an older person trying to cling to its youth using heavy makeup instead of embracing the present. Although the city has a rich history, it may be relying too heavily on its past and not focusing enough on the present and future. ³

Even though they talk about environmental protection a lot, the city is still responsible for mass-producing fashion and luxury goods, which seems to be the opposite of environmentally friendly. Nonetheless, given how the younger generation here cares so much about sustainability, I still look forward to seeing more related innovations in these industries.

Parisians (or maybe Europeans) truly enjoy spending a lot of time chatting with their friends. When they hang out, it seems like the agenda can be just going to a park and chatting without even needing to sit down. They grab a coffee, a beer, or a glass of wine and chat for the whole afternoon. Perhaps that's why they don't need to adapt too many technological advances.

Had a short visit to Station F. The biggest challenges for tech startups in Paris (or maybe Europe) seem to be the lack of software talents and VC funding. The density of tech folks cannot reach the critical mass. That might be why Hugging Face and Data Dog are primarily based in New York City now.⁴ It might also make more sense for them to pursue innovation in the fashion or luxury industries, given they have resources like the LVMH venture.

There are so many people smoking cigarettes and throwing them on the street.

In the park, lots of people play 4v4 half-court basketball. Why 4v4?

The subway can be extremely hot and crowded, making it feel like you are in a huge moving sauna.

There are a few cool bars to check out, including a speakeasy within a speakeasy at La Mezcaleria Paris, the Red Doors, Le Perchoir, and the OG Harry's New York Bar.

I highly recommend using the audio guide Travel with Rick Steves while visiting popular spots like the Louvre. It enhances the overall experience by providing interesting commentary and guidance. It also makes the experience less stressful by letting you know what exhibitions are okay to skip. On the other hand, I visited Orsay without the audio guide and had a disappointing experience. The museum lacked clear signage, somewhat limited English translations, and even minor errors like typos in the descriptions. To be fair, I think I might be too picky for Orsay because I was kind of annoyed by how touristy it was at that time. And for the Louvre, following Travel with Rick Steves helps me ignore all the tourists and focus only on the artwork.

I still like the Pompidou the most, probably just because I'm more into modern art.

Walking on the streets of Paris at night is always quite lovely due to the dim yellow lights. The Île Saint-Louis neighborhood and the Canal Saint-Martin area are especially charming.

I was walking down the street while listening to the Acquire podcast introducing LVMH, and it was such a treat. I remember I was at Arc de Triomphe and realized how LVMH achieves scale economies on luxury goods despite the natural diseconomies of scale on luxury, where the more of something you make, the less valuable the luxury consumer will think it is. It was such an enlightening moment. Also, the value of art is about other people's expectations of its value, not just its intrinsic value. This concept perfectly describes Paris, too.

Cars in Paris are small.

There's a lovely neighborhood coffee shop in the 13th arrondissement where some old people read newspapers, young hippies read books, and an elderly Hong Kong lady works there just to kill time. There is also a random printer available for use.

Is Paris still a place for thinkers? Thinkers like Michel Foucault, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Jean-Paul Sartre are why Paris initially interested me. However, it is possible that those times have passed, and the intellectuals have moved on to other places, similar to what Paul Graham said when he reflected on his time in Florence: "I've gone to the wrong place." "It wasn't some weird Florentine thing about art or some special Florentine sense of aesthetics. They were just the most progressive city." "I went to the place where the puck used to be over hundreds of years ago." ⁵

Thanks to Eric, Wayne, Emma, Katherine, Cathy, and anyone whom I met in Paris or who has given me recommendations!

^
From Antifragile, flâneur (or rational flâneur) is someone who, unlike a tourist, makes a decision opportunistically at every step to revise their schedule (or their destination) so they can imbibe things based on new information obtained. See The Art of Flaneuring or Flâneur for more.
^
I first learned this analogy in "Travel with Rick Steves".
^
Though the city seems to be reluctant to embrace technological change, maybe it's still the center for innovation in the humanities and social sciences?
^
It would be interesting to see if Mistral AI will do the same.
^
From Paul Graham on Ambition, Art, and Evaluating Talent (Ep. 186) | Conversations with Tyler.

Thanks to Angelica Kosasih for reading the draft of this.

Learning Style Myth

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 03:14:36 GMT

"I'm a visual learner" is a myth. There is no scientific evidence that tailoring instruction to learning styles can improve learning.

Paper: Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence

Are you a visual learner? Many people state preferences for how they want to learn, but extensive research has consistently failed to support that matching a teaching technique to a preferred style will improve learning.

In other words, the belief that we should tailor teaching styles to individuals' learning styles is not supported by scientific research despite being very widespread and endorsed.

In 2008, the psychologist and cognitive scientist, Pashler, in his Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence first concluded that "there is no adequate evidence base to justify incorporating learning styles assessments into general educational practice." Cedar Riener and Daniel Willingham in their paper The Myth of Learning Styles (2010) also argue that "there is no credible evidence that learning styles exist."

They highlighted that while students may have personal preferences for how they receive information, these preferences do not translate into improved learning outcomes when their instruction is tailored accordingly. The American Psychological Association even stated that belief in the learning styles myth may be detrimental because educators might spend time and money tailoring instruction to learning styles despite the lack of scientific evidence supporting this approach.

This belief can sometimes even harm learners by causing them to mistakenly perceive certain subjects as impossible to learn. For example, "visual learners" might believe they cannot learn music.

So what should we do? Educators should follow evidence-based practices and teach with strategies that engage multiple senses and cognitive processes for all students instead of addressing the diverse needs of learners.

Learners should let go of the misconception that they can only learn in one specific style. Don't be confined to that pigeonhole!

Jevons paradox

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Jevons paradox: Increased efficiency in resource usage can paradoxically lead to increased consumption, not decreased.

Article: Jevons paradox - Wikipedia

Jevons paradox is the idea that making something more efficient can unexpectedly cause people to use even more of it rather than less.

Economist William Stanley Jevons first noted this in 1865. He saw that when technology made coal easier and cheaper to use, people used more coal overall, not less. Because coal became cheaper, more people used it, and they used it for more purposes.

Another example: if cars become more fuel-efficient, driving each mile will cost less. However, because it's cheaper, people might drive more often or take longer trips. In the end, total fuel use might actually go up instead of down.

I first learned this from Satya Nadella's tweet on AI efficiency. AI making workers more efficient might increase the demand for their labor rather than decrease it.

This also reminds me of Baumol's Cost Disease.

Status and Idea Seekers

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Events that rapidly exchange ideas allow you to evaluate whether a person's true interest lies in status or ideas. Status-seekers want to maximize attention from the perceived elite, while idea-seekers focus on advancing knowledge and stimulating curiosity.

Book: Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World

Events that rapidly exchange ideas, like a networking dinner gathering, offer a quick window into what truly drives an individual: status or curiosity. They allow you to evaluate whether a person's true interests lie in status or ideas.

Status-seekers focus on capturing the attention of the perceived elite. They want to showcase themselves rather than their ideas.

On the other hand, idea-seekers focus on advancing knowledge and stimulating curiosity. They oftentimes frame their conjectures as inviting questions rather than definitive statements.

Kahneman on Importance in Life

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking about it." — Daniel Kahneman

Quote

I was thinking of this quote when reading Daniel Kahneman's last email before he chose to end his life. I also found this excerpt from the email worth pondering:

"I have believed since I was a teenager that the miseries and indignities of the last years of life are superfluous, and I am acting on that belief. I am still active, enjoying many things in life (except the daily news) and will die a happy man. But my kidneys are on their last legs, the frequency of mental lapses is increasing, and I am ninety years old. It is time to go."

Accept Truth and Source

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"Accept the truth from whatever source it comes." — Maimonides

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Recently, I've caught myself unfairly dismissing certain opinions solely because of my preconceptions about the people expressing them. Similarly, I’ve also noticed that when someone I admire states an opinion, I sometimes accept it at face value without independently evaluating it.

This line from Rabbi and philosopher Maimonides in the Shemonah Perakim serves as a reminder and also brings to mind the Three Attribution Traps I wrote before.

Experience Curve

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Experience Curve: Manufacturers can and should price their products unprofitably low because the cost of making one thing decreases as they produce more and gain more experience.

Podcast: TSMC Founder Morris Chang: The Complete History and Strategy

Doing more often costs less. This is precisely what happens in business according to a BCG famous theory.

This principle, known as the experience curve, held that a company's unit production costs would fall by a predictable amount (around 20% to 30%) every time their cumulative production doubled. In other words, the cost of making it goes down as you make more of one thing.

That's why it's also called experience curve. When you gain more experience, you become more efficient almost predictably.

Two experiences

TSMC uses the experience curve as a fundamental principle in its strategy. In Morris Chang's words, "he is a serious student of experience curve". Because TSMC knows the cost will eventually decrease when they gain high production volume, they can start with lower prices, even if initially unprofitable, to attract more customers and increase production volume rapidly. The goal is to crowd out competitors and become the dominant player, enabling economies of scale and cost advantages.

Two Types of Experience

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

The New Experience Curve: To maintain a competitive edge, companies must balance and switch effectively between experience in fulfilling demand and experience in shaping demand.

Article: BCG Classics Revisited: The Experience Curve

While the original experience curve states that your unit cost will go down as you gain more experience in production, companies today might need an additional kind of experience to create and sustain competitive advantage.

Experience in fulfilling demand is the classic experience curve. This type of experience is the ability to produce existing products more cheaply and deliver them to a broader audience. This process is critical in stable, cost-sensitive, and production-intensive industries such as hard disk drives and laser diodes. Fulfilling demand experience is acquired through a logical deductive process involving capturing and analyzing cost data, identifying opportunities for improvement, implementing changes, and iterating, a process marked by repetition and incremental enhancements.

Experience in shaping demand focuses on creating markets for new products and services. This experience is characterized by successive "jumps" across experience curves, reflecting a company's ability to transition from one product generation to the next.

Exp curve

Shaping demand experience is acquired through an inductive process that involves sampling consumer behaviors, formulating hypotheses on unmet needs or possibilities enabled by new technologies, testing these hypotheses with new offerings, and iterating based on empirical results. This type of experience can be gauged by a company's product-introduction "clock speed" or by the percentage of sales derived from new products or services. Companies like ARM Holdings, Facebook, and Netflix exemplify successful demand shaping.

While both types of experience have always been necessary, the required speed of switching between the two has increased dramatically. The ability to develop and leverage existing and new product knowledge concurrently or to switch between them effectively over time is referred to as ambidexterity and has become more critical in today's rapidly changing markets.

Two experiences

Second Mountain

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

There are two mountains to climb in life. The first mountain is for freedom. The second mountain is for commitment. On the second mountain, life moves from self-centered to other-centered.

Book: The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life

I like how David Brooks presents life as a journey in the Second Mountain as two distinct phases. The first mountain symbolizes the pursuit of personal success, individual freedom, and self-fulfillment. However, upon reaching the summit, many find the view unsatisfying and they go back down into a valley of introspection and often suffering.

The second mountain represents a transformative shift toward commitment and community. This phase involves dedicating oneself to causes beyond personal and sacrificing freedom. Life moves from self-centered to other-centered on the second mountain, and oftentimes, true joy and fulfillment are found on this second mountain.

This reminds me of something I always remind myself: Optionality is the inverse of compounding. Keeping decisions open has real costs.

Situation and Capabilities

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

How you see a situation depends on what you are capable of doing in a situation.

Book: How to Know a Person

This explains why different people can react so differently to the same event. In the author's words:

"People in different life circumstances construct very different realities. It's not only that they have different opinions about the same world; they literally see different worlds."

"People with heavy backpacks see steeper hills than people without backpacks, because it is harder for people with backpacks to walk up them. People who have listened to sad music (Mahler's Adagietto) see steeper hills than people who have listened to happy music. Overweight people see distances as longer than people who are not overweight. Baseball players on a hot streak see bigger balls coming at them than they do when they're in a slump."

As Dennis Proffitt and Drake Baer wrote in another book Perception: "We project our individual mental experience into the world, and thereby mistake our mental experience to be the physical world, oblivious to the shaping of perception by our sensory systems, personal histories, goals, and expectations."

Van Goug Can't Do Yet

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

"I keep on making what I can’t do yet in order to learn to be able to do it." — Vincent van Gogh

Quote

From Van Gogh's letter To Anthon van Rappard.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 03:14:36 GMT

Bloom's Taxonomy: Our learning objectives can be classified as a hierarchy of remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create.

Book: Design for How People Learn

Have you thought about what's the learning objectives you want to achieve whenever you say you want to "learn something"?

Bloom's Taxonomy (actually a revised one by Anderson and Krathwohl in 2001) is a useful hierarchical framework for classifying learning objectives into levels of complexity and specificity.

Bloom's Taxonomy a hierarchical framework for classifying educational learning objectives into levels of complexity and specificity

Let's take learning to make coffee as an example. We can classify our learning goals like:

Remember: List all the ingredients and tools needed, such as coffee beans, water, and coffee grinders.
Understand: Explain how each ingredient and tool works.
Apply: Follow a recipe to brew the coffee successfully.
Analyze: Break down the brewing process and examine factors like water temperature, grind size, and brewing time.
Evaluate: Critique the coffee, give feedback, and assess potential adjustments.
Create: Invent your twist of a new coffee.

The steps are meant to become more challenging as you move up (e.g., "remember" is easier than "evaluate"), but it isn't a strict rule for learning. For example, analyzing good films could be a good way to understand key principles of storytelling.

Even if you mix the levels, it's still useful to pinpoint your target level. For instance, learning to use Morse code might never need to get beyond Analyze. On the other hand, if you want to apply storytelling principles, your learning plan must go beyond just understanding it.

Six Learning Gaps

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

To achieve learning goals, we should identify and address not just knowledge gaps but also skills, motivation, habits, environment, and communication. Oftentimes the gaps in knowledge are not the most critical obstacle.

Book: Design for How People Learn

Every learner is on a journey. Gaps, whether the obvious or hidden ones, determine how effectively they move from current abilities to meaningful success. These gaps are not just gaps in our knowledge (as mentioned in Curiosity and Pain before) but span across motivation, skills, habits, environment, and even communication.

From the perspective of designing learning experiences for others (oftentimes can be applied to ourselves too), we should ask ourselves these questions to identify what's the gap we might be missing.

Knowledge: What information does the learner need to be successful? What formats would best support that?
Skill: What will the learners need to practice to develop the needed proficiencies? Where are their opportunities to practice?
Motivation: What is the learner's attitude toward the change? Are they going to be resistant to changing course?
Habits: Are any of the required behaviors habitual in nature? Are there existing habits learners might need to unlearn or reshape?
Environment: What in the environment is preventing the learner from being successful? What is needed to support them in being successful?
Communication: Are the goals being clearly communicated?

Oftentimes, the learners don't really need a lot of help to bridge the gaps in knowledge. But they need to overcome obstacles like lack of motivation, unsupportive environment, or even just the lack of practice.

Conway's Law

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Conway's Law: The structure of a system reflects the structure of the organization that built it.

Article: Conway's Law

Imagine that simply assigning programmer teams to different floors of the same building can shape or even constrain the architecture of the software they develop.

This is Conway's Law. In Conway's words: "Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure."

If a single team writes a compiler, you get a one-pass compiler. But if you divide the team into two smaller teams, you get a two-pass compiler.

Placing teams in separate cities or in different parts of the organizational chart affects our communication structure because physical and organizational barriers inadvertently reduce interactions and communication. Although Conway's Law is usually discussed in the context of software development, the observation applies broadly to systems in general. For instance, consider how poverty, health care, housing, and education are related to the structures of government.

It's also interesting to think about how Conway's Law can apply to remote work. As everyone is remote, the physical barriers are higher. However, moving communication online also makes the impact of distance lower. In this digital setting, Conway's Law still holds though it now reflects online communication patterns. Unfortunately, dealing with time zone differences is still not fun.

Coach K's Success

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

When celebrating success, one should feel joy rather than relief. Shared joy is preferable to individual joy. It is acceptable to lose as long as you are worthy of winning.

Podcast: Coach K: Get On The Right Bus

Coach K is one the best basketball coaches of all time, and these three comments on basketball success remind me of the days I competed in the basketball varsity team (though we are nowhere near Coach K's level).

Looking back, I wasn't sure if I usually felt joy or relief at the last game of the season. Or, in general, after any hard work for an extended period of time, like preparing for an exam, do I feel relief or joy?

My very unfinished thought is we should develop the mindset so that we feel joy instead of relief. Joy is more powerful in the long run. And you can define your own success so that even if you lose, you can feel the joy.

Lindy Effect

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 03:14:35 GMT

Lindy Effect: The longer a non-perishable item or idea has been around, the longer it's likely to persist into the future.

Paper: Lindy as a Distance from an Absorbing Barrier

Learn this concept again when bumping into Nassim Nicholas Taleb's paper.

Lindy's effects describe the situation where the future life expectancy of something non-perishable (like ideas, technologies, books, or culture) is proportional to its current age.

Basically, if something has existed for a long time, there's a higher chance it will continue to exist for a long time. It's important to note that it's probabilistic, not deterministic because there are always exceptions.

I like to use Lindy effect as a heuristic to choose which books to read and which movies to watch. By considering the length of time a book or movie has been relevant, we can filter out noise and identify those that are more likely to contain tested and valuable ideas.

The test of time quite often is the most reliable noise filter!

Curiosity and Pain

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Curiosity drives us to seek information, not because we expect pleasure from finding the answer, but to relieve the discomfort from the gap in our knowledge. Much like hunger, curiosity is a painful state of deprivation.

Paper: The psychology of curiosity: A review and reinterpretation

Why does curiosity often feel like an itch? It starts subtly but grows increasingly uncomfortable, pushing us to stay up late to watch some videos about obscure topics to relieve that feeling.

George Loewenstein's information gap theory explains this phenomenon. He defines an "Information Gap" as a question a person is aware of but uncertain about and suggests that curiosity sparks when we notice a gap between what we know and what we want to know.

This theory frames curiosity as a state of deprivation, like hunger or thirst. Just as hunger motivates us to eat and thirst drives us to drink, curiosity pushes us to seek information. This drive is not about the pleasure of obtaining the answer but the unease of the gap itself.

In his words, curiosity is a "cognitive-induced deprivation that arises from the perception of a gap in knowledge and understanding."

Loewenstein idea is supported by fMRI studies. One study reveals that curiosity activates brain regions like the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex (AIC/ACC), which are linked to conflict, arousal, and aversive states. This neural activity suggests that we first experience curiosity as a negative state.

Moreover, relief of this discomfort is correlated with activity in reward centers of the brain, which means it's reducing the aversive state, rather than anticipating information, that feels rewarding.

It's important to note that pain and pleasure don't cancel each other out, a concept aligned with Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory. According to Herzberg's theory, job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are independent factors. Addressing sources of dissatisfaction doesn't necessarily create satisfaction, just as reducing discomfort from curiosity doesn't always result in joy. It simply provides relief. The joy you experienced might be caused by other factors.

Evolved Curiosity for Survival

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Why are we curious? Curiosity evolved as a survival mechanism, driving early humans to explore new territories to secure long-term resources, while balancing exploration risks with immediate needs.

Paper: The psychology and neuroscience of curiosity

Curiosity is a fundamental drive in humans and animals. But why did humans evolve to be curious?

Imagine our ancestors if they had no desire to wander beyond their familiar territory. Their immediate needs might be met until their local resources run out.

Imagine if our ancestors had no desire to wander beyond their familiar territory. They might have satisfied their immediate needs but would eventually face resource shortages. Repeatedly using the same local resources could lead to direct competition and conflict, and such a strategy is not ideal for long-term survival.

In contrast, curiosity-driven groups ventured beyond their usual territories, which led them to discover new food sources and better adapt to changing environments.

Therefore, from an evolutionary perspective, curiosity enhances survival and reproductive success. However, exploring new places can be dangerous. This is why humans evolved not to have infinite curiosity but to maintain a cautious equilibrium between exploration and exploitation.

Even simple organisms demonstrate information-seeking behavior, though it isn't typically classified as curiosity. For instance, Caenorhabditis elegans, a roundworm with only 302 neurons, develops a searching strategy beyond simply moving toward food scents. Like humans, they explore brand new directions that provide better long-term payoffs where they trade off information for rewards. Other organisms, such as crabs, bees, ants, and moths, also demonstrate similar behaviors that balance both immediate rewards and the acquisition of new information.

Placebo Producer Switch

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Producer Switch: How creative professionals can use the placebo effect to resolve subjective feedback and create a win-win situation with collaborators.

Article: The truth behind Lee Sklar's custom 'producer's switch'

The legendary bassist Leland Sklar famously installed a "Producer switch" device on his bass to handle producer feedback. Whenever his producer asks for a new sound adjustment, he flips the switch dramatically to produce "something different" from his playing.

The catch? The switch does absolutely nothing.

However, as long as he performed this theatrical adjustment, the producers were immediately satisfied with the new "improved" sound. This producer switch saved Sklar a lot of time and energy arguing with the producer by doing nothing.

This is the placebo effect in the wild at its finest. By providing a psychological but visible solution to subjective requests, Sklar created a win-win situation: producers felt heard and satisfied, while he maintained his preferred sound.

Many creative professionals who regularly navigate subjective feedback and client relationships can also adopt this kind of placebo effect. If you can deeply understand human perception and expectation management like Sklar, you can get away with many headaches while satisfying everyone.

YC Office Hour Questions

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Three YC office hours questions to drive progress: What's holding you back from moving faster? What are your goals for the next two weeks? Did you hit your goals for the last two weeks, and why?

Podcast: Summary: Lessons from working with 600+ YC startups | Gustaf Alströmer (Y Combinator, Airbnb)

These questions are from how Y Combinator (YC) runs its office hours. YC uses two types of office hours: regular and group, each with different goals and questions.

Regular office hours are typically held by one or two YC partners with a startup, occurring weekly or bi-weekly. The primary question asked in these sessions is: "What's holding you back from moving faster?" They don't want to focus on general updates or strategy discussions. They want to help founders pinpoint their true priorities.

Oftentimes, the founders don't immediately know what is slowing their progress. Therefore, the office hours are designed to discover the root causes by identifying obstacles and bottlenecks that are not obvious when the founders are heads down building the product.

On the other hand, group office hours are with multiple startups, typically six or seven. The main questions in group office hours are: "What are your goals for the next two weeks?" and "What were your goals for the last two weeks, and did you hit them?

These two questions, along with the accountability structure, encourage founders to set clear objectives and make progress, as they don't want to appear stagnant in front of their peers. The goal is to provide a supportive and productive environment where founders can hold each other accountable.

Even if you cannot join YC's office hours, you can still ask yourself these questions to examine your progress or, even better, form your own peer group to hold each other accountable and drive progress.

Write to Provide Context

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think. — Edwin Schlossberg

Quote

The writer's role is to craft environments that serve as a catalyst for the reader's thoughts. At the same time, the writer stimulates their own intellectual engagement during the writing process.

Context of Memory Recall and Formation

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Memory retrieval is easier when the context of recall matches the context when the memory was formed. If you learn the content underwater, you will remember the content better when tested underwater than on the beach.

Paper: Context-dependent memory in two natural environments: on land or underwater

This is one of my favorite studies on memory (because it's quite funny, lol).

The researchers asked half of the participants to memorize a list of unrelated words while diving twenty feet underwater and the other half to memorize the same list on the beach. Later, they test these participants to recall these words underwater or on the beach. So essentially, there are four groups:

Learned the content UNDERWATER and recalled it UNDERWATER
Learned the content UNDERWATER and recalled it ON THE BEACH
Learned the content ON THE BEACH and recalled it ON THE BEACH
Learned the content ON THE BEACH and recalled it UNDERWATER

They found that if divers learned the words underwater, they remembered more words if tested underwater than on the beach. Likewise, if divers learned the words on the beach, they tested better on the beach than underwater. In other words, they can recall more when the test conditions match the learning conditions.

This context dependency is true for other kinds of memory too. No matter whether it's prospective memories (what you plan to do), episodic memories (what happened), semantic memories (information you know), or muscle memories (how to do things), memory retrieval is easier when the context of recall matches the context when the memory was formed.

Moreover, this context dependency isn't only about the environment. As I noted in Mood and Memory Recall, a sad mood can make sad memories easier to recall. Our emotion is part of the context.

This also relates to why changing study environments can significantly improve how well you remember information. If you want to recall a piece of information better anytime, anywhere, you should try to encode that memory with multiple different contexts, similar to how dual-encoding theory works.

Vital Time to Write

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

There has never been a more vital time to write because your words online are voting on what values future AI systems will adopt. Write now because early data have a compound impact on AI.

Podcast: Gwern Branwen - How an Anonymous Researcher Predicted AI's Trajectory

From Gwern in this comment:

Much of the value of writing done recently or now is simply to get stuff into LLMs. I would, in fact, pay money to ensure Gwern.net is in training corpuses.

This is one of my beliefs: there has never been a more vital hinge-y time to write, it’s just that the threats are upfront and the payoff delayed, and so short-sighted or risk-averse people are increasingly opting-out and going dark.

Now is a crucial time to share your thoughts and ideas online because they will shape how artificial intelligence develops.

Large language models learn by studying text from the internet. If your values, sentiments, and perspectives aren't written down somewhere online, then to the AI they don't exist. Therefore, if you believe AI will be THE future, having your voice included subjects more than ever.

From Gwern in the podcast:

So if you aren't writing, you are abdicating the future or your role in it. If you think it's enough to just be a good citizen, to vote for your favorite politician, to pick up litter and recycle, the future doesn't care about you.

By writing and sharing your thoughts online, you're essentially voting on what values future AI systems might adopt and, by extension, what values future society might hold.

The timing is critical because early writings may have a compound impact, as future AI systems might learn from earlier AI outputs. If you don't write now, your perspective might be permanently left out.

Also see the discussion on Marginal Revolution.

Perirhinal Cortex and Deja Vu

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Déjà vu is not simply a weak memory, but rather from a separate memory system in our brains. Perirhinal cortex creates familiarity while hippocampus handles the detail.

Paper: Episodic memory, amnesia, and the hippocampal–anterior thalamic axis

Scientists used to think our memories were simply strong or weak, like points on a line. There, the feeling of déjà vu, that peculiar sense of familiarity, was often explained as a "weak" memory with the assumption that our memories fall along a continuum. However, in the late 1990s, researchers Mishkin, Aggleton, and Brown discovered that memory actually has different subcomponents, and each can be either strong or weak.

Among these subcomponents, the perirhinal cortex supports familiarity-based recognition (knowing), while the hippocampus supports recollective-based recognition (remembering).

For example, perirhinal cortex is like seeing someone and thinking "I know that face" even if you can't recall anything else about them. On the other hand, hippocampus helps you remember exactly where and when you met them, and what happened during that meeting.

Research on people with damaged hippocampus shows this difference clearly. These people can still feel that things are familiar, even though they can't remember specific details about their experiences. And even without specific recall, this sense of familiarity can be so strong that it leads to a sense of certainty. They might be absolutely certain they've seen something before, but this familiarity does not provide access to the "where" and "when" of that event because of their damaged hippocampus.

In essence, déjà vu is not a weaker form of memory, but rather a different type of memory altogether. So when you feel the sense of familiarity but don't remember the details, the perirhinal cortex in your brain is activated without using the hippocampus to gather the temporal and spatial context.

Zero-One-Infinity Rule

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Zero-One-Infinity Rule: When designing software systems, the only reasonable numerical limits are zero, one, and infinity.

Article: Zero One Infinity Rule

Zero-One-Infinity (ZOI) is a software design rule of thumb. It states that a programmer should not place random limits on how many instances a given entity should have. The only reasonable limits are zero, one, and infinity. In other words, you will either need zero of a thing, one of a thing, or an arbitrary number of the thing. Any other arbitrary limit increases the cognitive workload for both the users and the software designers.

A simple example is the file system's folders (directories). The topmost folder must have "zero" parent folder. Each subfolder must have exactly "one" parent folder. Each folder can have "any number" of subfolders.

Some people also use this as a heuristic outside of software design. For example, if you're going to believe in more than one universe, you might as well believe in an infinite number of them. Same for estimating how many alien planets there are.

All buildings are Predictions

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

All buildings are predictions, and all predictions are wrong. Architectural design should create adaptable spaces rather than attempting to perfectly predict and design for future needs.

Book: How Buildings Learn

Buildings are designed based on assumptions about how they will be used, which essentially makes them architect's predictions about future needs and functionalities.

However, the predictions are almost always wrong because the future is largely unpredictable. The needs and desires of building occupants change over time, often in unexpected ways. For example, an office building designed in 1990 couldn't have anticipated today's hybrid work culture and different workspace needs.

Therefore, an architect should focus on core structure and flexibility. They should prioritize a strong and adaptable structure over intricate details, allowing for easier modifications and renovations as needs change.

This also relates to piecemeal growth from Christopher Alexander, who suggests continuous incremental improvements and adjustments to buildings throughout their lifespan. This idea in architecture design is similar to premature Optimization Is the Root of All Evil in software design.

Two other architecture books that I might write about in the future are A Pattern Language and The Timeless Way of Building. They are often referenced in software and product design. Welcome to recommend more books in this field!

The Cathedral Effect

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 03:14:36 GMT

The Cathedral Effect: Higher ceilings can make us more creative by triggering feelings of freedom and encouraging people to see broader abstract connections.

Paper: Influence of Ceiling Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing That People Use

When people are in rooms with high ceilings, they think differently than when they're in rooms with low ceilings.

Edward Hall, an American anthropologist and research pioneer in cross-cultural research, noted that a small chapel is likely to convey the notion of confinement or restrictedness, while a grand cathedral feels vast and open. This changes how our minds work, and is known as "The Cathedral Effect".

Moore et al. also proposed that low ceilings may encourage quieter, more restricted play in their Recommendations for Child Care Centers. J. Meyers-Levy and R. Zhu concluded that people in rooms with high ceilings tend to:

Be primed of freedom-related concepts instead of confinement-related ones.
Rely more on abstract and relational elaboration instead of item-specific.
Find more commonalities instead of differences.
Solve problems in more nontraditional and creative ways.

These effects happen only when people notice the ceiling height. So it doesn't work if they're oblivious to their surroundings. The vertical volume of the room primes concepts of either freedom or confinement, which in turn influences how people process information and solve problems.

Thanks to Lewis O’Brien for sharing this with me!

Wasting Time and Explore Passion

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

One way to tell whether you're wasting time when exploring your passion is to ask if you're producing or consuming.

Article: How to Do Great Work

In Paul Graham's words on how to explore and find your passion:

"The old also have the advantage of knowing which advantages they have. The young often have them without realizing it. The biggest is probably time. The young have no idea how rich they are in time. The best way to turn this time to advantage is to use it in slightly frivolous ways: to learn about something you don't need to know about, just out of curiosity, or to try building something just because it would be cool, or to become freakishly good at something."

"That "slightly" is an important qualification. Spend time lavishly when you're young, but don't simply waste it. There's a big difference between doing something you worry might be a waste of time and doing something you know for sure will be. The former is at least a bet, and possibly a better one than you think."

And how to tell whether you are time when exploring things in this slightly frivolous way:

"One way to tell whether you're wasting time is to ask if you're producing or consuming. Writing computer games is less likely to be a waste of time than playing them, and playing games where you create something is less likely to be a waste of time than playing games where you don't."

Also in David Perell's words:

"If you want to explore a new skill, don’t just consume information. Do the thing too. If you want to learn about music, don’t just listen to a lot of music. Play it too. Every activity has indescribable aspects you can only discover in the course of action."

Idea Promotion over Self-promotion

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Article: The Early History Of Smalltalk

Many people hesitate to share their work because they're uncomfortable with self-promotion. I used to struggle with this, too. However, we can think about sharing through a different perspective as promoting ideas rather than promoting ourselves.

The main difference between idea promotion and self-promotion is intention. Idea promotion is about sharing your work to benefit others, while self-promotion is about showcasing yourself for personal recognition.

In Adam Grant's words, self-promotion is saying, "Look at me, I'm special!", posting about awards, sharing lots of selfies, and putting yourself in the spotlight. In contrast, idea promotion is saying, "I created something I'm proud of, and I hope it brings you value or joy."

By not sharing your work, you might be keeping something valuable from people who could benefit from it.

As Alan Kay, in The Early History Of Smalltalk, referenced from Goethe, we should "share in the excitement of discovery without vain attempts to claim priority.

Read Fewer but Better Books

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Read fewer but better books. Deep reflection on fewer books is more valuable than consuming many books without thought.

Book: Essays and Aphorisms

From Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer:

“As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself; because only through ordering what you know by comparing every truth with every other truth can you take complete possession of your knowledge and get it into your power."

"You can think about only what you know, so you ought to learn something; on the other hand, you can know only what you have thought about."

Why? Because when we read, the author thinks for us. We can read ourselves stupid if we just repeat the author's mental process.

On God Side Instead

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

When pursuing ambitious goals, don't pray and ask for God to be on your side. Pray and hope to be on God's side, for God is always right.

Podcast: Sam Altman on 20VC

On the journey of building towards Artificial general intelligence(AGI), Sam Altman said:

"I never pray and ask for God to be on my side, I pray and hope to be on God's side and there is something about betting on deep learning that feels like being on the side of the angels."

Having a strong conviction is so important because the road towards any ambitious goal is never a straight line. When things don't work, you must take a leap of faith to stay motivated and try harder.

The original quote is from Abraham Lincoln:

"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."

Environment and Discount Future Rewards

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 03:14:36 GMT

People who grow up in resource-poor environments discount future rewards more than average because they perceive a shorter, more uncertain future.

Paper: Future Discounting by Slum Dwelling Youth Versus University Students in Rio de Janeiro

A study investigates the phenomenon of future discounting, the preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed ones, among young people living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The study shows that slum dwellers, particularly men, tend to discount the future more heavily than age-matched university students, likely due to their perceptions of a shorter and more uncertain future.

Exposure to violence makes those who are primed with mortality cues more likely to value immediate rewards over delayed rewards and fall for cheap dopamine addiction like drugs compared to those who grow up in resource-rich environments.

Developmental context plays a crucial role in individuals' time preferences and decision-making, and we should challenge the traditional focus on affluent, developed societies in developmental psychology.

I first read this study from Dopamine Nation, where I learned that Addictive drugs can shorten our temporal horizon. Recently, I watched the movie City of God, which portrays violence and drug abuse in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. That film prompted me to revisit this study.

Disagreeable Givers over Agreeable Takers

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

In the workplace, avoid the agreeable takers and embrace the disagreeable givers. Someone hard to work with is better than someone selfish.

Book: Give and Take

Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist, and Wharton professor, classifies workers on two independent dimensions: givers vs. takers and agreeable vs. disagreeable.

Givers help others and boost the team, while takers focus only on their own interests.
Agreeable people are friendly and pleasant, while disagreeable people are rough around the edges.

Interestingly, Grant found that being friendly doesn't mean someone's a giver, and being grumpy doesn't mean someone's a taker. Givers and takers both can be either agreeable or disagreeable.

The worst employees are disagreeable takers, but agreeable takers can also be deceptively terrible. They pretend to be helpful while actually hurting the company. They are the most dangerous kind of person to have in an organization.

While the agreeable giver may seem like the ideal employee, Grant says they sometimes avoid conflict too much. On the other hand, disagreeable givers, though harder to work with, can be the most valuable to an organization.

Disagreeable givers are more likely to fight for their beliefs, question the status quo, push for difficult but needed changes, and give honest feedback. Therefore, even if they are challenging to work with, they are critical for organizations that need to avoid complacency and improve.

I first learned about this from Meta's head of product, Naomi Gleit, on Lenny's Podcast.

Survival Rules of 3

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Wilderness Survival Rules of 3: You can survive for 3 days without water, but only 3 minutes without air and 3 hours without shelter. Prioritize unblocking the airway and getting warm over finding water or food.

Article: Wilderness Survival Rules of 3 - Air, Shelter, Water & Food

The four levels of the Survival Rules of 3:

You can survive for 3 Minutes without air
You can survive for 3 Hours without shelter in a harsh environment
You can survive for 3 Days without water
You can survive for 3 Weeks without food

The most important thing in real survival situations is to focus on the immediate problem first.

For example, if you are facing hypothermia because your clothes are wet and cold, there's no need to worry about food. You may not be able to function after three hours if you're shivering and unable to get dry and warm.

3 Reactions of New Technology

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

People consider technology normal if it predates their birth, exciting if it appears during their prime years, and threatening if it arrives in their later life.

Book: The Salmon of Doubt

Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, describes our reactions to technologies in this set of rules:

Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary, and you can probably get a career in it.
Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

This reminds me of the first law of Clarke's Three Laws: "When a distinguished elderly scientist states that something is possible, they are almost certainly right, but when they state something is impossible, they are probably wrong."

End of Melody is not Goal

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 03:14:35 GMT

"The end of a melody is not its goal: but nonetheless, had the melody not reached its end, it would not have reached its goal either. A parable." – Nietzsche

Quote

One of my favorite variants of "The journey is the reward".

Language Evolution and Second Language

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Languages naturally evolve to be more complex in isolation but tend to simplify when more people learn it as a second language because of the cognitive constraint of adult learners.

Podcast: John McWhorter on Linguistics, Music, and Race (Ep. 89 - Live at Mason) | Conversations with Tyler

The evolution of a language is greatly impacted by the number of people learning it as a second language. When a language is spoken by a relatively small, isolated community, it tends to accumulate complex features because there's limited external pressure to simplify.

For example, Estonian is a complex language with 16 cases and numerous dialects and subdialects because very few people learn it as a second language.

On the other hand, when more people learn the language as a second language, it usually becomes simpler. That's why Finnish, which is a sister language to Estonian, is simpler because it has more speakers and learners.

Adult learners are the main driving factors behind the simplification of language because they often find it more challenging to master complex grammatical rules and irregularities compared to kids who learn them as their native language. This cognitive constraint, therefore, forces a gradual simplification of the language as it spreads to a broader population.

Environmental Context and Memory

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Changing study environments can significantly improve how well you remember information because environmental context is critical for memory formation.

Paper: Environmental context and human memory

A 1978 study by psychologists Smith, Glenberg, and Bjork found an interesting connection between environment and memory retention. One of their experiments shows that reviewing a study material in two different locations led to a 40% improvement in memory recall compared to reviewing twice in the same place. In other words, simply changing where you study dramatically improves how well you remember information.

This environmental context effect can also be applied to teaching and testing. There are research studies exploring the use of different learning environments, like classroom vs. clinical space, for medical education to enhance retention and having exams in varied contexts to help more flexible retrieval of learned information.

You can also read this meta-analysis paper to learn more about environmental context-dependent memory.

True Priorities and Money

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

“Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.” – James W. Frick

Quote

I often think of the variant of this quote: Don't trust what we say about our priorities until we see where and how we spend our time.

Keep a log of how we actually spend time. Pay attention to what we spend time on and whom we spend time with. It can be astonishing how misaligned the way we spend time is with what we set as our priorities.

Event or Judgment Disturb

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

“It isn't events themselves that disturb people, but only their judgments about them.” – Epictetus

Quote

This old Stoic wisdom can also be found in the modern psychotherapy practice. As I noted before in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) 's ABC Model, our emotional disturbances are usually determined by how we think, not by the events.

Say and Do

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” – Epictetus

Quote

Reminds me of Freya Stark's quote: "There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do."

High and Low Context Cultures

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Different cultures communicate differently. High-context cultures rely on implicit communication and relationships, while low-context cultures prefer explicit exchanges and individual focus.

Article: 1.4.6 - Context of Cultures: High and Low

Different cultures communicate in different ways. One useful way to examine these differences is through the framework of high-context and low-context cultures.

People in high-context cultures are usually:

Rely more on implicit communication and nonverbal cues.
Focus on long-term relationships to derive meaning.
See communication as an art and a way to connect.
Take time to build trust in relationships.
Value group identity (family, culture, work).
Are flexible with time and prioritize getting things done over strict schedules.
Examples: Japanese, Chinese, French, Spanish, Indonesian, Korean, Arabic, Brazilian, and French Canadian.

On the other hand, people in low-context cultures are usually:

Prefer explicit and direct communication.
Focus more on the message than on relationships.
See communication as a way to share information and opinions.
Form and end relationships quickly.
Value individual identity and achievements.
Follow strict schedules and like to do one thing at a time.
Examples: German, Israeli, Swiss, Dutch, Scandinavian, American, Canadian, Australian, British, and English Canadian.

This framework was developed by anthropologist Edward T. Hall, who also studied how different cultures view time. Of course, this is a general framework and doesn't apply to everyone in these cultures. But it can still help understand cultural differences. Remember, "All models are wrong, but some are useful."

You can take this survey if you're curious about where you fit on this low and high-context continuum. My low context score is 12 points higher than my high context score.

Elevator Mirrors Psychology

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Approach technical problems with psychological solutions: Elevator mirrors reduce perceived waiting time by distracting passengers.

Article: Why Do All Elevators Have Mirrors?

Have you ever wondered why most elevators have mirrors?

While there are several explanations, including reducing claustrophobia, discouraging bad behavior (passenger's feeling of being watched), and making it easier for people in wheelchairs, there's one explanation I found the most interesting: mirrors help distract people from the wait time to go from one floor to another.

When elevators were first introduced, many people complained about the lengthy time it took to travel between floors. However, at that time, it wasn't technically feasible to make elevators faster. So instead of focusing on the technology, designers found a solution by understanding human psychology: they added mirrors.

It turns out that people generally enjoy looking at themselves (how surprising, huh?). By adding mirrors, elevator designers made the waiting time feel shorter emotionally, even though the actual travel time remained the same. Passengers became distracted and less stressed about the wait.

I like this explanation because it demonstrates that, sometimes, it's better to approach a problem by understanding human psychology instead of focusing on technological improvements.

If you want to learn about waiting (instead of doing it), The Psychology of Waiting Lines is a fun paper to read.

Head Heart Wallet

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Head, Heart, Wallet: Three questions to find what to write.

Course: Write of Passage

I'm recently taking the writing bootcamp Write of Passage, and David provided these three questions to ask yourself if you don't know what to write about.

What does your head want to write about? This is about curiosity. What do you want to learn about?

What does your heart want to write about? This is about passion. What do you really care about?

What does your wallet want to write about? This is about profit. What could earn you money?

If you can't find a topic that fits all three, explore where the conflicts are. For example, a topic might be interesting and profitable but not something you're passionate about. Understanding these tensions can help you make better decisions about what to write.

Four Reasons to Post

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Four reasons people post things: sound smart, be funny, look hot, look rich.

Tweet: Nikita Bier on X

To make people share your product online, it's useful to keep in mind that there are four reasons people post things:

To sound smart
To be funny
To look hot
To look rich

Therefore, when designing the sharing flows for your product, you have to make sure you can help your users achieve those goals.

This is from Nikita Bier, one of the most in-demand consumer, social, and growth experts who sold two social apps to Discord and Facebook. To learn more, you can also check out [his interview on Lenny's](How to consistently go viral: Nikita Bier’s playbook for winning at consumer apps (co-founder of TBH, Gas, advisor, investor)).

Three Ways to Get Paid

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Lie to people who want to be lied to, and you’ll get rich. Tell the truth to those who want the truth, and you’ll make a living. Tell the truth to those who want to be lied to, and you’ll go broke.

Article: Three Ways to Get Paid

The financial success of a message depends on aligning it with the audience's desires. Don't tell them the truth if they want to be lied to.

From Jason Zweig:

There are three ways to make a living:

Lie to people who want to be lied to, and you’ll get rich.
Tell the truth to those who want the truth, and you’ll make a living.
Tell the truth to those who want to be lied to, and you’ll go broke.

Visualizing Muscle Growth

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Thinking can strengthen muscles. Visualizing yourself lifting weights can stimulate muscle growth even without engaging in physical activity.

Paper: Kinesthetic imagery training of forceful muscle contractions increases brain signal and muscle strength

You can strengthen your muscles by simply thinking about it.

Mental imagery of weightlifting can stimulate muscle growth through neurological mechanisms because visualizing muscle contractions activates neural pathways, triggers motor cortex activity, and enhances motor unit recruitment.

This practice strengthens brain-to-muscle signals and indirectly boosts muscle development through psychological factors.

Another study also shows that internal imagery (visualizing oneself lifting weight from within one's body) is more effective than external imagery (visualizing oneself lifting weight as an observer) in enhancing strength. This is due to greater muscle excitation, stronger brain activation, and higher physiological responses like increased heart rate and blood pressure associated with internal imagery.

While visualization can promote muscle growth, it's not a substitute for physical exercise. Actual weightlifting still provides a stronger stimulus for muscle development. Visualization is a complementary technique to enhance physical training rather than a replacement.

Contagious Stress

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Stress can be contagious through sweat and trigger physiological stress responses in people nearby via cortisol transmission as secondhand stress.

Paper: Chemosignals of Stress Influence Social Judgments

Stress can be contagious in a very literal sense. When we experience stress, our bodies release cortisol, the primary stress hormone, which can be emitted through our sweat.

This cortisol can then be absorbed through the skin of people nearby, potentially triggering a physiological stress response in them.

The phenomenon is similar to how women's menstrual cycles can synchronize when they're in close proximity.

This also relates to Emotional Contagion I noted before. "The reason we say "don't be upset" is often because we don't want to have our emotions synchronized and be upset."

Two Year Test for Sharing

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Podcast: Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal - Dickie Bush

Imposter syndrome is a common challenge for online writers, including myself, every time before publishing anything.

I find the "two-year test" framework helpful: whenever I have doubt about whether I should share something, I ask myself:

"Would the content have been valuable to me two years ago?"

If yes, publish it. If not, I should make it better.

This perspective helps mitigate self-doubt and focus on providing value to their audience. Content that could have saved me time or helped me avoid mistakes two years ago is worth sharing. Helping even one person is a reason strong enough to overcome imposter syndrome and share your work.

Three Questions for Evaluating Projects

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

When evaluating a new opportunity, ensure it has a positive worst-case scenario, potential for exponential growth, and long-term sustainability for compounding benefits.

Podcast: Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal - Dickie Bush

When evaluating a new project, think about three questions before we say yes to it:

Is there no way that this is a failure?
Is there an exponential upside if it works out long-term?
Can you stick with it long enough to see compounding benefits?

The first question ensures a positive outcome regardless of the results. For example, the worst-case scenario when writing a newsletter could be having no subscribers. Nevertheless, in such cases, you still gain a better understanding of what you have learned and written about.

The second question ensures that the reward is nonlinear, meaning it offers a higher upside and less competition, as others may give up before seeing results.

The third question ensures that the plan is feasible. This is important because if you make an impossible plan, you won't be able to persist and see the compounding benefits of your progress.

Of course, besides all these, you should also consider opportunity cost. However, these three questions serve as useful heuristics to filter out non-ideal opportunities.

Free and Lost

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

"I am free and that is why I am lost." - Franz Kafka

Quote

Absolute freedom oftentimes means absolute responsibility. Being radically free to determine our own essence or purpose can cause anxiety or a feeling of being "lost" in the face of endless possibilities.

This quote is from Kafka's Es war der erste Spatenstich and also reminds me of the book The Paradox of Choice.

Sanderson 3P Storytelling

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Brandon Sanderson's three storytelling elements: Promises, Progress, Payoffs.

Video: Lecture #2: Plot Part 1 — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy

Brandon Sanderson is one of the most prolific fantasy authors in the world. He mentioned there are three critical elements of a good plot:

Promises: Promises are expectations a story sets through genre, tone, character, and plot. These implicit promises shape reader engagement. For example, Indiana Jones' opening scene promises an epic adventure.
Progress: Progress engages the reader when the story moves towards goals or plot progression, though the progress might not necessarily be linear. For example, Star Wars' plot progresses through location changes.
Payoffs: Payoffs are the reader's feelings when the culmination of promises and progress leads to fulfilled resolutions. These feelings are earned when readers experience the characters' struggles and growth. For example, a story solves its mysteries or reaches climactic conflicts.

These elements are interconnected. Promises set expectations, progress moves towards them, and payoffs fulfill them.

Thanks to Kevin Hsu for sharing this with me. Check out his novel!

Remembering and Experiencing Self

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

We have two selves: the experiencing self and the remembering self. The self that remembers decides what makes us happy, not the self that actually experiences things.

Book: Why We Remember

Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman conceptualizes the ideas of two selves.

The "experiencing self" is that part of us that lives in the present moment, and the "remembering self" reflects on our past experiences.

These two selves can interpret the same event very differently. For example, Kahneman's and other's research on colonoscopy patients showed that the remembering self is more influenced by peak moments and endings of experiences, rather than duration.

We can think of the remembering self as a storyteller. Our satisfaction and happiness are based on the story it tells instead of what we experience. In other words, stories in our memory, not reality, shape how we feel about our choices and outcomes.

This also reminds me of Aristotle making the distinctions between time and single moments.

Craft and Tenure

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

You can achieve operational excellence through process, but craft can only be achieved with tenure.

Video: A conversation with NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang

During his conversation with Patrick Collison, Jensen argued that although operational excellence can achieve many valuable things, exceptional outcomes require something more nuanced, like craft.

What makes the difference is that operational excellence can be systematized through processes, while achieving exceptional craft requires the experience and accumulated knowledge that come with tenure.

Craft is impossible to codify into a set of explicit instructions. It can only be developed over time by a team that has shared experiences and has collectively learned to operate on a deeper, almost intangible level.

Mood and Memory Recall

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Our mood can influence which memories come to mind more easily. A sad mood makes sad memories easier to recall.

Book: Why We Remember

Our current emotional state can influence which memories are more readily available. A study by researcher Charan Ranganath showed a connection between mood and memory.

In the experiment, participants listened to slow, melancholic music to create a sad mood. They were then asked to think about a sad event from their past.

The results showed a cyclical relationship between sad memories and sad moods. Recalling sad memories caused a sad mood in participants. Being in a sad mood, in turn, made it easier for participants to recall other sad memories. This finding indicates a strong link between emotional states and memory accessibility.

Our senses also play a crucial role in triggering powerful memories. For instance, music often has the uncanny ability to transport us back in time, certain scents can bring people back to specific moments or places, and some visual cues can also trigger vivid recollections.

These examples illustrate how our senses are intricately connected to our memory system, capable of evoking complex emotional responses and detailed recollections of past events.

Best Opposing Perspective

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

For a different perspective, don't rely on random Twitter opinions. Instead, seek out the best arguments from the opposing side directly.

Podcast: Michael Nielsen: Tools for Thought - David Perell

To get a different point of view, you don't have to tweet and see what other people on the other side said. You should look up what the best person on the other side says, not a random person on Twitter.

Don't read garbage.

Dual-coding theory

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Dual-coding theory: Verbal and nonverbal information are stored separately in our memory, and simultaneously processing both verbal and nonverbal representations of an idea helps us remember better.

Article: Mental Imagery

Proposed by psychologist (and bodybuilder) Allan Paivio, the dual-coding theory of memory explains why processing both verbal and nonverbal representations of information at the same time helps us remember the information better.

According to dual-coding theory, our mind creates different representations for conceptual symbolic codes (like numbers and words) and perceptual analogue codes (like physical stimuli and images) and stores them separately in our memory. For instance, we can remember the concept "turtle" as both the word "turtle" and the image of a "turtle."

From chengweihu.com/io/dualcoding-theory

Both verbal and nonverbal representations can be used to recall information. Therefore, when we try to recall information, we can retrieve either the word or the image individually, or both simultaneously. This ability to code information in two different ways increases our chance of remembering it.

Images are generally remembered better than verbal information. This is also related to picture superiority effect, which is often used as a learning aid. However, when sequential order is required, verbal information is recalled better.

If you're interested in learning more about the dual-coding theory, you can read Conceptual Issues in Dual Coding Theory for its incompatibility with the computational approach to the mind (computationalism), and Dual Coding and Common Coding Theories of Memory for an alternative theory.

Goals are not Strategies

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Setting goals is not a strategy. Focus on vision, mission, and values without identifying the key challenge and designing a coherent plan to overcome it is not enough.

Book: Good Strategy Bad Strategy

Many companies assume that stating a list of objectives and key results (OKRs) and having a vision and mission statement is equivalent to having a strategy. However, strategy is not just about setting goals. It's about identifying specific challenges or obstacles that need to be conquered and then creating a plan of action to achieve the desired outcome.

Good strategy requires three key elements: a diagnosis of the critical challenge, a guiding policy for overcoming it, and a set of coherent actions to carry out that policy. Statements of desire like "we will grow our sales 20% this year" or "we must put our customers first" alone do not identify the concrete path forward.

I take this as a personal reflection as well. While I set personal OKRs every quarter and year, it's also important to document my strategies and thought processes for achieving those goals.

And lastly, I believe the key to developing exceptional strategies at both individual and company levels is gaining insights distilled from transformed knowledge.

Train Brain like ML

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Absorbing information for our brain is like training our machine learning model of the world. Even if we forget what we've learned, the data still trains our brains and model weights to make decisions.

Podcast: Andy Matuschak - Self-Teaching, Spaced Repetition, & Why Books Don’t Work | Dwarkesh Podcast

Machine learning models oftentimes work like black boxes. During the training process, the model learns from the provided data and extracts weights representing patterns and relationships within that data. These weights enable the model to make predictions or decisions without requiring it to remember the specific examples it was trained on.

Absorbing information for our brain is similar to training our model of the world. Our brain operates like a black box. Therefore, we might know how to do something without remembering why we know it. Even if we forget what we've learned, it still trains our brains and becomes weights (through spread activation).

Also from How You Know: "Reading and experience train your model of the world. And even if you forget the experience or what you read, its effect on your model of the world persists. Your mind is like a compiled program you've lost the source of. It works, but you don't know why."

Main Thing

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. — Stephen Covey

Quote

I first learned this quote from Sarah Elizabeth Lewis in Tribe of Mentors.

Recently, Mark Zuckerberg quoted this when asked on the Dwarkesh Podcast whether he could have made it work if he were assigned CEO of Google+.

He believes Facebook can take off because they always prioritize it as their top priority, while Google+ is just a division within a company. The organization's capacity is largely limited by what they can focus on, and Facebook was their only focus. At both individual and organizational levels, the most important thing is focus.

What we Pretend

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 03:14:35 GMT

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

Book: Mother Night

Love this quote from Kurt Vonnegut in Mother Night.

Working and External Memory

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Article: Working Memory and External Memory

Working memory is a temporary storage where our brain deposits information critical to the current task. Unlike long-term or short-term memory, working memory is like things you need to know but don't want to remember later.

This memory system is task-oriented and has a limited capacity. When the information required for a task exceeds its capacity, we must offload current items in our working memory to make room for new information. Constantly swapping items in our working memory is inefficient and error-prone. For example, consider the task of mentally multiplying 357 by 123. It can be challenging due to the need to remember each carry number while doing multiplication.

An effective way to make the memory system more effective is to offload items from working memory to easily accessible external memory. For instance, performing calculations on paper is easier than purely in our minds because of the visual support provided by the external medium.

This principle also explains why reading long articles on a laptop is often easier than on a mobile phone. A larger screen can act as an extension of working memory, reducing the need to scroll and remember previous content. Similarly, using comparison tables for shopping or creating customized spreadsheets are examples of relieving the load on our working memory by externalizing information management.

You can also learn more about working memory at Huberman's Tools to Enhance Working Memory & Attention.

Write Web to String

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Writing is the process of encoding a web of ideas into a string of words using a tree of phrases.

Book: The Sense of Style

In his book The Sense of Style, Steven Pinker states, "The writer's goal is to encode a web of ideas into a string of words using a tree of phrases." In other words, writing is the practice of rearranging a non-linear network of thoughts into a linear sequence of sentences.

The phrase reminds me of Ted Nelson's critique that this non-linear to linear transformation is inefficient. He argues that writing forces us to arrange ideas, which naturally have their own spatial structure, into a linear form. Readers must then decode this linear structure to reconstruct the original web of ideas. There are additional steps of deconstructing nonsequential thoughts into a sequence and then reconstructing them back as nonsequential.

Nelson's solution is the concept of hypertext, nonsequential writing that allows readers to navigate through text non-linearly, offering different pathways through interconnected chunks of text. As suggested in Literary Machines, hypertext should save both the writer's time and the reader's time and effort in putting together and understanding what is being presented.

While Ted Nelson's ideas make a lot of sense, I think the struggle to encode and decode linear text is actually what makes writing and reading rewarding. It has to be inefficient, so we must engage with the content more.

Notes Make Intellectual Possible

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Taking notes on paper or screens doesn't merely simplify complex tasks like contemporary physics or other intellectual pursuits. Taking notes makes them possible.

Book: Neuroethics and the Extended Mind

In Neuroethics and the Extended Mind, Neil Levy wrote: "Notes on paper, or on a computer screen (or mathematical models, or what have you) do not make contemporary physics or other kinds of intellectual endeavor easier, they make it possible."

"In any case, no matter how internal processes are implemented, insofar as thinkers are genuinely concerned with what enables human beings to perform the spectacular intellectual feats exhibited in science and other areas of systematic enquiry, as well as in the arts, they need to understand the extent to which the mind is reliant upon external scaffolding."

Our working memory has limited capacity. To perform complex tasks, we should offload some mental load onto an external medium.

This concept also links to the idea that Writing is thinking. You write first and then derive clear perspectives from your own writing.

Read Yourself Stupid

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

When we read, the author thinks for us. We can read ourselves stupid if we just repeat the author's mental process. People who just let their own thoughts wander can be more creative than those who just read.

Book: Parerga and Paralipomena

From Arthur Schopenhauer in Parerga and Paralipomena Chapter 24 on reading and books:

"When we read someone else thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. This is like the pupil who in learning to write traces with his pen the strokes made in pencil by the teacher. Accordingly in reading we are for the most part absolved of the work of thinking."

"This is why we sense relief when we transition from preoccupation with our own thoughts to reading. But during reading our mind is really only the playground of the thoughts of others. What remains when these finally move on? "

"It stems from this that whoever reads very much and almost the whole day, but in between recovers by thoughtless pastime, gradually loses the ability to think on his own – as someone who always rides forgets in the end how to walk. But such is the case of many scholars: they have read themselves stupid. For constant reading immediately taken up again in every free moment is even more mentally paralysing than constant manual labour, since in the latter we can still muse about our own thoughts."

"But just as a coiled spring finally loses its elasticity through the sustained pressure of a foreign body, so too the mind through the constant force of other people's thoughts. And just as one ruins the stomach by too much food and so harms the entire body, so too we can overfill and choke the mind with too much mental food."

"For the more one reads, the fewer traces are left behind in the mind by what was read; it becomes like a tablet on which many things have been written over one another. Therefore we do not reach the point of rumination; but only through this do we assimilate what we have read, just as food does not nourish us through eating but through digestion."

Unique Messenger not Message

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

“There are no unique messages, only unique messengers.” - Jadah Sellner

Quote

We don't have to wait to create something unique. We and our authenticity are the elements that make anything unique.

Inside the Mind of the Ryuichi Sakamoto

Sun, 22 Oct 2023 06:22:54 GMT

In the previous article, I shared my reflections on the passing of Ryuichi Sakamoto, the legendary composer, producer, and artist. Despite knowing his time was limited, Sakamoto dedicated himself to his art until his final breath. His journey reminds us that a meaningful life doesn't have to be long, and that finding the work we love is essential to achieve fulfillment.

In this article, I extracted some intriguing pieces from "How Many More Times Will I Watch the Full Moon Rise?", his final memoir. Because there's no English version of the book yet, I have translated some excerpts myself with help from our dear friend ChatGPT.

I've sorted these notes into three parts:

Random insights into life and work
Philosophy and Sakamoto's Music
Gazing into death

But first, here's a playlist from a story you can listen to along with this article.

A playlist curated for a restaurant because their music sucks.

Although Ryuichi Sakamoto loves a Japanese Restaurant named Kokage in New York City, he once mentioned:

"One time when I was dining at 'Kokage', I couldn't help but notice their background music. The playlist was a mix of Brazilian pop and jazz that sounded like Miles Davis—quite mediocre and annoying. After noticing this, the more I listened, the more it took away from the experience and became unbearable."

"After returning home, knowing that it was rude, I still sent an email to the head chef of the restaurant: 'Your dishes are as beautiful as Katsura Imperial Villa, but the music in the restaurant is like Trump Tower.' I then said that I would help them select the music."

You can listen to the Kokage Restaurants playlist Sakamoto curated on YouTube and Spotify. Unfortunately, Kokage permanently closed in 2022.

Random insights into life and work

They treated my music like the cheap stuff they play in dental offices.

Sakamoto hates being called "the guru of therapeutic music":

"It infuriated me when my song "Energy Flow" (1999) was used as background music for an advertisement and was praised as "therapeutic music". They treated my music like the cheap stuff they play in dental offices."

"I also avoid the words praising me as "the guru of therapeutic music." Because of this, I have always resisted the term "therapeutic" and swore never to use it myself."

"However, after more than a decade, the gentle breezes of Hawaii comforting me when I’m sick made me reconsider—maybe this is what "therapeutic" truly means."

Why did he stop playing "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence", and why did he change?

Sakamoto on why he stopped playing "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" in concerts and what makes him start playing it again:

"Why do I still want to write music that transcends "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence"? Of course, this piece is well-known to the public and is my representative work, but I am actually very tired of this public image. Therefore, I have not performed this piece in concerts for about ten years. Wherever in the world, I feel annoyed when people ask me, Why don't you play Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence?"

"So, why did I start performing it again? The reason was that in 2010 when I was in Japan, I attended a concert by Carole King and James Taylor at the Budokan. Including me, all the audience naturally hoped to hear Carole King's hit "You've Got a Friend". But that day, they seemed to deliberately keep the audience waiting, not performing it until the very end. I waited until the last moment. And when they finally performed this song, I felt so glad to hear it live."

"Even though there were more songs in the encore, I happily went home after hearing that. Even I, who was so stubbornly insistent on not playing "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence", felt uneasy when other artists didn't perform their signature songs in their shows. At that moment, I could accept those who came to Ryuichi Sakamoto's concerts just to hear "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence"; their presence also could not be erased."

He later changed his mindset from breaking the frame of "Ryuichi Sakamoto equals Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence".

"Of course, I still reject being introduced with clichés like "Ryuichi Sakamoto, known for 'Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence'." Until a certain period, I was desperate to destroy this established image, but now my mindset has changed. It's not worth wasting precious energy on this."

"I don't live to change others' perceptions; isn't it enough just to continue quietly creating the music I want to make? Although the last piece may not necessarily be good work, I don't want to lock my lifelong goal on breaking the frame of "Ryuichi Sakamoto equals 'Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence'". It would be too foolish to spend the remaining time achieving this goal. This is my true feeling now after various changes in thinking."

He stood up the whole class as a guest lecturer because he drank until the morning.

He told a story about how he hates teaching and how annoying he can be.

"I realized that I am not suitable for teaching, and I really hate my time being restricted by others. So I found all sorts of reasons to avoid teaching."

"When I was younger, Yoshiaki Tono from Tama Art University once invited me to his class as a guest lecturer. However, right before the class, I drank the whole night until that morning. Because I thought going to University was too troublesome, I directly stood him and the whole class up. This is how annoying I am."

Insecure of lacking a signature artistic style

Though once insecure about not having a signature style, Sakamoto realized it's okay because that's who he is:

"I've always made albums based on my current mood, or put another way, each work is quite scattered in its purpose, lacking a consistent artistic theme".

"I've always felt somewhat insecure about this because I lack a signature style. For example, when you listen to any album by Tatsuro Yamashita or Brian Eno, you can feel their signature style. But I've figured out that I'm just different from them. I always only do things I love, and there's really nothing I can do about it."

Rehearsal at home is meaningless. Real practice is in the performance.

Sakamoto thinks real practice occurs in the performance, not in rehearsal:

"I've always hated practicing the piano. I have a theory that the real practice is in the formal performance in front of an audience. I'm not boasting, but I rarely rehearse."

"This theory holds for other musicians as well. Musicians, who originally thought to perform very well, often reduce their public appearances for various reasons. Sadly, they can lose their luster after a few years because of fewer public appearances."

"It's the same with actors. Only by showing their acting skills in front of people can they demonstrate professional standards. No matter how much one rehearses at home, it is meaningless."

Philosophy and Sakamoto's Music

Music comes out of noise.

In his "Out Of Noise", Sakamoto tries to learn from how children play in a sandbox.

"The title "Out Of Noise" omits the first half; for me, the full name of this project is "Music comes out of noise," However, this isn't like Michelangelo, who saw David in a block of marble the moment he saw it. For me, it's more like playing with sand."

"When children play in a sandbox at the park, they don't necessarily think about creating something specific. They simply pile up the sand, sometimes making a bridge or a castle, without any prior design. In "Out Of Noise", I also hope the final product resembles music that emerges while listening to noise."

"During the era when TV was still broadcast in analog, snow noise was broadcast late at night after all the day's programs were over. Accompanied by a sharp "shhh" sound, I once stared at that snowy screen while completely drunk and inexplicably saw images and music within it. Perhaps that's something similar to what's in Out Of Noise."

How can we transcend Logos and come closer to Physis?

When making his 14th solo album, async (2017), he talked about Logos and Physis.

"It's probably due to the nature of the human brain. When we see stars in the night sky, we connect those bright points to form constellations. In reality, those stars are tens of thousands of light-years apart, yet we perceive them as being on the same surface." ¹

"Similarly, if we were to place a dot on a white canvas and then place a second dot, our minds would instinctively connect the two dots with a straight line. If we add a third dot, we would connect them to form a triangle. This also applies to music. For instance, in the theme song of "The Revenant", as soon as we hear the first two notes, we feel that there's some inherent meaning in them." ²

"According to Shin-Ichi Fukuoka's view, this characteristic of the human brain to connect stars in the night sky is what we call Logos, or reason. Its counterpart, the actual state of the stars, is known as Physis. This term is the root of "Physics" and means "nature." Since a certain point in time, whenever Fukuoka and I are together, our conversation inevitably turns to: how can we humans transcend Logos and come closer to Physis?"

Everything is interconnected, but language divides them with boundaries.

Sakamoto often ponders on how language divides the interconnected world.

"Looking back at the function of human language, it assigns frameworks even to things that don't have a physical form. When we hear the word "mist", we feel as if we can see it. When we hear "emptiness", it's as if we can sense it."

"Everything in the natural world is inherently interconnected, but language divides them with boundaries. Of course, this isn't entirely without benefits. However, as I've grown older, I've started to think that this might be the root of all human errors."

Gazing into death

The following are some notes I had from reading the afterword written by Masafumi Suzuki, the editor of the book who interviewed Sakamoto in his final days.

The last sushi from Araki.

Sakamoto once said, "I want to eat Araki's sushi one more time before I die." Chef Mitsuhiro Araki contacted him and said, "If Sakamoto can still eat, I want to make sushi for him." Just for Sakamoto, Araki temporarily borrowed the kitchen and prepared sushi for him on January 30. Sakamoto said, "Make a little less," and ate all the dishes. It was the last time Sakamoto ate out.

I'm sorry, Yukihiro. I have to keep going.

Just after the New Year, on January 2, Sakamoto contracted pneumonia. Moreover, he found out on New Year's Eve that his long-time friend from the Yellow Magic Orchestra era, Yukihiro Takahashi, was seriously ill with pneumonia. "I wonder who will go first..." Sakamoto murmured at the time. On January 11, when Sakamoto first heard of Yukihiro's death, he reportedly said, "I'm sorry, Yukihiro. I have to keep going."

Bertolucci's joyful final days with wine and marijuana.

Sakamoto said goodbye to his close friend, Bernardo Bertolucci, in November 2018. After stopping life-sustaining treatment, Bertolucci spent the last month of his life at home while drinking red wine and enjoying medical marijuana with his friends all day. His widow Claire told Sakamoto, "He laughed as if he had never laughed like that in his life, and he passed away joyfully." Sakamoto thinks he must have been very happy in his final moments.

More artists' final moments.

Sakamoto mentioned two other stories regarding how some artists approach their end of life.

In November 1995, 70-year-old Gilles Deleuze, who had suffered from asthma for years and relied on an oxygen machine, decided to end his life because his body could no longer function. He jumped out of the window of his Paris apartment.

In September 2022, 91-year-old Jean-Luc Godard, who had suffered from multiple disabling pathologies, took his life by assisted suicide with Exit. His wife and friends said to him by his side, "Bon voyage". Godard responded, "Thank you all for allowing me to reach such an end in life", and took the lethal medication and his final breath.

Sakamoto's final days and funeral playlist.

On March 25, Sakamoto himself requested to enter palliative care. That morning, Sakamoto shook hands with his doctors to express his gratitude: "I truly received a lot of care from all of you." And with a calm tone, he said, "I hope the treatment ends here. Thank you all."

After that, Sakamoto finalized the funeral playlist, the list of songs to be played at his funeral when that moment arrives. He listened to each song on the playlist and removed some songs he thought were unsuitable. His dedication and will to music remains unyielding.

And that's all the pieces I gathered from the book. For more about Sakamoto's reflection on life, music-making, and social activism of his final decade, read his memoir "How Many More Times Will I Watch the Full Moon Rise" (我還能再看到幾次滿月？ / ぼくはあと何回、満月を見るだろう)

Thank you, Ryuichi Sakamoto.

坂本龍一氏 by chiaki hayashi is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

And thanks for reading.

^
This reminds me of Motion Parallax, where you can make animation just by moving lots of white dots at different speeds.
^
This function of our brain automatically connecting dots to derive meaning is also shown in the Kuleshov Effect, where viewers of videos derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation.

Addiction and Shortened Time Horizon

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 03:14:36 GMT

When thinking about the future, drug addicts project 9 days into the future while healthy people consider 4.7 years forward. Addictive drugs can shorten our "temporal horizon".

Book: Dopamine Nation

When thinking about the future, how far ahead do people usually plan? In a study, researchers asked groups of heroin addicts and healthy individuals to complete a story that began with the line: "After awakening, Bill began to think about his future. In general, he expected to..." The goal of the study was not to analyze the content of each participant's response but rather to examine the timeframe each individual envisioned for their future.

While the control group projected stories an average of 4.7 years into the future, heroin addicts only looked 9 days forward. This stark contrast shows how addictive drugs can narrow our "temporal horizon".

Conversely, when Dr. Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist specializing in addiction, asked her recovering patients what the deciding moment for them to try to quit drugs was, her patients usually shared insights with a long-term perspective. One patient said, "I suddenly realized I'd been using heroin for a year, and I thought to myself, if I don't stop now, I may be doing this for the rest of my life."

I feel like people with depression or with depression or those reminded of their mortality may also tend to have shortened time horizons and insensitivity to future consequences. If we are uncertain about surviving another day, it may be hard to envision some moments far in the future, and prioritizing immediate rewards over delayed ones becomes more rational.

Marketing Cringe

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

When marketing our work, we must feel a bit cringe. Zero cringe can be suboptimal because it either means we are not being authentic or we are tasteless.

Podcast: Y Combinator CEO: The Key To Writing For Startups & Entrepreneurs | Garry Tan | How I Write Podcast

When we do marketing, how much cringe is the right amount of cringe? I find myself hesitating each time I'm about to share my work on social media because I cringe a bit. This idea from Garry Tan, the CEO of Y Combinator, might shed light on why having some cringe is good.

According to Gary, a certain level of discomfort or 'cringe' is essential in marketing. Zero cringe is probably suboptimal because if we don't feel any cringe, we are probably not being authentic. Being zero cringe could indicate either we are totally tasteless or we are just following the current trends, both of which fail to incorporate our unique essence and can quickly become outdated.

In Gary's words, "being yourself is always a little bit weird, and it doesn't seem numerically possible to have zero cringe and be authentic." This idea also echoes what the illustrator Worry Lines said in this post, "If I'm cringing just a little bit, it's probably about right."

No Knowledge in Book

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

There is no knowledge in books, only information. Information only becomes knowledge after we interpret and understand it.

Thought

The thought extends from the Knowledge Pyramid concept. Books themselves do not contain knowledge because information only becomes knowledge after we actively interpret and understand it. Therefore, knowledge is a product of our interaction with information rather than the texts printed on paper representing the author's understanding.

Pain is not Unit of Effort

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Pain is not the unit for effort. If it hurts, maybe we are doing it wrong.

Article: Pain is not the unit of Effort

There seems to be a pervasive belief in society that pain is the measure of effort, as in common quotes like "No pain, no gain" and "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". However, the concept of pain as a unit of effort can lead to detrimental practices that don't actually contribute to achieving our goals. Sometimes, we might be sacrificing happiness by pursuing efforts that are actually not relevant to our objectives.

The writer suggests two counterbalancing beliefs: "If it hurts, you're probably doing it wrong" and "You're not trying your best if you're not happy", which remind me of When things aren’t working, be smarter, not louder, and It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.

Two Tragedies

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

“In this world, there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” - Oscar Wilde

Quote

As previously noted in This Is Water, the relentless pursuit of external desires can put us on a hedonistic treadmill: wanting something, getting it, adjusting to a new standard, and starting to want more. We never get to achieve true satisfaction unless we engage with something larger than ourselves, something invariant.

Forgetting goals and building a system can be another solution.

How Many More Times Will I Watch the Full Moon Rise?

Sat, 14 Oct 2023 11:57:30 GMT

Death is always on the way,

but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive

seems to take away from the finiteness of life.

It's that terrible precision that we hate so much.

But because we don't know,

we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well.

Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really.

How many more times will you remember

a certain afternoon of your childhood,

some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being

that you can't even conceive of your life without it?

Perhaps four or five times more.

Perhaps not even.

How many more times will you watch the full moon rise?

Perhaps twenty.

And yet it all seems limitless.

― Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky

Legendary composer, producer, and artist Ryuichi Sakamoto took his final bow at 4:33 AM on March 28, 2023, at the age of 71.

He had been aware of the limited time he had left since December 2020, when his doctor told him, "If nothing is done, you only have half a year to live."

After battling with rectal cancer for another three years, Sakamoto entered palliative care on March 25, 2023.

Yet just two days before his death, on March 26, he was still remotely discussing his exhibition, SOUND AND TIME, with Shiro Takatani.

Between March 21 and 26, Sakamoto watched every performance of "Tohoku Youth Orchestra" from his hospital bed while on an IV drip and provided guidance through messaging apps as their musical director.

From March 14 to 16, Sakamoto recorded about 20 minutes of music. These are his final recordings.

Work until his final breath

Maybe Sakamoto didn't use his last energy to sustain his own life but spent it on work ¹ because he was unaware of how soon his life would end.

However, perhaps channeling his remaining energy to art and music is precisely how he was sustaining his own life. It brings to mind Walt Disney's final days. Despite being on his deathbed and only able to stare at the hospital ceiling, Walt Disney was still going over the plans for Disneyland with his partner. He dedicated his last moments to the magical joy he believed it would bring.

It must be fulfilling to find such passion, something they love so much that they decide to work on until they die. They dedicate their final breath to what fuels the purpose of their life. And to me, it's a life well-lived.

210 years

One family member said, "Sakamoto's life was equivalent to three average people's." His 71 years felt like 210, a life so full that his journey seems not to be a single timeline, but composed of several parallel paths he walked simultaneously.

If we live a fulfilled life, 71 years can be more than enough. But to have a fulfilled life, we must find the work we love.²

Final performance

After receiving his terminal diagnosis, Sakamoto immediately conducted the filming with Tin Drum on the project called KAGAMI, which translates to "mirror" in Japanese. This Mixed Reality project invites audiences to witness a virtual Sakamoto in 3D performing on piano alongside dimensional art.

Mixed reality filming was exhausting, especially right after knowing his days were numbered. After the filming ended, Sakamoto felt drained for about a month. But he reflected, "Maybe it's precisely because of this work that I was able to get through my state of affliction. And being able to leave a performance record that I could accept before dying is a relief."

Ars Longa, Vita Brevis

There is, in reality, a virtual me.

This virtual me will not age, and will continue to play the piano for years, decades, centuries.

Will there be humans then?

Will the squids that will conquer the earth after humanity listen to me?

What will pianos be to them?

What about music?

Will there be empathy there?

Empathy that spans hundreds of thousands of years.

Ah, but the batteries won’t last that long.

For the project KAGAMI, Sakamoto jotted down these lines, perfectly resonating with his favorite Latin motto during his lifetime:

Ars longa, vita brevis.

(Art is long, life is short.)

For more about Sakamoto's reflection on life, music-making, and social activism of his final decade, read his memoir "How many more times will I see the full moon" (我還能再看到幾次滿月？ / ぼくはあと何回、満月を見るだろう).³

I also wrote a follow-up article to extract some intriguing pieces from the book. Check out Inside the Mind of the Legendary Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Recommend reading it with Out Of Noise, my favorite album of his.

^
This reminds me of Brian Chesky, who used to ask early hires at Airbnb if they would work at Airbnb if they only had one year left to live. He changed it to ten years because people who say yes for one year probably just don't like their families. See Culture with Brian Chesky and Alfred Lin (How to Start a Startup 2014: Lecture 10).
^
Though Sakamoto rarely talked about his family in public, I believe we must also find the people we love.
^
As of the time of this writing, there's no English translation available yet unfortunately.

New Year Resolutions

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 03:14:36 GMT

How to make achievable and meaningful New Year's resolutions? Five Questions, Wheel of Life, and Ideal Week methods.

Video: How to Make 2024 The Best Year of Your Life

If you're wondering how to make effective New Year resolutions, Ali Abdaal and Waki have three methods to help you set achievable and meaningful goals.

The first one is the Five Questions Method. Many people struggle to achieve their New Year's resolutions because they set unrealistic goals. To set practical goals for the upcoming year, reviewing our previous year and using that as a baseline to calibrate our new year resolutions is essential. A simple way to review our last year is to ask ourselves these five questions in order:

What went well last year?
What didn't go so well last year?
What did I learn from last year?
What does it look like to live like a winner in the new year?
What are my New Year's resolutions?

The second method is the Wheel of Life. It consists of dividing our life into three categories and nine segments, which are work (money, mission, growth), health (physical, mental, spiritual), and relationships (romance, family, friends). We then rate our current satisfaction level for each segment on a scale of 0 to 10. After that, we identify the areas of our lives that we are not satisfied with and think about how we can align our actions with our goals to improve our satisfaction in those areas. For each segment, we should write down one specific goal and regularly reflect on why it is important to us.

The third one is the Ideal Week Calendar Method. First, we create a new blank calendar in Google Calendar or any other calendar system we use. Next, we block off time for essential activities we ideally want to accomplish in a perfect week. For instance, we should mark when we want to wake up and do our morning routine and when we want to sleep. We can also block time for hitting the gym, doing creative work such as writing, and hanging out with friends. When blocking time in our Ideal Week Calendar, we ensure that the time we spend aligns with the goals we set in the previous methods.

For more resources on planning for a new year, the Annual Report Framework and Three Ways to Change are the tools and thoughts I've noted before in Weekly I/O.

Knowledge Pyramid

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Knowledge Pyramid: Information can only be transformed into knowledge, then Insight, then vision after you process them. It takes time to think and transform summaries of the past into predictions for the future.

Video: Leadership in a Fragmenting World: Morris Chang of TSMC and Joe Tsai of Alibaba Group

How can someone become insightful and visionary? Morris Chang believes one should establish a knowledge base by following the Knowledge Pyramid.

The first step is to gather enough information from the data. After we spend enough time processing and thinking about the information, the information becomes our knowledge. With more thinking and reflection on our knowledge and understanding, we start gaining insights. We can use these insights and repeat the process to develop knowledge pyramids in different fields, which leads to a certain level of competencies. By combining this knowledge pyramid, you can start to have a vision.

In other words, it takes time to transform outside information into your own knowledge, then into insight summarizing the past, and ultimately integrating insights in various fields to have a vision for the future. Transform outside information into your own knowledge, then into insight summarizing the past, and ultimately integrating insights in various fields to have a vision for the future. A common framework to accomplish this process is through the Knowledge Lifecycle framework, which involves the following steps: Explore, Collect, Think, Create, and Share.

Another version of this Knowledge Pyramid is called the DIKW Pyramid, which refers to models representing relationships between data, information, knowledge, and wisdom.

Praise and Criticize

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Praise publicly, criticize privately. Praise specifically, criticize generally. Praise by name, criticize by category.

Thought

When we want to give recognition or praise to someone, do it publicly, specifically, and use their name.

However, when we need to criticize or provide feedback for improvement, it's better to do it privately. This allows us to give thoughtful feedback with enough time to explain the context. If we need to criticize someone in public, it's best to criticize the category of behavior we would like to change rather than the person directly.

Balloon Effect

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Balloon Effect: Focusing on solving a problem in one area can unintentionally inflate the problem elsewhere.

Article: Balloon effect - Wikipedia

Why is it so hard to cut down on illegal drug production? One reason is that when you want to crack down on drug production or trafficking in one region, it might simply push the activity to another region or country. For instance, if you heavily enforce anti-cocaine policies in Colombia, growers and traffickers might shift their operations to Peru or Bolivia.

This phenomenon is known as the "Balloon effect". It describes a situation where focusing on solving a problem in one area displaces or worsens the problem in another area. It's like squeezing a balloon. The pressure applied in one spot will cause the air to go elsewhere.

The Balloon effect also applies to software development or business contexts. It describes how fixing a bug or problem in one area of a system or business can unexpectedly create new problems elsewhere. For example, a software update that improves one feature might unintentionally break another. Similarly, a business decision that benefits one department might harm another.

Entropology not Anthropology

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Entropology, not anthropology, should be the word for the discipline that devotes itself to the study of this process of disintegration in its most highly evolved forms.

Book: Tristes Tropiques

I found these lines from the French anthropologist and ethnologist Claude Lévi-Strauss beautiful and intriguing.

“From the day when he first learned how to breathe and how to keep himself alive, through the discovery of fire and right up to the invention of the atomic and thermonuclear devices of the present day, Man has never -- save only when he reproduces himself -- done other than cheerfully dismantle million upon million of structures and reduce their elements to a state in which they can no longer be reintegrated.

No doubt he has built cities and brought the soil to fruition; but if we examine these activities closely we shall find that they also are inertia producing machines, whose scale and speed of action are infinitely greater than the amount of organization implied in them. As for the creations of the human mind, they are meaningful only in relation to that mind and will fall into nothingness as soon as it ceases to exist.

Taken as a whole, therefore, civilization can be described as a prodigiously complicated mechanism: tempting as it would be to regard it as our universe's best hope of survival, its true function is to produce what physicists call entropy: inertia, that is to say.

Every scrap of conversation, every line set up in type, establishes a communication between two interlocutors, levelling what had previously existed on two different planes and had had, for that reason, a greater degree of organization.

'Entropology', not anthropology, should be the word for the discipline that devotes itself to the study of this process of disintegration in its most highly evolved forms.”

Three Important Decisions

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Three most important decisions to think consciously about: the place to live, the work to do, and the people to spend time with.

Thought

Our ancient friend Plato argued that our lives go wrong usually because we don't give ourselves enough time to think carefully and logically enough about our plans.

I think there are three most important decisions that people oftentimes don't give enough time to think about: the place to live, the work to do, and the people to spend time with.

Think about how we made these decisions in the past and how those decisions influenced us. Don't get me wrong. It's not that we are making these decisions haphazardly by throwing darts. However, given how largely these decisions shape our lives, we should always give more time to think consciously and research accordingly.

People often don't think consciously enough because they tend to make decisions that fit their history, sometimes without even realizing the need for careful consideration. For example, we live in this city because that's where I grew up. We hang out with certain friends because we share the same memories in high school. We settled at this job simply because of our college major, and the company was the first to offer me a decent position.

Certainly, these decisions can all be justified because they "make sense." However, perhaps there are other options that we are just not aware of. If we think consciously enough about what we want and what risk we are willing to take, there can be options that fit us more. We must make decisions that fit our future, not just our history.

This is also related to three ways to change.

Family Resemblance

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Family Resemblance: Things are defined by overlapping similarities, not a single common essence, much like traits in a family.

Book: Philosophical Investigations

We (and early Western philosophy) often think everything has an essence. Similar to Essentialism or Plato's idealism, we believed that, for any object, there must be a set of essential features that all members of that category share. The more precise we can define the essence, the closer we are to the truth.

However, how do you define terms like "Game"? More specifically, what's a characteristic common to all games? Competitiveness? Basketball games are competitive, but make-believe plays aren't. Involve physical activity? Board games don't seem to fit. Require skills? There's no skill required for kids to play in the sandbox. Although we can't find one thing all games share, we still recognize games as games.

Ludwig Wittgenstein argues that, instead of a common essence, things may be connected by a series of overlapping similarities, where no feature is common to all things. Wittgenstein called this family resemblances, where we categorize stuff like how we recognize family members. Some family members may share the same eye color, and some may share the same temperament, but we can't find the same set of features that everyone has.

Therefore, we shouldn't pursue the ultimate essence of things as the way to get closer to the truth because the members of a conceptual category (like games) may share overlapping similarities without all having the same features.

Peter Thiel's Interview Question

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Peter Thiel's interview question: What very important truth do very few people agree with you on?

Book: Zero to One

In the book, Thiel mentioned the question he likes to ask when interviewing others: What very important truth do very few people agree with you on?

This straightforward question is challenging in two aspects. Intellectually, you need critical thinking to have insight against the knowledge everyone is taught in school and, by definition, agreed upon. Psychologically, you need courage to say something that might be unpopular.

He thinks typical answers like "Our educational system is broken," "America is exceptional," and "There is no God" are bad because many people already agree with them. A good answer should take the form of "Most people believe in x, but the truth is the opposite of x."

Here is his answer to his own question:

"My own answer to the contrarian question is that most people think the future of the world will be defined by globalization, but the truth is that technology matters more. Without technological change, if China doubles its energy production over the next two decades, it will also double its air pollution. If every one of India's hundreds of millions of households were to live the way Americans already do— using only today's tools— the result would be environmentally catastrophic. Spreading old ways to create wealth around the world will result in devastation, not riches. In a world of scarce resources, globalization without new technology is unsustainable."

What's your answer? Welcome to trade with me.

Opposite of Knowledge

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

The opposite of knowledge is the illusion of knowledge. The opposite of you know something is you thought you know something, not you don't know something.

Thought

I recently realized this random thought when I was coding. When solving software development problems, I usually got stuck the longest due to not the things I didn't know but the things I thought I knew (but I don't). Things I don't know that I don't know are usually the biggest blockers in my debugging process.

Similarly, I think most of the huge irreversible mistakes are not caused by not knowing something but caused by the illusion of understanding. We are more cautious when we are aware of what we don't know. Knowing the boundaries of what we don't know caps the downside.

This also reminds me of The Opposite of Happiness and Love.

To Know and Not To Do

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 03:14:35 GMT

"To know and not to do is not to know." - Wang Yang Ming

Quote

This reminds me of a line from the fantastic book The War of Art: "Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance" and the Action-Thought Alignment quote from Freya Stark.

Healthspan not Lifespan

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Prioritize enhancing healthspan, not just extending lifespan. Focus on preventive measures for physical, cognitive, and emotional health because it is better to get cancer later in life than to live longer with cancer.

Book: Outlive

People say they want to live longer. But what does the goal of living longer truly mean?

Longevity comprises two components: lifespan, how long you live, and healthspan, the time spent free from illness and disability. While lifespan is binary, whether you are dead or alive, healthspan considers the quality of physical, cognitive, and emotional health.

Interestingly, focusing on healthspan also extends lifespan. Statistical data shows that for those over 40 who don't smoke, about 80 percent of the causes of death will be cancer, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, or metabolic diseases. We can live longer with or without a chronic disease. The data unambiguously shows that you will live longer if you can extend the time without a chronic disease rather than with a chronic disease.

In other words, it's better to get cancer later in life than to live longer with cancer. Therefore, though there's less evidence-based strategy, we should focus on preventing chronic diseases.

Moreover, emotional health is a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of health. As psychotherapist Esther Perel puts it, "Why would you want to live longer if you're so unhappy?" An infinite lifespan is worthless if lived miserably.

RCT and Evidence-informed Medicine

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Because randomized controlled trials have limitations in studying longevity, we should shift from evidence-based to evidence-informed medicine and adopt probabilistic strategies to live longer.

Book: Outlive

Randomized controlled trial(RCT) is a scientific method commonly used to determine cause and effect in simple, short-term studies. These trials form the basis of evidence-based medicine and advanced treatments like vaccines and cholesterol-lowering drugs, where studies involve relatively simple interventions and can be observed within a shorter period.

However, RCTs are of limited use in longevity research. Short-term studies can't reveal the full picture of diseases that take decades to unfold. Worse, beyond pharmacology, interventions involving exercise, nutrition, and sleep are very complex.

For example, an RCT can never map out a heart disease prevention plan using exercise for a healthy 40-year-old. It's simply unfeasible to monitor 10,000 people over their entire lifetimes with varying lifestyle interventions. Studying longevity itself in this way is almost impossible.

Therefore, a more practical option is to synthesize various existing data sources to form a strategy triangulating between them. Though these data sources aren't strong enough to be definitive when viewed separately, they can point us in a promising direction when taken together. The five data sources mentioned in the book are:

Studies of centenarians, people who have lived to the age of one hundred and beyond
Lifespan data from animals such as laboratory mice
Human studies of the major diseases
Molecular study of aging in both humans and animal
Mendelian randomization

Without long-term RCTs to answer our questions with certainty, we must navigate health based on probabilities and risks. We shift from exclusively evidence-based to evidence-informed, risk-adjusted medicine.

Due to the uncertain nature, evidence-informed medicine is like charting an investment strategy. Based on what we know and our individual tolerance for risk at a given time, we adopt tactics to earn a better-than-average return of longevity. In other words, we utilize information to pursue a higher expected value of healthspan (aka longevity alpha).

Eulogy and Resume Virtues

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Eulogy virtues and résumé virtues: Should you care more about what people will say at your funeral or what is listed on your resume?

Book: The Road to Character

From [David Brooks](David Brooks (commentator) - Wikipedia) on the distinction between résumé virtues and the eulogy virtues:

"The résumé virtues are the ones you list on your résumé, the skills that you bring to the job market and that contribute to external success."

"The eulogy virtues are deeper. They’re the virtues that get talked about at your funeral, the ones that exist at the core of your being — whether you are kind, brave, honest or faithful; what kind of relationships you formed."

"Most of us would say that the eulogy virtues are more important than the résumé virtues, but I confess that for long stretches of my life I’ve spent more time thinking about the latter than the former. Our education system is certainly oriented around the résumé virtues more than the eulogy ones. Public conversation is, too — the self-help tips in magazines, the nonfiction bestsellers. Most of us have clearer strategies for how to achieve career success than we do for how to develop a profound character."

Reward of Good Work

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

The reward for good work is more work. Therefore, find the work you will enjoy spending more time doing rather than focusing on reducing the time spent on your work.

Book: Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier

Many productivity-focused people always try to minimize the time spent on every task. They research and adopt various methods and tools to be more efficient.

However, the real goal should be to find work that we want to spend as much time as possible working on. Because the reward for good work is usually more work, we must find things we enjoy, even if the result of doing well on it means we need to spend more time doing it.

Remember, productivity is often a distraction. Don't aim for better ways to finish your tasks as quickly as possible. Instead, aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing.

This also reminds me that meaningful things are usually inefficient.

Money is Gasoline

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

"Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations." - Tim O'Reilly

Quote

Money serves as a means, not the end goal. We need gasoline to drive around, not to tour the gas stations to see how much extra gas we can get.

This quote echoes two anecdotes from Kevin Kelly in this podcast:

On Crypto, Kevin used to say to people,

"I'm willing to have a conversation about Crypto, but here's one caveat: you can't mention the word money. You can't talk about making money, saving money, whatever it is. Let's talk about Crypto without talking about money."

Those conversations usually become very short. Kevin found it boring because it was only a single dimension about money, which is not the case with the Internet and AI where we don't have to only talk about money.

Though I found some concepts behind Crypto fascinating, such as incentive design of Cryptoeconomics, Zero-knowledge proof, and encryption, conversations about Crypto often bore me for the same reason as Kelly mentioned.

On wealth, Kevin has some advice:

"You should try as hard as possible to never have $1 billion."

For many billionaires he knows, many 0s are an incredible burden that distorts their kids and families. The weight of it becomes something they always have to attend to. The responsibility of managing such wealth overshadows its utility, turning it into an overwhelming task.

He argues that, for most aspirations, a fraction of that wealth is enough. You don't need to join Wall Street for a few years to do a motorcycle trip across China because six months working at McDonald's should save you enough money. In most cases, money is not the gating factor for what most people want to do.

Advertising is salesmanship

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Advertising is salesmanship. Successes and failures in both lines are due to like causes. Thus, every advertising question should be answered by the salesperson's standards.

Book: Scientific Advertising

David Ogilvy, known as the Father of Advertising, once described the book Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins, "Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times. It has changed the course of my life."

In this book, Claude Hopkins emphasizes that to grasp the essence of advertising, one must start with this correct notion: "Advertising is salesmanship." Principles of advertising are principles of salesmanship. The only difference lies in scale. Advertising is multiplied salesmanship where the advertiser may appeal to thousands while the salesperson talks to one. In his words:

"The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales. It is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. Treat it as a salesman."

"A salesman's mistake may cost little. An advertiser's mistake may cost a thousand times that much. Be more cautious, more exacting, therefore. A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre advertising affects all of your trade."

Therefore, a simple way to answer many advertising questions is to ask yourself, "Would it help a salesman sell the goods?" "Would it help me sell them if I met a buyer in person?" An honest answer to those questions can prevent numerous mistakes. For instance:

"Some argue for slogans, some like clever conceits. Would you use them in personal salesmanship? Can you imagine a customer whom such things would impress? If not, don't rely on them for selling in print."

"Some say "Be very brief. People will read for little." Would you say that to a salesman? With a prospect standing before him, would you confine him to any certain number of words? That would be an unthinkable handicap. So in advertising."

Honestly, the latter example felt counterintuitive to me as I typically prefer concise content. Perhaps it's time to reconsider my approach to advertising.

ADHD and Environmental Mismatch

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

“If the shoe doesn’t fit, must we change the foot?” ADHD may stem more from an environmental mismatch than a brain problem.

Book: The Ape that Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve

In Orangutans on Ritalin, the developmental psychologist Gabrielle Principe noted that:

"No animal other than us modern humans – our hunter-gatherer ancestors included – suffers ADHD. But plenty of today's elementary school children, who spend eight hours a day jammed inside a classroom, do. The American Psychiatric Association considers it a mental disorder. But it is also exactly what you'd expect if you put any juvenile (insert your choice of species here) behind a desk, made it do seatwork, told it to concentrate, and didn't let it out to play."

The conventional explanation is that ADHD is due to how the brain controls attention. Therefore, ADHD diagnoses often suggest the root of so-called problematic behaviors lies in the person rather than in the environment.

However, many kids with ADHD can focus for hours on tasks they enjoy, indicating that the issue isn't their attentional capacity but rather a lack of interest in things the world insists they should do, such as schoolwork.

Indeed, while many children adapt well to school, it doesn't suit everyone. For kids diagnosed with ADHD, traditional school is a round hole to their square peg because they would thrive in an ancestral-type environment that allows for plenty of movement and play.

So, ADHD might be more a mismatch problem than a brain problem. Though we can't just disestablish schools and let kids run wild, we should consider the words of the American feminist Gloria Steinem, "If the shoe doesn't fit, must we change the foot?"

Transparent Tax Return

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

In Norway, you can see everyone's tax returns and who has checked yours, which might widen the happiness gap between the rich and poor.

Article: In Norway you can see everyone's tax returns. There's a catch though

In 2001, Norwegian tax records became easily accessible online, allowing citizens to view each other's income. Likewise, in Sweden and Finland, one can access anyone's tax details with just a phone call.

Because you can search everyone's tax records online, Norwegian started developing Facebook apps that showed all your friends' income. To address privacy concerns, the government later added a twist to the policy that everyone can see who has looked at their returns (which sounds like LinkedIn's profile-viewing feature, huh).

Interestingly, a study by UCLA economics professor Ricardo Perez-Truglia suggests that Norway's transparency in tax records may have widened the happiness gap between the rich and poor by 29% and the life satisfaction gap by 21%. In other words, this makes the wealthy happier and the poor less happy (though Norway still ranks as the world's 7th happiest country).

From the paper The Effects of Income Transparency on Well-Being: Evidence from a Natural Experiment by Ricardo Perez-Truglia

Ricardo Perez-Truglia also poses another intriguing, yet unverified question:

“One reason why people buy really expensive boots and clothing and things like that is because they want to show off, they want to signal that they’re rich. But in Norway, when the public knows who’s rich and who’s not, what’s the point of buying these types of goods?”

Action-Thoughts Alignment

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

"There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do." - Freya Stark

Quote

I care a lot about people's fulfillment with the recognition that its definition varies widely. It can mean achieving fame, acquiring wealth, helping others, or spending time with loved ones.

Despite these varied definitions, I think a universal obstacle to achieving fulfillment is the misalignment of one's actions and thoughts, which aligns closely with this quote in The Journey's Echo from the British-Italian explorer and travel writer Freya Stark.

Magic in Work Avoided

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

"The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding."

Quote

In case you need some maybe-cliche-but-useful motivation.

Magician's Choice

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Magician's Choice: How magicians manipulate you to choose the card they want you to choose through equivocation.

Article: Magician's Choice

The "Magician's Choice", or "Equivocation", is a psychological technique commonly used in magic tricks, especially in mentalism and choice-based illusions. This technique creates an illusion for the audience, making them believe they have a free choice, while the magician subtly ensures a specific outcome.

Imagine a magician presenting three cards, A, B, and C, aiming to make you, the audience, choose card A. You are asked to select two cards, and the magician will act according to your choice.

If you pick cards B and C, the magician will eliminate these two and say the remaining card, A, is your decision.

However, if you pick cards A and B, the magician will eliminate card C and ask you to select one of the remaining two cards. Then, if you choose card A, that will be your final selection. But if you pick card B, the magician will discard it, and the remaining A becomes your chosen card. It doesn't matter what you select; you will always end up with A.

The Magician's Choice utilizes the "information gap" between what the audience knows and what they think they know. As long as the tactic isn't repeated, which can shorten the information gap, almost everyone can be convinced they have a free choice.

Multiple Outs is another trick that creates an illusion that the magician can predict the audience's choice.

Spot Strengths over Flaws

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

While identifying flaws triggers critical thinking, spotting potential strengths fuels our creative instincts. Therefore, arguing for something we don't believe can enhance creativity.

Book: Finding the Next Steve Jobs

Nolan Bushnell, the co-founder of Atari, has a trick for enhancing creativity:

"I would ask everyone to make a list of all the ideas that have been presented at our meetings and then have them rank those ideas from good to bad. I would then take the six items on the bottom of the list and say, let's suppose we were restricted for the next few months to work on just these six terrible projects. How do we make them work?"

While identifying flaws in an idea triggers our critical thinking, spotting potential strengths fuels our creative instincts. In essence, Bushnell's method flips our typical thought processes by promoting creativity over criticism.

Similarly, in debates, one must learn to debate both sides of any proposition. Arguing for something you don't believe can reshape your worldview and help you see issues you had not been able to see before.

Personal Rules

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Personal rules turn desired behaviors into default behaviors. They are set during our best moments to avoid making poor decisions under pressure or during moments of weakness.

Podcast: Shane Parrish on Wisdom from Warren Buffett, Rules for Better Thinking, How to Reduce Blind Spots, The Dangers of Mental Models, and More (#695)

Daniel Kahneman, psychologist, Nobel Laureate, and the founding father of modern behavioral economics, explains how rules guide behaviors:

"I learned over the years that people don't argue with rules. We've been taught our whole lives to follow the rules, but we've never thought of how to create rules for ourselves that we just follow when we're at our worst.

We all know no matter how bad our day is, we shouldn't speed on the highway because it's against the rules. What we don't think about is how do we use rules to our advantage?"

Implementing personal rules turns our desired behaviors into default behaviors. Therefore, the rules we set during our best moments can help us avoid making unwise decisions under pressure or during moments of weakness.

For instance, one of Kahneman's rules is to never say 'Yes' over the phone. He explained this rule helps avoid regrettable commitments influenced by social pressure or the innate desire to please others.

In the podcast, Tim and Shane also shared some personal rules that I found interesting:

Avoid reading new books for a year.
Do any form of exercise every day regardless of intensity.
Accept speaking engagements only if it's free or with an amount higher than he ever had.
Schedule no meetings before noon.
Say "No" if anyone tries to rush me into a decision in emails or phone calls. It's not just postponing giving an answer. The answer is "No".

Know to Diversify Less

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

"The more you know, the less you diversify." - Naval

Quote

This quote reminds me of what Warren Buffett said at the 1996 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting:

"We like to put a lot of money in things that we feel strongly about. And that gets back to the diversification question.

We think diversification, as practiced generally, makes very little sense for anyone that knows what they're doing.

Diversification is a protection against ignorance.

I mean, if you want to make sure that nothing bad happens to you relative to the market, you own everything. There's nothing wrong with that. That is a perfectly sound approach for somebody who does not feel they know how to analyze businesses.

If you know how to analyze businesses and value businesses, it's crazy to own 50 stocks or 40 stocks or 30 stocks, probably, because there aren't that many wonderful businesses that are understandable to a single human being, in all likelihood."

That said, knowing how to analyze businesses is hard, and one should understand what makes them qualified to give up the only free lunch in investing.

Luxury and Necessity

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

"Luxury is a necessity that begins where necessity ends." - CoCo Chanel

Quote

This is how CoCo Chanel defines luxury, which is quite poetic compared to the two definitions I noted before, luxury is art that happens to have a little bit of functionality, and luxury purchases symbolize the buyer's ability to afford items beyond practical necessities.

Luxury and Premium

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Premium purchases offer enhanced functional benefits at a higher price, while luxury purchases symbolize the buyer's ability to afford items beyond practical necessities.

Book: The Luxury Strategy

Here's a quote from The Luxury Strategy that encapsulates the difference between luxury and premium goods:

"Premium means pay more, get more in functional benefits. Luxury is elsewhere: it signals the capacity of the buyer to transcend needs, functions, or objective benefits."

You pay for a premium because it provides more utility. On the other hand, you pay for luxury precisely because it adds no additional utility, which other people know. Therefore, it symbolizes that you have the wealth to afford non-essential extravagances.

Consider the car industry as a more tangible example. Brands like BMW and Lexus exemplify premium. They offer cars that deliver superior functionality and utility at a higher price. In contrast, Ferrari is a luxury brand. Many things about Ferrari are way worse than a Toyota in terms of practicality and functionality.

However, opting for a luxury car broadcasts a message. It's not a premium choice to upgrade from a Toyota to a Lexus for better functionality. It showcases one's abundance of wealth and a particular level of taste, even if it means compromising on certain functional aspects.

Evolution and Breaking Chain of Life

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Any individual who chooses not to or cannot have children, ends an unbroken chain of life that stretches four billion years.

Book: The Ape that Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve

According to evolutionary theory, every species evolved from an earlier species, which itself evolved from an earlier species. If we trace back the genealogies of existing species, they soon begin to converge like tree branches.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2016/dec/22/why-were-closer-than-ever-to-a-timeline-for-human-evolution

https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2016/dec/22/why-were-closer-than-ever-to-a-timeline-for-human-evolution

Chimpanzees and bonobos share a common ancestor around a million years ago. Humans share a common ancestor with them around seven million years ago. This interconnectedness extends across the whole spectrum of life: humans and whales, whales and dogs, dogs and mushrooms. Ultimately, all life on Earth traces back to a simple, self-replicating molecule that appeared around four billion years ago.

This view of life implies a somewhat mind-blowing fact: Any individual who chooses not to have children or who has childlessness thrust upon them, brings to an end an unbroken chain of life that stretches back four billion years.

That said, no one should feel bad about this observation (unless there's a cultural or personal factor) because, in fact, most organisms throughout Earth's history died before they ever reproduced.

Candor over Honesty

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

To foster a creative culture of open communication, encourage candor rather than honesty. It's easier to be candid because it removes the moral barriers often associated with honesty.

Book: Creativity, Inc

Ed Catmul talks about the story of founding Pixar and his management philosophy in his book Creativity, Inc., which is the best book I've read on cultivating a long-lasting creative culture.

Open communication without withholding is essential to foster creativity. It also forms the foundation for psychological safety, the most crucial indicator of successful teams. However, our intrinsic fears and instincts often make us hold back our thoughts and expressions. Catmul notes:

"Ask anyone, "Should people be honest?" and of course their answer will be yes. It has to be! Saying no is to endorse dishonesty... But the fact is, there are often good reasons not to be honest."

Telling the truth is hard. Therefore, Catmul suggests:

"One way to do that is to replace the word honesty with another word that has a similar meaning but fewer moral connotations: candor. Candor is forthrightness or frankness— not so different from honesty, really. And yet, in common usage, the word communicates not just truth-telling but a lack of reserve. Everyone knows that sometimes, being reserved is healthy, even necessary for survival. Nobody thinks that being less than candid makes you a bad person (while no one wants to be called dishonest). People have an easier time talking about their level of candor because they don't think they will be punished for admitting that they sometimes hold their tongues."

Candor removes the moral barriers often associated with honesty. Because our self-preservation mechanism gets less triggered, it is easier to be candid than honest. Therefore, shifting from honesty to candor can facilitate a more creative environment where people feel more comfortable expressing genuine thoughts freely.

Thanks to Xinyi Zhang for recommending this book to me.

Luxury and Art

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Luxury is superlative, never comparative. It's art that happens to have a little bit of functionality.

Book: The Luxury Strategy

Luxury is superlative, never comparative. For a luxury brand to have lasting financial success, comparisons must be avoided at all costs. Luxury thrives on uniqueness rather than mere superiority.

Luxury is like art that happens to have a little bit of functionality. Luxury and art both embody a dream and convey abstract concepts, but a Hermès Birkin bag happens to be capable of storing stuff (but not many). While the price of any non-luxury product must be justifiable by its utility curve, hedonism takes precedence over functionality for luxury.

In The Luxury Strategy, the authors highlight six defining attributes of luxury goods:

A very qualitative hedonistic experience or product made to last
Offered at a price that far exceeds what their mere functional value would command
Tied to a heritage, unique know-how and culture attached to the brand
Available in purposefully restricted and controlled distribution
Offered with personalized accompanying services
Representing a social marker, making the owner or beneficiary feel special, with a sense of privilege

Aware of Decision

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 03:14:35 GMT

We make better decisions when we know we are making decisions. Therefore, the first step to improving decision-making is to be aware of the decision.

Podcast: Shane Parrish on Wisdom from Warren Buffett, Rules for Better Thinking, How to Reduce Blind Spots, The Dangers of Mental Models, and More (#695)

Shane Parrish and his work, Farnam Street, offer some of the best resources for improving decision-making. When asked, "How would you suggest people get better at making decisions?" Shane started with a simple observation.

When we know we're making a decision, we tend to do reasonably well. Being conscious of the decision-making process makes us more rational and directionally accurate. For instance, when marrying our partner or buying a house, we know we're making a decision. Therefore, we utilize the information better and make more deliberate decisions.

However, challenges emerge when we are unaware that we are making decisions. In the context of relationships, unlike the clear-cut decision of choosing a partner, numerous subtle decisions are often made without explicit awareness. These include communication styles, daily interactions, and even mundane tasks like loading the dishwasher. A lack of consciousness in these decisions often results in mistakes, leading to conflicts and frustrations in relationships.

You can make the best decision by marrying the best person in the world. Still, if you don't consciously navigate the subtle decisions in a relationship, it can all multiply by zero. Therefore, the first step towards getting better at decision-making is knowing you are making a decision.

Fogg Behavior Model

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Fogg Behavior Model: Behavior = Motivation x Ability x Prompt. Three elements must converge at the same moment for a behavior to occur.

Article: Behavior Model

From behaviormodel.org

Fogg Behavior Model is a framework for understanding systematically how behavior change happens. According to the model, three factors must converge simultaneously for a behavior to occur: Motivation, Ability, and Prompt.

Motivation drives people to do challenging things. When motivation drops, we fall back on doing easy things. There are three core motivators: Sensation (pleasure/pain on physical level), Anticipation (hope/fear on emotional level), and Belonging (acceptance/rejection on social level).

Ability refers to how easy it is for someone to perform a specific task at a given time. Ability is not just skill but also the simplicity of the task. The simpler the behavior, the more likely it will happen.

Simplicity depends on your most limited resources at the moment, such as time, money, physical effort, mental effort, or routine. The most limited factor becomes the bottleneck that makes the behavior challenging. For example, when people are running out of time, time is the bottleneck preventing the behavior from occurring.

Prompts is the cue that triggers the behavior. Even with high motivation and ability, a behavior won't happen without a prompt. Prompts come in three forms: Facilitators (increase Ability), Sparks (boost Motivation), and Signals (provide a clear action step for those with both Ability and Motivation).

The curved line on the model also shows that Ability and Motivation have a compensatory relationship, meaning when one is low, the other must be high for behavior to happen.

In terms of changing human behavior, this also reminds me of Three Ways to Change.

Wheeled Suitcase Paradox

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

It took nearly 6,000 years to progress from inventing the wheel to the creation of the wheeled suitcase. Humans put a man on the moon before adding wheels to luggage.

Book: Antifragile

The first patent of wheeled suitcase was registered in 1970 by Bernard Sadow, meaning Neil Armstrong carried his luggage by hand on his way to the moon.

It took nearly 6,000 years to progress from inventing the wheel to creating the wheeled suitcase. For years, travelers unnecessarily exerted themselves by carrying luggage manually, potentially harming their health. Yet, wheeled luggage came into existence three decades after the moon landing, despite the available technology.

Taleb proposed a practical heuristic: "The simpler and more obvious the discovery, the less equipped we are to figure it out by complicated methods." Simplicity is often overlooked in innovation as the focus is often on complex and newsworthy ideas. Effective solutions are often simple and revealed through practical application rather than complex theories. Therefore, Taleb asks:

"How many of these simple, trivially simple heuristics are currently looking and laughing at us?"

Career as Portfolio

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Treat your career as a portfolio of jobs, roles, and opportunities. Assess new opportunities in the context of your lifetime career portfolio, not just on individual risk or reward.

Article: Pmarca Guide to Career Planning: Opportunity

Professional money managers don't think about individual investments in isolation. Instead, they see investments as part of the portfolio. Each investment has its own risks and potential returns. Some investments may be riskier, but what matters is how they all balance out in the portfolio.

Marc Andreessen believes we should look at our career as a portfolio of various jobs, roles, and opportunities, each with individual risk and potential return. Risk can be job instability, geographic constraints, or the opportunity cost of not pursuing other options. Potential returns can be skill development, valuable experiences, networking opportunities, or income.

Treating your career as a portfolio enables long-term, strategic planning over its likely 50+ year span. In an early career, fresh out of school, you may lean towards riskier roles with higher returns in skill development, experience, and connection. This might change when you have a family, shifting towards more stable and secure roles. As your life circumstances change again, your portfolio can adapt to include roles that offer a different balance of risk and reward.

Therefore, when an opportunity pops up, we should not evaluate it as a standalone prospect, pondering whether this opportunity is too risky or too secure. Instead, we should assess how each opportunity fits strategically within the broader context of a lifetime career portfolio.

While Marc’s idea of viewing your career as a portfolio is useful, it is crucial to note a key difference between the two. Careers are sequential, where one role can directly affect future opportunities, meaning they are often interconnected. On the other hand, investments in a portfolio are usually aimed to have a low or even negative correlation to reduce risk. In other words, they operate in parallel and are generally not related.

Love Ones Makes Us Laugh

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

“Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator. But among those whom I love, I can. All of them make me laugh.” — W. H. Auden

Quote

I found this quote from W. H. Auden beautiful. It reminds me of the quote from Maya Angelou: "People may forget what you said, people may forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.".

Opinions Afraid to Share

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Book: Hackers & Painters

From Paul Graham:

"Let's start with a test: Do you have any opinions that you would be reluctant to express in front of a group of your peers?

If the answer is no, you might want to stop and think about that. If everything you believe is something you're supposed to believe, could that possibly be a coincidence?

Odds are it isn't. Odds are you just think whatever you're told."

Rumination #5: Anti-productivity, Decision heuristic and more

Sun, 27 Aug 2023 21:57:14 GMT

This is a special version of Weekly I/O. In this Rumination, I will pick some inputs that I found worth reviewing from Weekly I/O#41 to #50.

If you want to learn 5 learnings like these every week, sign up here!

Hope you enjoy it!

Better person

The desire to be right and the desire to have been right are two desires. The sooner we separate them, the better off we are. [Desires to be Right]
People follow incentives, not advice. [Incentive not Advice]
To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated. [Education or Training]
When you are stuck, explain your problem to others. Often simply laying out a problem will present a solution. Make “explaining the problem” part of your troubleshooting process. [Explain to Troubleshoot]
“If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.” - Tallulah Bankhead [Same Mistakes but Sooner]
Be curious, not judgmental. [Curious not Judgmental]
Insight is the smallest unit of truth that is actionable. If you cannot act on it, it is just an abstraction. [Actionable Truth]

Decision heuristic

Young & Old Test: Make decisions that your 80-year-old self and 10-year-old self would be proud of. [Young & Old Test]
Luck and Arena Razors: When choosing between two paths, choose the one with a larger luck surface area and/or the one that puts you in the arena. [Luck and Arena Razors]
Stress-Reward Test: Take on stress only if the reward is valuable enough to justify the stress. [Stress-Reward Test]
Rooms Razor: When choosing between two rooms, choose the room where you're more likely to be the dumbest one in the room. [Rooms Razor]

Psychology

Illusion of explanatory depth (IOED): we believe we understand more about the world than we actually do. [Illusion of Explanatory Depth]
Why do we forget bad feelings about memories faster? Fading affect bias (FAB). [Fading Affect Bias]
Fading affect bias can improve the overall positivity of life but also reinforce maladaptive behavior. It makes heavy drinkers harder and light drinkers easier to say no to alcohol. [FAB with Alcohol]
Cluttering Illusion: Our brains love to find meaning in short‐term trends and rush to conclusions. Avoid irrational small sample size bets. [Cluttering Illusion]
Poker teaches us that just because people are skillful in one domain doesn't mean they can transfer the skill to another. [Skill Transfer]
Losses hurt much more than the happiness gained from winning. Therefore, we must focus on the process to overcome this asymmetry (loss aversion) in zero-sum games. [Happy Poker with Loss Aversion]

Better Writing

Derek Sivers' writing advice: Try writing one sentence per line. [One Sentence per Line]
Set out time to write regardless of how you feel that day. It doesn't matter if it's good or not. Sit down and type. Refuse to bargain with your subconscious that says "I'm dry. Let's try tomorrow". [Writing like Shopkeeper]
"Great writers comfort the confused and confuse the comforted" - David Perell [Comfort the Confused and Confuse the Comfort]

Anti-productivity

Productivity is often a distraction. Don't aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible. Rather aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing. [Productivity is Distraction]
If sleep represents the high point of bodily relaxation, deep boredom is the peak of mental relaxation. A purely hectic rush produces nothing new. It only reproduces and accelerates what is already available. [Deep Boredom]
Efficient methods rarely create emotional arousal. Meaningful and soulful experiences are inefficient because they can't be standardized. Non-standardized things are harder to scale but also harder to destroy. [Inefficient but Soulful]

Better Communication

How to say no? Prioritize and communicate. [Prioritize and Communicate]
Good upper management avoids surprises and keeps managers in the loop on what we are doing. The amount of context we think we are over-communicating is usually the right amount. [Upper Management]
When meeting people for the first time, we often exchange questions about what we do. However, the more profound and interesting question behind what we do is why we do what we do. [Introducing Why not What]
Listen and Opinion Razors: Listen twice as much as we speak when encountering different perspectives and have opinions only after we can state the opposite one clearly. [Listen and Opinion Razors]
Maker's schedule vs Manager's schedule: Understand the productivity style the people you work with are operating on. [Maker and Manager schedule]

Happiness

"You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you." - Robert Anton Wilson [As Big as Love]
Bill Campbell defines his income as others' happiness and success instead of just money received. We can redefine our measurement of happiness by adding different sources of income other than only monetary ones. [Happiness as Income]
Happiness is not positive or negative thoughts but an absence of desire, and maybe it is a skill that can be learned. [Happiness is not Positive or Negative]
“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” - James Baldwin [Hate and Pain]

Science and History

Why is my bus always late? Inspection paradox: Averaging final results can be different than averaging individual responses. [Inspection Paradox]
What's the most significant privilege a student can experience? Born in the right month. [Relative Age Effect]
The Agricultural Revolution was history's biggest fraud. Compared to foragers, farmers worked harder but with less return. [Agricultural Revolution]
We understand a culture the best where the culture's members hold contradictory beliefs and reconcile incompatible values. [Contradiction within Culture]
Evolutionary success doesn't mean individual success. The success of the species can be at the expense of individual suffering. Evolution judges everything by the criteria of survival and reproduction, with no regard for individual suffering and happiness. [Evolutionary Success with Individual Suffering]

Innovation

When we have too much similarity, innovation dies. When we have too much dissimilarity, trust dies. We have to operate on a spectrum of chaos and stagnation. [Similarity and Trust Spectrum]
When a distinguished elderly scientist states that something is possible, they are almost certainly right, but when they state something is impossible, they are probably wrong. [Clarke's Three Laws]
Delta 4 Framework for evaluating product: If your product outscores the existing solution by more than 4 in efficiency score on a scale of 1 to 10, your new user irreversibly will adopt your service, brag to their friends, and have a higher tolerance for your mistakes. [Delta 4 Framework]
Indefinite optimists' "lean startup" methodology can diminish the potential to build the future. [Indefinite Optimism]

Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis: Biodiversity is highest in ecosystems where the level of disturbance is neither too low nor too high.

Book: Smarter Faster Better

The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis (IDH) is an ecological theory that says that the most diverse ecosystems are those that experience moderate levels of disturbance. In other words, biodiversity is highest in ecosystems when changes in environmental conditions, such as fires, floods, and windstorms, happen neither too rarely nor too frequently.

Too little disturbance allows dominant species to outcompete others, reducing diversity, while too much disturbance makes the environment too unstable for most species to survive, also leading to reduced diversity. At intermediate levels of disturbance, however, no single species can dominate, allowing a greater variety of species to coexist.

This hypothesis reminds me that [what we need for mental health is not a tensionless state but a certain degree of tension between what one is and what one should become](What we need for mental health is not a tensionless state but a certain degree of tension between what one is and what one should become). It seems like we can apply IDH to mental health as well.

Cognitive Tunneling

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Cognitive Tunneling: When our brains abruptly shift from a relaxed state to high alert, we tend to focus too much on the most obvious stimuli and overreact.

Book: Smarter Faster Better

The focus range in the brain operates like a spotlight. When we are relaxed, this spotlight dims its intensity and scans randomly to conserve cognitive energy.

However, in emergencies or unexpected situations, like when our boss suddenly throws a question at us during a meeting, the spotlight is forced to concentrate its beam. The challenge is that it doesn't necessarily focus on what's most important.

In such scenarios, the brain tends to believe that a brighter, more focused spotlight is better, even if it's not aimed where it should be. This phenomenon of the brain shining the light haphazardly is called "cognitive tunneling."

Cognitive tunneling occurs when our brains transition suddenly from relaxed automation to panicked attention, which explains why relaxed drivers might slam on their brakes when they suddenly realize there's a red light ahead. Once in a cognitive tunnel, we lose our ability to direct our focus effectively. Instead, we focus on the easiest and most obvious stimulus and overreact without common sense.

To mitigate the effects of cognitive tunneling, we can equip ourselves with mental models. Mental models help us better understand unexpected problems by simplifying unfamiliar situations into concepts we already know. As a result, we can more quickly recognize when something is off and respond appropriately.

If you want to learn more about mental models, The Great Mental Models Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts is a good starting point.

Locus of control

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Locus of control shapes our emotional well-being. Strong internal locus of control, the belief that we have control over the outcomes, can motivate us and extend our lifespan.

Book: Smarter Faster Better

Why do we feel the urge to exit during a highway traffic jam, even if we know that taking the exit might take longer to get home? It's because having the ability to make a choice gives us a sense of control, which makes us feel better.

This idea is supported by research examining brain activity, which shows that people feel more engaged and less bored when they have the power to make choices, even in mundane tasks like guessing if a number is higher or lower than five.

This need for control is related to a psychological concept known as locus of control, which measures the degree to which people believe they have control over events in their lives versus attributing outcomes to external factors. In other words, "Do you believe that your destiny is controlled by yourself or external forces?"

People with an internal locus of control believe they can control their fate. Therefore, they take credit for their successes and accept blame for their failures. They are more likely to attribute good grades to hard work rather than innate intelligence.

In contrast, those with an external locus of control attribute their life's events to luck or fate. They often feel helpless because they don't think their action can make a difference. Thus, they often feel more stressed and frustrated in tough situations.

Feedback plays a crucial role in nurturing an internal locus of control. For instance, when someone solves a difficult math problem, saying, "You must have worked very hard to solve this problem," stimulates their internal locus of control and increases their willingness to spend more time on upcoming complex problems.

On the other hand, saying, "You must be very smart to have solved this problem," fosters their external locus of control, leading to less motivation to address upcoming challenging problems. As a result, they give up on challenging problems quickly and move to easier ones.

Choice, an act of making a decision between options, shapes our emotional well-being. By developing a stronger internal locus of control, we can even extend our lifespan. For example, studies have shown that older people in nursing homes who have the freedom to arrange their own living spaces tend to live longer.

It's worth noting, however, that while attributing success or failure, one can fall into attribution traps like self-serving bias, where people tend to take credit for successes while blaming external factors for their failures.

Need for Cognitive Closure

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Need for Cognitive Closure: How much do you prefer getting a clear and definitive answer to questions versus remaining uncertain or ambiguous?

Book: Smarter Faster Better

The Need for Cognitive Closure (NFCC) is a psychological term that describes one's preference for certainty over ambiguity. It gauges to what extent a person prefers getting a clear and definitive answer to questions, instead of remaining uncertain or ambiguous. The level of NFCC varies from person to person.

People with a high need for cognitive closure tend to be more disciplined, prefer to make judgments quickly based on intuition, and are less likely to second-guess their decisions once made.

However, an overly high NFCC can lead to rigid thinking. Such individuals may resist changing their views and reconsider new information, even when confronted with evidence that contradicts their beliefs. Moreover, sometimes high NFCC can also lead to rushed decisions.

You can try the test here to measure your NFCC.

Scientists with Door Open

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Great scientists work with their door open. Though keeping the door closed enhances short-term productivity, an open door invites interruptions that can bring insights into what's truly important in the long run.

Book: The Art of Doing Science and Engineering

Why do some scientists make groundbreaking contributions while others fade into obscurity? Richard Hamming noticed distinct patterns among scientists who choose to work with their door open or closed.

Scientists who work behind closed doors are generally more productive in the short term. They get more work done today and tomorrow. However, they often find themselves disconnected from the bigger picture as years pass. A decade later, they may realize their hard work hasn't necessarily focused on the most impactful problems.

On the other hand, scientists who work with open doors get interrupted more often, which might hinder their productivity in the short run. However, these interruptions occasionally provide clues about the world's needs and what might be important in their field.

Though we cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship, Hamming believes there's a strong correlation between those who work with the doors open and those who ultimately make important contributions, despite people who work with doors closed often working harder.

This reminds me of write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open, and Beer Mode and Coffee Mode.

Psychological Safety

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 03:14:36 GMT

The most crucial indicator of successful teams: Psychological safety.

Book: Smarter Faster Better

Psychological safety is a shared belief among team members that their environment is safe to take interpersonal risks. Teams with high levels of psychological safety have the following attributes:

Members feel confident in admitting mistakes, asking questions, or offering new ideas without fear of embarrassment or punishment.
One can freely question another's choices, but the person being questioned knows the intention is not to ostracize them.
Everyone respects differing opinions.

Research done both in academics and companies like Google has identified psychological safety as the primary determinant of team success. Knowing "If I make a mistake on our team, it is not held against me" proves to be a stronger predictor of team effectiveness than just "grouping the best people makes for the best teams".

Thanks to Vincent Mo for reiterating this concept, prompting me to revisit this book after I first read it 7 years ago.

Free Trade and Monoculture

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Globalization generates monocultures that are all diverse in the same way. Free trade of cultures can lead to conformity and mediocrity on both personal and societal levels.

Podcast: Patrick Collison has a Few Questions for Tyler (Ep. 21 - Live at Stripe) | Conversations with Tyler

Globalization allows cultures to connect, leading to increased creativity and diversity. However, the long-term consequences of this 'interchange' often entail the dilution of cultures as the more dominant cultures absorb smaller ones.

Ironically, as the world becomes more interconnected, what we perceive as "diversity" may just be a form of monoculture. Every city has restaurants from various cultures, from Vietnamese and Burmese to Korean and Turkish. While it appears diverse on the surface, homogenization is taking place, making us all "diverse in the same way."

We've cashed in on many small cultures and produced a monoculture of diversity, which leads to a looming concern that, along some critical dimensions (diversity is multifaceted), our next century will be less creative than the last. Free trade generates too much monoculture. We need to increase the transaction cost to balance interchange and isolation.

While immersing oneself in various cultures can enhance creativity on a personal level, on a larger scale, there's the risk of cultural dilution due to such interchanges. Furthermore, even for individuals, consistently receiving secondhand information pushes us towards conformity and mediocrity rather than innovative ideas. Ultimately, it boils down to how one utilizes new information: to interpolate, extrapolate, or invent.

Demis Hassabis: creativity and AI – The Rothschild Foundation Lecture

Mentor or Coach

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Mentors offer directive instruction and answers, whereas coaches provide non-directive feedback through questions. Whether seeking or giving guidance, we should know what kind of help is better.

Thought

Mentoring and coaching, though sometimes used interchangeably, serve different roles in guiding other people. While mentors offer direct solutions with answers based on their experiences, coaches provide non-directive support by probing with questions.

When seeking guidance, we must determine whether we need a mentor or a coach. A coach asks us what we want to do, dives deep into why we want to do it, and holds us accountable to execute our plan. On the other hand, a mentor shares their experience, skills, and knowledge and answers our questions.

In other words, coaches clarify the confusion within ourselves, and mentors clarify the confusion in the outside world. Similar to the Dark Room Metaphor for learning, coaching is Constructionism, letting us reconstruct our own answer, and mentoring is Instructionism, passing down knowledge to us.

When giving guidance, it is also essential to determine whether to wear the mentor's hat, offering solutions, or the coach's hat, posing reflective questions. Oftentimes, people don't need a solution. They need validation, accountability, or just a sounding board. That's why the coach must ask what you really want to do.

This also reminds me of Lisa Feldman's view on emotions. When we want to be helpful in response to other's feelings, we first need to figure out what they want is empathy or solution.

This thought originated from a conversation with Jui-An Wang. Also, thanks to Heron Yang for helping me clarify direction by being such an effective coach and poking questions.

Stephen King on Write and Rewrite

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Write with the door closed. Once ideas are formed independently, rewrite with the door open to gather feedback.

Book: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

When writing my article "Remove Labels", I have this question of when I should solicit feedback. Getting feedback too early can distract and diverge my thoughts, while waiting too long makes it hard to fix critical writing flaws.

Then I read this from Stephen King:

"Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right — as right as you can, anyway — it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticize it."

The optimal time for feedback seems to be once I've distilled my primary thesis and conclusion with a flexible outline. Such timing enables me to form ideas independently first while I can still comfortably fix critical flaws based on feedback.

"Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open" also reminds me of Beer Mode and Coffee Mode. On any given day, coffee mode, a state of focus where we try to get things done, lets us be more productive. But over the long arc of time, beer mode, an unfocused state where we try to discover new ideas, rewards serendipity, and intellectual breakthroughs.

Da Vinci Learns for Fun not for Usefulness

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Leonardo Da Vinci learned things purely out of curiosity. Not all knowledge needs to be useful. It can be pursued for pure pleasure.

Book: Leonardo Da Vinci

We have seen countless luminaries throughout history, yet none quite like Leonardo Da Vinci. He painted the Mona Lisa, and simultaneously produced unsurpassed anatomy drawings, made river diversion plans, opened the still-beating heart of a pig, designed musical instruments, and choreographed pageants.

However, Da Vinci didn't learn the knowledge required to accomplish all these because they are useful. Instead, his thirst for knowledge was driven purely by curiosity. He pursued it because it was fun. Not all learning needs to be useful.

This view from Da Vinci is very different from what I noted before: information is useless if it is not applied to something important or if we will forget it before we have a chance to apply it. There's no correct answer, but my heart certainly leans towards learning just for fun, as evidenced by a wide array of topics in Weekly I/O, from using your nose to breathe and how Bluetooth works to psychics and weed and Kuleshov Effect.

Top Schools Unchanged

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Why do the top 10 companies change every decade, but the top 10 schools remain unchanged?

Podcast: Mark Zuckerberg interviews Patrick Collison and Tyler Cowen on the Nature and Causes of Progress (BONUS) | Conversations with Tyler

The top American universities by most rankings have remained largely unchanged since 1920, while the list of top companies by market cap experiences significant turnover every decade. What makes the difference?

The reasons for this difference are obviously complex and not one dimension. First, there's a lack of experimentation at the institutional level for universities. For example, procedures for tenure in the top 50 research universities are almost the same.

Second, the entry costs of forming a new university are very high, and it's not just because there's a formal toll you have to pay or specific legal restrictions that prohibit you from doing so. Just as a practical matter: sociologically, institutionally, accreditation dynamics, established reputations, and long histories of the existing university that's hard to replicate.

Third, schools have a more stable customer base, as students typically attend for several years, while companies must constantly adapt to changing market conditions and consumer preferences.

And finally, there's no good measurement for improvements in productivity in education, despite the internet's emergence. Combined with the branding effects of other established universities and the long commitment of the students and faculty, the lack of suitable measurement makes it even more difficult for a new school to defeat the incumbent.

The last point is also related to the Baumol effect covered in #20, which explains why prices of labor-intensive services (higher education) keep rising regardless of low productivity growth, as shown in the chart below.

7 Powers Framework

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

7 Powers Framework for business strategy: Counter-Positioning, Cornered Resource, Scale Economies, Network Economies, Switching Costs, Branding, Process Power.

Book: 7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy

7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy page 234

7 Powers by Hamilton Helmer is the best book I've read on business strategy framework. In the book, he listed 7 market powers that have the potential to realize persistent differential returns. It will be too long to explain in depth what all 7 powers are, but here's a concise version of each definition, the benefit for the power holder, and the barrier for the challenger.

The 7 powers listed in the book are:

Counter Positioning:

Definition: The adoption of a novel, superior business model that incumbents can't replicate due to the anticipated cannibalization of their existing business
Benefit: Lower costs and/or higher prices due to more valuable product
Barrier: Cannibalization of existing business

Cornered Resource

Definition: Preferential access to valuable resources
Benefit: Possibility of higher prices, cost savings, or superior products
Barrier: Range from legal protections to retention of crucial talent

Scale Economies

Definition: Unit Costs decrease as production volume increases
Benefit: Cost savings
Barrier: High expense associated with gaining market share

Network Economies

Definition: Each additional user enhances value for all users
Benefit: Ability to charge higher prices due to more value provided
Barrier: Difficulty in gaining users due to less value of smaller networks

Switching Costs

Definition: Customers expect a net loss from switching to an alternate
Benefit: Ability to charge higher prices for the same product
Barrier: Competitor has to incentive customer more to switch

Branding

Definition: Benefit from higher perceived value to a similar offering for its established reputation
Benefit: Higher pricing due to higher perceived quality or lower uncertainty
Barrier: The lengthy and uncertain process of building a brand

Process Power

Definition: Organizational activities enabling superior products or lower costs, replicable only with significant commitment
Benefit: Product enhancements and/or cost reduction through optimized processes
Barrier: Significant commitment of time or resources to emulate processes.

It's important to distinguish between the strategies used for the Statics, or "Being There"—which, for example, refers to what makes Intel's business consistently valuable—and the Dynamics, or "Getting There"—which relates to the developments that led to this favorable position.

For the "Being There" concept, he chose the term "Power" over the more traditional term "Moat" because "Power" implies a proactive approach, whereas "Moat" suggests only defense. And when discussing "Getting There," it's essential to understand that a business must leverage different types of Power at various stages, as illustrated in the subsequent chart.

7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy page 237

Seat and Temperature for Comedy

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Perfect seating arrangement and room temperature for comedy show: a little bit tighter and colder than comfortable.

Podcast: Noam Dworman on Stand-Up Comedy and Staying Open-Minded (Ep. 185) | Conversations with Tyler

Noam Dworman owns the renowned Comedy Cellar in New York City, where I once watched Louis C.K. perform live. He believes that, for an optimal comedy show, the audience should be seated slightly closer together than they might typically prefer.

The claustrophobia of the room is extremely important. Despite receiving complaints about cramped seating from time to time, Dworman said he wouldn't make changes to address this issue because the intenseness makes the comics funnier. The fact that you are enjoying it with your friends in a close and physical way helps amplify the laughter.

Laughter is contagious. In some ways, it is like a chain reaction in which you must be positioned close enough and over critical mass to create a powerful wave of shared amusement. I experienced this firsthand at Ronny Chien's show. While I don't consider him the funniest person in the world, the audience's collective laughter was so compelling that I found myself laughing to the point of physical pain.

Moreover, Bill Grundfest, the founder of the Comedy Cellar, discovered that when the room temperature gets warmer, it seriously affects how the comedians perform. Noam Dworman thinks that a little bit colder than comfortable is the best room temperature, which is supported by this article arguing that a warmer setting makes audiences lethargic, exhausting the energy and spread of collective laughter. This paper might also be related because it suggests colder temperatures make people less aligned with social norms, which can be better for comedy.

Thanks to Morris Hsu for sharing this podcast episode with me.

Diversity is Multifaceted

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Diversity is multifaceted. People with correct points of view can be less diverse than those who are wrong because there are many more ways to be wrong.

Podcast: Patrick Collison has a Few Questions for Tyler (Ep. 21 - Live at Stripe) | Conversations with Tyler

Tyler once wrote a blog post saying, "Well, there's a lot more diversity amongst supporters of Trump than supporters of Hillary Clinton.", which got him a lot of trouble. People usually think Democrats are more diverse, but many kinds of diversity exist. Tyler posits that while Democrats prioritize ethnic and racial diversity, non-Democrats may see diversity regarding geography, occupation, or perspective.

Here's another way to understand the multifaceted nature of diversity: people with correct points of view can be less diverse than those who are wrong because there are many more ways to be wrong. Therefore, being entirely right about something can sometimes indicate a lack of diversity, even if the members feel they are more diverse in areas like religion or ethnicity.

Make Art Inevitably

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.

Book: The Creative Act

This quote from the American painter and teacher Robert Henri reminds me of "Forget goals, build system" from Atomic Habits. The objective is not to accomplish great work. It is to build a system that makes great work happen inevitably.

Remove Labels

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 01:52:16 GMT

I only wear clothes with no visible logos and avoid company swag or school merchandise whenever possible. While aesthetics play a role and mitigating decision fatigue¹ is a factor, there's a deeper reason behind it.

Labels

Labels serve as shortcuts for communication. Wearing a sweatshirt with our school logo implicitly broadcasts qualities its students typically have. However, the same label can be interpreted differently based on the viewer's perspective. For instance, while one might view a person driving a luxury car as flaunting wealth, another may see them as valuing quality. ²

Labels can manifest as tangible symbols, such as shirt logos, or intangible terms that we or society assign to us, like being called "smart" or "cool". And beyond serving as outward signals, labels also resonate internally, influencing our actions through our natural tendency.

Consistency

Humans seek coherence and consistency in their thoughts and actions to minimize cognitive dissonance, which means the labels we embrace, consciously or subconsciously, shape our behaviors. For example, a hoodie with an Ivy League school logo isn't just a fashion choice. It's an unspoken agreement we subconsciously sign that can subtly nudge us away from behaviors not befitting the institution. With that agreement, we might shy away from trying things that could be perceived as unconventional or less intellectual, as they may not align with the stereotypical "Ivy League student" image.

In other words, labels are invisible boundaries, deterring us from exploring freely and trying things we might be interested in. These boundaries can restrict us from following our true passions because they create extrinsic forces that undermine our intrinsic motivation.

Removal

Letting go of labels sets me free to learn whatever I genuinely think is fun. When I first started my undergrad studies in finance, philosophy seemed useless, and programming looked too nerdy. But once I decided to get rid of whatever labels I had and avoid sharing my school and major, I was utterly free from others' expectations. My first attempt was to go to India to teach English ³ simply because it intrigued me. That attempt turned out to be so fun, and because it was so unconventional to do such a thing, it also liberated me from the labels I subconsciously put on myself.

Following my curiosity without all the labels, I found joy in studying philosophy and even learning coding to become a software engineer. And as a software engineer now, where my peers usually dislike business and art, I can still study fun economics and design topics because I don't mentally carry a software engineer label.

There are also labels that we put on for ourselves too. For instance, if we always think we are not good at math, this label, similar to stereotype threat, creates high cognitive loads and makes it harder to learn or even try something that requires math. But oftentimes, those math-related things just turn out to be not as hard as we thought. We draw an unnecessary line for our behavior and potential because we label ourselves as a "non-math" person.

Connection and focus

It's worth noting that labels aren't inherently negative. When signaling outwards, labels are an efficient way to convey information and build connections. For instance, wearing a school hoodie on the street allows alumni to say hi and connect more easily through a shared background. I also publicly label myself a "voracious learner" so people know they can share intriguing topics with me.

When communicating inwards, labels can be helpful when we want to cultivate a habit or commit to a goal. For example, labeling ourselves publicly as a "health person" might keep us on track with our fitness goals because of the desire to remain consistent with that identity. Learning In Public and sharing your goal invite others to hold us accountable. In these cases, labels help us focus on the objective we set.

Therefore, labels acting as unseen borders are not always detrimental. They restrict us from free exploration so that we can narrow our focus. Essentially, it depends on whether we aim to explore or exploit.

Choose our labels

To embrace complete freedom and follow our intrinsic curiosity, we should remove unnecessary labels until we can completely ignore them. While labels can be useful, we should be wary of their subconscious influence. We must choose our labels carefully and consciously.

^
Though indeed I wear the same kind of clothes daily.
^
We can also put on the same label for different reasons. For example, wearing the unofficial uniform for finance/tech bro can mean you care about the environment, the quality, or just want to fit in the scene.
^
Yes, the kids are confused by my accent, 100 percent.

Thanks to Angelica Kosasih, Jui-An Wang and my mom for discussing and/or reading the draft of this.

Also, thanks to Harkiran Sodhi for sharing her related piece, Identity & Diaspora, with me after I posted this. An inspiring read. I highly recommend it.

70-20-10 Rule

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 03:14:36 GMT

70-20-10 Rule: Spend 70% on your core business, 20% on adjacent or nearby things, and 10% on wild bets.

Podcast: Eric Schmidt — Lessons from a Trillion-Dollar Coach

How to organize resources in a company for the long term? At Google, Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin said they should spend 70% on their core business, 20% on adjacent or nearby things, and 10% on wild bets.

You need 70% on the core business to sustain innovation because you need revenue and growth. You need the 20% to explore adjacencies to extend your franchise. And you need the 10% on wild bets to build transformational initiatives, which is vital for what you want to do 5 or 10 years from now.

We can apply the 70-20-10 rule to personal development too. We should allocate our time to look up, down, and up. We spend 70% looking down and focusing on delivering work within the deadline, 20% looking around and talking to other functions in the company, and 10% looking up and gazing all the way further to our ultimate mission.

XY Problem

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

The XY problem: Avoid focusing on the attempted solution rather than the actual problem. People don't want a faster horse. They want to get to their destination faster.

Article: What is the XY problem? - Meta Stack Exchange

Ever been stuck in a situation where you thought you had a solution to a problem, but only after asking for help to debug your solution you found out your solution is unnecessary because there's a much better and stupidly simple way to solve the same problem?

This is the XY problem. We believe our solution Y to problem X would work. So when running into trouble when solving X, we ask about your particular solution Y instead of giving the context of X. In other words, we focus on the attempted solution rather than the actual problem.

Think of it like the famous apocryphal Henry Ford quote: "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." We can spend our whole life figuring out how to make the horse run faster through some genetic modification. However, the real issue is people want to get to their destination faster. Therefore, instead of getting fixated on making horses faster (solution Y), he came up with a better solution - the car (problem X). Another quote from Theodore Levitt is also a good example: "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!"

To avoid falling into the trap of the XY problem, we should provide sufficient context about the problem when seeking help for a proposed solution. While unnecessary details should be avoided, we should communicate the essence of the problem.

AI Describes Biology

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

If Math is the perfect description language for physics, AI might be the perfect description language for biology.

Podcast: Demis Hassabis: DeepMind | Lex Fridman Podcast

Deepmind has been using machine learning to advance many fields in biology, most notably with AlphaFold. Demis Hassabis, CEO of Deepmind, stated, "If you think of mathematics as the perfect description language for physics, AI might end up being the perfect description language for biology."

Because biology is so messy, dynamic, and complex, it's hard to believe we would ever get to something as elegant as Newton's laws of motion to describe a cell. It's just too complicated. Therefore, the nature of artificial intelligence can make it the right tool for biology.

Technology and Story

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

No amount of technology will make a bad story good.

Article: Presentation Zen: No amount of technology will make a bad story good

In the last part of this documentary about the creation of Toy Story, its director John Lasseter said:

"Everyone's going to talk about the fact that this is the very first computer animated feature film, but the computers are just tools [the computers] didn't create this picture, it's the people who created the picture."

Technology is essential, but what makes a story fascinating is the storyteller. And with technological advancement, the ability to generate great ideas becomes much more important than technology and technical skills.

Envy is WiFi

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Our envy is like WiFi. It is usually limited to a hyperlocal network. We are jealous of our friends, but not celebrities.

Podcast: Kunal Shah: Core Human Motivations [The Knowledge Project Ep. #141]

I found this analogy interesting. Envy is hyper-local. It's like WiFi that works only in a local radius. Therefore, for those who are very competitive, it might be good to change their social circle constantly. If their WiFi network range of comparison drives them, they can always be growing.

However, we should remember that growth fueled by competitiveness oftentimes will make you fall into the trap of a hedonistic treadmill. Instead, we should find something unique so we don't have to compete with anyone. If we need someone to chase or get ourselves motivated, we can find somebody in a different stage of life that we won't compete with and shouldn't follow the people we most admire but should follow what they admire.

Gen AI and Photography to Art

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Generative AI is to digital art as photography was to traditional art. The value of having good ideas grows when new technology lowers the need for technical skills.

Thought

Photography revolutionized traditional art in the 19th century by surpassing painting's ability to capture reality with unmatched precision. It made certain art forms less relevant as the camera could achieve better results. Therefore, art forms like impressionism emerged, prioritizing ideas over realistic representation and blurring the line between artists and philosophers.

Likewise, generative AI can have a similar influence on digital artwork. When MidJourney first started gaining traction, I talked to Miguel about its impact on digital arts. With the new technology, the idea matters more than ever. The bottleneck in digital art creation transitions from mastering technical skills for implementation to conceiving the idea itself. The actualization of ideas becomes less significant.

However, this doesn't mean skills become irrelevant. Just as Mondrian had to learn to paint naturalistic landscapes before pioneering Neoplasticism with his iconic Composition with Red Blue and Yellow, skills serve as a foundation for transcending their limitations. You have to learn the rule before you can break it.

Composition with Red Blue and Yellow

Photography and generative AI share other similarities too. Both faced skepticism when they first came out, questioning whether they could truly be considered 'art'. Yet, just as photography expanded art's definition, generative AI will push boundaries and offer new creative avenues.

Parkinson's Law

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. The more time we allot for a work, the more time it will take to finish it.

Article: Parkinson's law - Wikipedia

Parkinson's Law, as observed by historian C. Northcote Parkinson, states that the time required to complete a task will always expand to fill the entire allotted time, regardless of the actual workload. In simpler terms, whether you give a task 5 days or 5 weeks to complete, you will likely finish it right before the deadline in both cases.

Parkinson's Law is ubiquitous in time management. For instance, if I have to publish an article tomorrow, I usually spend about 4 hours writing it and will submit it at the last minute. However, if I have the same article to publish next week, it might take me 20 hours to complete.

And guess what, I would still submit it at the last minute, with no improvement in the article's quality. Despite investing an additional 16 hours, the time is often wasted due to procrastination and perfectionism, which also explains why quantity is the most predictable path to quality.

Parkinson's Law also has some interesting corollaries:

If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do. (from Stock–Sanford)
In ten hours a day, you have time to fall twice as far behind your commitments as in five hours a day. (from Asimov, who also has a corollary to Clarke's Three Laws)
Data expands to fill the space available for storage.

Parkinson's Law of Triviality

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Parkinson's Law of Triviality: The time spent discussing various topics within an organization is usually inversely proportional to their level of importance.

Article: Law of triviality - Wikipedia

Parkinson's Law of Triviality is another observation from the historian C. Northcote Parkinson stating that people tend to devote a disproportionate amount of time and attention to trivial or minor issues while neglecting more significant and complex ones. Typically, the more important something is, the less time it is given attention or discussed.

Parkinson gave an example of a fictional finance council discussing three topics: the construction of a £10 million nuclear reactor, a £350 employee bicycle shed, and a proposal for a tea room costing £21 per year.

The £10 million nuclear reactor was passed after a two-and-a-half-minute discussion. Despite a member suggesting an alternative plan, no one wanted to abandon the progress made, and another member, who had concerns but struggled to explain them, eventually gave up.

On the other hand, the bicycle shed topic was within everyone's understanding and supported by various life experiences. Mr. Softleigh suggested using an aluminum roof, Mr. Holdfast proposed galvanized iron and Mr. Daring questioned the necessity of the shed. After 45 minutes of discussion, with the potential of saving £50, council members felt a sense of accomplishment.

The tea room topic, revolving around everyone's familiarity with tea, its preparation, and where to buy it, consumed an hour and fifteen minutes of the council members' time. However, due to time limitations, they asked the secretary for additional information and deferred the decision to the next meeting.

While important topics are usually complex and require domain knowledge, minor matters are often easier to comprehend. Everyone can join the discussion, leading to increased participation and debate on things with minimal impact compared to more important issues.

Delete Most in Draft

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

To write well, delete most of what you put on the page, as films often shoot 50 to 100 times more footage than what actually appears in the final cut.

Article: Editing – Moving Pictures

In the last century of Hollywood's Golden Age, feature films often shot 10 times more footage than necessary, known as a shooting ratio of 10:1. And the editors had to look at all of it, sorting through more than 10 hours of footage for every hour of film in the final cut. This included retakes, spoiled shots, multiple angles, and even scenes that would never make it into the final film.

Nowadays, with digital cinema, it's common for films to have 50 to 100 times more footage than the final cut. For example, the filmmakers behind Deadpool (2016) shot 555 hours of raw footage for a final film of just 108 minutes. That's a shooting ratio of 308:1.

Writing is a lot like video editing. You have to delete most of the content in your draft before hitting the publish button. You have to write 5x more but write 5x less and be able to kill your darlings.

Assemble Furniture Principle

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

When assembling furniture, start by tightening all the screws to 75%, then fully tighten them once all components fit together. This principle extends beyond furniture.

Article: 28 Pieces of Life Advice - David Perell

From David Perell:

"When building a piece of IKEA furniture, don’t tighten all the screws to 100% right away. Start by tightening each one to 75%, and only bring them up to 100% once all the screws fit nicely together. This principle applies beyond furniture too."

2022 紀錄

Fri, 21 Jul 2023 04:06:00 GMT

這是開始做年度紀錄的第七年。

認識自己與認識這個世界是相輔相成的。從對於自己的現有認識去推論，或從對這個世界的探索經驗去歸納，都能拓展對自己理解的疆界。探索更多世界的同時也更認識自己，因為可以從探索到的屬性去更明確地拼湊出自己喜好的邊界。哲學、心理學、NYC、Cornell Tech、Google、South Bay 都讓我更理解我自己一點。而認識自己是重要的，因為如果你本質上在做的東西是你自我延伸的表現，那麼沒有人能在這點上與你競爭 ¹。而我深信在大部分時候我們都不應該專注於競爭，獨特比更好還要有價值 ²。

跟人結束互動的時候喜歡講 have a lovely day 更過於 have a good one/day，因為後者在講的時候更像是一個反射動作，而前者在講的時候需要更費力。2020 紀錄裡寫的要有自覺地過生活，如果要祝福別人有美好的一天就要有意識地說、用力地說。同樣地的原則也適用於禮貌三寶：謝謝不客氣對不起。也許是文化或語言差異，但我沒有特別習慣用 how are you 作為預設跟陌生人打招呼的方式。如果在說出口時就對 how are you 的回答沒有任何興趣，那也只是無意識的動作而不是有自覺地在對話。

五月中從 Cornell Tech 畢業了，兩年帳面上讀了兩個半學位。回頭看在學校的這兩年真的是太美好了。感謝運氣讓我進了這所學校，認識這麼多很棒的人。在 Cornell Tech 的最後一學期修了 Technopoetic、Tech, Media and Democracy、Blockchain、Studio、Remaking the city 和 Data Storytelling。Tech, Media and Democracy 跟 Technopoetic 都證明了 Cornell Tech 跟一般工程學校比有多特別。最後一學期也花了更多時間在做 AR/VR/MR。大部分在學校的時間都花在 0 學分的 AR/VR 研究跟寫紙上。再次感謝我的兩位教授為了 ISMAR Conference 的 paper 繳交死線，跟我們一起從禮拜五晚上一路熬夜到隔天早上八點。

出於好奇，花了點時間研究了區塊鏈和加密貨幣。雜湊 (Hashing)、零知識證明 (Zero Knowledge Proof)、加密 (Encryption) 跟其他酷知識學起來真是過癮又好玩，也在 Ethereum 上寫了一點 Solidity。然而這一點研究還是沒有改變我對加密貨幣或是區塊鏈的看法。我 2022 六月的時候所寫：「區塊鏈和加密貨幣到底能解決什麼真正的問題，並具有什麼內在價值？在尋找對這個問題的答案的短暫旅程之後，我的直覺是：有一天，我們會對我們在區塊鏈和加密貨幣上所浪費的能源、時間和人才感到驚訝。這確實是一個強烈且武斷的看法，而且我必須坦誠，我不認為我有足夠的研究和經驗可以確定這一點。所以我希望我錯了，並且希望長期來看，這些努力最終使人類過上更好的生活。我希望能被說服。」³ 當然，我也不能排除是因為自己的偏見與心理偏誤而導致潛意識下，我沒有辦法被說服。

花了比較多的時間在讀哲學。這年看了一些哲普書，看了三遍《哲學家們都幹了些什麼》，也許有些地方不太嚴謹，但不妨礙它作為一個非常好讀的故事書。Great Thinkers、A Little History of Philosophy 跟 50 Philosophy Classics 也都互相補足了一些彼此在廣度維度上我腦袋的間隙。因為想知道 Ludwig Wittgenstein 到底是如何能發展他的想法，所以讀了《天才的責任：維根斯坦傳》，但這本書反而更多的讓我認識他在被很多人視為哲學偶像背後的掙扎。Viktor Frankl 的 Man's Search for Meaning 是我看完後還很常在人生有疑問時翻的書。其他蠻有收穫的有 Bertrand Russell 的 The Problems of Philosophy、David Chalmers 的 Reality+、因為聽 Bon Iver 而讀 Byung-Chul Han 的 The Burnout Society。

大部分仰賴二手文獻，也沒讀完什麼太難的哲學原著好像也不能算有什麼見解，但認識到最接近自己想法的是實用主義 (Pragmatism)，雖然我都稱自己的版本為 cherry-pickingism（採櫻桃謬誤主義？）。我可以同時心安理得通體舒暢地持有好幾組相互抵觸的想法，然後根據不同的條件跟場景，採用當下對我的思考或行動最有幫助的那一個。，「錯誤但有用」⁴ 是 cherry-pickingism 的核心。Stoicism（或佛教裡哲學的那部分還有心理諮商裡的 REBT）是我最常應用在生活的。進化心理學（Evolutionary psychology）是我最習慣用於解釋或理解行為的框架，Wittgenstein、Kierkegaard、Nietzsche、Spinoza 跟 Kant 是我比較常請教一些皮毛的人們。

說到 Stoicism 就想附送與複誦 Seneca 的這句：「在必然受苦前就感到痛苦的人，其所受的痛苦會超過必然。」⁵（請原諒我的不專業翻譯）

除了哲學以外也看了幾本其他的書。《三體》是無庸置疑最好看的科幻長篇，短篇的 Exhalation 也都值得一看再看。劉慈欣以及 Ted Chiang 這兩位工程師轉作家真的收下小弟的膝蓋。從 It Was The Best Of Sentences, It Was The Worst Of Sentences 學了好多從來沒有注意到過的英文文法觀念（筆記這邊請）。終於看了 Sapiens，但大部分有趣的點好像都在其他地方看過了。其他蠻推的還有 Skin in the Game、Trillion Dollar Coach、The Rise of Superman、《雪球：巴菲特傳》、The Happiness Project、The Great Mental Models。把我的 Kindle Oasis 帶出門的次數越來越少，因為都習慣直接在手機上用 Kindle App 看書。看書的時間變多了，感謝 Kindle 的同步服務做得真不賴。

去了 Dia Beacon，是我這兩年在美國去到最愛的博物館。在 NYC 的半年去了 MoMA PS1、Museum of the Moving Image、American Museum of Natural History、Fotographsita。在 Bay Area 的半年去了 SF MoMA 跟 de Young。上了 Greg Pass 的 Technopoetic 課之後，逛展時都會一直想著 Arthur Rimbaud 筆下的 Absolute Modernity。

在紐約的最後半年報名了一個籃球聯盟。感謝我的 tmp aka B All Tonite 的好隊友們！好玩！雖然打得二二六六但還是開心有達到去年設定的目標。

因為畢業典禮又去了 Ithaca。這次沒有嘗試用低溫露營磨練畢業生，但還是下了大雨、去了酒莊。

從紐約花了 11 天一路開車到了加州。NYC, New York → Columbus, Ohio → St. Louis, Missouri → Oakley, Kansas → Rocky Mountain → Denver, Colorado → Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park → Montrose, Colorado → Canyonlands National Park → Loa, Utah → Bryce Canyon National Park → Salt Lake City, Utah → Yosemite → San Jose, California。3000 英哩太好玩了！謝謝旅伴們。

人生第一次滑雪，沒有摔死在 Hunters Mountain，但這項運動也太麻煩了。

春假去了 Miami、Orlando、Key west、New Orleans。人生第一次去 Universal Studio，New Orleans 的 Jazz 讓人沉醉。

因為看了 Trillion Dollar Coach 還有聽了 Eric Schimidt 在 Tim Ferriss Show 的 Podcast，練習他們口中 Bill Campbell 把自己的收入定義為別人的快樂與成功。 ⁶

離開了紐約，有回憶的地方就是家。紐約很適合我，我很適合紐約。

搬到了灣區。住在想像中美國郊區生活裡大大的三層樓 townhouse，感謝室友們都很罩我。原本想買車但被銷售們狠狠教訓了一輪，索性過上了無車生活。在 lower east side 酒吧的日子搬家到變成開車去山上的酒莊，週末專屬且頻次下降。想念 Roosevelt Island 的櫻花，想念有機會跟室友一起錯過回家的船只為了再多喝一杯（然後變成太多杯）。想念在城市裡走路。

SF 還是不錯。在這裡最大的目標是浸泡在新創的環境、認識有類似目標的人們、多到戶外走走。SF international 很可愛，The center 很酷。在找尋 NYC 影子的時候在夜裡體驗了 Cruise 的自駕車，終於感受到在新科技上 SF 是 NYC 比不上的，而我應該多把握機會。一起跟一大群朋友一起從東岸搬過來，讓適應郊區生活的陣痛期沒有那麼糟。明年要多衝一點浪。

上工了 Google aka 狗家或 goog，運氣好剛上工兩個禮拜就有機會幫忙救火，狠狠地上了個新功能到 production，在 YouTube 上被用到。在這裡帳面上的影響力很大，但要提醒自己能影響數百千萬使用者，絕大多數是因為有公司的平台作為槓桿，而不是自己的貢獻。狗家的成長曲線不算太有挑戰性，所以需要自己規劃自己的成長機會，也需要學會在未知混沌的環境下為自己導航找路。理解大公司的文化、設計文件、能見度。學習在大公司裡才能學得更好的事。

這年最常聽的音樂專輯是 Bon Iver 的 For Emma, Forever Ago、Bon Iver 的同名專輯、Frank Ocean 的 Blonde、Toro y Moi 的 Outer Space、PUZZLEMAN 的 Organic Melodies《有機的旋律們》。還記得在 Roosevelt Island 散步時進到 Love is the Answer 這首歌裡的魔幻時光。其他新的舊的混雜聽的比較多 Indigo De Souza、Tom Misch、宋冬野、昆蟲白、椅子、LCD Soundsystem。

音樂現場，年初在台灣看了應該是第三次的 PUNKERS THREE，大團誕生看了 Codie、餵飽豬、溫蒂漫步。在 NYC 看了 Tom Mish、Joel Culpepper。在 Chicago 看了第二年的 Pitchfork，The National、Indigo De Souza、Mitski、Japanese Breakfast、Lucy Dacus、Dry Cleaning、Toro y Moi、Tierra Whack。在 SF 看了落日飛車。年末回台灣看了椅子現場。

看了 Ronny Chieng 在 Beacon Theatre 的專場。第一次看專場，比再小一點的場地還要更有渲染力。也去了 Abby 的場！

這年拍了 11 捲底片。2021 年家樑給我這支 Yashica TZoom 的時候，我可能沒想到會花這麼多時間跟錢在它身上。感謝家樑的底片相機，從此我每天在城市裡散步都有相機相伴，拍底片很舒壓。

年初去了台南，年末去了苗栗露營。在台灣旅遊好爽。感謝俊豪、明宏、彥辰，在冬天泡野溪溫泉真的太感恩。

大概看了 16 部電影。最愛的電影是 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 還有 Triangle of Sadness。《美國女孩》催淚，重看了幾部 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind、Pulp Fiction、In the Mood of Love、The Big Short、Ready player one、Before Sunset。The Worst Person in the World 沒有很對味，Crimes in the Future 有點超乎能夠承受的範圍。

學習不要過於想要最佳化自己的生產力。提高生產力常常其實是一種分心。不要只尋找更快速的方法來完成任務，而應該找尋那些更好的任務，那種不會想停止做的任務。 ⁷ 也要記得純粹的急促衝刺並不會產生新的東西，它只會重複並加速已經存在的事物。 ⁸ 高度有效率的東西很少能打動人心。富有意義和激動人心的經驗是低效的，因為它們無法被標準化。 ⁹

年末回台灣上班了幾個禮拜。發現半夜三點起床上班對我來說不算太難，感謝 Chester 不小心帶我參觀了 101 辦公室。

跟 Angelica 去了 Up State NY 的 Getaway，下雪了的 Catskill 好美。謝謝 Angelica！

到了加州 byob 從 bring your own beer 變成 bring your own bed。露營天的 Lake Tahoe 好美，小木屋天的 Lake Tahoe 雪地裡打滾好冷，雪鍊很重要。感恩節的 Lassen 好桑。

趁回美國轉機的機會去了一下日本。感謝洛安跟崇越在東京的收留。看到老朋友 Tomo、Hisao、質文。跟一群俄羅斯、阿根廷人、蒙古、德國人在京都的 Hostel 跨年。在京都聽 Phoebe 的 Kyoto，東京聽 Mitsume，大阪跟澀谷聽 Bon Iver。大阪的 teamlab 和東京的 GINZA MAGIC 都讓人沈迷。

2022 年寫了 20 篇的 Weekly I/O。雖然大部分 Weekly I/O 的寫作都是為自己服務，所以目標讀者很模糊，但還是在尋找能同時給別人更多價值的方法（雖然去年年度回顧寫了一樣的話）。寫作除此之外只寫了在美國找工作的心得、2021 的年度回顧跟 2021 看書整理。

年度紀錄這種流水帳任性寫法真的是會越寫越恥。中英文同步的道行還是不夠，所以這篇就把晶晶體的自我審查器關弱隨性點寫。句子跟專有名詞如果腦袋響起來時是英文就請見諒有些如果翻譯太蹩腳就不翻了。要坦然面對自己在兩種語言下的夾縫中。

也希望今年 2023 的年度回顧能在今年發，不然在隔年寫還是不免把兩年的想法都糊在一起。

如果面對兩條路要走，要記得選擇那條更能放手一博且更有多機會被好運眷顧的 ¹⁰，那條 10 歲和 80 歲的我都會驕傲的 ¹¹，那條我更有機會是在團隊裡最笨的 ¹²。

太多我記在 Weekly I/O 裡的話都能總結 2022，所以如你所見我已經在前面偷渡了不少。最後一句來自 Viktor Frankl 的 Man's Search for Meaning：We should stop asking about the meaning of life and think of ourselves as those being questioned. We should take the responsibility to answer with action。

不管在哪裏，最大的感受總是 I’m such a lucky dude with so many great friends，感謝各位。積極樂觀、感恩惜福。

新年快樂！

^
出自 Naval Ravikant: "If you are fundamentally building and marketing something that is an extension of who you are, no one can compete with you on that."
^
出自 Sally Hogshead: "Different is better than better".
^
我的筆記原文："What’s the real problem it can solve and what’s its intrinsic value? My intuition after the short journey of searching for answer is that: at the end of the day, we will be surprised how much energy, time, and talent we have wasted on blockchain and crypto. This is definitely a strong statement and, to put my cards on the table, I don’t think I have enough research and experience to say that with certainty. I hope I’m wrong and it turns out all the effort makes humans live a better life in the long term. I’m more than happy to be convinced."
^
延伸閱讀：All models are wrong, but some are useful
^
延伸閱讀："He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary."
^
延伸閱讀：Bill Campbell defines his income as others' happiness and success instead of just money received.
^
延伸閱讀：Productivity is often a distraction. Don't aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible. Rather aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing.
^
延伸閱讀：If sleep represents the high point of bodily relaxation, deep boredom is the peak of mental relaxation. A purely hectic rush produces nothing new. It only reproduces and accelerates what is already available.
^
延伸閱讀：Efficient methods rarely create emotional arousal. Meaningful and soulful experiences are inefficient because they can't be standardized. Non-standardized things are harder to scale but also harder to destroy.
^
延伸閱讀：choose the one with a larger luck surface area and/or the one that puts you in the arena
^
延伸閱讀：make decisions that your 80-year-old self and 10-year-old self would be proud of
^
延伸閱讀：choose the room where you're more likely to be the dumbest one in the room

如何成就偉大的事

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 20:56:47 GMT

原文由知名創業孵化器 Y Combinator 的共同創辦人 Paul Graham 於 2023 年 7 月刊載在他的個人部落格，標題為 How to Do Great Work。本文透過機器翻譯並加上我的些許編修。我在各段落加上小標題讓這萬字長文更易讀、方便紀錄進度和分享。有任何問題歡迎私訊我的臉書。

如果要整理在各領域取得卓越成就所需的技能，那麼這些技能的共同點會是什麼呢？我決定在實作的過程中探求這個問題的答案。

我原本是想搭建一個適用於所有領域的行動藍圖。但我也對這些通往卓越成就的技能是什麼感到好奇。所以在構築這個藍圖的過程中，我發現：這個技能清單其實是有確定答案的，並且它們並不是「努力」這個詞能夠概括的。

以下的藍圖假設你很有野心。

找尋你的目標

首先，你得確定你要努力追求的具體目標是什麼。這個目標需要具備以下三個特質：你在這項目標上具有天賦、你對這項目標有強烈的熱忱、並且你在此有發揮才能的機會。

在現實生活中，你基本上無需太過擔心第三點，有野心的人對發揮才能平台的選擇已經足夠謹慎。所以你主要需要評估的，就是自身的天賦和熱情。¹

這兩項考量聽起來簡單，但實際上卻頗為困難。當你年輕時，你不確定自己的擅長之處，也不清楚其他人在做什麼，有些你最終可能會投入的工作或許現在還未出現。因此，雖然有些人在 14 歲就明確知道自己想做什麼，但大部分人都需要不斷地探索並尋找自己的目標。

尋找目標的方法就是實踐。如果你不確定從何處著手，那就先隨便挑一個試試看。更重要的是要開始行動。有時你可能會走錯方向，但那都沒關係。去了解各種不同的事情總是有好處的，因為許多重大的發現往往源自於連接不同領域的洞見。

養成創造你自己的專案的習慣。簡單來說，就是找出你真正想要投入的事情。不要讓他人決定你對「工作」或「事業」的定義。如果有一天你做出了偉大的事業，那麼大部分的可能是你自己的專案。即使它可能是某個更大的事業的一部分，但你是這部分成就的主要推動力。

那麼，什麼可以成為你的個人專案呢？答案是任何能讓你熱血沸騰的事。隨著年齡的增長，你對事物的審美感與判斷力的變化，使你興奮的事物與重要的事物逐漸會有所交集。7 歲時你可能熱衷於創建一個巨大的樂高模型，14 歲時你可能自學微積分，21 歲時你可能專注於一些未解的物理問題。這些興趣會變化，但真正不變的是那份由衷的熱情。

這份熱情激發出的好奇心，既是偉大事業的啟動鍵，也是它的航向指南。它不僅為你提供動力，還為你指出方向。只要你仔細聆聽，你就能察覺到哪些事物在吸引你。

問問自己，哪些事情即使別人覺得乏味，你仍然充滿好奇心？那就是你要追尋的偉大事業。

當你找到了自己極度好奇的事物之後，下一步就是學習足夠的知識讓你進入該領域的最前沿。知識是需要逐步累積的，從遠處看，你擁有的知識可能已經形成了一個美麗的弧線，但當你有足夠的知識去近距離觀察時，你就會發現其中的缺口。

接下來就是去觀察這些缺口。這會需要一些技巧，畢竟我們的大腦總是傾向於忽視這些缺口，並欺騙自己去為世界建立一個簡化的認知模型。但許多的發現，都是從質疑那些被視為理所當然的事情中產生的。²

如果你得到的答案看起來有些古怪，那就更好了。偉大的發現總是帶有獨特性的標籤。無論是數學還是藝術，都能看到這種現象。如果你確實找到了這樣的特殊之處，那麼你應該去擁抱它，而不是試圖改變它。

勇敢地追求你的特殊想法，即使其他人對這個主題並不熱衷。實際上，他人的冷淡反應可能是一個良好的信號。如果你關心的是一個大多數人忽略的問題，而你的專業知識足夠讓你有信心相信自己的判斷，那麼這就是你的最佳選擇。³

總結一下，尋找你的個人專案有四步：選擇一個領域、學習到足夠達到該領域前沿的知識、找到存在的縫隙，以及探索其中有潛力的部分。這就是所有從事偉大事業的人都做過的事情，他們從學習者成長為實踐者。

第二步和第四步需要你投入大量時間和精力。確實，我們的努力並不能保證偉大的成就，但是根據大量的經驗，如果不付出努力，就絕對不會有成就。而持續投入的前提是你對它有充足的興趣。興趣和好奇心對你的驅動力有比培養堅持努力的習慣更大的影響。

好奇心、樂趣和渴望成就偉業，是三個最強大的驅動力。有時，這三者會逐漸融合，而最強的驅動力來自於這三者的結合。

最大的獎勵就是找到那些存在於縫隙中，有可能帶來新的開創性發現的部分。你找到了知識表層的裂縫，將它撕開，然後發現了一個全新的世界。

尋找個人專案

讓我們再談談「尋找個人專案」這個複雜的主題，關於如何找到自己真正想做的事情。其中的困難在於，除非你真的去做，否則你無法判斷這些事情究竟是什麼樣的。這意味著你可能需要在某一行業工作好幾年，才能知道你是否真的熱愛並且擅長這個行業。而你同時也無法去體驗或學習大部分其他的行業。這可能導致的最糟糕的情況就是，由於信息不全，你可能會遲些才開始做真正屬於你的事。⁴

野心的本質可能會讓這個問題更嚴重。野心有兩種，一種是在你找到興趣點之前就擁有的，另一種由你的興趣所引發的。大部分做出偉大成就之人的野心，是這兩種形式的結合。如果你在找到興趣點之前就過於有志一圖，那你往往會更難找到自己真正想做的事情。

大部分國家的教育制度將「找到自己想做的事」簡化了。他們期望你在真正了解自己喜歡什麼之前就長期投入某個領域。結果就是，一個有野心的人常常被教育制度視為一個搞破壞的人。

他們不願意承認，現行的教育制度無法幫你找到自己真正想做的事，而且這個制度還假設你能在青少年時期就像有魔法一樣找到自己未來的職業。既然他們不願意承認，那麼我來說明真相吧：在這條尋找道路上，你只能依賴你自己。有些人可能運氣好能一下子找到，但是大多數人會像大家一樣，在許多的道路中跌跌撞撞、反覆探索。

所以當你年輕且有野心，卻不知從何著手時，該怎麼做呢？首先，你不應該隨波逐流，以為答案會天外飛來，你需要採取行動。這世上並沒有一本能為你揭示全部的指南，我相信這一點在你閱讀那些偉人自傳時就該有所體會。在尋找要探索的職業時，運氣佔了很大的部分。那些偉人總是在偶遇知己或好書後，猛然領悟，就找到了要做的偉大事業。所以，你要做的，就是提高自己被運氣眷顧的機率。而提高的方式，就是保持好奇心。嘗試更多事情、接觸更多人、讀更多書籍、問更多問題。⁵

當你有疑惑的時候，以自己的興趣作為優化的中心。一個領域會隨著你對它的理解而逐漸變化。例如，真正的數學研究和你在高中數學課本上學到的東西大相逕庭，所以你需要從不同角度和層次更全面地去了解這些事物。然而要注意的是，如果一個領域並沒有隨著你的深入了解而變得越來越吸引你，那麼你應該停止，那並不是你該去做的事。

不用擔心你的興趣點是否與他人不一樣。你的品味越獨特越好。獨特的品味通常非常強烈，這種強烈的興趣將使你更有成效。同時，你在較少人涉足的領域中更容易發現新的東西。

找到真正適合你的事情的證據就是，你甚至會覺得那些在其他人看來很複雜和可怕的事物對你來說是如此地有趣。

然而，領域和人並不一樣，你不需要對它保持忠誠。如果在你的探索過程中發現了更令你興奮的東西，不要害怕做出改變。

如果你想為他人提供某些東西，請在那之前確保你提供的是他們真正需要的。做到這一點的最好方法就是創造連你自己都想要的東西，寫你想讀的故事、製作你會想使用的工具。同時，由於你周圍的人可能有相似的需求，他們將成為你的首批受眾。

提供給他人的東西也應該遵循你的興趣。顯然，最能吸引人的故事就是你自己也想讀的故事。我反覆強調這一點是因為很多人在思考這個問題時都會出錯。他們並不去做他們自己想要的東西，而是去做一些他們幻想出的、所謂比他們自己更成熟的受眾所需要的。一旦你這樣思考，就再也回不去了。⁶

當你嘗試尋找自己真正想做的事情時，會有各種力量試圖將你帶離正軌：膚淺、趨勢、恐懼、金錢、政治、他人的期待、有影響力的詐騙者等等。然而，如果你偏離了自己真正的興趣，你將變成這些力量的奴隸。但如果你堅持你的興趣，你就能保持在正確的路徑上。

迎風而上

「追隨你的興趣」聽起來可能有點被動消極，但如果你真正地遵循這個原則，這意味著你需要依賴你的興趣來克服一個又一個困難。你會經常面臨拒絕和失敗，這需要極大的勇氣。

儘管面對拒絕和失敗需要勇氣，但這並不意味著你需要事先做全面的規劃或準備。在許多情況下，達成偉大的事業其實非常簡單：在讓你滿懷熱情且能激發你野心的事情上投入大量的精力，好的結果就會自然而然地產生。你不需要製定一個計劃然後按部就班地完成，你只需要找到不變的事物，然後按照你的想法全力以赴。

計劃的問題在於，它只能幫助你達到你可以想像的目標。你可以在小時候就決定有一天要贏得金牌或發大財，但你無法規劃出這個過程中的競爭與淘汰。

我認為對於大部分希望達成偉大事業的人來說，正確的策略是不要過度規劃。在每個階段都去做看起來最有趣、能在未來為你提供最好選擇的事情。這也可以解釋為，一直「迎風而上（Stay Upwind）」。從經驗來看，大部分達成偉大事業的人都是這樣做的。

譯註：Stay Upwind 的概念出自 Paul Graham 的 What You'll Wish You'd Known。

從欺騙自己開始

就算你找到了自己想做的事情，真正去做的過程也並非那麼簡單。有些時候，你一早醒來就有新的點子，恨不得馬上投入工作，但更多的時間，並非如此。

靈感並不能自動引領你向前。在這個過程中會遇到逆風、海流和隱藏的暗礁。所以，就像海上航行一樣，做事也有一套方法和技巧。

舉例來說，雖然你應該全力投入，但你也可能過於用力，如果你這麼做，會發現邊際效益遞減：過度疲勞會使人變得遲鈍，最後甚至可能損害你的健康。而做事的邊際效益取決於你要做的事情。有些事情本來就困難，你一天最多只能做四五個小時。

理想的情況是，投入的時間應該是連續的。儘可能地把你的時間安排成塊，將一整段時間全心投入這件事。如果你知道可能會被打斷，你會避開困難的任務。

一切事情最難的是開始，開始可能比堅持還要困難。有時候，你需要透過「自我欺騙」才能跨過第一道門檻。但別擔心，這是自然現象，並不是你的錯。

無論是開始一天，或是開始一個專案，你都需要一定的能量才能啟動。既然「開始」比「堅持」需要更多的能量，那麼我們可以稍微欺騙自己一下，告訴自己：這兩者需要的能量其實並無太大的差別。

在大部分的情況下，自我欺騙在做成大事的過程中是錯誤的，但這是個例外。當我在早上因為懶惰不想工作的時候，我會騙自己說：「我只是來檢查一下目前的進度。」五分鐘後，我就會發現自己的錯誤，或者需要改正的地方，自然就開始工作了。

同樣的自我欺騙，也可以用在開始一個新的專案。欺騙自己認為一個專案所需要的工作量與實際情況沒那麼大。很多偉大的成就都是從一句「這事情能有多難？」開始的。

這也牽涉到年輕人的一個優勢。他們通常比較樂觀，雖然這種樂觀大部分來自於無知，但在這種情況下，無知有時會比博學更有利。

嘗試去完成自己開始的事情，即使它比你想象的要更困難。完成一件事情，不僅僅是一場對自律的修練。很多專案的亮點往往出現在結束的階段。

另一個可以說的謊言，是誇大你正在做的事情的重要性，至少對自己是這麼說。但如果這件事情能帶來新的發現，那麼它就不算是謊言了。⁷

克服在計畫上拖延

我們可以將開始行動的方式，區分為按天或按計畫兩種，這兩種方式分別對應著兩種拖延行為。其中，計畫拖延（per-project procrastination）是更為嚴重的。也就是你會將自己想要啟動一個計畫的雄心壯志，一年又一年地拖延下去，只是因為你覺得現在的時機還不太適合。然而，當你按年來拖延，你會累積越來越多未完成的事項。⁸

計畫拖延之所以危險，其中一個原因是它會偽裝成你正在努力完成的工作。你並沒有在閒逛，反而是在忙於做著另一件消耗你自身的事情。因此，對於計畫的拖延並不像對一天的拖延那麼容易引起你的警覺。你太忙了，甚至沒有注意到這種拖延存在。

打敗計畫拖延的方法，就是偶爾停下來問問自己：「我現在做的事是我最想做的事嗎？」當你還年輕時，這個答案可以是「並不是」，但是隨著年齡的增長，這種否定的答案就變得越來越危險了。⁹

堅持的指數增長

要完成一項偉大的成就，通常意味著要花費一段在他人看來無比漫長的時間，但偉大的成就正是如此締造的。偉大的事情是通過對一項你真心感興趣的事持續投入而實現的。這樣，當你暫停下來回頭看的時候，你會驚訝於你已經走過了那麼長的路程。

我們感到驚訝的原因是我們會低估工作的累積效應。一天一頁的工作量聽起來不多，但如果這樣堅持一年，你就能寫成一本書了。堅持下去，這就是關鍵。創造偉大成就的人並不是一天就完成了許多事情，而是確保每天至少完成某一件事，而不是一事無成。

如果你所做的事情可以累積，那麼你就會獲得指數級的成長。大部分的人並未意識到這一點，但指數級的成長確實值得我們深思。比如學習就是這種現象的一個例子。你學得越多，學起來就越輕鬆。累積粉絲也是一個例子，你的粉絲越多，就能帶來更多新的粉絲。

指數增長的問題在於，起初它呈現出來的是一個平緩的斜坡。儘管感覺平緩，但其實仍然是指數級的成長。但是，由於我們無法立即直觀地感受到，所以很容易在指數增長的初期低估其力量。

一些能夠指數增長的東西具有超高的價值，它們值得你投入更多的精力去啟動。然而，由於人們常常在初始階段低估指數增長，這些啟動往往是無意識的。人們能夠忍受起初學習許多新事物卻沒有得到回報的階段，只是因為他們從經驗上知道學習新事物需要一個推動力，或者他們只能一個粉絲一個粉絲地去累積，別無他法。如果所有人都清楚地了解如何投資於指數增長，那麼會有更多的人去做這件事。

完成一項大任並不僅僅是全力以赴就能做到的。當你在散步、洗澡或是躺在床上的時候，那種間接的思考有著更大的力量。讓你的思緒飛一會兒，你往往能解決直接面對無法解決的問題。

然而，你還需要保持傳統意義上的努力，以便從這種間接思考中獲益。你不能只是到處閒逛，做白日夢。這種放飛思緒需要植入到刻意工作中才能得到養分。¹⁰

每個人都知道在做事的時候應避免分心，但在讓思緒放飛的時候也應避免分心。這樣，當你放飛思緒的時候，它就會飛向你當下最關心的問題。所以，我們真正需要避免的，其實是那種將你需要做的事情推到次要位置的分心，否則你就會將這種自由思考的時間浪費在走神上。（例外：不要避開愛）

只以最佳為目標

你應該有意識地培養對你所在領域工作的品味，因為在你知道哪種是最好的，以及使它如此優秀的原因之前，你並會不知道你在追求什麼。

而「成為最佳」就是你應該追求的，因為如果你不試圖成為最好，你甚至都不能稱得上是好的。這個觀察在許多領域都得到了證實，而我猜測其背後的原因，可能是努力做好的抱負會自然地導致期望過高，結果卻不如意；或許追求成為最佳的抱負在本質上與僅僅希望做好的抱負不同；又或者「做好」的標準過於模糊，導致追求最佳的想法比追求做好的想法更能驅動人。實際上，以上這三種原因，大概都有點道理。¹¹

幸運的是，以「做最佳」為目標被大量實證表明其有效性。儘管「達到最佳」聽起來給自己增加了不少壓力，但實際上，因為你把目標設在「最佳」，往往會使你思考得比他人更深一層。這種優勢讓人感到興奮，也帶來一種難以名狀的輕鬆感。「達到最佳」讓事情變得單純：畢竟從某個意義上來看，「達到最佳」比「做好」更簡單。

而設定「達到最佳」這樣的高目標，其實就相當於去思考人類在未來 100 年將會關心什麼。這不是因為他人的想法比你自己的更重要，而是因為只有那些 100 年後依然被需要的事物，才可能是真正優質的東西。

保持真實，避免做作

不必過度嘗試改變自己的做事風格。只要做到你能做到的最佳就好了，再特別的風格也無法幫你達到最佳。

風格是自然產生的、獨特於你的工作模式。強行塑造風格會讓人感覺過於做作。

做作的本質是扮演一個非自我角色去做事。你會置身於一個有吸引力但是虛假的人設中，而當你因這種吸引力感到自豪時，這種虛假性也將在你的事業中完全體現。¹²

對年輕人來說，成為他人的誘惑最大。他們經常感覺自己是無名小卒。但你無需擔心這個問題，因為如果你在足夠有野心的項目上努力，這個問題會自我解決。如果你成功完成一個有野心的項目，你就不再是無名小卒；你是完成它的人。所以只需去做這個工作，你的身份將會自我確立。

「避免做作」（Avoid affectation）是一個相當實用的原則，但如何以正向的語言來表述它呢？該如何說「應該做...」而不是「不要做...」？最好的回答就是「保持真實」。如果你保持真實，那麼你就能避免做作，以及其他可能阻礙你成為最佳的障礙。

保持真實的核心在於確保智性的誠實（intellectually honest）。我們教育孩子們，誠實是一種無私的美德，是一種犧牲。但實際上，誠實也是一種力量。想要得到新的啟示，你就需要有一雙能夠發現真理的眼睛。你在嘗試看到比其他人更多的真理。如果你不能保持智性的誠實，又怎能有發現真理的眼光呢？

譯者註：關於培養在智性上的誠實，推薦閱讀：隨機騙局：潛藏在生活與市場中的機率陷阱。

一個避免智性的不誠實的方法是對反對的觀點保持更開放的態度。樂於主動承認自己的錯誤。當你承認在某事上的錯誤後，你就解放了自己。而在那之前，你需要承受因為不願承認錯誤所帶來的壓力。¹³

除了智性的誠實，真誠的另一個更微妙部分是不要過於拘謹。不拘小節（informality）比它在語法上帶有否定意義的名稱所暗示的要重要得多。它並非僅僅是某種東西的缺席。它意味著專注於重要的事情，而非無關緊要的事物。

過度注重形式與做作有一個共同點，就是你在關注「看起來如何」，而不是「實際做出來如何」。這就是為何在傳統意義上的書呆子在創造偉大事業上有優勢：他們不在乎「看起來的形象」。實際上，這也是定義書呆子的一部分。

書呆子有一種天真的勇氣，這正是創造偉大事業所需要的。這種特質無法學習得來，而是從小就有的。所以要保持。成為那個勇於表達想法的人，而不是那個假裝深沉地批評他人的人。「說來容易做起來難」是真的，走向偉大的路從來不簡單。

可能對於某些職業來說，悲觀和消極可以是一種優勢，但如果你想要創造偉大的事業，就算看起來有點傻，保持樂觀和積極也是你的優勢。反其道而行之是我們都熟悉的老話了。舊約中說，為了避免讓自己看起來像個傻瓜，你最好保持安靜。但這個建議只是為了讓你看起來聰明。如果你真的想要發現新的東西，那你最好勇敢地表達你的想法，分享給他人。

有些人天生就是真誠的，有些人則需要付出努力。無論哪種形式的真誠，都是足夠的。但對於那種認為不真誠也能創造偉大事業的觀點，我持保留態度。要用真誠來創造偉大的事業已經非常困難了，更何況是缺乏真誠的情況下？你沒有足夠的彈性去容納因為智性的不誠實、過於固執、以及追求潮流而產生的扭曲。¹⁴

發明與發現

偉大的工作不僅與其創作者一致，也與其自身一致。它通常都是一體的。因此，如果你在進行某事的過程中面臨決定，試著問自己哪個選擇更加一致。

有時，你可能需要捨棄一些東西並重新開始。雖然這不是必須的，但是當你真的需要的時候，你必須願意放手。學習放手需要努力。當你有需要從頭開始的事物時，對現況的偏見（status quo bias）和自身的惰性會一起讓你否定這個現實。要戰勝這一點，問自己：如果我已經做出了改變，我會想要回到現在的狀態嗎？

你要有信心，大膽地去做選擇。不要留下一些不適合的東西，即使它們讓你感到驕傲，因為留下它們只會逐漸消耗你自己。

的確，在有些事情中，將你所做的一切連接在一起是好的。這樣的結果會更加集中，而你也可以更好地理解自己正在做的事情。但是當你需要捨棄的時候，也不需要通過自欺，硬說這裡有真正值得留下的東西。

數學的優雅或許聽起來像是從藝術那裡借來的比喻。當我第一次聽到「優雅」這個詞被用來形容一個數學證明的時候，我也是這麼想的。但現在，懷疑它在概念上是更早的：藝術的優雅的主要成分是數學的優雅。。無論如何，它在遠遠超出數學的範疇都是一個有用的標準。

然而，優雅可能是一種長期的賭注。費力的解決方案在短期內往往會有更高的聲望。它們花費了大量的努力，且難以理解，這兩點都會給人留下印象，至少是暫時的。

而一些最好的作品看起來似乎花費的努力相對較少，因為在某種意義上它們已經存在了。它們不需要被建造，只需要被看見。當你很難說你是在發明某物還是在發現它時，這是一個非常好的跡象。

當你做的事可以被視為發明也可以被視為發現時，傾向於認為它是一種發現吧。試著將自己想像成讓這些事物自然地成為自己連接世界的通道。

（奇怪的是，選擇要解決的問題在這一點上是一個例外。這通常被看作是尋找，但在最好的情況下，它更像是創建某物。在最好的情況下，你在探索領域的過程中發明了這個領域。）

類似地，如果你在嘗試發明一個強大的工具，那就不要為它設定上限。一個強大的工具理論上會以你無法預見的方式被使用，所以移除限制吧，即使你還不清楚這樣做的好處是什麼。

偉業總是像工具一樣提供一個供他人繼續搭建的平台。所以無論你是在發明新的點子供人使用，或是提出他人可以回答的問題，這都是好事。最好的想法會在各種領域中帶來啟示。

如果你用最基本的方法表達你的想法，它們將比你想要表達的更加真實、真摯。

好奇心與創新性

當然，只有真實是不夠的。偉大的想法既要真實，也要新穎。而且，即使你已經學到足夠多，你仍然需要在學習和創造之間找到平衡。

在英語中，我們會把這樣的能力區分開來，分別稱之為：原創性（originality）、創造力（creativity）和想像力（imagination）。乍看之下，這樣的區分頗具理性，因為它們在某種程度上確實是獨立的技巧。你完全有可能擁有很強的技術能力，但並不具備創新力。

我向來不太喜歡「創作的過程」（creative process）這個詞。它帶有一定的誤導性。創作不是一個過程，而是一種思考習慣。具有原創思維的人，對於他們關注的任何事物，都能持續產生新的想法，就像切割機產生火花一樣，他們天生就是這樣。

然而，如果他們對自己所關注的事物不夠了解，產生的新想法可能就不會太出色。我認識的其中一位具有原創思維的人，在離婚後，決定專注於約會，但他對約會的了解大約只有一個 15 歲的一般人，這導致了許多「匪夷所思」的經驗。但他的經驗也更清楚地展現了原創力在缺乏專業知識支持的情況下，會變成什麼樣子。

雖然我不確定人是否能培養自己的原創性，但人顯然有方法充分利用自己已有的能力。例如，當你手上有其他事要處理的時候，反而容易有新的點子湧現。新想法並不是靠苦苦思索產生的，而是你在建構或理解一些稍微困難的事物的過程中，自然而然地得到的產物。¹⁵

討論或撰寫你感興趣的事物，常常是產生新想法的好方式。當你試著描述某個想法時，你會持續從內心深處挖掘詞彙，去塑造其形狀。實際上，有些思緒只有透過寫作才能被完全呈現。

改變你所處的環境也許能提供所需的幫助。新的點子往往在你去到新地方時突然湧現，這是因為旅行本身就能刺激這些思緒的產生。而且，你可能不需要走很遠，有時候，單單是出去走走就足夠了。¹⁶

在相關主題之間自由探索，也能夠提供很大的幫助。這是因為當你在探索這些相關議題的同時，你也在為自己的創新機器提供更多素材，新的點子往往潛藏在事物間的內在連結中。

不應該將你的注意力均等地分配在每個話題上，這樣只會導致任何一個議題都無法得到足夠的關注。你應該依據一種近似於冪律（Power Law）的規則¹⁷來分配精力。對一些議題保持專業的好奇心，對於更多的議題，則只需要保持隨興的好奇心即可。

好奇心與創新性緊密相連。好奇心為創新性提供了源源不斷的新元素。進一步說，好奇心本身就是創新性的一種體現方式。問題對答案，就如同好奇心對創新性，因為好的問題本身就已是答案的一部分，強烈的好奇心也是創新的源頭。

什麼是好點子

尋找新想法是種特殊的遊戲，因為它就像在挑戰你目前所看見的現實。當你發現一個新點子時，你往往會驚訝於它如何那麼自然且熟悉，甚至會讓你想，怎麼以前沒有人想過這個點子呢？

當一個點子同時帶來陌生與熟悉的感覺時，它很可能就是一個好點子。

注意到明顯的事情聽起來很簡單。然而，實際上，從經驗上看，產生新的點子卻很困難。這種矛盾的源頭是什麼呢？要想出新的點子，通常需要你改變觀看世界的方式。我們透過不同的心智模型來理解世界，這些心智模型既幫助我們，也束縛我們。當錯誤的心智模型被修正，新的點子就變得顯然。但是，看見並修正錯誤的心智模型並不容易。這就是為什麼新的點子既明顯又難以發現的原因：你得先撥開迷霧，才能見明燈。

發現心智模型錯誤的方法之一，是比其他人更加謹慎。錯誤的世界觀會在與現實衝突的過程中留下線索，但大多數人並不願面對它。因為他們的思考全然依賴於現有的心智模型，他們常常會選擇忽視那些線索，不論那些線索事後看起來有多麼明顯。

要找到新的點子，你必須捕捉到那些線索的微妙之處，而非選擇視而不見。這就是愛因斯坦所做的。他能夠看到馬克士威方程組（Maxwell's equation）的廣闊前景，不僅僅是因為他持續尋找新點子，還因為他更為謹慎。

此外，你還得願意打破規則。儘管打破規則和觀察謹慎聽起來有些矛盾。如果你習慣於打破規則，你就更能修正自己看待世界的心智模型。因為在所有透過舊模型理解世界的人眼中，新模型都打破了原先的規則。

很少有人了解破除規則的困難，因為在人們接受新觀念的瞬間，它就變成老生常談了。當你開始透過新的心智模式來認識世界，所有事物看來都會變得理所當然。然而在這之前，你所認識的世界並非如此。以日心說為例，它在過去半個世紀才被廣泛接受。即便在天文學者之間也是如此，因為「日心說」實在違背直覺。

其實，如果你深入思考，一個好的新想法在大多數人眼裡應該看起來是糟糕的，否則別人早就去試驗了。因此，你要尋找的是那些看似瘋狂但實則正確的觀念。如何判斷這些觀念呢？對此，我們無法給出確定的答案。通常來說，看似糟糕的想法確實很糟糕。但是，那些實際上是正確的瘋狂想法，往往讓人興奮，影響深遠；而那些純粹糟糕的想法則通常讓人挫折。

有兩種方式可以輕易地破除常規：享受違規的過程，以及完全不在乎規則。我分別將這兩種狀況稱為積極的獨立思考和消極的獨立思考。

那些獨立思考能力強的人往往不會按部就班。規則不但無法阻止他們，反而會激發他們更多的活力。對這種人來說，有時候，只是挑戰本身的困難度所帶來的快感，就足以讓他們開始行動。

另一種破除常規的方式就是對其漠不關心，甚至不認為它們存在。這就是為何新手和門外漢常常會有新的發現。不了解某個領域的預設前提，使他們能夠被動地進行獨立思考。像是亞斯伯格症患者似乎也不易受到傳統觀念的影響，我認識的好幾位都表示這能幫助他們產生新的想法。

嚴謹與破除常規聽起來像是一個奇特的組合。在流行文化中，它們是對立的。然而在這方面，流行文化有個錯誤的假設。它假設所有議題都是普通的，而在這些普通的事物上，嚴謹和破除常規是對立的。然而，在真正重要的議題上，只有真正嚴謹的人才能破除常規。

好的想法藏於近乎宗教的堅持之下

一個容易被忽視的想法通常都會在接近成功之際被完全忽視。你在潛意識中的確看到了它，但你的另一部分潛意識卻否定了它，因為它太過奇特、風險太高、費力過大或太具爭議性。這暗示了一個令人興奮的可能性：如果你能撇開這些偏見，你就能看見更多新的想法。

有一種方式可以避免你的潛意識為了保護你而拒絕你的想法，那就是去追問：有什麼好想法是值得別人去探索的？

你也可以從相反的方向來找出那些容易被忽視的想法：從找出遮蔽它們的事物開始。每個被高度重視卻又錯誤的原則，其周遭都包圍著許多有價值但尚未被嚴肅審視的想法，因為這些想法違背了那些實際上是錯誤的原則。

宗教就是由一連串被高度重視卻錯誤的原則所組成。因此，任何字面上或實質上的「宗教」，其背後都有許多有價值但未被嚴肅審視過的想法。哥白尼和達爾文的發現就屬於這類¹⁸。

在你所從事的領域中，人們對什麼事物有著近乎宗教的堅持，過度依賴某些原則，而這些原則可能並非如他們所想的那麼明顯嗎？如果你捨棄這些原則，又會出現哪些可能性呢？

選擇你要解決的問題

人們在解決問題的方法上比選擇要解決哪些問題時更具創意。即使是最聰明的人，在決定要解決什麼問題時也會出奇的保守。那些在其他方面從不隨波逐流的人，也會跟隨大眾去解決最受矚目的那些問題。

人們在選擇問題時比選擇解決方案更保守的一個原因是：問題是更大的賭注。一個問題會耗費你的時間可能以年為單位，而找到解決方案所花的時間常以天來計算。然而，即便如此，我認為大多數人還是過於保守。他們為了避開風險、順應潮流，那些不為人知的難題的價值就被忽視了。

在這些冷門難題中，最有趣的一種，就是那些大家都認為已經被充分探討過、但實際上並未被討論透徹的問題。做出偉大事業的人，往往會挖掘並展現出已有事物的潛力。藝術家杜勒和發明家瓦特都做到了這一點。所以，如果你對一個被大家認為已被挖透的領域有興趣，不要因此搖搖欲墜。在這方面，他們往往都是錯的。

解決冷門問題也能帶來極大的滿足感。沒有遍地的宣傳聲，也不必急於求成。機會主義者和評論家都在忙於其他事情。那些已有的事物也不會有什麼變數。而且，有了想法就是有了機會，因為如果不去思考的話，這些想法就會被無端浪費掉。

然而，一個問題被忽視並非因為它平庸，而是它看起來並非實際的那麼重要。那麼，如何找到這些問題呢？放任自我——讓好奇心引導你去探索，至少暫時不要理會那個告訴你「你只應該解決『重要』問題」的聲音。

的確，你需要去解決重要的問題，但幾乎每個人在判斷問題重要性上都過度保守。如果你周遭有一個重要但被忽略的問題，那麼在你的潛意識裡，你可能已經注意到了。所以，試著問問自己：如果你暫停「正經」的工作，出於興趣，你會去做什麼？這個答案可能比它看上去更具意義。

選擇要解決的問題比選擇解決方法更需要原創思維。那些開創新領域的人，正是因此而出眾。因此，選擇要解決的問題看似只是在起步階段決定要做什麼，實際上卻是整個過程的關鍵所在。

問題對於答案的重要性

很少有人能體會到這個層次。對於如何找到「新想法」大家最大的誤解之一，就是低估了「問題」對於「答案」的重要性。人們總認為創造偉大的想法就是找到了答案，但真正的關鍵在於提出什麼樣的問題。

我們之所以會低估「問題」的重要性，是因為受到了學校教育的影響。在學校裡，問題的存在不過是為了找到答案的一瞬間，就像不穩定的粒子一樣。但實際上，一個真正好的問題的作用遠超過此。一個好的問題本身就是新發現的一部分。例如，新物種是如何產生的？物體落地受的力和行星保持軌道受的力是否相同？只是提出這樣的問題，你就已經跨入了一個令人興奮的新領域。

懸而未解的問題可能會讓人感到不安，但你越思考這類問題，就越有可能找到解答——或者更令人興奮的是，你可能會發現這些未解的問題竟然有著共通之處。

有時候，你可能會花很長的時間去思考一個問題。偉大的成就常常源於你從多年前開始關注，且未曾停止思考的問題，有些甚至源於童年的觀察。人們經常強調保持年輕時的夢想的重要性，但同樣重要的是持續思考年輕時的問題。¹⁹

這一點在專業領域中同樣適用。人們總以為專家應該無所不知，但實際上並非如此。對專家而言，一個好的問題常具有兩個特性：a）這個令人困惑的問題相當重要；b）其他人也摸不著頭緒。

試著想像一下，在新想法被發現的那一刻之前會發生什麼。具有專業知識的人，總會對某些事物感到困惑。這暗示著困惑是創新的一部分。只有當你接受世界就是充滿謎團這個事實，你才會願意正視這些問題。然而，你不能僅僅接受現狀，否則就無法產生解決它們的驅動力。²⁰

擁有一堆待解的難題其實是一件美好的事。這就像富者越富的情形，想要獲得新問題的最好方法就是去嘗試解答現有的問題。問題不只是引領我們找到答案，也能帶領我們探索更多值得思考的問題。

好問題在行動中產生

最好的問題常在不斷的嘗試中孕育出來。你可能在當前的緊固不動的公式中發現一絲線索，嘗試拉扯它，發現它越拉越長。所以在試著解答之前，無須要求問題要有多大的範疇，你甚至無法預測這一點。能注意到線索本身已經相當不易，何況是預測拉出來後將解開多少難題。

有點狂野的好奇心會有所幫助，輕輕地嘗試拉扯許多線索，看看會發生什麼事。大事常常源於小事。其初期版本通常只是一場實驗、個人專案或者是一段短談，從這裡開始，事情逐漸變大。所以，讓小事多發生一些。

高產的重要性常常被低估。你嘗試的事情越多，發現新事物的機會就越大。然而要明白，嘗試越多也意味著會有越多的失敗。你無法在不碰壁的情況下，直接想出好的點子。²¹

雖然先行研究前人的成果聽起來像是更為負責任的做法，但實際上，透過實際動手做，你不但學得更快，也會感到更有趣，並對前人的作品有更深的理解。因此，儘快開始，從小規模與簡單的事物開始，這會更容易，這兩個想法就像兩塊拼圖一樣，可以完美地配合在一起。

如何由小事開始，做出偉大的成就？答案就是透過持續的迭代。偉大的作品幾乎都是透過不斷釋出新版本來達成的。從小事開始，逐漸演進，最後的版本將比你原先規劃的更加精緻、更富野心。

如果你所創作的產品是要供人使用的，那麼持續迭代就更加重要了——儘快推出初始版本，並根據使用者的回饋持續改善。

從最小可行產品開始。你會驚訝地發現，它經常有效。即使無效，至少這會讓你開始行動。

避免在任何一個版本中加入太多新的元素。對於第一個版本來說，這樣的作法有個名詞（遲遲未發布 taking too long to ship）；對於第二個版本來說，也有一個名詞（第二系統效應 the second system effect）——但這兩者其實只是試圖加入過多新元素的具體實例而已。

一個新項目的早期版本，有時因為基礎功能過於簡單，如同玩具一般，而被忽視。但當人們這樣做的時候，其實是一個好的跡象。這表示該項目已具備一個新想法所需的所有元素，只是尚缺乏規模，而這通常是可以後續培養出來的。²²

與從小事著手並持續迭代相反，另一種作法是提前規劃好你要做的事情。通常來說，這樣的規劃看似更具負責任性。說「我們先做 x，接著做 y，最後完成 z」聽起來比「我們嘗試 x 看看會有什麼結果」來得更有組織，但其效果其實並不如後者。

規劃並非本身就是好事。有時候規劃確實是必要的，但它不過是一種「必要之惡」，是對不可避免的條件的反應。你需要進行規劃，是因為你在使用不夠靈活的工具，或者你需要協調眾多人的共同努力。若能保持小規模的項目並使用靈活的工具，你就無需進行過多的規劃，你的設計可以逐步進化出來。

善用你的年齡優勢

儘可能在你能夠承受的範圍內多承擔一些風險。在有效的市場中，風險與回報是成比例的，所以不要尋找確定性，而是尋找期望值高的賭注。如果你的失敗並不常見，那你或許已經太過保守了。

雖然年長者通常偏向保守，但實際上年輕人更容易犯下這個錯誤。缺乏經驗使他們害怕冒險，但實際上，正因為年輕，你才有能力承擔最大的風險。

即使是失敗的計畫也有其價值。在推動計畫的過程中，你會探索到少數人接觸過的領域，並遇到少數人曾經提出的問題。再者，如果要找到值得思考的問題，「挑戰更高難度的事物」可以說是最好的方式。

當你年輕時，要充分利用年輕的優勢；當你年紀增長時，要善用年長的優勢。年輕的優勢包含活力、時間、樂觀與自由；年長的優勢則是知識、效率、財富與影響力。透過積極努力，年輕時可以取得部分後者的優勢，且在年老時仍能保有部分前者的優勢。

年長者的勝出之處在於「知道自己的優勢」。年輕人往往擁有優勢卻不自知。年輕人最大的優勢可能就是時間，但他們並不察覺自己所擁有的時間多到無法想像。而將時間轉化為優勢的最好方法，就是用稍微隨興的方式來運用它：單純因為好奇，多去瞭解一些你似乎並不需要了解的事情，嘗試創造一些酷炫的東西，或者成為某個領域的超級高手。

「稍微」是一個重要的修飾詞。年輕時可以揮霍時間，但不要單純地浪費它。在做一些你擔心可能是浪費時間的事情，和在做一些你確定會浪費時間的事情之間，這兩者的差別其實很大。前者至少是一種賭注，而且可能帶來比你所想像的更好的結果。²³

年輕最微妙的優勢，或者更精確地說，因「缺乏經驗」而產生的優勢，就是能以全新的視角來看待一切事物。當你的腦袋第一次接觸到一個新的觀念時，有時候你可能無法完全接納它。這個問題大部分時間是因為你的思維方式，但偶爾也可能是這個觀念本身有問題。在這種情況下，這個觀念就會像一根刺一樣，每當你思考的時候，它就會讓你感到困擾。對這個觀念熟悉的人可能早已習慣了這種不適，但你可以選擇不接受。²⁴

所以，當你第一次學習某個事物時，要注意那些看起來不對或缺失的地方。你可能會有忽視它們的衝動，因為 99% 的情況下問題可能是出在你自己身上。而且，為了持續學習，你可能不得不暫時擱置自己的困擾。但別忘記這些問題。當你對這個主題有了更深入的了解後，回頭看看自己是否還有疑惑。如果在你現有的認知下，那些問題你還是感到困惑，那麼，這很可能是代表你獲得了一個全新的觀念。

克服學校灌輸的被動性

從經驗中獲得的最有價值知識之一，就是知道你不必煩惱什麼。年輕人知道什麼事情很重要，但不知道它們分別有多重要。因此，他們無所選擇地為每一件事情感到焦慮。而事實上，真正值得他們擔心的事情只有一部分，剩下的大部分其實並不那麼重要。

年少無知的問題不只在於「你不知道什麼」，還在於「你所認為的並非如你所想」。成年的你會發現，你的腦袋裡堆滿了一堆無用的東西，比如，壞習慣、錯誤的觀念。如果不把這些清理掉，你不可能做出偉大的事業。

你腦袋裡的許多錯誤觀念都是學校灌輸的。我們對學校過於習以為常，以至於不自覺地把上學和學習等同起來，但實際上，學校有許多奇特的特點，扭曲了我們對學習和思考的理解。

例如，學校引導我們進行被動學習。從你還是個小孩的時候，就有一個權威人物站在教室前面，告訴所有人必須學習什麼，並統一評估你是否學會了。然而，課程和考試並不是學習的本質，它們只是學校設計出來的一種通用產品。

越早克服這種被動性越好。如果你還在上學，試著把上學看作是自己主導的計畫，把老師看作在為你工作，而不是反過來。這聽起來可能有點牽強，但這不僅僅是一個思維練習。從商業的角度來看，這就是事實。此外，在最理想的情況下，這也是教育的本質。最好的老師並不想當你的主管。他們更希望你主動探索，把老師看作可以尋求協助的對象，而不是一味地被老師帶著走。

學校往往會誤導我們對工作的認識。在學校裡，老師總是告訴你要解決什麼問題，並且你幾乎總是可以依賴所學的知識來解決。然而在實際生活中，你必須自行弄清楚問題是什麼，往往又不確定自己是否有能力解決。

然而學校最糟糕的影響，就是讓你把「考試得高分」等同於「一切都成功了」。持有這種思維，你將無法創造出偉大的成就。你無法欺騙自己，也無法欺騙他人。所以，停止尋找捷徑。打敗體制的方法是專注於別人忽視的問題，並找到解決之道，而不是偷懶省力。

不要認為自己需要依賴別人給你「機會」。即使他們能提供機會，但獲得機會的最好方式仍是專注於表現出色，而非跟隨在有影響力的人後面。

對於權威的拒絕不要太過在意。能夠讓入學面試官或獎項評審委員印象深刻的特質，與做出優秀工作所需的特質常常是截然不同的。那些權威評選委員會的決定，只有在它們成為反饋循環的一部分時才真正有價值，而這種情況並不常見。

好的模仿是公開的

剛踏入某個領域的人，通常會先模仿現有的成果。這本身並無不妥，畢竟沒有比「透過模仿學習某樣事物如何運作」更好的學習方法。而且，複製並不一定代表你的作品缺乏創新性。創新性的關鍵在於新想法的加入，並非舊有想法的剔除。

然而，模仿也有好的模仿與壞的模仿之分。若你打算模仿某件作品，那麼請公開進行，而非偷偷摸摸，更不該在無意識之下複製。這就是那句常被誤用的名言「偉大的藝術家都會借鏡」（Great artists steal）所強調的問題。真正危險的模仿是呆板且無靈魂的複製，這將導致你被冠上抄襲的標籤，因為你不過是在別人鋪設的軌道上行駛的火車。然而，還有一種極端情況，即使你模仿前人，也能夠以青出於藍且勝於藍的方式展現。²⁵

在許多領域中，你的早期作品幾乎難免基於他人的成果來展開。不論是計畫還是研究，少數會橫空出世，多數則常是對既有成果的延伸或深化。當你剛起步時，你沒有自己的作品作為參考，只能依賴於他人的研究或成果。一旦在這領域有所成就，你就可以進一步開展基於自己的成果。人們常推崇後者，批評前者缺乏原創性，然而實則，兩者並無太大區別。

有趣的是，那些最新奇的點子，往往因其新奇性被視為無創新性的衍生物。甚至連發現者本身，也常將自己的新發現看作現有事物的變形，因為這些發現太新，還未有更適當的概念來形容它們。

模仿的確存在一些風險。比如，你可能會抄襲一些過時的東西——它們可能曾經代表新潮，但現在已經陳舊。

當你試著模仿時，避免死板的照本宣科，有些東西一比一的複製會讓你顯得可笑，例如你只有 18 歲，卻模仿一位 50 歲的優秀教授的態度，或使用文藝復興時期的古語。

那些你欣賞的人雖然成功，但他們也有一些缺點，然而，他們身上最容易模仿的部分，往往就是這些缺點。

這在言行態度上更為明顯。例如，有些才華人士是惡劣的，這有時會讓缺乏經驗的人誤認為，要成為才華橫溢的人，他必須先成為惡劣的人。但實情並非如此，才華只是讓人們願意忍受他們的惡劣行為的理由。

最強大的模仿方式之一，就是將某物從一個領域複製到另一個領域。歷史上充滿了這種意外發現的例子，因此，有意識地學習其他領域的作品，或許可以增加發現新事物的機會。如果你認同這點，那麼你可以從各種不同的領域中廣泛吸取靈感。

負面的例子有時候會像正面的例子一樣富有啟發性。有時候，從失敗的事情中你會學到比成功的事情更多的東西。有時候，只有當你感到缺乏什麼的時候，你才能真正明白你需要什麼。

尋找志同道合的人

若你所在領域的大批優秀人才都集結在同一地方，那麼去那裡待上一陣子通常是個好主意。這不只會讓你更有抱負，也會讓你逐漸解構這些所謂的人才的神秘面紗，了解到他們也不過是普通人。這個過程會讓你更有自信。²⁶

如果足夠真誠，你或許會得到比預期中更熱情的歡迎。大多數擅長某個領域的人都樂於和真心對這個領域感興趣的人交談。若這些人在工作上也表現優異，他們極可能將工作視為自己的興趣，而人們總愛談論自己的興趣。然而，你可能需要花費一些時間和精力才能找到真正卓越的人。在某些地方，尤其是大學，做出偉大成就具有很高的威望。因此，人們常誤以為，這裡的每個人都在努力做出偉大的事業。但事實並非如此。大學內部的人往往無法公開告訴你，不同學系或部門的水準差異巨大。有些學系擁有正在從事偉大工作的優秀人才；有些學系曾經有過這樣的人才；還有些學系始終平庸。

尋找最佳的夥伴。許多項目是無法獨立完成的，即使你在做一個你希望自己獨立完成的項目，有其他人的鼓勵和建議總是好事。

夥伴不僅影響你的工作，他們也會影響你自身的品性。所以，去和你想成為的那種人一起工作吧，因為你會變得像他們一樣。

這些夥伴的素質遠比數量更重要。有一、兩個優秀的夥伴遠勝於擁有一大群還不錯的夥伴。實際上，前者不僅優於後者，而且是想做出偉大事業的必要條件。歷史證明：偉大的事業往往在優秀的團體中誕生。這表明，你與誰合作往往決定了你是否能做出偉大的事業。

那麼，如何知道你有足夠好的夥伴呢？根據我的經驗，當你真的有的時候，你自然會知道的。這意味著，如果你無法確定自己有沒有好夥伴，那你大概就沒有。也許我可以給出一個更具體的答案：足夠好的夥伴會提供讓人驚訝的洞見，他們能夠看到和做到你所不能的事情。所以，如果你有這樣足夠好的夥伴，能夠在這個意義上讓你保持警惕，那麼你的工作環境是達標的。

我們大多數人都可以從與夥伴的合作中受益，但有些項目需要更多人，而且並非人人都適合開始這樣的項目。如果你想要經營這樣的項目，你就必須成為一名領導者。而出色的領導能力和其他任何工作一樣需要一定的才能和興趣。如果你沒有這些，就沒有中間道路可走：你要麼強迫自己學習管理作為「第二語言」，要麼避開這樣需要自己成為領導者的項目。²⁷

保護你的高鬥志

重視你的鬥志（morale）。如果你在做的事又耗時又費力，那鬥志就變成實現目標的基石。你必須精心經營並小心呵護它。

高昂的鬥志源自於正面的人生觀。如果你樂觀看待事情，你就更有可能成功；如果你覺得自己是幸運的，而非常倒楣，你也更有可能取得成功。

的確，全心投入自己的事情可以在某種程度上讓你避開困擾。如果你選擇做些比較純粹的事，其困難性本身就會變成你逃離日常生活困擾的避風港。如果你認為這是在逃避現實，那也未嘗不可，因為它真的很有效，一些歷史上最偉大的思想家都是這麼做的。

一個人的鬥志可以透過工作本身得到提升：高鬥志能幫你達成目標，達成目標又能進一步提升你的自信，讓你做得更好。不過要注意，這個迴圈也可以反向運作：如果你做得不好，這可能會使你感到沮喪，使你更難以做好這件事。由於這個循環決定了你是否在朝著正確的方向前進，當你陷入困境時，可以試著先做些容易的小事，這樣你就能完成一些事情了。

有遠大志向的人們常犯的一個錯誤就是讓挫折徹底打敗他們的鬥志，就像氣球被扎破了一樣。為了避免這種狀態，你可以明確地將挫折視為實現大目標過程中必然會遇到的一部分，畢竟，解決問題總是一個螺旋上升的過程。

實現偉大目標的過程和深度優先搜索（DFS）演算法很類似，你的渴望就像一個根節點（Root Node）。你應該以你的渴望為出發點，盡可能地探索每一種可能性。所以，「如果一開始沒有成功，就再試一次」這種說法並不完全正確。它應該是：如果一開始沒有成功，要麼再試一次，要麼後退一步再試一次。

「永不放棄」也不完全正確。顯然，有時候選擇放棄是正確的。所以，更準確的說法應該是：永遠不要讓挫折使你做出超過必要的妥協。進一步說：永遠不要放棄根節點，不要放棄你的渴望。

如果你做的事情讓你感到痛苦，這並不一定是壞事，就像跑步時氣喘吁籲並不一定是壞事一樣，因為這取決於你跑得有多快。因此，要學會分辨好的疼痛與壞的疼痛。好的疼痛是努力的象徵，壞的疼痛則是傷害的象徵。

影響鬥志的其他元素

觀眾是你鬥志的重要元素。如果你是學者，你的觀眾可能是你的同業；如果你在藝術領域，你的觀眾可能就是傳統意義上的觀眾。無論如何，你不需要追求觀眾的數量。觀眾的價值並不與其數量成正比。這對於名人來說或許是個壞消息，但對於初出茅廬的人來說卻是好消息，因為這意味著有一個小而忠誠的觀眾群就足以支持你。如果能有一小群人真心欣賞你所做的事，那就已經足夠了。

你和你的觀眾之間，應該盡可能地避免有第三方介入。在某些工作中，這是無法避免的，但如果能擺脫這種情況，會讓你感覺非常自由。如果可以的話，最好轉換到不需要第三方介入的工作，這樣你就可以直接與觀眾互動。²⁸

你的交往對象也會深刻影響你的鬥志。有些人能夠給你補充能量，有些人則會消耗你的能量，而你並無法預知一個人對你會有什麼影響。去尋找那些能給你補充能量的人，並避開那些會消耗你能量的人。當然，如果有你需要照顧的人，那就要優先考慮他們的需要。

如果一個人無法理解工作對你的重要性，那就不要與他共組家庭；如果一個人視工作為爭奪你注意力的競爭對手，那就不該選擇他做為伴侶。如果你有抱負，那麼你就必須工作，這幾乎是必然的；因此，一個阻止你工作的人要麼是無法理解你，要麼就是他理解你但並不在乎。

最後，一個人的鬥志與身體狀況息息相關。你需要用身體去思考，所以維持身體健康至關重要。這意味著你應該堅持定期運動、保持良好的飲食習慣和良好的睡眠品質，避免使用危險的藥物。跑步和散步都是極好的運動方式，因為它們有助於思考。²⁹

做成一件大事的人未必比其他人更快樂，但他們絕對比未達成此事的自己更快樂。實際上，如果你是一個聰明又有野心的人，卻只是在工作中混日子，反而可能是一件危險的事。因為聰明且有野心的人如果未能有所成就，他們往往會變得憤世嫉俗。

讓好奇心引領你

想要給其他人留下印象是可以的，但選擇正確的人非常重要。你尊重的人的意見是有價值的訊號。而名聲，可能來自你尊重或可能並不尊重的更大的群體，只會增加無謂的噪音。

一種工作的聲望頂多只是一個滯後的指標，有時甚至完全錯誤。如果你把任何事情做得足夠好，你將使它具有聲望。所以，對一種工作的問題並不在於它有多大的聲望，而在於它能做得多好。

競爭可以是一種有效的激勵，但不要讓它來為你選擇要解決的問題；不要因為別人在追求某事就讓自己被捲入其中。實際上，除了讓你更努力地工作之外，不要讓競爭者對你產生任何實質性的影響。

好奇心是最好的指導者。你的好奇心從不撒謊，它比你更清楚什麼事情值得注意。

注意到「好奇心」這個詞出現的頻率有多高。如果你問一個先知如何做出偉大的工作，而他只回答一個詞，我會賭是「好奇心」。

當然，保持好奇並不能直接轉化為實際行動的建議。因為僅僅有好奇心是不夠的，且你也無法控制好奇心。但你可以培養它，並讓它帶領你前進。

好奇心是達成一番偉大事業的關鍵，它將為你選擇要從事的領域，引領你走向領域的前沿，讓你注意到領域中的空白，並驅使你去探索。完成偉大事業的過程，就像是與好奇心共舞。

渴望幹大事

信不信由你，但我已經極力將這篇文章的篇幅壓縮。然而，至少它的長度起到了一種篩選作用。如果你能耐心讀到這裡，那麼你對於實現偉大事業一定有著極高的熱忱。如果真的如此，那麼你已經超越自己所能意識到的範疇了。因為在這個世界上，真正有毅力去追求卓越的人，實在是寥寥可數。實現偉大事業的影響因素，說的就是字面上的、統計學意義上的因素，包括了：能力、興趣、努力以及運氣。運氣是我們無法掌控的，就不去考慮它。同時我們也假設，如果你真的想要創造偉業，勤奮是必須的。所以問題最終回到你的能力和興趣。你能否找到一種工作，讓你的能力和興趣結合，激盪出新的想法？

我們有足夠的理由保持樂觀。因為我們有眾多的途徑可以創造偉大的事業，甚至還有更多我們還未發現的方法。在這所有不同種類的事情中，最適合你的那個，可能是一個你覺得相當適配的選擇，也可能是一個出乎你意料但同樣適合的選擇。剩下的問題就是如何找到它，以及你的能力和興趣能帶你走多遠，不過這些問題只能通過實際行動來尋找答案。

很多人都嘗試過要創造偉大的事，但真正能做到的人卻寥寥無幾。阻礙他們的，通常是謙卑和恐懼。想要成為下一個牛頓或莎士比亞似乎是遙不可及的夢，看起來幾乎無法實現。如果真的去挑戰，似乎注定要失敗。但儘管如此，還是沒有人會真的決定放棄創造偉大的事。他們只是在潛意識裡退縮：他們在逃避實現偉業的困難本身。所以，現在我要問你一個問題：你這輩子，想不想實現偉大的事？現在就立刻馬上，給出你的答案。

我不常這樣要求我的讀者，但我知道，你內心深處對這件事有著渴望（不然你也不會讀到這裡了）。不必擔心自己看起來過於自以為是。你不必告訴任何人這個答案。如果事情太難，你失敗了又如何？很多人面對的問題比這個還要糟糕。事實上，如果「失敗了怎麼辦」是你最嚴重的問題，那你真的算是幸運的。是的，你必須努力工作。但是，很多人都必須努力工作。如果你覺得你正在做的工作很有趣（當然，如果你走在正確的道路上，你一定會覺得它有趣），那麼，你在工作中可能會比大多數同行更加得心應手。

偉大的事業就在那裡等待被實現，為何那個實現的人不能是你呢？

^
我認為我們無法給「偉大的事」下一個明確的定義。偉大的成就意味著將某件重要的事做得非常出色，擴大了人們對可能性的認知。但「重要」並無絕對的標準，它只是一種程度的問題，且通常難以在當下作出判斷。因此，在我看來，我們比起去衡量自己所做的事是否重要，更應專注在追求自己的熱情與興趣。只要嘗試去做一些偉大的事情，未來的人們自然會評斷你是否成功。
^
很多單口喜劇的創作都來自對日常生活中反常現象的觀察：「你有沒有注意到……？」新的想法往往源於觀察那些並不琐碎的事情。這或許可以解釋為何人們對新想法的反應像看到喜劇的反應一樣，會笑出聲來並說：哈！
^
第二個條件（而你的專業知識足夠讓你有信心相信自己的判斷）非常重要。如果你對一件大多數專業人士看不好的事情感到興趣，但你不能給出比「他們不懂」更精確的解釋，那麼你可能已經偏離了正軌，開始進入了「異端」的領域。
^
尋找你想要解決的問題並不僅僅是在你現在的自我和已知的問題之間尋找匹配。你通常需要與問題一同進化。這就是為什麼有時我們很難確定我們應該做什麼。搜索空間是巨大的，它包含了所有可能的工作種類（包括已知的，和還未發現的）與你未來所有可能的自我之間的組合的總和。因此，你不可能完全搜索這個空間，你必須依靠啟發式（heuristics）的方法來生成有希望的路徑，並將最好的匹配組合在一起。但這個過程並不總是順利的：不同類型的工作之間的相似性不僅僅是歷史的偶然產物，還包含了它們的本質差異。
^
好奇心強的人更有可能完成偉大工作，這一特點有很多理由可以解釋。其中一個最細微的原因是，透過擴大搜尋範疇，他們更有可能盡快找到合適的工作。
^
如果你覺得受眾比你笨，那麼帶著這種態度為他們製作產品可能是危險的，因為你和他們的對話可能會顯得傲慢。如果你用一種憤世嫉俗的方式去做這件事，你可能能賺到很多錢，但這並不是通往偉大工作的道路。然而，這些憤世嫉俗的人可能並不在乎。
^
我從哈代（Hardy）的《一個數學家的自白》（A Mathematician's Apology）中學到這個想法，我推薦給所有有雄心壯志並希望在任何領域做出偉大事業的人。
^
這就像我們常常高估一天內能完成的事情量，同時又低估自己幾年內能完成的事情量，我們也常常高估了拖延一天所造成的損失，卻低估了拖延幾年所帶來的損失。
^
通常情況下，你不能只做自己喜歡的事情就能得到回報，尤其在初期階段。此時，你有兩種選擇：做與你期望工作相關的事，並且逐漸靠近你的目標，或者完全做別的事情，並利用閒暇時間來進行自己的計畫。這兩種方式都是可行的，但都有缺點：在第一種方式中，你在工作中的追求會受到限制；而在第二種方式中，你必須努力爭取時間來完成自己的計畫。
^
如果你安排好你的生活，它會自動帶來專注和放鬆的循環。一個完美的安排就像一間你能安心工作並且可以步行往返的辦公室。
^
也許有一些沒有明確抱負的人在不自覺間做出了偉大的事業。如果我們試圖拓展前述的規則以涵蓋這種情況，那就是：除了追求最佳，不要給自己留下任何退路。
^
在像演戲這樣的行業中，情況會變得更加複雜，因為其目標是扮演一個虛假的角色。但即使在這種情況下，也可能受到影響而變得過於做作。在這些領域中，應該避免無意識地做作。
^
只有當你的信念是無法被質疑且不能被證偽的時候，你才能安心地擁有它們。例如，堅持「法律面前，人人平等」的原則是安全的，因為帶有「應當」這個詞的句子並不是對世界的描述，所以很難被證偽。如果沒有證據能證偽你的原則，那你就不需要為了維護原則而選擇忽視部分現實。
^
做作比智性的不誠實更容易治癒。做作通常是年輕人的缺點，但隨著時間的推移會逐漸消失，而智性的不誠實往往是更深層的性格缺點。
^
明顯地，靈感可能在你並非正在工作的時候來到，但你很可能最近都一直在忙於工作。
^
有人提出精神活性藥物可能具有類似的效果。對此，我持有保留態度，不過我必須承認，我對於它們的效果幾乎一無所知。
^
舉例來說，你可以將第 n 個最重要的主題的關注度分配為 (m-1)/m^n，其中 m > 1。固然，你無法如此精確地分配你的注意力，但這個公式至少提供了一些合理分配的靈感。
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任何宗教的教義都必然會引起爭議。如果每個人都能接受這些信仰，那麼宗教的信徒就無法將自己與其他人區別開來。
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或許列出一份你年輕時曾經好奇的問題清單是個不錯的練習，你可能會發現現在你有能力去解答其中的一些問題了。
^
創新與不確定性之間的聯繫引起了一種奇特的現象：由於傳統思維者比獨立思考者更加確信自我，因此他們在爭辯中往往佔據上風，即使他們通常比較愚蠢。最優秀的人往往缺乏信念，而最極端的人卻充滿熱情（The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.）。
^
來自化學家萊納斯·卡爾·鮑林（Linus Pauling）：「要想有好的創意，你必須先有許多創意。」（If you want to have good ideas, you must have many ideas.）
^
把一個項目稱為「玩具」，就如同說一份主張「並不恰當」一般。這代表已經無法再提出更多實質的批評了。
^
判斷你是否在浪費時間的其中一種方法是問自己：「你是在創造還是在消費」。開發電腦遊戲比玩遊戲更不易浪費時間，而玩那些你可以創造東西的遊戲比玩那些不能創造的遊戲更不易浪費時間。
^
另一個相關的優勢是，如果你還未公開表達任何意見，你就不會對支持你之前的結論的證據產生偏見。在這方面，只要你足夠誠實和客觀，你就可以保持永遠的年輕心態。但這很少有人能做到。對於大部分人來說，先前發表的觀點會對自己產生類似信念的影響，只是在數量和程度上有所差異。
^
在 17 世紀 30 年代初，丹尼爾‧邁滕斯（Daniel Mytens）創作了一幅畫作，描繪了亨利埃塔‧瑪麗亞（Henrietta Maria）將月桂冠獻給查理一世的情景。後來畫家範‧戴克（Van Dyck）也創作了他的版本，以展現他的繪畫技術超越前者。
^
我其實一直對「地方」的定義故意模糊不清。至今為止，身處同一實體空間的確有其難以取代的優點，但這種情況可能會變動。
^
當其他人需要做的工作非常受限時，這種說法就不成立，比如在 SETI@home 或比特幣等情況下。透過定義具有更多節點行動自由的類似限制性協議，我們可能可以擴大這種說法不成立的範圍。
^
推斷：創造一個讓人們可以直接與他們的觀眾互動，繞過中間人的平台或方式，可能是一個好主意。
^
總是在同一條路徑上行走可能會有所幫助，因為這樣可以釋放大腦的運算能力。對我來說，這是確實的，並且也有一些歷史證據支援這個觀點。

感謝 Trevor Blackwell、Daniel Gackle、Pam Graham、Tom Howard、Patrick Hsu、Steve Huffman、Jessica Livingston、Henry Lloyd-Baker、Bob Metcalfe、Ben Miller、Robert Morris、Michael Neilsen、Courtenay Pipkin、Joris Poort、Mieke Roos、Rajat Suri、Harj Taggar、Garry Tan 以及我的小兒子對本文的支持與建議。

Entropy and Sun

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 03:14:36 GMT

What does the Earth get from the Sun? While the total energy remains constant, we get low entropy energy that fuels life and natural processes before radiating it back into space as high entropy energy.

Video: The Most Misunderstood Concept in Physics - YouTube

What does the Earth get from the Sun? If your answer is energy, how much energy does the Earth radiate out? According to the first law of thermodynamics, the energy of a closed system (the universe) is constant. Therefore, the Earth will radiate 100% energy back because, otherwise, our Earth will get heated up.

But if the Earth emitted all the energy back, then what does the Earth actually get? The answer is: A steady stream of low-entropy energy. We can think of energy with low entropy as a more easy-to-use, concentrated power source, such as the flame from a lighter. On the other hand, energy with high entropy is a less useful, spread-out form of energy, like the heated air circulating around the lighter's flame. While the amount of energy transferred from the flame to the air remains constant, the flame's energy is more useful because it's concentrated (lower entropy).

The concept of entropy increase can be illustrated by comparing the quantity of photons that Earth receives from the Sun to the quantity it emits back into space. For every single photon that arrives from the Sun, Earth emits 20 photons back.

The energy we get from the Sun is more useful than the energy we give back. Ultimately, all of the solar energy that Earth absorbs is transformed into thermal energy and released back into space. And everything that occurs on Earth is part of this process, where fewer high-energy photons are converted into 20 times as many lower-energy photons.

Algorithms and Heuristics

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Algorithms and heuristics are two sides of the same coin in product development, with algorithms providing objective measurements and heuristics offering subjective judgment.

Book: Creative Selection

At Apple, product development aims to orchestrate algorithms and heuristics to create great products. They use the word "heuristics" to describe aspects of software development that tip toward the liberal arts. Its counterpart, "algorithms," was its alter ego on the technical side. Heuristics and algorithms are like two sides of the same coin but with different purposes.

Algorithms are specific procedures that follow a predetermined logic, producing quantifiable results with clear goals. For example, in the case of improving Safari's performance, the average time to load a web page was the measurable result, and the goal was to reduce this number. Algorithms provide objective measurements.

Heuristics also involve measurements such as the animation duration or color value choices, but there isn't a similar "arrow of improvement" that always points the same way as algorithms. Heuristics are harder to define and lack a clear improvement direction. Therefore, they require demos to explore and time to evaluate. For example, determining the animation duration involves building demos to explore how it feels and providing feedback to improve. Heuristics offer subjective judgment.

In certain cases, algorithms and heuristics are combined and chained together. The output of one heuristic may become the input for an algorithm, which then feeds into the next heuristic. For instance, consider the action of swiping left to view the next image in the Photos app. The first step involves detecting your finger movement to determine whether the swipe should go to the next photo or remain on the current one (a heuristic). The software code then uses this information to shift the photo display to a specific position to center the next image (an algorithm).

No A/B testing

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

A/B testing cannot substitute for taste in creating appealing products. Relying solely on A/B testing is abdicating your responsibility to the users.

Book: Creative Selection

Douglas Bowman, a designer formerly at Google, justified why he left the company:

"Without a person at (or near) the helm who thoroughly understands the principles and elements of Design, a company eventually runs out of reasons for design decisions … Without conviction, doubt creeps in. Instincts fail … When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. Data in your favor? Ok, launch it. Data shows negative effects? Back to the drawing board. And that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision … Yes, it's true that a team at Google couldn't decide between two blues, so they're testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better."

Google used A/B tests to make color choices. This is an algorithm approach where the best kind of blue is defined as the one people click the most. In contrast, Apple never considered the notion of an algorithmically correct color. They used demos and taste to pick colors.

While A/B tests can help determine colors that will get people to click something more often, they can't produce cohesive and pleasing products. They lack refined responses and fail to recognize the importance of balancing choices. Compared to Google, Apple values taste more in design and never staged A/B tests for iPhone software. Instead, they put faith in their sense of taste. They use heuristics (subjective judgment) over algorithms (objective measurement) when making design decisions like picking colors.

Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, shared a similar perspective on A/B testing at the Config Conference. He stated that A/B testing is like giving up your accountability to the users. At Airbnb, they only use A/B testing if they have a clear hypothesis and know why one option might be superior to another.

Drop Exclamation Mark

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

If you want to use an exclamation mark while writing, it means your words aren't strong enough on their own. Strengthen your sentences instead of compensating with a mark.

Article: 28 Pieces of Life Advice - David Perell

From David Perell:

"If you’re writing and feel the need to use an exclamation point, you subconsciously know your words aren’t vivid enough. Don’t compensate. Drop the exclamation point and rewrite the sentence."

Dessert Eating Tips

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Most of the pleasure in a dessert comes in the first three bites. After that, you should stop eating it. As a reward, you can eat dessert more often because you don’t binge it.

Article: 28 Pieces of Life Advice - David Perell

The first three bites of dessert are usually the best. After that, you should stop eating. This way, you can have dessert more often without overeating at once.

I hate wasting food, so I cannot follow this advice in practice. But a workaround to avoid getting hit by the diminishing marginal returns can be to share every dessert with others (or swallow every dessert in three bites).

Dollar Auction Paradox

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Dollar Auction Paradox: Understanding why companies spend more than what they can potentially earn and why we pay more than the actual value of a product?

Article: Dollar Auction

A dollar auction is a simple game where participants bid for a dollar bill, but with a twist that both the highest bidder and the second highest must pay their bids. Assuming all the participants are rational, what will the winner end up paying for the bill?

Initially, bidding seems harmless and potentially profitable. However, as the bids approach the one-dollar mark, a dilemma unfolds. For example, Participant A bids 90 cents, and Participant B counters with $1. At this point, Participant A faces a choice: bid $1.01 and lose only 1 cent or withdraw and lose the 90 cents already bid.

Why did they bid over a dollar for just a dollar? Bidding more than a dollar for a dollar is not logical. At the same time, losing 90 cents is not as smart as losing 1 cent. As the bids escalate, participants shift their focus from gaining profit to avoiding significant losses. This shift in perspective often leads to bids far exceeding the dollar's face value. This consequence is coined as "escalation of commitment" by the economist Martin Shubik in his 1971 paper to highlight a paradox of rational choice theory. Surprisingly, in a study involving Harvard MBA students, winners even paid up to 20 times more than the face value of the bill!

Examples of the dollar auction game can be seen very often in the real world. Winner-takes-all markets, such as consumer internet with network effects, often create an environment similar to the dollar auction. However, unlike the dollar auction game where only the second-highest bidder loses, all players participating in the market, like consumer internet, will end up with high losses if they don't win. Similarly, bicycle-sharing startups engage in intense battles for market monopoly, resulting in massive losses for all but the eventual winner.

The Dollar Auction Paradox reveals our tendency to escalate commitment irrationally in competitive situations. Ironically, the most effective way to win at a dollar auction game is by not participating in one. Therefore, we should avoid getting caught in a costly bidding spiral before joining a competition.

Spot Next Big Thing

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

How Tim Ferriss identifies the next big thing? Understand what technical nerds and rich people are doing, and where people are patching together awkward solutions.

Podcast: Tim Ferriss: How to Learn Better & Create Your Best Future | Huberman Lab Podcast

Andrew Huberman suggests that if you want to know what will be hot and useful in the next five to ten years, it's worth paying attention to what Tim Ferris is doing now. This is because the revolutionary concepts from The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Workweek have withstood the test of time and are even gaining increased popularity. So, how does Tim Ferriss spot emerging trends and the next big thing? Here's his advice:

Observe Tech Nerds' Side Projects: What are the technology enthusiasts or nerds doing at night or on the weekends after an exhaustive work week?
Analyze Rich People's Current Interests: What are rich people doing now that tens of millions of people will be doing ten years from now?
Identify Areas with Less-than-ideal Solutions: Where are people patching together awkward solutions? Is there room for some innovation there?
Learn from Extreme Examples: Study the outliers such as racehorses, bodybuilders, elite athletes, and billionaires. These extreme cases tend to eventually influence average scenarios. Practitioners are usually ahead of the papers.
Challenge Statements Made in Absolutes: Be skeptical of claims made in absolute terms (e.g. always, never, should). When so-called "experts" employ such language, they are often wrong.

Intrinsic or Extrinsic Motivation

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Would I still do it If I could never talk about this to anyone? Assess whether our motivation stems from intrinsic or extrinsic factors.

Podcast: Tim Ferriss: How to Learn Better & Create Your Best Future | Huberman Lab Podcast

How to determine if our actions are driven by intrinsic or extrinsic motivation? One useful way is to ask ourselves: "Would I still do it If I could never talk about this to anyone?"

Take the example of interacting with a celebrity. Could we enjoy the experience as much without the opportunity to share with others that we met someone famous?

Tim Ferriss provides another example regarding the use of psychedelics. Suppose people do psychedelics primarily because they want to tell the story at a social gathering later. In that case, the motivation is more aligned with seeking social recognition and validation rather than a genuine interest in the experience itself.

I found engaging in activities driven by intrinsic motivation much more fun than extrinsic ones because I can enjoy them fully in the present, independent of things I cannot control, such as external validation. Conversely, when we do something solely because we can later share it on social media, doing that becomes less fun immediately. This is the same as #28.2, "Buy what you would buy if you were the only person on Earth."

Choice when Doomed to Fail

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

A useful introspective question for choosing projects: What would you do if you knew you would fail?

Podcast: Seth Godin on The Game of Life, The Value of Hacks, and Overcoming Anxiety

What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? This hypothetical and introspective question is helpful for people to reframe the challenge and think without the constraints of fear. However, Seth Godin introduces a twist and poses an alternative but also helpful query: What would you do if you knew you would fail?

This question forces one to evaluate if something is worth doing even though it won't work. For example, when choosing among five projects to work on, which one would you pick even if you knew failure is inevitable?

Asking this question shifts the focus to what we would do just for the process. This is also aligned with #1.1, "When you choose projects, try to ensure you can win even if you fail. Choose projects based on the skills you'll develop and relationships you'll build".

3 Heuristic for Fulfilling Life

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

The combination of big ambitions, high standards, and low expectations serves as a heuristic for a fulfilling life.

Article: Avoiding Problem

Big ambitions provide direction toward something hard. It makes us pursue something bigger than ourselves, which gives us meaning and connections.

Low expectations allow us to enjoy the journey. Because happiness is equal to reality minus expectation, we can easily be happy when we expect nothing in return.

High standards minimize our future regrets of not giving our best. Holding ourselves to a high bar makes sure we always try hard enough when things get hard.

Having big ambitions, high standards, and low expectations is a useful heuristic for living a fulfilling life. This also reminds me of the Young & Old Test (#42.4): Make decisions that your 80-year-old self and 10-year-old self would be proud of.

Creative Selection

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 03:14:36 GMT

How Apple develops products? A chain of demos and feedback continuously evolves an idea towards a product. No brainstorming session and no whiteboard discussion.

Book: Creative Selection

Creative selection, defined by author Ken Kocienda, is a continuous process of creating demos, receiving specific feedback, and generating subsequent demos. Akin to the concept of Darwinian evolution, This iterative approach helps eliminate ineffective demos and features through feedback, gradually refining an idea towards a final product.

Every major feature on the iPhone started as a demo. The way they built products can be reduced to a basic idea: they showed demos to each other. The demo must be concrete and specific because even an unsophisticated idea can be hard to discuss constructively without a tangible representation.

However, making demos is hard. You are likely to fail. The fear of investing time and effort into an idea you aren't sure is right can be daunting. On the other hand, the idea of a casual brainstorming session over coffee may seem better.

Without the psychological barrier of failure, whiteboard discussion feels good and easy. Whiteboard discussions give the impression of being productive, but they often fall short because abstract ideas are challenging to discuss effectively. For instance, think of a cute cat. Picture one as detailed as possible in your brain. Can we discuss whether the cat in your brain or the one in mine is cuter? Can we convince our boss or our customers whose cat is more adorable? There is no way to resolve this conflict. However, if we show pictures of our cats, we can easily discuss each option's merits.

Concrete and specific examples are so important because they make difficult, perhaps impossible, discussions easy. Demos elicit reactions, which are essential in providing the impetus to transform an idea from the intangible to the tangible.

Design is How It Works

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

Book: Creative Selection

During a 2003 interview with The New York Times discussing the iPod, Steve Jobs said:

"Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it [a product] looks like. People think it's this veneer—that the designers are handed this box and told, "Make it look good!" That's not what we think design is. It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

Superficial aesthetics in products don't truly benefit users. Therefore, product design should focus on the beauty inherent in its functionality, rather than solely on its visual and tactile appeal. The form of a product should be determined by its intended purpose. Form follows function.

Products should be self-explanatory in their design to tell the user what it is and how to use it. Objects should explain themselves. To pick one sentence that can encapsulate the essence of practical inventions and product development, the author Ken Kocienda summarized in Steve's quote: "Design is how it works."

Overview Effect

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Overview Effect: Sudden and dramatic shifts in perspective can make the observer into a state of awe with self-transcendent qualities, especially for astronauts viewing Earth from space.

Article: Overview effect

Shifting one's perspective is a highly effective method for altering their perception, belief, and even behavior. This shift is exemplified by the phenomenon known as the "Overview Effect" reported by many astronauts. While viewing the Earth from space, they feel "a state of awe with self-transcendent qualities, precipitated by a particularly striking visual stimulus". This new perspective elicits overwhelming emotions and makes the astronauts appreciate the Earth's beauty more. William Shatner shared he felt overwhelming sadness when reflecting on his voyage into space on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space shuttle on Oct. 13, 2021

NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise-b

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_effect#/media/File:NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise-b.jpg

A common experience closest to the overview effect is when one gazes out of an airplane window and observes the horizon. Everything below appears surreal and flattened, creating a two-dimensional perception. These random airport views evoke similar sensations too.

Virtual reality can also serve as a tool to induce immersive simulations that facilitate these perspective shifts. As noted in #29.4, Virtual Reality can make people empathize with the plight of refugees in the Syrian conflict by simulating sensory presentations.

Another example of such a shift in perspective is the statement the Earth is smoother than a billiard ball. Though the highest point on Earth (Mt. Everest) and the deepest point (Marianas Trench) are around 20 km apart, it is still relatively smooth compared to the Earth's diameter of 12,735 km. (There are debates regarding whether it is true, but we should understand that the Earth is much smoother than commonly perceived. Again, it can be a wrong but useful concept, as noted in #32.1 and #34.5.)

Capital and Problem and Solution

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Capital is not a solution to problems. Capital is a means of scaling solutions.

Book: The New Industrial State

In the book by John Kenneth Galbraith, he argues that modern corporation is a complex system that is not amenable to simple solutions. Money alone cannot solve the corporation's problems, but it can be used to scale solutions already found. A company can use capital to expand the scale of operations, acquire new technology, and hire more people. However, capital cannot solve problems that are inherent in the structure.

Same for all the societal problems with complex incentive mechanisms involved. As noted in #59, attempting to solve these problems solely by pouring money into them can lead to unexpected consequences arising from Principal-Agent problem, Moral Hazard, or Adverse Selection. Capital cannot solve problems but scale solutions.

Breakthrough and Laughability

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Every breakthrough is at first laughable and ridiculous. In fact, if it did not start out laughable and ridiculous, it is not a breakthrough.

Book: Excellent Advice for Living

Whenever I think about a vision or long-term goal, I find it worthwhile to revisit this particular line from Kevin Kelly.

Micromouse Maze-Solving

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 03:14:36 GMT

How do robotic mice navigate to solve mazes in the shortest time? Three interesting strategies invented in the Micromouse competition history.

Video: The Fastest Maze-Solving Competition On Earth

How do fully autonomous robots solve a maze efficiently? Veritasium introduces the Micromouse competition, a maze-solving competition where robotic mice compete to see which one navigates and solves the maze in the shortest time.

In the competition, each mouse can make five attempts at reaching the goal from the starting point within a time limit. The common strategy is using early runs to search and map out the maze, aiming to find an optimal route from the start to the goal. In subsequent runs, the mouse traverses that route in the shortest achievable time. The most common search method is the flood-fill algorithm.

There are many remarkable strategies invented throughout competition history. Here are three I found the most interesting:

The shortest path may not be the fastest. The initial instinct to solve a maze fast is to find the shortest route. However, there are instances where the micro-mice actually took longer to reach the goal using the shortest path. This is because turns slow down the mouse, and a longer route can require fewer turns, making it faster.
The turning mechanism employed by robots is critical. Previously, all micro-mice used to make 90-degree turns when maneuvering through the maze. However, an innovation introduced by mitee3 involved turning at 45-degree angles and traveling diagonally. This method proved to be much faster because it reduced the path length and introduced more possible routes.
Equipping a vacuum fan under the mouse can greatly enhance its performance. In physics, centripetal force is necessary to keep you on track when driving fast and making turns. The faster you move, the more force is needed to maintain your trajectory. For micro-mice, incorporating a suction fan can provide additional centripetal force, enabling them to make turns without significant deceleration. Compared to a non-fan mouse, the newer one can achieve centripetal accelerations of 6g or even higher.

It can be quite nerdy, but I highly recommend watching the whole video. It perfectly demonstrates that robotics is not solely a software or hardware problem. It's both.

Gross Margin and Social Status

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Podcast: Kunal Shah: Core Human Motivations [The Knowledge Project Ep. #141]

Gross margins exist when you allow human beings to jump their social status, and gross margins disappear when you do not help them increase their social status.

For instance, luxury cars and watches create a perception of belonging to a higher social class. Going to an ivy league MBA program offers people a chance to jump to a higher social status. Therefore, the Chief Marketing Officer of our brain envisions a higher social class and thinks justifying the extra price. This explains why ivy league schools and luxury brands can keep increasing their gross margin.

However, utility providers cannot increase their gross margin because people are willing to keep switching for a lower price. The department of our brain dealing with this is the Chief Financial Officer, who always looks for cost cuts.

Businesses that shift your social level are businesses with high gross margins. Kunal Shah mentioned these observations in the context of India, but they hold in a broader sense. He also noted that the gross margin on living room furniture in India is three times more than bedroom furniture because the living room is where people entertain guests, showcasing their taste and boosting their sense of higher social status.

From Shame to Normal through Proud

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

The shortest path to transfer from shame to normalcy is through pride.

Podcast: Kunal Shah: Core Human Motivations [The Knowledge Project Ep. #141]

The fastest way to make somebody feel okay about what they're ashamed of is to make them feel proud about it. Take the LGBTQ+ movement of embracing gay pride, for instance. By encouraging people to take pride in aspects of themselves that were historically stigmatized, society works towards dismantling harmful stigmas and promoting acceptance and inclusiveness.

This notion of turning shame into pride is also relevant in conversations surrounding body image. For example, the body positivity movement aims to counteract body shaming by advocating people should be proud of their diverse body types. It's a hack that you can make people not feel ashamed about certain things by saying, "You have to be very proud of this."

This reminds me of #29.3, where the philosopher Georg Hegel observed that The world progresses by lurching from one extreme to another while overcompensating for previous mistakes.

Experience not Characteristic

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

People aren't buying your product for the molecules. They're buying it for the way it makes them feel. The subjective experience matters more than the objective characteristics of the product.

Podcast: Kunal Shah: Core Human Motivations [The Knowledge Project Ep. #141]

The concept of focusing on the subjective experience (how it feels) instead of the objective characteristics of a product (what it is) has been noted repeatedly in Weekly I/O. In #11.2, Rahul Vohra from Superhuman mentioned that "Consider how your product makes customers feel instead of what it functionally does for them."

In #22.3, Maya Angelou quoted: "People may forget what you said, people may forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Also, in the book, The Design of Everyday Things, the author stated, "Great designers produce pleasurable experiences. Engineers tend not to like it; it is too subjective. Experience is critical, for it determines how fondly people remember their interactions."

Scam and Tourist

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Places with no repeat customer behavior are designed to optimize for short-term behavior. That's why scammy businesses are usually found around tourist places.

Podcast: Kunal Shah: Core Human Motivations [The Knowledge Project Ep. #141]

Why are there more scammy businesses around tourist attractions? Because people typically visit tourist attractions only once, scammers don't need to rely on customers to come back again.

Businesses located around tourist attractions are designed to optimize for short-term behavior because there is no repeat customer. As a result, scammy people are more likely to self-select themselves to be around tourist places because they don't need to optimize for their long-term NPS.

Split-brain and Made-up Reason

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 03:14:36 GMT

We can never know the actual reasons why we do anything. The observations of split-brain patients reveal that our true motivations are unknown behind all logical decisions.

Article: Insights into The Neuroscience of Decision-Making from Split-Brain Patients

Split-brain patients, whose left and right brain hemispheres cannot communicate, have uncovered a mind-boggling secret about decision-making from a neuroscience perspective.

Researchers have conducted experiments with split-brain patients. They instruct the patients in their right ear: "Please open the window," and they will open it. The brain connected to the left ear has no information about the instruction given by the researcher. However, when asked in the left ear why they opened the window, the patient replied confidently, "I opened it because it's a bit cold here." And they genuinely believe that's the reason they opened the window.

A couple of similar instances exist where one side of the brain acts upon information unknown to the other. And the patient will always make up a reason why they do that. The patients don't know they are making it up and feel completely confident that the made-up reason is why they did it.

This phenomenon is not limited to split-brain patients and is often true for us. We interpret our behavior in a way that makes it seem like a logical decision when our true motivations are unknown. We can never know the actual reasons why we do anything. Therefore, we shouldn't even believe anything we tell ourselves.

Reward without Effort

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Getting rewards without effort or achievement is detrimental and destroys people's motivation.

Podcast: Master Your Mind & Change Your Brain - Andrew Huberman | Modern Wisdom 496

Hard work followed by a reward is a powerful motivator, whereas rewards given without effort or achievement are detrimental. That's why participation trophy for kids oftentimes undermines their motivation. Rewarding every child, regardless of their performance, flattens the dopamine curve and lowers motivation for the activity.

High dopamine levels with no effort will deter motivation because it diminishes both the value of the prize and the value of effort required to achieve that thing. This is similar to how drugs like cocaine and amphetamines can be incredibly destructive. When people realize that they can experience intense pleasure without much effort, it becomes difficult for anything else to motivate them. Unearned dopamine releases can essentially transform humans into single-minded zombies.

Moreover, constantly rewarding every small positive action diminishes the significance of those actions and reduces one's ability to self-motivate, especially for kids. Intrinsic motivation is the strongest form of motivation, while extrinsic rewards can diminish the propensity to engage in an activity.

Look Up and Around

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Don't only look down. As an individual contributor in an organization, one should spend 20 percent of the time looking up and looking around.

Book: Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

Individual contributors (ICs), who do not have managerial responsibilities, are primarily tasked with completing specific assignments. Their role is to pay close attention to details, and most ICs depend on their managers to set a destination and lay a path for them to keep their focus on the work.

Nevertheless, if an IC constantly looks down with their eyes exclusively on their tight deadlines and the minutiae of their job, they may walk directly into a brick wall. Therefore, an IC needs to spend 20 percent of the time looking up and around.

Look up means looking beyond the next deadline and looking forward to all the milestones in the next few months. Then look all the way further to your ultimate goal: the mission. Ideally, it should be the reason you joined the project in the first place. As your project progresses, be sure the mission still makes sense to you and that the path to reach it seems achievable.

Look around means getting out of your comfort zone and away from the immediate team you're on. Talk to the other functions in your company to understand their perspectives, needs, and concerns. This internal networking is valuable and can warn you early if your project is not headed in the right direction.

Cannot Preach Minimalism

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

You cannot preach minimalism to people who don't feel the pain and haven't had too much stuff.

Podcast: Derek Sivers — The Joys of an Un-Optimized Life | The Tim Ferriss Show

This reminds me of the most lasting lesson I learned as a marketing intern years ago. The principle of Copywriting: Sell Fear, Offer Hope.

Money Wasted on Advertisement

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.” - John Wanamaker

Quote

I always love the quote because it reminds me of how clueless we are about many business strategies. We might never know to what extent spending money on advertising is similar to just "spray and pray".

Failure in 20s

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Our twenties are about watching our dreams go up in flames and learning from the ashes. Sometimes failure is the only way to learn, and what if the worst case is just moving back with our parents?

Book: Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

During a significant portion of our twenties, we can assume that many of our choices will not work out, and the companies we join or start will likely fail. Early adulthood is about watching our dreams go up in flames and learning as much as possible from the ashes.

Once we step out of school, there's no book or test. If we fail, we learn. In most cases, it's actually the only way to learn, especially if we're creating something new that the world has never seen before.

How to overcome the fear of failure? Remember that when we're early in our career, the worst that can happen if we take significant risks is probably just moving back with our parents and seeking support there.

Double meaning of Release

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Podcast: Derek Sivers — The Joys of an Un-Optimized Life | The Tim Ferriss Show

Focusing too much on perfection while engaging in creative work can lead to unnecessary stress. It's important to mark a task as completed so that we can move on to the next work. Allowing unfinished projects to accumulate due to excessive perfectionism can weigh us down. Therefore, we must prioritize completion and realize that, at some point, things need to be considered "good enough" to move forward.

When we say somebody releases an album or a book, the word "release" has a beautiful double meaning. When the creative piece is released, it signifies that the work is made available to the public and that the author is liberated from the pursuit of perfection.

On overcoming perfectionism, this reminds me of #27.2 from Adam Grant: When it comes to idea generation, quantity is the most predictable path to quality.

Random Intermittent Reward

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Podcast: Master Your Mind & Change Your Brain - Andrew Huberman | Modern Wisdom 496

The concept of intermittent variable rewards (also known as random rewards), discovered by psychologist B.F. Skinner, explains the motivation behind repeating behaviors. When scrolling through social media, we don't know when we are going to come across something highly interesting or rewarding. As a result, we continue scrolling, eagerly anticipating the next captivating post, whether it's a thrilling event or a shocking incident like a riot or someone jumping off a building.

Abnormal things like tragic events have a strong pull on our attention. Thus, we end up endlessly scrolling, constantly seeking the next dopamine hit without knowing when it will occur precisely. This behavior shares a similar underlying mechanism with gambling.

And that's how social media utilizes intermittent random rewards to trigger dopamine releases, making users continue scrolling and continuously seeking the next rewarding experience.

Discoverability and Understanding

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

What makes a design good? Examine it using the Discoverability and Understanding Framework.

Book: The Design of Everyday Things

Two of the most essential characteristics of good design are discoverability and understanding. Discoverability refers to how easy to identify what actions are possible and know where and how to perform them. Understanding involves comprehending how the product should be used and what all the different controls and settings mean.

These two characteristics can serve as benchmarks for evaluating the quality of a design. Take ChatGPT, for instance. A text input field and a send button ensure clear discoverability about what actions are available. As to understanding, it may take some time for first-time users to grasp the context. But due to its excellent discoverability, users can understand the context and establish correlations after a few interactions with the interface.

Procedural and Declarative Knowledge

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Procedural knowledge tends to be retained longer than declarative knowledge in our memory. All skills start as declarative knowledge and gradually transition to procedural through practice.

Book: Ultralearning and The Design of Everyday Things

What's the phone number of your mom? In the last house you lived, as you entered the front door, was the doorknob on the left or right? These two questions both involved long-term memory, but in different ways. The first question requires recalling factual information, known as declarative knowledge. The second question is usually easier answered by recalling the actions performed to open the door, called procedural knowledge.

Evidence suggests that procedural knowledge, like riding a bike, is stored differently from declarative knowledge, such as understanding trigonometric functions. This difference between "knowing how" and "knowing what" highlights that procedural skills, which are permanently memorized, are less likely to be forgotten than declarative knowledge, which requires a clear recall.

An important learning theory argues that most skills are developed in stages, starting with declarative knowledge but becoming procedural with practice. Typing serves as a clear example of this progression. We need to remember letter positions consciously when we first start typing. After enough practice, looking down at the keyboard becomes unnecessary. We can even remember all letter positions by imagining typing on an invisible keyboard.

The fact that procedural knowledge can be retained longer suggests a valuable strategy. Instead of trying to memorize a large amount of information or skills on average, focusing on consistently reinforcing a core set of information can allow it to become procedural knowledge and be stored for a longer duration.

Deep Connection

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Deep connections between people are formed through a trifecta of ambition, vulnerability, and intense shared emotion, each representing a different aspect of time: the future, the past, and the present.

Thoughts

I've long believed that people forge deeper connections through ambition or vulnerability. However, while thinking about all my experience when attending live band performances and feeling strong connections with even strangers, I realized intense shared emotion is another catalyst for bonding.

This third element fits neatly into the framework that ambition, vulnerability, and intense shared emotion each tap into a different temporal dimension- the future, the past, or the present - to foster deep connections.

Region-beta Paradox

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Region-beta Paradox: People can be better off when things are much worse. While moderate situations prompt endurance, crisis triggers action.

Article: Region-Beta Paradox: When “It’s Not That Bad” Is That Bad

When we are really unhappy with our job, we are more likely to start looking for a new job. If we are just a little unhappy, we are more likely to stay in our current job because it is comfortable and we know what to expect. However, we may end up regretting our decision to stay later. We waste years enduring the situation by not wanting to waste hours to make the move.

This is an example of the Region-beta Paradox, which originates in the paper by Daniel Gilbert et al. They consider a commuter who typically walks to destinations if it's within a mile and biking to destinations that are farther away. Because biking is faster than walking, the commuter will arrive faster at some distant locations (region beta in this diagram) than they would at closer destinations, which goes against the expectation that travel time increases with distance.

Region-beta_paradox_cropped

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Region-beta_paradox#/media/File:Region-beta_paradox_cropped.png

We can find this paradox in various situations, such as staying in a suboptimal romantic relationship or tolerating a mediocre health condition. We take action when things are really bad, while we endure when things are just okay. This also reminds me of the quote, "There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." from the movie Whiplash that I noted in #7.3.

3x3 Rules

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

How to express your thoughts clearly? The 3x3 rules: make less than 3 points, explain in 3 ways, and repeat 3 times.

Article: 3 rules to express your thoughts so that everyone will understand you

Alan Alda's three rules for expressing your thoughts are a useful framework whenever we try to communicate something complicated. The three rules are: making no more than three points, explaining difficult ideas in three different ways, and repeating the key points three times.

Focus on Pain not Anger

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Anger is a cover of pain. When people cross our boundaries, we should focus on expressing our pain instead of anger.

Podcast: CEO Coach Matt Mochary | The Tim Ferriss Show

Anger is not a base emotion but a secondary emotion that's often triggered by pain (though some may disagree). When the pain caused by someone exceeds the maximum threshold we can endure, that pain turns into anger. Anger is, therefore, a warning sign that our boundaries have been crossed.

Instead of expressing anger, it is more effective to focus on the underlying pain and communicate how our boundaries have been violated. Expressing pain and its impact in a non-accusatory manner can lead to better results than expressing anger, which can cause people to become defensive and unresponsive.

For instance, we can say things like, "I wanted to talk to you about a boundary I have and how it was crossed. Here's how it made me feel. If you're interested, I'd appreciate it if you could do things differently in the future". When we share your pain and the boundary that got crossed, we're never accusing. We're just saying, “This is what’s going on with me”, and people are more open to hearing that.

Energy Audits

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

To raise our energy and get more things done, do energy audits to find out what makes us energized or drained. Double down on energizing one and eliminate the draining one.

Podcast: CEO Coach Matt Mochary | The Tim Ferriss Show

We feel like we have limited time, but what we actually have is limited energy. Increasing the number of activities that raise our energy levels can help us get more done. However, it’s hard to add energy-inducing things. Instead, it’s easier to eliminate energy-reducing activities. Therefore, we can conduct energy audits after completing every task by taking notes on whether the task left us feeling energized or drained. We can mark them as "green" if we ended the hour with more energy than we started or "red" if we didn't.

By doing this over time, we can identify trends and work towards eliminating activities that reduce our energy levels from our calendar. We can ask ourselves these three questions: "Does this task need to happen?", "Do I need to be the one to do it?", and "What can make this task energy-raising?".

Kuleshov Effect

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Kuleshov Effect: Viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation.

Article: Kuleshov Effect: Everything You Need To Know

The Kuleshov effect is a cognitive phenomenon where viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two back-to-back shots than from a single shot in isolation. Modern filmmakers widely use it as a film editing technique.

In this video, Alfred Hitchcock demonstrated the Kuleshov Effect. For instance, if a close-up shot of Hitchcock is followed by a woman holding a baby and then his reaction of smiling, the audience may perceive him as a kind old man.

However, if the middle shot is replaced with a young woman in a bikini while the other two shots remain the same, the audience may perceive him as a dirty old man. The audience's perception of the same shot of Hitchcock's reaction changed by their juxtaposition with other shots. In other words, the Kuleshov Effect changes the meaning of individual shots by its preceding and succeeding shots.

Dark Room Metaphor

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Dark Room Metaphor: Learning is a process of reconstruction (Constructionism), not transmission(Instructionism). Creating our mental 3D model of a room by exploring it in the dark is a slower but more effective learning method than being shown a picture of the room.

Article: Constructionism and the Future of Learning

In education, a common approach to teaching is called "Instructionism", which assumes students are like blank papers to be filled with knowledge through proper instruction by teachers. This metaphor is widely-accepted because, culturally, we see knowledge as being transmitted from one to another and passed down through the generations.

However, this approach fails to acknowledge that learning can be a process of reconstruction rather than transmission. "Constructionism" is a newer approach to education that focuses on letting students actively build their own understanding of the world. This approach is based on the metaphor of knowledge as a map, which students create by exploring their environment and making sense of what they find.

A better way to understand learning is through the "Dark Room" metaphor. Learning is like exploring a dark room, where you slowly build up a mental map of the room through fumbling and exploring. This process of constructionism allows students to create their own 3D model of knowledge in their minds, which they can manipulate freely later. On the other hand, instructionism is more like being shown a picture of the room. While it might provide faster understanding, this knowledge is more fragile and less likely to enable the Transfer of Learning (#54.2).

Bicycle of the Mind

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Humans are tool builders. We build tools like computers as the "Bicycle of the Mind" that take us beyond our inherent abilities.

Video: 'A Bicycle of the Mind' - Steve Jobs on the Computer

In a 1990 interview, Steve Jobs recalled reading an article when he was 12 that measured the efficiency of locomotion of various species on Earth. How many kilocalories did they expend to get from point A to point B? The Condor was the most efficient, while humans ranked only about a third down the list.

However, somebody there had the imagination to test the efficiency of a human riding a bicycle. When a human rode a bike, they were more efficient than a Condor, all the way off the top of the list. This article made a lasting impression on Steve Jobs, as it highlighted how humans create tools to amplify their abilities. Humans are tool builders. We build tools like computers as the "bicycle of our mind" that can take humans far beyond their inherent abilities.

Chess Popularity after AI

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

When AI beat the chess world champion in 1997, it was claimed that "Chess is over". But 26 years later, chess is more popular than ever.

Podcast: Sam Altman: OpenAI CEO on GPT-4, ChatGPT, and the Future of AI | Lex Fridman Podcast

When Deep Blue beat Chess world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, people claimed, "Chess is now over" and questioned what's the point of playing chess. However, 26 years later, chess has become more popular than ever.

Technically, two Artificial Intelligences playing chess together would be a better game. However, the crowd is not a fan of this in general because what interests and entertains us more is drama. And drama stems from imperfection and flaws.

I think this little piece of history provides another perspective on the current trend of generative AI and the tasks it will eventually take over.

Predictable by Ideology

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 03:14:35 GMT

If your opinions on one subject can be predicted from your opinions on another, you may be in the grip of an ideology. When you truly think for yourself, your conclusions will not be predictable.

Article: 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known

That said, differentiating the so-called "principle" from ideology is a difficult line-drawing problem.

Adverse Selection

Thu, 25 May 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Adverse Selection: Asymmetric information in transactions can lead to the less-informed side potentially making bad choices.

Article: Adverse Selection: Definition, How It Works, and The Lemons Problem

Adverse selection often refers to a situation where sellers have more information that buyers don't have, or vice versa, about some aspects of a product. Therefore, the party with more information exploits this asymmetric information.

For instance, in the market for used cars, a seller knows more about the vehicle they are selling than the buyer. A used car seller may sell a vehicle that looks good on the outside but has mechanical issues that are not obvious. Therefore, a buyer without enough expertise to identify potential issues may end up overpaying for a car with hidden problems, leading to the lemon problem.

Similarly, in the insurance market, individuals with higher risk profiles, such as those with pre-existing medical conditions, are more likely to purchase health insurance than healthy individuals. This can lead to adverse selection for the insurance company, as they may pay more claims to individuals with higher risk profiles than initially expected.

Moral Hazard

Thu, 25 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Moral Hazard: People are more likely to take risks when they know they won't bear the full consequences of their actions.

Article: Moral Hazard: Definition, Meaning, Examples, and How to Manage

Moral hazard is a situation where people take more risks because they know they will not bear the full consequences of their actions. In other words, one increases exposure to risk because one does not pay the total costs of that risk.

For example, when someone has car insurance, they may be more likely to drive recklessly because they know the insurance company will cover any damages. Similarly, suppose a company receives a bailout from the government. In that case, they may be more inclined to take on risky investments or engage in unethical behavior because they know they will not suffer the full consequences of their actions. In both cases, the party taking the risk has less incentive to act responsibly because they know someone else will bear the costs of their actions.

It's noteworthy that adverse selection arises from a lack of information, while moral hazard arises from a lack of incentives. Adverse selection can lead to unequal or unfair exchanges, while moral hazard can lead to excessive risk-taking or reckless behavior.

Principal-Agent Problem

Thu, 25 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Principal-Agent problem occurs when one person hires another person to do a job but cannot fully monitor or control their actions, potentially leading to conflicts of interest or suboptimal outcomes.

Article: Moral Hazard: Definition, Meaning, Examples, and How to Manage

The principal-agent problem occurs when one party (the principal) hires another party (the agent) to carry out a task or make decisions, but the agent's incentives might not align with the principal's interests, leading to conflicts of interest and suboptimal outcomes.

For instance, a company's shareholders (the principals) hire a CEO (the agent) to manage the company. However, the CEO may have incentives misaligned with the shareholders' interests. The CEO may prioritize short-term profits over long-term growth because they receive bonuses tied only to the company's short-term performance. This misalignment incentivizes CEO to focus on their own interests rather than those of the shareholders.

Another example is a patient (the principal) hiring a doctor (the agent) to provide medical care. The doctor may have financial incentives to prescribe specific treatments, even if they are not in the best interests of the patient's health. This can lead to over-treatment or unnecessary procedures that may harm the patient.

In brief, don't ask a barber whether you need a haircut, and don't ask an investment banker whether you should go IPO. To mitigate the risks of the principal-agent problem, we need to consider Goodhart's Law in #56.1: "when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure".

First Follower

Thu, 25 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

When new artists do weird work, their first followers are the curators who transform their individual weirdness into public art. Make your work easy to find and follow.

Conversation

This popped up in a conversation with my digital art teacher Miguel Novelo when we discussed what art is and the journey of transitioning the display of art pieces from an internet space to a physical gallery. We must put ourselves out there to be discovered, commented on, and understood. Thanks to Miguel Novelo for sharing this with us.

This reminds me of the video: First Follower: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy. Another related but different perspective I noted is from Kevin Kelly's: 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known: "When you lead, your real job is to create more leaders, not more followers."

Reflect on Irritation

Thu, 25 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others.

Article: 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known

This is a good exercise to know more about ourselves. Also from #45.1: "You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you." - Robert Anton Wilson.

Decoy Effect

Thu, 18 May 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Decoy Effect: When we are choosing between two options, introducing a third option can cause shifts in our preference between the first two items.

Article: The decoy effect: Why you make irrational choices every day (without even knowing it)

When we are choosing between two items, introducing a third and less attractive item (the decoy) can influence our perception of the original two choices. The decoys are asymmetrically dominated, meaning they are entirely worse than one option but only partially worse than the other. A famous example of the decoy effect was The Economist subscription page a few years ago. They offered three annual subscriptions at the following prices:

Website-only subscription: $59
Print-only subscription: $125
Print+Website subscription: $125

The decoy was the second option (print-only) because it was completely inferior to the third option (print+website). MIT Professor Dan Ariely divided his students into two groups and conducted an experiment. When he hid the second option and only offered website-only and print+website options to the first group, 32% of people chose print+website, and 68% chose website-only. However, when the second option (decoy) is offered, the ratio of people who picked print+website increases to 84%, and the ratio of people who chose website-only drops to 16% (0% chose print-only).

Why the additional decoy shifts the preference between options? It's a lot easier to choose when we compare similar things. Our brain can quickly evaluate the differences as opposed to when options are different.

Dan Ariely explained in his talk:

"The option that was useless was useless in the sense that nobody wanted it. But it wasn't useless in the sense that it helped people figure out what they wanted. We actually don't know our preferences that well, and because we don't know our preferences that well, we're susceptible to all the influences from external forces."

Low Social Optionality

Thu, 18 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Podcast: Low Optionality and Adult Friendships

In this episode, Taimur introduced the concept of "social optionality," which refers to the degree of freedom we have to switch from one person/group to another during social activities. For instance, a large party with 40 people has high social optionality, a small dinner gathering of 10 people has lower social optionality, and being stranded with only one person on a desert island has the lowest social optionality.

Having lower optionality in social situations changes how we view our interactions. When meeting someone new at a large party, we might constantly assess them like, "Could I be friends with this person?" because we know we can easily walk away and never see them again. However, it is less convenient to make such a switch at a smaller dinner gathering, and we may have to wait until the dinner is over. If we are stuck on an island, we may have to stay with the other person forever without the option to leave.

Because of this lack of optionality, our mindset on the desert island turns from "Could I be friends with this person?" to "How can I connect with this person?" In low optionality situations, people are encouraged to find ways to connect genuinely, as it is for the long haul. Therefore, Taimur states, "I sometimes feel like being stuck on a desert island with someone is the only way to interact with them truly sincerely." And he concludes beautifully:

"Wanting to connect for no other reason than because you're two human beings on the same floating rock — this is the intention with which I'd like to approach all social interactions. Low optionality situations make this significantly easier, and I've started prioritizing them when choosing how to spend my time."

Make AI Charming to Learn

Thu, 18 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Rather than program an AI with what we want it to know, create ones capable of learning and have users teach them. Experience is the best teacher. Make AI charming so that users will be motivated to put effort into teaching them.

Book: Exhalation: Stories

This is from Ted Chiang's novella The Lifecycle of Software Objects, which is included in the collection Exhalation: Stories.

The story follows Blue Gamma, an AI company that sells digital AI pets called digients. The company's philosophy of AI design is that experience is the best teacher. Instead of trying to program an AI with what we want it to know, sell ones that can learn and have the customers teach them. To motivate customers to put effort into teaching the digients, the company ensures that every aspect of the AI pets is charming, including their personalities, which the Blue Gamma's developers are working on.

Rereading this piece, which was published in 2010, makes me reflect on ChatGPT. Looking at ChatGPT, its interaction follows a similar philosophy, with shareability playing an essential role in incentivizing users to engage with it. By sharing screenshots of the conversation with ChatGPT on social media, we get more users playing with it, which helps improve the AI's reinforcement learning.

We probably don't have to wait too long to see AI pet startups pop up and adopt this same "philosophy".

Experience Valuable than Database

Thu, 18 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Every quality that made a person more valuable than a database was a product of experience.

Book: Exhalation: Stories

This is also from Ted Chiang's novella The Lifecycle of Software Objects, included in the collection Exhalation: Stories. We can use this as one of the heuristics to evaluate whether a role or function is irreplaceable by AI.

This also highlights the difference between Google Search and ChatGPT in terms of answering fact-based queries. While ChatGPT provides succinct responses, Google Search provides the context (links to websites). Although navigating the websites of reference might not necessarily make Google Search better, it offers the experience of exploration, which makes it different.

This also reminds me of how Instagram is stealing search traffic from Google among Gen Z users. When looking for recommendations on what to buy or where to go, they turn to social media influencers or friends. The journey to finding context differentiates people's perception of search results.

Be Understood after being Clear

Thu, 18 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

“It is a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves." — Simone Weil

Quote

Reason not to Quit

Thu, 11 May 2023 03:14:36 GMT

For habits, there are only a few reasons to keep on something and a truckload of reasons to quit. All we can do is keep those few reasons nicely polished.

Book: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir

In Haruki's words:

"Running every day is a kind of lifeline for me, so I'm not going to lay off or quit just because I'm busy. If I used being busy as an excuse not to run, I'd never run again. I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit. All I can do is keep those few reasons nicely polished."

Forward Testing Effect

Thu, 11 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Forward testing effect: Taking an exam before learning the subject can enhance future learning of that subject.

Book: Ultralearning

The forward testing effect is a phenomenon observed in memory retrieval research where testing one's memory of information that has not yet been learned can enhance future learning of related information. In other words, taking an exam before learning the subject can improve future learning of that subject.

Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the forward testing effect. Some researchers suggest that attempting to find answers to questions that have yet to be learned can strengthen one's ability to search for and identify relevant information when it is later encountered. It is like paving a road to a building that hasn't been built. The destination has yet to exist, but the road has been paved so that the resources are pre-allocated for finding the answer.

Other researchers propose that the effect may be related to attentional processes, where attempting to answer unknown questions can focus one's attention on potential relevant information. This reminds me of the days when I took the GRE reading comprehension exam, where I figured out the fastest way to complete the exam was to skim through the questions first to get a general overview of an article.

Immediate Connection to Creation

Thu, 11 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Creators need immediate connections to what they are creating because so much creation is discovery. We discover nothing if we cannot see the process of our changes effectively.

Video: Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle

Creators need immediate connections to what they are creating. When we are making something, and we make a change or a decision, we need to see the effect immediately. There cannot be any delay, and there cannot be anything hidden.

So much creation and art are discoveries. If we have to compile and wait whenever we make a change, we cannot see what we are doing effectively. If we cannot observe the process of our changes, we cannot discover anything.

This reminds me of my experience building Virtual Reality (VR) applications. Because Unity (the software used to build VR applications) has to compile for a long time in Mac to render any scene into a VR headset, there's always a delay between I make the code change and I see what the change actually looks like. This gap destroys the flow of building things. A better way should be WYSIWYG in the 3D scene. Maybe VR can only be developed in VR.

Sit Down to Write

Thu, 11 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

The secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.

Book: The War of Art

Sitting down to write is way more difficult than writing. Of course, writing is hard, and writing well takes a lot of effort. However, it's much harder just to sit down and write against procrastination without any single burst of motivation. When we already sit down and start to write, writing is not that hard anymore.

Haruki also mentioned in his book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir, that the great mystery writer Raymond Chandler once confessed to him that even if he didn't write anything, he made sure he sat down at his desk every single day and concentrated.

Die Young Late

Thu, 11 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

"The idea is to die young as late as possible." - Ashley Montagu

Quote

Goodhart's Law

Thu, 04 May 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Goodhart's Law: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

Article: GOODHART'S LAW

What might happen when a government offers a bounty on cobra skins because they want to reduce the cobra population? The cobra population increased because people started to breed cobras for their skins and earn money from the government.

When using a metric to reward performance, we provide an incentive to manipulate the metric to gain the reward. Goodhart stated that as: "when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."

The phenomena resulting from this law are ubiquitous because measures of performance (MOPs) are easier to define and qualify than measures of effectiveness (MOEs). However, MOPs are also easier to manipulate, leading to actions that improve performance measurement (cobra skins) but paradoxically reduce the effectiveness (cobra population).

Here's another example. Measuring an engineer's effectiveness is more challenging than measuring their performance based on metrics like the number of lines of code written. If solely the latter metric is used to determine an engineer's promotion, all engineers will strive to produce more lines of code, which could make the quality of code worse and harder to maintain.

Write More but Less

Thu, 04 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Write 5x more but write 5x less.

Article: Write 5x more but write 5x less

Mike Crittenden says there are two things he has come to believe about writing:

The average person should write 5x more stuff than they do.
The average written thing should be 5x shorter than it is.

This is such a brilliant way to put it.

Annual Report Framework

Thu, 04 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Farnam Street's Annual Report Framework.

Article: Personal annual report

It might be too late to talk about new year's resolutions, but it's better late than never. I found answering these questions in the list curated by Shane Parrish from Farnam Street helpful because it better shapes the context of any resolution. Here are some I think can be useful for you:

What do I want to spend MORE/LESS time on next year?

Where am I waiting for other people to make the first move?

What can I do in the next week that will make the rest of the year easier?

What can I do this year that will leave me in a better position for next year?

Who do I spend time with that pulls me down/lifts me up?

If there was a film crew following you all day, what am I doing that I'd want the crew to see/avoid them seeing?

If I took over my life from scratch today, what would I immediately stop doing?

Claasen's law

Thu, 04 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Claasen's law: Usefulness = log(Technology)

Article: It’s elementary

Theo A. C. M. Claasen, CTO of Philips Semiconductors in 1999, quoted this Logarithmic Law of Usefulness, where usefulness is defined as the perceived value of a new technology compared to its alternatives, measured by its daily-life importance, ease of use, and entertainment value.

Classen argues that a linear improvement in technology's usefulness requires an exponential amount of technological advancements. He gives examples like system performance improves noticeably only if we add memory in increments of 10 or 100 and the bandwidth required for video calls compared with audio calls.

This law is a useful heuristic for evaluating new technology. No matter how magical a new technology is (said self-driving car, AR/VR, LLM), it takes exponential advancement to translate the magic into something useful.

Philosophical Jokes

Thu, 04 May 2023 03:14:35 GMT

“A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes." - Ludwig Wittgenstein

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Visual before Context

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Jonny Harris's storytelling formula: Visual anchor before contextual bridge. Experience it and then understand it.

YouTube: Why every Johnny Harris video goes viral

What makes Jonny Harris's storytelling compelling? He uses the formula "visual anchor before contextual bridge".

Unlike traditional storytelling in journalism like TV news, where the narrative establishes the context first and then shows footage as evidence, Jonny Harris does the opposite.

When telling a story, he first thinks about what's the best visual anchor to make the audience curious. He puts visuals upfront and provides context later. He often says, "look at this thing!" when offering visual anchors to let the audience experience it. Only after that he gives contextual bridges to let the audience understand it.

He creates continuity by repeating these visual anchors throughout the whole video with only necessary contextual bridges. In his storytelling, contexts are the minority of the video and always come after the visual anchors.

Lossy LLM

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

ChatGPT is like a lossy compression of all the text on the Web. If it takes material generated by itself as training data for next model, the output will be worse. Can LLM's output be as good as its own input?

Article: ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web

This might not be factually true but I found the analogy interesting. In Ted Chiang's words:

"Think of ChatGPT as a blurry jpeg of all the text on the Web. It retains much of the information on the Web, in the same way that a jpeg retains much of the information of a higher-resolution image, but, if you’re looking for an exact sequence of bits, you won’t find it; all you will ever get is an approximation. But, because the approximation is presented in the form of grammatical text, which ChatGPT excels at creating, it’s usually acceptable. You’re still looking at a blurry jpeg, but the blurriness occurs in a way that doesn’t make the picture as a whole look less sharp"

"But I’m going to make a prediction: when assembling the vast amount of text used to train GPT-4, the people at OpenAI will have made every effort to exclude material generated by ChatGPT or any other large-language model. If this turns out to be the case, it will serve as unintentional confirmation that the analogy between large-language models and lossy compression is useful. Repeatedly resaving a creates more compression artifacts, because more information is lost every time. It’s the digital equivalent of repeatedly making photocopies of photocopies in the old days. The image quality only gets worse."

"Indeed, a useful criterion for gauging a large-language model’s quality might be the willingness of a company to use the text that it generates as training material for a new model. If the output of ChatGPT isn’t good enough for GPT-4, we might take that as an indicator that it’s not good enough for us, either. Conversely, if a model starts generating text so good that it can be used to train new models, then that should give us confidence in the quality of that text. (I suspect that such an outcome would require a major breakthrough in the techniques used to build these models.) If and when we start seeing models producing output that’s as good as their input, then the analogy of lossy compression will no longer be applicable."

Motivation-hygiene Theory

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory: Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are independent. Improving factors that cause dissatisfaction does not necessarily lead to satisfaction, and vice versa.

Article: Herzberg’s Motivation Two-Factor Theory

Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory (aka two-factor theory) posits that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are independent and have separate sets of factors (motivation and hygiene factors). Improving motivation factors like personal growth, performance, and positive societal impact increases satisfaction. On the other hand, enhancing hygiene factors like salary, working conditions, and policies decrease dissatisfaction.

Therefore, high pay in a meaningless job (golden handcuffs) can bring neither satisfaction nor dissatisfaction. To some degree, it brings emptiness. Conversely, a meaningful job with long working hours can bring both satisfaction and dissatisfaction, which can be overwhelming.

Desirable Difficulty

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Desirable Difficulty in learning: Harder retrieval leads to better learning, given retrieval is successful. Test yourself before we think we are ready. Recall without a hint.

Book: Ultralearning

Many studies have shown that retrieval practice, such as self-Q&A and flashcards, is more effective for learning than review practice. However, we still tend to prefer review because we can't accurately gauge our own understanding. While review feels smoother and easier, retrieval practice is challenging and exhausting. Therefore, the easier one makes us feel like we understand it better.

Psychologist R. A. Bjork adds another concept of "desirable difficulty" to the effect of retrieval: "More difficult retrieval leads to better learning, provided the act of retrieval is itself successful." Retrieval tests without hints are better for retention than ones with hints, and tests that require recall are better than recognition tests (tests to recognize the answer rather than think of one).

The difficulty isn't an obstacle to making retrieval work. It's the reason it works. Therefore, testing ourselves before we think we're ready can be more efficient for learning. Aim for the harder tests.

No More Time

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

"One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now." - Paulo Coelho

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Six Tiny Musings on AI

Sun, 23 Apr 2023 07:10:38 GMT

Here are six tiny musings and stories that provide different perspectives on the current trend of AI.

Black and white photo of Albert Camus in Henri Cartier-Bresson’s lens colored using palette.fm.

1. Bicycle of the Mind

In a 1990 interview, Steve Jobs recalled an article he read when he was 12 that measured the efficiency of various species' locomotion. How many kilocalories did they expend to get from point A to point B? The condor was the most efficient, while humans ranked only about a third down the list.

However, someone had the imagination to test the efficiency of a human riding a bicycle. The results were astonishing: a human on a bicycle was more efficient than even the mighty condor, soaring to the top of the list.

This article made a lasting impression on Steve Jobs, as it highlighted how humans create tools to amplify their abilities. Humans are tool builders. We build tools like computers as the "bicycle of our mind" that can take us far beyond our inherent abilities.

Today, artificial intelligence is the new "bicycle of the mind". It's not just a tool, but an extension of our will, allowing us to accomplish feats that were once thought impossible.

Humans are tool builders. We build tools like computers as the "Bicycle of the Mind" that take us beyond our inherent abilities.

2. Colored Lens for Everything

In a recent episode of South Park, the character Stan used an AI chatbot to generate romantic texts for his girlfriend because his girlfriend didn't like his always only-a-thumps-up replies to her messages. Along with his classmates, he later used it to cheat on his school assignments.

Meanwhile, their teacher Mr.Garrison found that all of the students' recent essays were getting unexpectedly long and detailed. After discovering the new AI chatbot, Mr.Garrison decides also to use AI to grade the essays. This raises an interesting question: what would happen if teachers used AI to generate assignments, students used AI to write them, and teachers used AI to grade them? No one is learning anything, and AI will produce a bunch of text back and forth that no one will ever read.

The situation also raises other possibilities: What if writers use AI to expand a brief text into longer articles, which are then summarized by AI again into the brief text for readers? What if everyone uses AI to text back and forth in daily conversations? We might be using AI as a colored lens that shapes and filters everything in our view.

You can find the plot of this episode in the South Park Archives at Fandom. Thanks to Miguel Novelo for sharing this episode with me.

What would happen if teachers use AI to generate assignments, students use AI to write them, and teachers use AI to grade them?

3. Skepticism in the Age of AI

This was from Ben Thompson's interview with Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman when they discussed the Balenciaga Pope, the picture of the Pope in a giant puffy jacket. People thought the joke was that the real picture looked like an AI image. But it turns out this is another AI-generated image.

Within a year or two, AI will be so advanced that we won't be able to discern what is real and what is fake on the Internet without detailed forensic analysis. The inability to distinguish what's real from what's fake will lead to increased skepticism on the Internet. However, this could potentially be beneficial because it makes people skeptical by default about things they see.

People have been doctoring words and images forever on the Internet, and too many people have been aloof. If everyone knows AI can produce convincing fake stuff, then we must develop critical thinking, which can reduce the spread of misinformation. In Ben Thompson's words: "People are believing too much crap, so we're going to completely and utterly immerse you in crap until you realize it's all crap." This risk of AI can also carry potential benefits.

AI will progress to make it impossible to discern between real and fake content. Increased skepticism on the Internet can lead to surprisingly positive outcomes in promoting critical thinking.

4. Imperfection in Chess Playing

This is mentioned by Sam Altman in the interview with Lex Fridman. When Deep Blue beat Chess world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, people claimed, "Chess is now over". They started to question what's the point of playing chess.

Many jobs will be replaced soon by AI. What's the point of learning the skills required for those jobs if AI can perform perfectly? And if AI is powerful enough that we have perfect real-time language translation, what's the point of learning a new language?

Twenty-six years after Deep Blue's victory, chess has become more popular than ever. Chess is far from over. Technically, two artificial Intelligences playing chess together would be a better game. However, it's the drama and imperfections of human players that make the game interesting and worth playing. While AI can have perfect games, human players have something more fascinating: personalities and flaws.

When AI beat the chess world champion in 1997, it was claimed that "Chess is over". But 26 years later, chess is more popular than ever.

5. AI Needs to be Charming

This is from Ted Chiang's novella The Lifecycle of Software Objects, included in the collection Exhalation: Stories.

The story follows Blue Gamma, an AI company that sells digital AI pets, known as digients, which can learn from their experiences. The company's approach to AI design is centered on the idea that experience is the best teacher. Instead of pre-programing an AI pet with all the knowledge, the company sells digients to customers and encourages them to teach the digients themselves. To motivate customers to put effort into teaching the digients, the company ensures that every aspect of the AI pets is charming, including their personalities.

Revisiting this 2010 piece reminds me of ChatGPT, which shares a similar design philosophy. Usability plays an essential role in incentivizing users to engage with ChatGPT. Making ChatGPT fun to use and easy to share allows more users to play with it, which improves AI through Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF). Echoing what Sam Altman said in this interview with Lex Fridman, the success of ChatGPT can be attributed more to its usability than the underlying model itself.

We don't have to wait too long to see AI pet startups pop up and follow the same philosophy.

Rather than program an AI with knowledge, create one capable of learning and have users teach them. Make AI charming so that users will be motivated to put effort into teaching them.

6. Blurry JPEG of the Web

I cannot state it better than Ted Chiang. In his words in the New Yorker Article:

We must recognize that AI is only as good as the data it is fed and the algorithms used to process that data.

ChatGPT is like a lossy compression of all the text on the Web. If it takes material generated by itself as training data for next model, the output will be worse. Can LLM's output be as good as its own input?

Reference:

Thanks to Angelica Kosasih and Robert Chang for reading the draft of this.

Direct Learning

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 03:14:36 GMT

First step of learning: Learn directly by doing it and ensure the learning is tied to the context in which it will be used. Learn to speak a language by speaking it.

Book: Ultralearning

When learning something new, we should focus on directly practicing the skills required to achieve our specific goal. For instance, if we want to learn French to converse with locals in France, practicing spelling or memorizing vocabulary is less effective than directly practicing speaking French and having simple conversations.

Once finishing direct learning, we identify the challenging parts and break them into smaller components. For example, if pronunciation is the biggest hurdle, focus on that first and ignore grammar until later. After conquering smaller parts, we jump back to direct learning and repeat this "direct learning" and then "divide and conquer" loop.

I'm rereading Ultralearning because I recently started learning French. This "directness" in learning strikes me again. It can be applied not only in language but also in other skills. For example, we should learn to make a podcast by making a podcast and learn to do a startup by doing a startup. Any other indirect way to learn those (taking online courses or watching YouTube videos) is suboptimal.

Skill and Knowledge

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Learning new things is different from practicing new things. Passive learning brings knowledge while active practicing brings skills.

Book: Ultralearning

Transfer of learning (the ability to apply and use what we learn) has been seen as the "Holy Grail" of education. However, tons of studies paradoxically have confirmed that what we aim to learn doesn't transfer to the situation we need it. It especially rarely happens in instructional settings.

Learning new things and practicing new things sound similar but can produce drastically different outcomes. Passive learning brings knowledge, while active practicing brings skills. The things we learn from listening to lectures in the classroom are hard to transfer because what we acquire is mostly knowledge. However, what we usually need in our daily life are skills. It takes extra effort to translate knowledge into skills. For example, when learning a new language, the skill to use our phone to look up translation quickly is not easily transferrable from memorizing more vocabulary.

Declutter with Photo

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

How to throw away sentimental things? Take a photo.

Video: 8 Habits that Changed My Life

Letting go of sentimental items that are cluttering up our life can be a struggle. It's natural to feel attached to objects that hold precious memories, but holding onto them can cause unnecessary clutter and make moving a hassle.

However, it's important to remember that memories don't reside in physical objects but in our minds. Sentimental items serve as visual aids to help us reminisce and recall memories. By taking a photo of the item, we can still preserve the memory and its value without the need to keep the physical object.

By using this approach, you can keep the memories that matter most while decluttering your life.

Volatility as Fee not Fine

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Volatility is the emotional price you need to pay to get high average annual returns. View volatility as a fee, not a fine.

Book: The Psychology of Money

Volatility in the market refers to daily or short-term fluctuations. Stocks have higher volatility than bonds because a stock portfolio can be up or down a few percent any day. People who cannot emotionally handle the high volatility invest in low-volatility assets, which offer lower average annual returns than the stock market over the long term.

Author Morgan Housel viewed volatility as the emotional price you need to pay to get higher average annual returns in the long term. He offers a brilliant analogy for understanding volatility.

"View volatility as a fee, not a fine. If you got a fine for a parking in an illegal spot, you change your behavior and avoid that spot in the future. But if you pay a fee to park in that spot you happily pay the fee if the parking spot was the best parking spot for miles."

Language and Creativity

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

“Language can become a screen which stands between the thinker and reality. This is the reason why true creativity often starts where language ends.” - Arthur Koestler

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Language as the medium for expression is not omnipotent. That's why art can and should exist in so many different forms because so much creativity sparks outside the boundaries of language.

Bluetooth

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 03:14:36 GMT

How does Bluetooth work?

Video: How does Bluetooth Work?

This video does a great job explaining how our AirPods work. Some of the things I learned:

Bluetooth uses different wavelengths to represent 1 and 0. It can change wavelength every 0.000001 seconds, which means it can send 1 million bits a second.
Bluetooth operates in the electromagnetic spectrum between 2.4GHz and 2.4835GHz. This section of the spectrum is further broken into 79 different channels. Each channel has its specific wavelength to represent 1 and 0.
Bluetooth hops around from channel to channel to send packets. For example, the phone will tell the Bluetooth earbuds to receive one packet (bits) in channel 35 and the next packet in channel 58. It hops 1600 times a second.
Hopping around channels to send packets (Frequency-hopping spread spectrum or FHSS) avoids interference and eavesdropping. Therefore, multiple AirPods can play music independently and simultaneously without blocking other's wavelengths and stealing other's bits transmission.
If you put your phone in the microwave (don't turn it on!), your Bluetooth earbuds will lose connection because the microwave is designed to block that signal's wavelength. Pretty useful information.

Noncompetitiveness

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Marathon runner competes with no one but a time they want to be. Writer competes with no one but a standard they want to attain. Sustainable motivation requires following something we won't compete with.

Book: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir

Imagine a marathon runner uses the desire to beat a particular rival to spur them to train harder. What happens if their competitor drops out of the competition? If their motivation diminishes, it'd be hard for them to remain runners in the long term. Marathon runners who stick to running are usually motivated by an individual goal: a time they want to beat.

It's the same for being a novelist. For Haruki, there's no such thing as winning or losing as a novelist. Neither number of copies sold nor the awards won matter. What's crucial is whether his writing meets the standard he wants to attain.

This reminds me of Mimetic Theory (#33.4) because they both emphasize the significance of following something you won't compete with. Peter Thiel suggested we find a role model with which we won't compete. And in David Perell's, "If you're going to model a famous writer, pick a dead one such as Tolstoy or Hemingway".

Running Suits Me

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

The reason I can run for more than twenty years is not that I have a strong will. It just suits me.

Book: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir

In Haruki's words:

"To tell the truth, I don't even think there's that much correlation between my running every day and whether or not I have a strong will. I think I've been able to run for more than twenty years for a simple reason: It suits me."

Long-distance running suits his personality. The noncompetitiveness, the contemplative nature of running (#52.1), and the desire to spend time alone all suit his personality.

This makes me think about my love for basketball. The social nature of playing basketball (always need to communicate and collaborate), the quick feedback loop (good shot or not), the flexibility to train alone, and even "bromance" (playing with friends and making new friends). That's how basketball suits me.

What's the sport that suits you? If you have yet to find one, remember Haruki started running at 33!

Body Blessing in Disguise

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Having the kind of body that easily puts on weight can be a blessing in disguise. It forces you to stay healthier.

Book: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir

In Haruki's words:

"...having the kind of body that easily puts on weight was perhaps a blessing in disguise. In other words, if I don’t want to gain weight I have to work out hard every day, watch what I eat, and cut down on indulgences. Life can be tough, but as long as you don’t stint on the effort, your metabolism will greatly improve with these habits, and you’ll end up much healthier, not to mention stronger."

"I think this physical nuisance should be viewed in a positive way, as a blessing. We should consider ourselves lucky that the red light is so clearly visible. Of course, it’s not always easy to see things this way."

"Life is basically unfair. But even in a situation that’s unfair, I think it’s possible to seek out a kind of fairness. Of course, that might take time and effort. And maybe it won’t seem to be worth all that. It’s up to each individual to decide whether or not it is."

Smart and Stupid

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

People thinking others are "just stupid" indicates that they are avoiding thinking by jumping to conclusions.

Article: Smart people don’t think others are stupid

There are no smart or stupid people, but people being smart or stupid. People who say "they are just so stupid" usually mean that they aren't being smart.

Being smart means thinking things through. Use first-principle thinking to find the real answer and second-layer thinking to take people's motivation and background into consideration.

Being stupid means avoiding thinking by jumping to conclusions. Searching for the real answer is too painful, and labeling people as "just stupid" is an acceptable explanation.

"Saying I don't know" is underrated because it takes intellectual honesty to draw the line between the known and unknown.

This reminds me of Wittgenstein's ruler (#31.1): If you don't have confidence in the ruler's reliability, when using the ruler to measure a table, you may also be using the table to measure the ruler.

Running and Writing

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Stop every day right after we feel like we can write more. Save the excitement and carry it over to the next day to let momentum kick off tomorrow's work smoothly.

Book: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir

The writer Haruki Murakami loves running. Sometimes he runs faster than usual but stops the running session earlier. His reason is to let the exhilaration he feels at the end of each run carry over to the next day. Therefore, the next day he can feel excited again going running.

He applies the same principle to his writing. Haruki stops every day right at the point after he feels like he can write more. He saves the excitement and carries it over to the next day. By doing so, the next day's work goes surprisingly smoothly.

This reminds me of Weekly I/O #8.1 about improvisational productivity. While Haruki kicks off the work using previously saved excitement as fuel, Daniel Gross kicks off by bundling thinking the work with doing it. Thinking and planning are the fun parts that can generate excitement as the momentum to finish the work.

Running and Meditation

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

I run to acquire a void. Emotions are not strong or consistent enough to sustain a vacuum. But thoughts and ideas that invade my emotions as I run remain subordinate to that void.

Book: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir

These paragraphs from Haruki Murakami beautifully describe the meditative nature of running:

"I just run. I run in a void. Or maybe I should put it the other way: I run in order to acquire a void."

"Human beings’ emotions are not strong or consistent enough to sustain a vacuum. What I mean is, the kinds of thoughts and ideas that invade my emotions as I run remain subordinate to that void. Lacking content, they are just random thoughts that gather around that central void."

"As I run I tell myself to think of a river. And clouds. But essentially I’m not thinking of a thing. All I do is keep on running in my own cozy, homemade void, my own nostalgic silence."

No Hedged Words

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

State your conjecture in a way that sounds like the laws of physics. Avoid mealy-mouthed allusions because ChatGPT can do all the hedged answers already. Solid and arbitrary statement sparks more comments and feedback.

Thoughts

This is something I'm working on myself. I always want to avoid arbitrary statements because of my intellectual insecurity and philosophical belief in skepticism. You can probably tell this by how many "can" and "might" I used in my past articles to hedge and avoid things being too absolute.

However, hedged words are usually not useful because they hedge the responsibility of being wrong. Mealy-mouthed allusions like "this might be true" and "there can be no right answer" essentially entail zero practical value. It rarely sparks feedback because there's nothing to support or against. What's worse, given all the embedded political correctness genes, large language models (LLMs) applications like ChatGPT are already too good at hedged statements.

In the episode Kunal Shah: Core Human Motivations [The Knowledge Project Ep. #141] (covered in WeeklyI/O#50), Kunal also mentioned he makes his statement on Twitter sound like the law of physics all the time. Even though those statements are just his conjecture, he thinks people should know this is Twitter, not an academic scientific journal. Therefore, not everything has to be strictly supported by legitimate evidence.

In the book It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences (covered in Write Better Sentences), the author also states similar things. The reader should understand your statement is a generalization and subject to debate—no disclaimers are required.

Strong and Vulnerable Things

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

What makes us strong are big things. What makes us vulnerable are little things.

Thoughts

Just another shower thoughts.

Reflexivity Theory

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Reflexivity theory: positive feedback loops between expectations and economic fundamentals can cause price trends that substantially and persistently deviate from equilibrium prices

Article: Reflexivity Definition

This theory is like the Matthew effect applied to the economy and finance world. Like what we covered in Weekly I/O#49.3 about Relative Age Effect (RAE), accumulated advantage can lead to positive feedback loops. However, compared to Relative Age Effect (RAE), I think reflexivity theory (or Matthew effect in price) should be more short-term and more certainly will return to their equilibrium prices.

True Learning

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 03:14:36 GMT

True learning is understanding. True understanding is linking new information to existing knowledge and applying it to problems.

Book: How to Take Smart Notes

We have to take notes in our own words because that forces us to elaborate new information with existing knowledge (vocabulary). Zettelkasten Method further forces us to incorporate new things with our cognitive structure.

This also relates to Meaningful Learning Theory, which adds the importance of applying. "Meaningful learning occurs when the learner interprets, relates, and incorporates new information with existing knowledge and applies the new information to solve novel problems."

Solomon's Paradox

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Solomon's Paradox: When helping ourselves make decisions, imagine helping a friend.

Article: The 10 Best Ideas I Learned in 2022

We are better at solving others' problems than ours because detachment yields objectivity. Therefore, when helping ourselves to make a decision, we can imagine we are helping a friend.

This well-known old concept strikes me again because the tech companies here in the bay have been having massive layoffs recently. I could give suggestions to my friends who are expecting layoffs in their companies. Nevertheless, I failed to acknowledge and apply the same suggestion myself when my company was also expecting to let go of people.

Never Too Good

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

You should never think you're too good to do a job, and you should be like that in everything you do.

Podcast: Jocko Podcast 221: Jonny Kim. Navy SEAL, Doctor, Astronaut. The Unimaginable Path.

I'm revisiting this podcast episode (see my brief introduction in Weekly I/O#7.2), and many things in the episode inspire me again.

To help pay out his tuition, Jonny got a job giving out parking tickets in school. From giving orders in combat operations as a Navy SEAL to giving out parking tickets, Jonny takes that as an exercise in humility. I guess that's why despite all the crazy accomplishments, he can still be humble and consider himself physically and mentally average.

"You should never think you're too good to do a job. You should be like that in everything you do. Being a forever new guy is what I try to emulate.

"I don't mean you shouldn't step up to be a leader, but never think that you are above taking out the trash or that you're above not respecting the secretary. The moment you start to think you're better than anyone else, you have poisoned yourself."

Opposite of Courage

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

The opposite of courage is not cowardice but conformity.

Video: “No creative person I know has ever asked for a brainstorming session” — Brian Collins | D&AD Talks

Brian Collins, Chief Creative Officer of my favorite design company COLLINS, gives a talk commenting against the popular lean startup methodology in silicon valley.

I found this talk intriguing because it conflicts with many concepts I've learned. Brian roasted the words "iterate", "design thinking", "brainstorming", "minimum viable product", etc. This reminds me of those heroic founder/designer images. "You educate your user. Not another way around."

Brian mentioned Steve Jobs once said he only wanted to make "insanely great products". But now, we focus on "minimum viable product" in the valley. Brian Collins comments on how all the branding he likes (Burberry, Rimowa, Saint Laurent) has become so homogeneous. "The opposite of courage is not cowardice. The opposite of courage is conformity."

This also reminds me that if we ask ten people to agree on a flavor of ice cream, they will always pick vanilla or chocolate. Crowds don't agree on what's interesting. They agree on what's easy. Consensus also implies average.

Unintentionality and Mistake

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

If all we have is structure, we won't have magic. What we also need is unintentionality, like a mistake. Unintentionality is the real secret of creating interesting work.

Video: “No creative person I know has ever asked for a brainstorming session” — Brian Collins | D&AD Talks

To get things done, we must consider intentionalities like resources, materials, deadlines, and KPIs. However, if all we have is structure, we won't have magic. What we also need is unintentionality, like a mistake.

At COLLINS, they never leave serendipity to chance. They accommodate mistakes because mistakes create rhythm, spontaneity, and a sense of humanity. Mistakes give it magic.

I found the concept of accommodating and even emphasizing mistakes very artistically humane, especially if you click on the video link and see Brian's comments to apologize for a mistake he made in the talks.

Actionable Truth

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Insight is the smallest unit of truth that is actionable. If you cannot act on it, it is just an abstraction.

Podcast: Kunal Shah: Core Human Motivations [The Knowledge Project Ep. #141]

This reminds me of what I wrote a few years ago in the article sharing my internship experience at AppWorks. "If you learn things only to get competitive advantages over others, the things you learn are just lifeless knowledge. You cannot solve anything with that." Though I wrote this years ago, I still fell into this trap a lot.

Delta 4 Framework

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Delta 4 Framework for evaluating product: If your product outscores the existing solution by more than 4 in efficiency score on a scale of 1 to 10, your new user irreversibly will adopt your service, brag to their friends, and have a higher tolerance for your mistakes.

Podcast: Kunal Shah: Core Human Motivations [The Knowledge Project Ep. #141]

On a scale of 1 to 10, how efficient is the old method of booking a cab? How about booking a taxi through Uber? Subtract these two scores, and you get a simple framework to evaluate a product or service. According to Kunal, three things happen whenever the Delta of efficiency score between a new product and its existing counterpart is larger than 4.

First, it leads to irreversible behavior. Once you experience the Delta 4 better product, you will not return to the old one.

Second, your new adopters will have a higher tolerance for your mistakes. Even though some of the experience in the new product might be broken, you won't go back to the old ways. For example, you might hate Uber, but you won't be like, "I hate Uber so much that I'm going to delete this App and go back to the old inefficient way."

Third, when users discover something Delta 4, they will brag about it everywhere. This is what Kunal called a UBP (Unique Brag-worthy Proposition). Word-of-mouth can become so prominent that it becomes more important than the product's USP (Unique Selling Proposition).

You can find more details of Delta 4 Theory here.

Similarity and Trust Spectrum

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

When we have too much similarity, innovation dies. When we have too much dissimilarity, trust dies. We have to operate on a spectrum of chaos and stagnation.

Podcast: Kunal Shah: Core Human Motivations [The Knowledge Project Ep. #141]

What creates trust? Kunal found that trust is more natural in societies that have low diversity of ethnicity. We tend to trust people with common belief systems. Unfortunately, race plays a huge role.

It's not a surprise that most societies are not multi-ethnic because trust declines as it becomes more diverse in terms of ethnicity. We see the emergence of authoritarian leaders more frequent nowadays because low-trust societies always want somebody with a strong backbone to create peace.

One more nuance is if it becomes too similar, innovation dies. If it becomes too dissimilar, trust dies. Therefore, there's an interesting spectrum that we have to operate on between similarity and diversity. I'm unsure whether any scientific study backs Kunal's comments on ethnicity and authoritarianism, but it is a thought-provoking perspective to understand trust.

Different Communication Medium

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

How to make sure someone knows what they are doing? Ask them to change the medium of communication. Can they pitch in a different language, explain in higher and lower levels, or present without slides? Can they pretend they were real users telling a friend about this over dinner?

Podcast: Kunal Shah: Core Human Motivations [The Knowledge Project Ep. #141]

How to detect a startup's success? For Kunal, a lens that adds value to his filtering system is asking the founder to explain things with a different communication medium. For example, many founders usually come to him with a well-prepared presentation. He will ask those founders, "Hey, I don't understand English very well. Can you explain this to me in Hindi? What does it do?" Founders who understand the essence of what they are doing can switch without a problem. However, many people only prepare their presentations without fundamentally understanding them and, therefore, struggle with different mediums.

The other way to do it without asking them to switch languages is to change the material or level of conversation. Can they pitch without slides? Can they go a bit deeper or higher without losing the context?

Kunal also asked founders to pretend they were actual users of the product that were telling a friend over dinner to try this. This shifts their frame of reference, and they then cannot use any jargon because we don't speak to friends in jargon. If the founders cannot distill their idea into a transmissible conversation at dinner, their idea will not spread.

Inefficient but Soulful

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Efficient methods rarely create emotional arousal. Meaningful and soulful experiences are inefficient because they can't be standardized. Non-standardized things are harder to scale but also harder to destroy.

Podcast: Kunal Shah: Core Human Motivations [The Knowledge Project Ep. #141]

Emotional arousal rarely happens with efficient metrics. Everything that feels soulful in life is inefficient. Vacations to inefficient places are usually more meaningful. The food we find soulful is typically inefficient to cook. The more something becomes efficient, the more cookie-cutter it becomes. Standardizing is the friend of scalability but also the enemy of soulfulness.

Hinduism is an example of non-standardized things. Hinduism is not as scalable as many other religions because there's no one book, ten rules, or one God. It's like an open-source religion that people built principles on and keep evolving with. Therefore, Hinduism is mainly distributed through birth but not through scaling to other societies.

However, non-standardized things can be harder to destroy. Standardized things are easier to scale but also easier to be disrupted because the areas of attack are clear. On the other hand, something built inefficiently is harder to destroy because you don't know what to destroy and how to destroy it. There is nothing to attack. There are no areas of attack that you can say, "Okay, these are the three points on which we can attack". Non-standardized things are harder to scale but also harder to destroy.

Deep Boredom

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 03:14:36 GMT

If sleep represents the high point of bodily relaxation, deep boredom is the peak of mental relaxation. A purely hectic rush produces nothing new. It only reproduces and accelerates what is already available.

Book: The Burnout Society

In the chapter "Profound Boredom", the Korean-born German philosopher Byung-Chul Han said the cultural achievements of humanity, including philosophy, should be attributed to deep and contemplative attention. Deep attention makes culture possible. However, such attention is being displaced by an entirely different form of attention: hyper-attention.

In his word:

"A rash change of focus between different tasks, sources of information, and processes characterizes this scattered mode of awareness. Since it also has a low tolerance for boredom, it does not admit the profound idleness that benefits the creative process. Walter Benjamin calls this deep boredom a "dream bird that hatches the egg of experience." If sleep represents the high point of bodily relaxation, deep boredom is the peak of mental relaxation. A purely hectic rush produces nothing new. It reproduces and accelerates what is already available. Benjamin laments that the dream bird's nests of tranquillity and time are vanishing in the modern world."

To get to the creative process and escape the trap of hyper-attention, we have to have a higher tolerance for boredom.

"If a person experiences boredom while walking and has no tolerance for this state, he will move restlessly in fits and starts or go this way and that. However, someone with greater tolerance for boredom will recognize, after a while, that walking as such is what bores him. Consequently, he will be impelled to find a kind of movement that is entirely different. Running, or racing, does not yield a new gait. It is just accelerated walking. Dancing or gliding, however, represent entirely new forms of motion."

Thanks to Sun Yimeng for recommending this podcast episode referencing The Burnout Society. This episode introduces Justin Vernon's story and makes me obsessed with Bon Iver again.

Inspection Paradox

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Why is my bus always late? Inspection paradox: Averaging final results can be different than averaging individual responses.

Article: The Inspection Paradox is Everywhere

If 10 buses come every 60 minutes, how long do we have to wait on average? An educated guess could be 3 minutes because we have to wait half of the average time between two buses (think about we can arrive anytime between two buses), and 1 bus comes every 6 minutes on average. However, we typically must wait longer than 3 minutes and sometimes even longer than 6 minutes. This phenomenon is called Waiting-Time Paradox or Inspection Paradox.

Think about another example first. If you ask college students how big their classes are, the average result might be 100 students. But if you ask the college what's their average class size, it might be only 30. If no one lies, what causes this strange difference? When you survey students and average individual responses, you will overestimate. Because if there are 100 students in one class, you will have a higher chance to sample that class compared to a 10 students class. More specifically, a class with size x will be overrepresented in the whole sample by a factor of x.

Here's another example called the friendship paradox. Why do most people have fewer friends than their friends have? If you choose a random Facebook user and then choose one of their friends randomly, the chance is about 80% that the friend has more friends. This is because when we choose a random user, every user is equally likely to be selected. However, when we pick their friend, people with more friends are more likely to be in this random user's friend group. In other words, one is less likely to be friends with someone who has fewer friends.

Now, can you guess why the bus is always late? Buses should come at constant intervals theoretically. However, in practice, some intervals are longer, and some are shorter. Therefore, similar to the two examples above, we are more likely to arrive at the bus stop during a longer interval because, unsurprisingly, a random arrival is more likely to fall in a long interval.

Inspection paradox (or other Sampling bias) is counterintuitive but ubiquitous. This also reminds me of a joke Bill Burr used in You People Are All The Same.

"Stats are so fucking stupid, you know? Not that they're stupid. It's the way people apply 'em. You already have your mind made up, and then you go to i'mright.com, you start memorizing a bunch of shit, then you just… blaaah! Just throw it up at people. This guy tried to get me to go scuba diving. I go, "I'm not going. I don't wanna get eaten by a shark." He's like, "Well, actually, 90% of shark attacks actually happen in shallow water." It's like, no shit. That's where the people are. You know? It's called the beach. 90% of people are frolicking along the coastline. It's not like there are people swimming to Europe. "Let's go to Iceland, you pussies!" Right?"

Relative Age Effect

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

What's the most significant privilege a student can experience? Born in the right month.

Podcast: Outliers, Revisited — Malcolm Gladwell | Revisionist History

One of the most intriguing things I learned from the book Outliers a few years ago was the Relative Age Effect (RAE). Malcolm Gladwell observed that most (40%) of the best hockey players in Canada are born between January and March.

Because the cut-off date for hockey in Canada is January 1, kids born on January 1 will play with those born on December 31 in the same year. However, the earlier-born kids will have an extra year of growth and development. Players with January birthdays are likely stronger, taller, and more coordinated. Therefore, they are more likely to be selected for talented programs with better training due to this slight advantage. Better training will make them play better. Consequently, they are more likely to be chosen for talented programs again at the next level. This accumulated advantage (Matthew effect) leads to the phenomenon that most of the best hockey players are born in the year's first quarter.

Over ten years later, Malcolm Gladwell experimented in the classroom of Wharton Business School to evaluate the same effect on education. What's the privilege that gets those students in this super competitive ivy league school? Through a survey, Malcolm found that the Relative Age Effect also applied to education. The birth months of the students also follow an odd distribution, and most students in the class have birth months close to the cut-off date. You can watch the whole experiment here.

We can also find RAE in graduations from the University of Oxford (as shown in the graph) and the UK Nobel Prize winner's distribution.

Oxford_10_years

By Steve Lawrence - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44416666

Happy Poker with Loss Aversion

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Losses hurt much more than the happiness gained from winning. Therefore, we must focus on the process to overcome this asymmetry (loss aversion) in zero-sum games.

Podcast: Annie Duke on Poker, Probabilities, and How We Make Decisions (Ep. 99) | Conversations with Tyler

Annie Duke is a professional poker player with a Ph.D. in psychology. In this episode, [Tyler Cowen](Tyler Cowen) asked Annie: "If you enjoy risk for its own sake, you'll go broke. But if you don't enjoy risk for its own sake, what are you doing playing these zero-sum games?"

Losses hurt much more than the happiness gained from winning. This asymmetry between how sad people are when they lose versus how happy they are when they win is known as loss aversion. Because poker is a zero-sum game (one's gain is equivalent to the other's loss), it's generally hard to be a happy poker player.

Therefore, it will be hard to be a happy poker player unless we focus on something other than just the result. For Annie, the way to happiness is to focus on the process. From a cognitive science background studying learning, Annie took poker as a different way to study learning. In this way, the poker game becomes a powerful laboratory for thinking about human decision-making.

We can apply this perspective to many places. We cannot always win. If we hook our happiness only with the result, we are doomed to have a hard time when we are out of luck. Therefore, we have to be able to find other sources of happiness.

Skill Transfer

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Poker teaches us that just because people are skillful in one domain doesn't mean they can transfer the skill to another.

Podcast: Annie Duke on Poker, Probabilities, and How We Make Decisions (Ep. 99) | Conversations with Tyler

Do outstanding poker players make better decisions than average in the other parts of their lives? Annie thinks there's not always a transfer of learning. It does transfer for some very process-driven players. However, it is also easy to find examples of people without any transfer whatsoever.

We can see a good poker player in the casino dumping money at the craps table or the baccarat table. It can be very confusing because good poker players should know those casino games obviously have negative expectancy.

Just because people are skillful in one domain doesn't mean they can transfer the skill to another. I also think that if one person can't demonstrate one skill or attribute in one field, it doesn't mean they cannot prove that skill or attribute in another.

Desires to be Right

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 03:14:36 GMT

The desire to be right and the desire to have been right are two desires. The sooner we separate them, the better off we are.

Book: The Web of Belief

Warren Buffett once said:

“What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact.”

We tend to cherry-pick the information that confirms our existing beliefs. This tendency is called confirmation bias, which explains why if there's something we feel like doing, we can always find enough evidence to support doing it.

Confirmation bias highlights the difference between the desire to be right and the desire to have been right. The desire to be right is the thirst for truth. It drives us to be humble and explore more. On the other hand, the desire to have been right is the pride that makes us stick to our beliefs. It stands in the way of our seeing we were wrong and thus blocks the progress of our knowledge.

This difference also demonstrates why two people with different perspectives can see the same evidence but come up with different conclusions and argue with each other. The desire to be right should drive us to understand the other side. Nonetheless, the desire to have been right clouds our judgment. We stop being curious and stick to our guns to keep our existing perspective intact.

Evolutionary Success with Individual Suffering

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Evolutionary success doesn't mean individual success. The success of the species can be at the expense of individual suffering. Evolution judges everything by the criteria of survival and reproduction, with no regard for individual suffering and happiness.

Book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Does evolutionary success mean the individual gets better? Humans (Homo sapiens) are abundant and conquer almost every piece of the planet. If we say our species evolve successfully, do we now become stronger, smarter, healthier, or even happier?

In Weekly I/O #47.3, we learned that the agricultural revolution didn't translate into a better diet or more leisure. It led to population explosions, but the quality of life for people was worse. They have to work harder with less return. In other words, the agricultural revolution kept more people alive under worse conditions.

Similarly, domesticated animals are also quite successful from the evolutionary perspective. However, if we think about most domesticated animals, like chickens and cattle, they are among the most miserable creatures that have ever lived.

In the author's words:

"Their evolutionary 'success' is meaningless. A rare wild rhinoceros on the brink of extinction is probably more satisfied than a calf who spends its short life inside a tiny box, fattened to produce juicy steaks. The contented rhinoceros is no less content for being among the last of its kind. The numerical success of the calf's species is little consolation for the suffering the individual endures"

Unfortunately, the evolutionary perspective is an incomplete measure of success. It judges everything by the criteria of survival and reproduction, with no regard for individual suffering and happiness.

Introducing Why not What

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

When meeting people for the first time, we often exchange questions about what we do. However, the more profound and interesting question behind what we do is why we do what we do.

Article: Why I do what I do

When we meet people for the first time, we usually ask questions about what we do. We exchange information about our job, the school we went to, the things we typically do on weekends, etc. However, the more interesting question people rarely ask is "why we do what we do".

Asking why they do what they do enables us to get closer to knowing who they truly are. It gets deeper than surface-level discussion and potentially builds more meaningful connections. Similarly, articulating "why we do what we do" also gives others more opportunities to connect with us.

Repeat Today a Year

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

If you repeated what you did today 365 more times, will you be where you want to be next year?

Article: 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known

Who do I want to be in the future? I jotted down several points on who I wanted to be a few years ago. Revisiting it recently, I find that my values and perspective have changed significantly since then. I should rethink and update them regularly.

Contradiction within Culture

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

We understand a culture the best where the culture's members hold contradictory beliefs and reconcile incompatible values.

Book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

In contrast to physics, which is (almost always) free of inconsistencies, cultures are constantly trying to reconcile contradictions among themselves.

Take the nobility in medieval Europe as an example. A typical nobleman believed in both Christianity and chivalry. He went to church to learn he must rise above those dangerous temptations such as riches, lust, and honor. He has to avoid violence and extravagance. If attacked, he needs to turn the other cheek.

Regardless of this meek and reflective mood, the nobleman then went to his lord's castle, where wine flowed like water and guests exchanged dirty jokes and bloody war tales. The barons taught him that "It is better to die than live with shame. Only blood can wipe out the insult if someone questions your honor."

This contradiction stands not only between Christianity and chivalry in medieval Europe. In modern society, most people see social equality and individual freedom as fundamental values. Yet the two values contradict each other. While we can ensure equality only by curtailing the freedoms of those who are better off, guaranteeing that every individual will be free to do as they wish inevitably short-changes equality.

It's an essential feature that any culture's member must be able to hold contradictory beliefs and incompatible values. These tensions, conflicts, and irresolvable dilemmas are the spice of every culture. That's why Harari said that if a Christian wants to understand the Muslims, "they shouldn't look for a pristine set of values that every Muslim holds. Instead, he should enquire into the catch-22s of Muslim culture, those places where rules are at war and standards scuffle. It's at the very spot where the Muslims teeter between two imperatives that you'll understand them best."

This also reminds me of what is mentioned in Why I do what I do: Values are revealed through real-life trade-offs.

Curious not Judgmental

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 03:14:36 GMT

Be curious, not judgmental.

Video: Ted Lasso: Be curious, not judgmental

We tend to form our opinions quickly when seeing someone's behavior or listening to someone's words. [1] However, wearing judgmental glasses to get our take on things can stop us from being curious. Without curiosity, we won't have a chance to understand more and potentially change our minds.

When I encounter something new, I often enjoy being aware of what happened without trying to accept, reject or make any judgment too soon. After all, it is more fun and mentally healthy to be curious.

Thanks to Angelica Kosasih for sharing this with me.

[1] Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky explained this tendency in the representativeness heuristic.

Cluttering Illusion

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Cluttering Illusion: Our brains love to find meaning in short‐term trends and rush to conclusions. Avoid irrational small sample size bets.

Book: The Art of Thinking Clearly

I went to Seattle for a week last summer and loved the city so much that I'm considering moving there. My friend Ev, who stays there for his undergrad, asked me to try out the winter first before having any conclusion.

This kind of consideration or decision isn't uncommon. We join a company because one friend says they're doing well there. We buy a $3000 treadmill after having good experiences with the treadmill at the gym three times. We irrationally make big decisions based on small sample sizes all the time.t

Sometimes a small sample size might be representative enough to be seen as the microcosm of the whole thing. However, we must remember that our brains love to find meaning in short‐term trends and rush to conclusions, especially if the small data set supports something we want to do.

Agricultural Revolution

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

The Agricultural Revolution was history's biggest fraud. Compared to foragers, farmers worked harder but with less return.

Book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

When thinking of the agricultural revolution, we usually think it is a grand achievement for humans. However, Harari has a different perspective.

The agricultural revolution certainly increased the sum of food for humankind. However, this didn't translate into a better diet or more leisure. On the contrary, the average farmers worked harder than the average foragers but got a worse diet.

The author contends that the revolution indeed led to population explosions, but the quality of life for people was lower. It also creates wealth inequality with more pampered elites. What we usually thought about the Agricultural Revolution was history's biggest fraud.

Clarke's Three Laws

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

When a distinguished elderly scientist states that something is possible, they are almost certainly right, but when they state something is impossible, they are probably wrong.

Article: Clarke's three laws

Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke formulated the following three laws:

When a distinguished elderly scientist states that something is possible, they are almost certainly right, but when they state something is impossible, they are probably wrong.
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Isaac Asimov has the corollary to Clarke's First Law:

"When, however, the lay public rallies round an idea that is denounced by distinguished but elderly scientists and supports that idea with great fervor and emotion — the distinguished but elderly scientists are then, after all, probably right."

I also like the inverse of the third law proposed by Gregory Benford:

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.

Paint with Music

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 03:14:35 GMT

Paint With Music: Turn your paintbrush into musical instruments and compose on sensorial canvases.

Website: Paint With Music

Paint With Music is a web-based app from Google that uses machine learning powered by Magenta's DDSP library to make music with painting. This combines two major forms of artistic expression. I don't know how it works yet, but it is super fun to play with.

Prioritize and Communicate

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 03:14:36 GMT

How to say no? Prioritize and communicate.

Podcast: Persuasive communication and managing up | Wes Kao (Maven, Seth Godin, Section4)

Saying no to people without making them feel irked is a gentle art. Lenny, the podcast host, talks about a 2x2 matrix of saying no: prioritize x communicate.

When someone gives us a task that is not on our plate, we could put the thing into our list to do and not communicate what we will do and where the new task sits in the priorities. We could also communicate and not prioritize it, like saying, "sorry I don't have time for this right now".

However, what we should do is prioritize and communicate. We prioritize it among our list and communicate by saying something like, "this new task is going to be third in my priorities. Does this seem reasonable to you, or would you agree that I do this sooner or later?"

Wes Kao also relates an experience of a priority trade-off. For example, when she asked the designer to design something for her, he would say something like, "Yes, I can design this for you. That means that the thing I was going to work on today, redesigning this webpage, will have to wait until later this week to be finished. Do you want me to re-prioritize this?"

For Wes, it felt like she was in control. This technique converted the conversation from being a: "you are/aren't a helpful team player" to one where the designer express the desire to make sure the right things get done first.

Gatsby Starter Blog RSS Feed

50 Things I Learned

Product and Design

Psychology and Human Behavior

Writing and Creativity

Decision-making and Career

Business Strategy and Marketing

Observation and Culture

Science and Engineering

Life Tips and Learning

Recap

On Taiwanese Names or: Call me Cheng-Wei not Cheng, thank you

Call me by my name

Understanding Taiwanese Names

Other cool naming rules

A Simple Request

Emotional Freedom

The underinvested path to happiness

Two types of freedom

The practice of emotional freedom

Prioritize emotional freedom

Appendix: How to practice

Stoicism

Buddhism

Psychology and Psychotherapy

Attachment is Enemy of Love

The near enemy of love is attachment. True love allows, honors, and appreciates. Attachment grasps, demands, needs, and aims to possess.

Collaborative Math Engineering

The paradigm of mathematical proof is shifting from solitary genius to collaborative software engineering. AI and formalization are turning proofs into blueprints that can be crowdsourced.

Math as Civilization

Mathematics is a civilization humans built upward from a small set of shared axioms. Like a contract, mathematicians agree on what feels "natural" enough to take for granted, and then construct everything else on top.

Math as Art

The essence of math lies in the artistic progression from observation to theoretical construction. Aesthetics and beauty are diagnostic tools for evaluating mathematical truth.

Mantra for Running Companies

Frank Slootman's rules for running companies: increase the tempo, raise the standards, narrow the focus.

Beautiful Solutions

"When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong." — Richard Buckminster Fuller

Equal Odds Rule

The Equal Odds Rule: The likelihood of any single work becoming a major hit stays roughly the same across a creator's career. Most great creatives become great not by cracking a secret formula, but simply by producing a lot.

Alien Tech Trees

The science tech tree is far bigger and more branched than we realize. Most of it will never be explored. An alien civilization's technology stack would likely be radically different from ours, shaped by different senses and environments.

Slow Verification Loops

Good ideas can wait a very long time for clean proof. In science, verification loops are often slow, noisy, and sometimes hostile to the truth.

Moving Bottlenecks

Bottlenecks shift but they rarely vanish. When a new tool unblocks one constraint, it exposes the next one. Major discoveries often emerge in parallel because the prerequisites finally fall into place at the same time.

Spaced Repetition for Better Learning

Memory for learning complex subjects

What's spaced repetition

The opportunities in spaced repetition

Further reading

Appendix: Research supporting Spaced Repetition

Become Me More and More

"I am Me, and I hope to become Me more and more. That is surely the goal of all our struggles." — Paula Modersohn-Becker

Drama Triangle

The Drama Triangle: If you cannot face another person directly, you will drag a third person in and call it "process". The three roles of Victim, Persecutor, and Rescuer rotate endlessly and rot companies from the inside.

PMF Survey

Define Product-market fit beyond just feelings: Ask users how they would feel if your product disappeared. If 40% say "very disappointed," you have found it. This way, you define it as a number you can hillclimb.

Elaborative Encoding

Elaborative Encoding: We remember what is meaningful. Memory is not a recording but a translation. The more you connect new information to what you already know, the stronger the memory becomes.

Constructive Confrontation

Constructive Confrontation: Be blunt with ideas, but kind to people. Politeness is often just a mask for fear.

Joy and Aliveness

Discovering more joy does not save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will also laugh more easily. We are more alive, and perhaps that's the ultimate goal of life: to be more alive.

Three Circles of Authentic Positioning

Good positioning is not manufacturing a persona. It is selecting and amplifying the three circles of positioning: what is true, relevant, and strategically useful.

Four Types of Knowledge

Knowledge comes in four core types: facts (what), procedures (how), concepts (why), and strategies (when). Knowing when to apply the right knowledge is oftentimes harder than knowing what or how.

Instructional and Learning Events

Instructional vs. Learning Events: Teaching is an external catalyst for an internal change. Instructional events are the visible things teachers design. Learning events are the invisible mental changes those designs are trying to trigger.

Robust Learning Needs Varied Assessment

Measuring Robust Learning: True mastery lasts over time, transfers to new situations, and accelerates future learning.

Intelligence Augmentation Framework

Table of Contents

The Source of Intelligence

The misconception of intelligence

Hierarchy of functional components

Artificial Intelligence's Intelligence

Four Classes of Augmentation Means

Artifact

Language