Said I appreciate your point that I used the term “extrospection” in a non-standard way—I think you’re right. The way I’ve heard it used, which is probably idiosyncratic local jargon, is to reference the theory of mind analog of introspection: “feeling, yourself, something of what the person you’re talking with is feeling.” You obviously can’t do this perfectly, but I think many people find that e.g. it’s easier to gain information about why someone is sad, and about how it feels for them to be currently experiencing this sadness, if you use empathy/theory of mind/the thing I think people are often gesturing at when they talk about “mirror neurons,” to try to emulate their sadness in your own brain. To feel a bit of it, albeit an imperfect approximation of it, yourself.
Similarly, I think it’s often easier for one to gain information about why e.g. someone feels excited about pursuing a particular line of inquiry, if one tries to emulate their excitement in one’s own brain. Personally, I’ve found this empathy/emulation skill quite helpful for research collaboration, because it makes it easier to trade information about people’s vague, sub-verbal curiosities and intuitions about e.g. “which questions are most worth asking.”
Circlers don’t generally use this skill for research. But it is the primary skill, I think, that circling is designed to train, and my impression is that many circlers have become relatively excellent at it as a result.
… something like the theory of mind analog of introspection: something like “feeling, yourself, something of what the person you’re talking with is feeling.” You obviously can’t do this perfectly, but I think many people find that e.g. it’s easier to gain information about why someone is sad, and about how it feels for them to be currently experiencing this sadness, if you use empathy/theory of mind/the thing I think people are often gesturing at when they talk about “mirror neurons,” to try to emulate their sadness in your own brain. To feel a bit of it, albeit an imperfect approximation of it, yourself.
Hmm. I see, thanks.
Now, you say “You obviously can’t do this perfectly”, but it seems to me a dubious proposition even to suggest that anyone (to a first approximation) can do this at all. Even introspection is famously unreliable; the impression I have is that many people think that they can do the thing that you call ‘extrospection’[1], but in fact they can do no such thing, and are deluding themselves. Perhaps there are exceptions—but however uncommon you might intuitively think such exceptions are, they are (it seems to me) probably a couple of orders of magnitude less common than that.
Similarly, I think it’s often easier for one to gain information about why e.g. someone feels excited about pursuing a particular line of inquiry, if one tries to emulate their excitement in one’s own brain. Personally, I’ve found this empathy/emulation skill quite helpful for research collaboration, because it makes it easier to trade information about people’s vague, sub-verbal curiosities and intuitions about e.g. “which questions are most worth asking.”
Do you have any data (other than personal impressions, etc.) that would show or even suggest that this has any practical effect? (Perhaps, examples / case studies?)
Thanks for spelling this out. My guess is that there are some semi-deep cruxes here, and that they would take more time to resolve than I have available to allocate at the moment. If Eli someday writes that post about the Nisbett and Wilson paper, that might be a good time to dive in further.
Said I appreciate your point that I used the term “extrospection” in a non-standard way—I think you’re right. The way I’ve heard it used, which is probably idiosyncratic local jargon, is to reference the theory of mind analog of introspection: “feeling, yourself, something of what the person you’re talking with is feeling.” You obviously can’t do this perfectly, but I think many people find that e.g. it’s easier to gain information about why someone is sad, and about how it feels for them to be currently experiencing this sadness, if you use empathy/theory of mind/the thing I think people are often gesturing at when they talk about “mirror neurons,” to try to emulate their sadness in your own brain. To feel a bit of it, albeit an imperfect approximation of it, yourself.
Similarly, I think it’s often easier for one to gain information about why e.g. someone feels excited about pursuing a particular line of inquiry, if one tries to emulate their excitement in one’s own brain. Personally, I’ve found this empathy/emulation skill quite helpful for research collaboration, because it makes it easier to trade information about people’s vague, sub-verbal curiosities and intuitions about e.g. “which questions are most worth asking.”
Circlers don’t generally use this skill for research. But it is the primary skill, I think, that circling is designed to train, and my impression is that many circlers have become relatively excellent at it as a result.
Hmm. I see, thanks.
Now, you say “You obviously can’t do this perfectly”, but it seems to me a dubious proposition even to suggest that anyone (to a first approximation) can do this at all. Even introspection is famously unreliable; the impression I have is that many people think that they can do the thing that you call ‘extrospection’[1], but in fact they can do no such thing, and are deluding themselves. Perhaps there are exceptions—but however uncommon you might intuitively think such exceptions are, they are (it seems to me) probably a couple of orders of magnitude less common than that.
Do you have any data (other than personal impressions, etc.) that would show or even suggest that this has any practical effect? (Perhaps, examples / case studies?)
By the way, it seems to me like coming up with a new term for this would be useful, on account of the aforementioned namespace collision.
Thanks for spelling this out. My guess is that there are some semi-deep cruxes here, and that they would take more time to resolve than I have available to allocate at the moment. If Eli someday writes that post about the Nisbett and Wilson paper, that might be a good time to dive in further.