Relatedly, I’d suggest ‘Things you create or skills you have.’
you develop the ability to eliminate the channels/methods which present the most negative feedback.
The least useful feedback?
Start by developing ideas from activities you enjoy:
Try more things, see if you enjoy them. (Also, sometimes you can learn from things you don’t like—a story with a specific form of bad storytelling might teach you something about the right way to tell stories.)
Structure of Information Flows Record every idea you have:
.
This section didn’t have bold parts.
Idea Rate = Number of Ideas / Number of Opportunities
Why wouldn’t “Idea Rate = Ideas per (Unit of Time)” ? It would seem one could increase the amount/rate of ideas they have, not only by increases their ideas per opportunity, but also by increasing their number of opportunities.
Constants: Number of Opportunities = 800 Ideas/Opportunity = Idea Rate = 20% Good Ideas/Idea = Success Rate = 10%
I didn’t understand this until I copied it here, and the formatting clicked, and then it all made sense.
Arming yourself with a vast knowledge of any particular situation or topic gives you a better chance of coming up with the correct solution to a given problem because as your network of understanding grows,
(Emphasis added.)
Problems are important, as is coming up with them/having good sources for them.
Each individual you come in contact with is an opportunity to glean unique and valuable information from.
It might be useful to come up with frames and give them names and put them in a list, so you can do this:
[New Idea]: (check)
Frames [Frame 1] [Frame 2] etc.
Reduce Cognitive Delay[**]
Also see how you can implement an idea, particularly—quickly. (This one can be hard.)
More generally, release “Delays” period. Having a model of the process can help with this. (It’s possible the low hanging fruit has been picked in communication technology on the raw speed front*, but it’s useful to note how this can speed up things we do.)
*To such an extent some may find it detrimental. One could compare the quality of comments on twitter with the quality of letters, or the quality of of moves in a live chess game versus one by post. (It’s also easier to draw on paper.)
Looking for HARSH criticism
That’s hard to do with such a good idea.
[**]####5. Gain Around Positive Feedback Loops a. Find a receptive audience:
The section above is related to that fact that “idea quality” can be subjective—coming up with ideas that sound great is all well and good, but reality is the final arbiter. (Though this kind of depends on what you’re working on.) Finding ways to implement things or ideas/testing things out might help. I’d also ask where these “first principles” come from.
If you enjoy something, you might not learn as much. Consider the popular Lord of the Rings. Did you learn something by reading/watching it? The first time? The n-th time?
By engaging in more conversation about your ideas, you develop a better grasp of why you receive negative feedback about particular topics.
Eh. Can you really change the world with an idea that doesn’t upset people?
This ties in to the idea that it is possible for you to produce a synthesis of contrarian idea.
Very much appreciate your input and the kind words in regards to the merits of the post. I don’t think I understand what it means to ‘frame’ something as you specified in this comment:
It might be useful to come up with frames and give them names and put them in a list, so you can do this:
Frames [Frame 1] [Frame 2] etc.
Any chance you could clarify/provide an example of what this kind of thing would look like? Thanks again.
(This is meant to be purely illustrative, not taken seriously. Also, given how hard it was to come up with frames, it might be better to replace using lenses this way with ‘questions that are always good to ask’.)
Idea [1]____1___________2__________3
Lenses:__Economic__Narrative [3] Empiricism [4]
[1] Movies these days seem to be lacking realism[2]/X.
1)
Is there not an audience for realism/X? (Or is this a market failure?)
Are most movies produced by studios that aren’t good at writing realism/X?
Is it more expensive to produce movies which are more realistic/X?
Harder to make money off of?
Is this the result of government regulation? Self-regulation?
Do the people involved in making movies (scriptwriters, directors, etc.) prefer less realistic**/X movies? Find it easier to make such movies?
[2] What is the alternative to realism that is more common?
(Realistically, the best way to make progress on a question like this is probably by unpacking ‘What you mean by “realism”/X.’)
[3] A struggle between the forces of good and evil.
2)
Who controls Hollywood, good or evil? Both? Neither?
What reasons might they have for doing this?
Good:
It’s easier to have the good guys win in movies if you’re less realistic. It also delivers a particular message ’you will win if you’re good, no matter how ridiculous that sounds.
Bad:
It lulls people into a false sense of security. “All evil needs to prevail is every good person doing nothing.” As it is hard to get people to do nothing, the nothing must be obscured by an illusion of doing something—thus, meaningless visual media, Netflix, etc.
Neither:
a)
Life isn’t perfect. People go to the movies to get away from it all/see the people they agree with win. It doesn’t have to make sense, it just has to be entertaining and end happily.
b)
Movie makers don’t care about realism. Conflicts of Good versus Evil, where the good guys always win, in movies that don’t make sense aren’t about Good versus Evil. They’re just another opportunity for movie makers to set up their side as “Good” and the other side as “Evil”. This is why movies today are getting political (to the detriment of their quality).
[4] Looking at data
3)
Assess the quality of a sample of movies, perhaps across time periods, perhaps highly rated/popular movies.
Has the factor we’re interested in changed over time?
(Is realism going down, up, in a cycle, or randomly—say, based on really popular movies coming out which do or don’t have features (such as realism), and then more movies like that getting made, Y number of Years later.)
Have other factors? Are there any relationships in the data?
(Update: it might be better to just come up with a list of questions that are always good to ask/have been really useful in the past (in other domains) and use that instead. The chart is just 1) a row of such questions 2) a row where you add a checkmark after you’ve answered that question (about the topic you’re trying to understand.)
A lens/frame/framework is a way of looking at things. I meant this to be a suggestion to see how a lens can be applied to other domains by constructing a chart/checklist as follows:
There are n columns and 2 rows, where n is the number of lenses. The first column tells you what is in each row. The top element of the first column contains ‘the name of your idea’. The bottom element of the first column can contain the word “lens”. The bottom row (after the first element) contains the name of each lens (that you have given it). The top row (after the first element) contains either blank spaces or check marks*.
Coming up with a procedure to see if you’ve thought through all the implications of a model may also be useful.
*One could also put a page number in it, and write about that idea through that lens on that page.
Relatedly, I’d suggest ‘Things you create or skills you have.’
The least useful feedback?
Try more things, see if you enjoy them. (Also, sometimes you can learn from things you don’t like—a story with a specific form of bad storytelling might teach you something about the right way to tell stories.)
.
This section didn’t have bold parts.
Why wouldn’t “Idea Rate = Ideas per (Unit of Time)” ? It would seem one could increase the amount/rate of ideas they have, not only by increases their ideas per opportunity, but also by increasing their number of opportunities.
I didn’t understand this until I copied it here, and the formatting clicked, and then it all made sense.
(Emphasis added.)
Problems are important, as is coming up with them/having good sources for them.
It might be useful to come up with frames and give them names and put them in a list, so you can do this:
[New Idea]: (check)
Frames [Frame 1] [Frame 2] etc.
Also see how you can implement an idea, particularly—quickly. (This one can be hard.)
More generally, release “Delays” period. Having a model of the process can help with this. (It’s possible the low hanging fruit has been picked in communication technology on the raw speed front*, but it’s useful to note how this can speed up things we do.)
*To such an extent some may find it detrimental. One could compare the quality of comments on twitter with the quality of letters, or the quality of of moves in a live chess game versus one by post. (It’s also easier to draw on paper.)
That’s hard to do with such a good idea.
The section above is related to that fact that “idea quality” can be subjective—coming up with ideas that sound great is all well and good, but reality is the final arbiter. (Though this kind of depends on what you’re working on.) Finding ways to implement things or ideas/testing things out might help. I’d also ask where these “first principles” come from.
If you enjoy something, you might not learn as much. Consider the popular Lord of the Rings. Did you learn something by reading/watching it? The first time? The n-th time?
Eh. Can you really change the world with an idea that doesn’t upset people?
This could use some elaboration.
Very much appreciate your input and the kind words in regards to the merits of the post. I don’t think I understand what it means to ‘frame’ something as you specified in this comment:
It might be useful to come up with frames and give them names and put them in a list, so you can do this:
Frames [Frame 1] [Frame 2] etc.
Any chance you could clarify/provide an example of what this kind of thing would look like? Thanks again.
(This is meant to be purely illustrative, not taken seriously. Also, given how hard it was to come up with frames, it might be better to replace using lenses this way with ‘questions that are always good to ask’.)
Idea [1]____1___________2__________3
Lenses:__Economic__Narrative [3] Empiricism [4]
[1] Movies these days seem to be lacking realism[2]/X.
1)
Is there not an audience for realism/X? (Or is this a market failure?)
Are most movies produced by studios that aren’t good at writing realism/X?
Is it more expensive to produce movies which are more realistic/X?
Harder to make money off of?
Is this the result of government regulation? Self-regulation?
Do the people involved in making movies (scriptwriters, directors, etc.) prefer less realistic**/X movies? Find it easier to make such movies?
[2] What is the alternative to realism that is more common?
(Realistically, the best way to make progress on a question like this is probably by unpacking ‘What you mean by “realism”/X.’)
[3] A struggle between the forces of good and evil.
2)
Who controls Hollywood, good or evil? Both? Neither?
What reasons might they have for doing this?
Good:
It’s easier to have the good guys win in movies if you’re less realistic. It also delivers a particular message ’you will win if you’re good, no matter how ridiculous that sounds.
Bad:
It lulls people into a false sense of security. “All evil needs to prevail is every good person doing nothing.” As it is hard to get people to do nothing, the nothing must be obscured by an illusion of doing something—thus, meaningless visual media, Netflix, etc.
Neither:
a)
Life isn’t perfect. People go to the movies to get away from it all/see the people they agree with win. It doesn’t have to make sense, it just has to be entertaining and end happily.
b)
Movie makers don’t care about realism. Conflicts of Good versus Evil, where the good guys always win, in movies that don’t make sense aren’t about Good versus Evil. They’re just another opportunity for movie makers to set up their side as “Good” and the other side as “Evil”. This is why movies today are getting political (to the detriment of their quality).
[4] Looking at data
3)
Assess the quality of a sample of movies, perhaps across time periods, perhaps highly rated/popular movies.
Has the factor we’re interested in changed over time?
(Is realism going down, up, in a cycle, or randomly—say, based on really popular movies coming out which do or don’t have features (such as realism), and then more movies like that getting made, Y number of Years later.)
Have other factors? Are there any relationships in the data?
(Update: it might be better to just come up with a list of questions that are always good to ask/have been really useful in the past (in other domains) and use that instead. The chart is just 1) a row of such questions 2) a row where you add a checkmark after you’ve answered that question (about the topic you’re trying to understand.)
A lens/frame/framework is a way of looking at things. I meant this to be a suggestion to see how a lens can be applied to other domains by constructing a chart/checklist as follows:
There are n columns and 2 rows, where n is the number of lenses. The first column tells you what is in each row. The top element of the first column contains ‘the name of your idea’. The bottom element of the first column can contain the word “lens”. The bottom row (after the first element) contains the name of each lens (that you have given it). The top row (after the first element) contains either blank spaces or check marks*.
Coming up with a procedure to see if you’ve thought through all the implications of a model may also be useful.
*One could also put a page number in it, and write about that idea through that lens on that page.