every time you disagree with someone about one of your beliefs, you [can] automatically flag what the crux for the belief was
This is the bit that is computationally intractable.
Looking for cruxes is a healthy move, exposing the moving parts of your beliefs in a way that can lead to you learning important new info.
However, there are an incredible number of cruxes for any given belief. If I think that a hypothetical project should accelerate it’s development time 2x in the coming month, I could change my mind if I learn some important fact about the long-term improvements of spending the month refactoring the entire codebase; I could change my mind if I learn that the current time we spend on things is required for models of the code to propagate and become common knowledge in the staff; I could change my mind if my models of geopolitical events suggest that our industry is going to tank next week and we should get out immediately.
I’m not claiming you can literally do this all the time. [Ah, an earlier draft of the previous comment emphasized this this was all “things worth pushing for on the margin”, and explicitly not something you were supposed to sacrifice all other priorities for. I think I then rewrote the post and forgot to emphasize that clarification]
I’ll try to write up better instructions/explanations later, but to give a rough idea of the amount of work I’m talking about. I’m saying “spend a bit more time than you normally do in ‘doublecrux mode’”. [This can be, like, an extra half hour sometimes when having a particular difficult conversation].
When someone seems obviously wrong, or you seem obviously right, ask yourself “what are cruxes are most loadbearing”, and then:
Be mindful as you do it, to notice what mental motions you’re actually performing that help. Basically, do Tuning Your Cognitive Strategies to the double crux process, to improve your feedback loop.
When you’re done, cache the results. Maybe by writing it down, or maybe just sort of thinking harder about it so you remember it a better.
The point is not to have fully mapped out cruxes of all your beliefs. The point is that you generally have practiced the skill of noticing what the most important cruxes are, so that a) you can do it easily, and b) you keep the results computed for later.
This is the bit that is computationally intractable.
Looking for cruxes is a healthy move, exposing the moving parts of your beliefs in a way that can lead to you learning important new info.
However, there are an incredible number of cruxes for any given belief. If I think that a hypothetical project should accelerate it’s development time 2x in the coming month, I could change my mind if I learn some important fact about the long-term improvements of spending the month refactoring the entire codebase; I could change my mind if I learn that the current time we spend on things is required for models of the code to propagate and become common knowledge in the staff; I could change my mind if my models of geopolitical events suggest that our industry is going to tank next week and we should get out immediately.
I’m not claiming you can literally do this all the time. [Ah, an earlier draft of the previous comment emphasized this this was all “things worth pushing for on the margin”, and explicitly not something you were supposed to sacrifice all other priorities for. I think I then rewrote the post and forgot to emphasize that clarification]
I’ll try to write up better instructions/explanations later, but to give a rough idea of the amount of work I’m talking about. I’m saying “spend a bit more time than you normally do in ‘doublecrux mode’”. [This can be, like, an extra half hour sometimes when having a particular difficult conversation].
When someone seems obviously wrong, or you seem obviously right, ask yourself “what are cruxes are most loadbearing”, and then:
Be mindful as you do it, to notice what mental motions you’re actually performing that help. Basically, do Tuning Your Cognitive Strategies to the double crux process, to improve your feedback loop.
When you’re done, cache the results. Maybe by writing it down, or maybe just sort of thinking harder about it so you remember it a better.
The point is not to have fully mapped out cruxes of all your beliefs. The point is that you generally have practiced the skill of noticing what the most important cruxes are, so that a) you can do it easily, and b) you keep the results computed for later.