I’ve been familiar with this pattern for a while, but I didn’t explicitly connect it with the statistical explanation. My analysis was, rather, that at some point you learn “I need to work hard to get X right”—at this point X is actually an important problem for you. So, you get into the habit of worrying about X, finding ways to be better at X, noticing details relevant to X… At some point, you cross the threshhold where X is not so important to work on, and maybe even negative to push any further in that direction. But, you don’t automatically notice this point. By default, you keep on thinking X is a problem for you. Moreover, you’ve developed habits of thinking associated with pushing further in the direction of X; probably the feedback cues you’re looking at are making you goodhart on X, and you haven’t learned to pick up on the cues that would help you notice you’ve gone too far, because those would not have been helpful earlier.
So, you keep pushing further and further on X.
Therefore, if your life feels like a constant struggle to be nice, or clean, or punctual, or truthful, etc, it is possible that you’re actually already one of the most nice/clean/punctual/truthful/etc people there is and you ought to stop worrying about it and maybe even adjust your habits a bit in the other direction.
I’ve been familiar with this pattern for a while, but I didn’t explicitly connect it with the statistical explanation. My analysis was, rather, that at some point you learn “I need to work hard to get X right”—at this point X is actually an important problem for you. So, you get into the habit of worrying about X, finding ways to be better at X, noticing details relevant to X… At some point, you cross the threshhold where X is not so important to work on, and maybe even negative to push any further in that direction. But, you don’t automatically notice this point. By default, you keep on thinking X is a problem for you. Moreover, you’ve developed habits of thinking associated with pushing further in the direction of X; probably the feedback cues you’re looking at are making you goodhart on X, and you haven’t learned to pick up on the cues that would help you notice you’ve gone too far, because those would not have been helpful earlier.
So, you keep pushing further and further on X.
Therefore, if your life feels like a constant struggle to be nice, or clean, or punctual, or truthful, etc, it is possible that you’re actually already one of the most nice/clean/punctual/truthful/etc people there is and you ought to stop worrying about it and maybe even adjust your habits a bit in the other direction.