I am interested in all the ways we could improve our thinking. It was my initial impression that Andy Matuschak’s Tools for Thought seem to aim at this, and I was convinced by his Evergreen Notes thesis. You’re probably already familiar with his work.
Can I get your input on why current note-taking systems fail at supporting at thinking and some alternatives? Or if note-taking itself is missing the point, how can we augment good thinking?
That’s a big question, like asking a doctor “how do you make people healthy”, except I’m not a doctor and there’s basically no medical science, metaphorically. My literal answer is “make smarter babies” https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/jTiSWHKAtnyA723LE/overview-of-strong-human-intelligence-amplification-methods , but I assume you mean augmenting adults using computer software. For the latter: the only thing I think I know is that you’d have to all of the following steps, in order:
Become really good at watching your own thinking processes, including/especially the murky / inexplicit / difficult / pretheoretic / learning-based parts.
Become really really good at thinking. Like, publish technical research that many people acknowledge is high quality, or something like that (maybe without the acknowledgement, but good luck self-grading). Apply 0.
Figure out what key processes from 1. could have been accelerated with software.
you mean augmenting adults using computer software.
Any physical or mental system meant to improve thinking and cognition for anyone right now. One obvious example is writing, which extends our capacity to think and remember. Another would be SRS, which helps solidify our memory.
But your reply points at the more important inner mental systems. Sadly, I don’t know any simple, obvious way to do the 0th step.
I am interested in all the ways we could improve our thinking. It was my initial impression that Andy Matuschak’s Tools for Thought seem to aim at this, and I was convinced by his Evergreen Notes thesis. You’re probably already familiar with his work.
Can I get your input on why current note-taking systems fail at supporting at thinking and some alternatives? Or if note-taking itself is missing the point, how can we augment good thinking?
That’s a big question, like asking a doctor “how do you make people healthy”, except I’m not a doctor and there’s basically no medical science, metaphorically. My literal answer is “make smarter babies” https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/jTiSWHKAtnyA723LE/overview-of-strong-human-intelligence-amplification-methods , but I assume you mean augmenting adults using computer software. For the latter: the only thing I think I know is that you’d have to all of the following steps, in order:
Become really good at watching your own thinking processes, including/especially the murky / inexplicit / difficult / pretheoretic / learning-based parts.
Become really really good at thinking. Like, publish technical research that many people acknowledge is high quality, or something like that (maybe without the acknowledgement, but good luck self-grading). Apply 0.
Figure out what key processes from 1. could have been accelerated with software.
Thank you for the response.
Any physical or mental system meant to improve thinking and cognition for anyone right now. One obvious example is writing, which extends our capacity to think and remember. Another would be SRS, which helps solidify our memory.
But your reply points at the more important inner mental systems. Sadly, I don’t know any simple, obvious way to do the 0th step.
In hindsight, LW is all about the 0th step.