At any one time (i.e. in any one specific situation) the most I’ve ever seen anyone juggle is about six. Like, I have sometimes actively booted up 5-7 advisors over the course of a ten-minute introspection, and have seen others do the same, and sometimes those advisors “talk to” each other directly without me feeling like the Duncan-personality is doing anything other than watching.
But as for my overall cast of shoulder advisors—it’s well over thirty? Essentially anyone I get to know past a certain level becomes emulable, and many many people might pop onto my shoulder only once or twice a year, or only once ever. But there are at least thirty people (maybe fifteen real and fifteen fictional) who I regularly emulate.
Recommendations to cut things down were solely for the purpose of “if you’ve never done this/have no experience, don’t try to do too much at once.”
Definitely I’ve never had more than one “voice” going at a time, even if there are two or three voices interrupting and taking over in rapid succession. This accords with what I’ve heard from other people, though I haven’t specifically asked about whether people ever hear two-or-more.
I think in a given three-second span I can track something like the “mood” of at least three different perspectives or advisors at once? The same way that (if my own experience generalizes) you can be in a room with ten people, and someone says something, and you immediately have a visceral feeling about how several of the other people will react.
you can be in a room with ten people, and someone says something, and you immediately have a visceral feeling about how several of the other people will react.
Since a recent meditation retreat, I can notice the mood of a group of people—but that isn’t the same as having a specific feeling about all individual reactions and aggregating over it. If you can do the latter I’m impressed.
It’s usually far from “all.” It’s more like, in this room with ten people who I know reasonably well, any given development will tend to provoke specific, identifiable reactions from my mental model of 1-4 of them. If ten minutes go by, my attention will land on almost everyone at some point, and I’ll have clear intuitions for almost everyone at some point, but in any given moment some will be much more salient than others.
Yeah, at this point we’re drifting away from the concept of “a curated mental model” and into just “general mental impressions,” or something. But they’re contiguous concepts, in my head—they’re just different in something like vividness or intensity or clarity. I can “turn my focus” toward what’s just a whispering impression, and it becomes more of what I’m thinking of as a fully-fledged emulation, or I can shove an emulation into the back of my mind and ignore it and it subsides into just being a tickle of awareness.
I can shove an emulation into the back of my mind and ignore it and it subsides into just being a tickle of awareness.
Yes. That rhymes well. I can better describe what goes on with these emulations now.
My primary mental mode is thinking in concepts. Probably related to what Kaj called conceptese. I struggled to find concepts for people; some intermediate structure was missing. With your shoulder advisors, I have found it. And I can apply all the machinery that I have for concepts.
With meditation practice, I got better at noticing thoughts forming or concepts activating. Following your instructions, memories of friends are brought up, and let babble—mostly their expressions. Some do feel easier—have higher emulability. There is quick back and forth between your suggestions and own experimentation. A list is updated with results. First spontaneous activations happen—just fleeting sentences. Like an idea coming up.
My prediction is that this will go the same way many concepts and skills do with me: After a short time of being very concrete, they will stop standing on their own but become part of my overall way of being. Thus less like a person advising but more like just knowing what is going on (your “general mental impressions”). At least if it goes efficiently, otherwise it will remain as a tool used consciously but rarely.
I love how Jean-Luc Picard was selected to be one of your advisors. He is also among my best candidates :).
What is the largest number of advisers you have known people to actively use? I am a bit reluctant to cut it down to four or five.
At any one time (i.e. in any one specific situation) the most I’ve ever seen anyone juggle is about six. Like, I have sometimes actively booted up 5-7 advisors over the course of a ten-minute introspection, and have seen others do the same, and sometimes those advisors “talk to” each other directly without me feeling like the Duncan-personality is doing anything other than watching.
But as for my overall cast of shoulder advisors—it’s well over thirty? Essentially anyone I get to know past a certain level becomes emulable, and many many people might pop onto my shoulder only once or twice a year, or only once ever. But there are at least thirty people (maybe fifteen real and fifteen fictional) who I regularly emulate.
Recommendations to cut things down were solely for the purpose of “if you’ve never done this/have no experience, don’t try to do too much at once.”
I am curious about the effort it takes or the impact it has on resolution, or the time needed. My predictions would be
no two advisors can talk at the same time but take turns (but can interrupt)
effort or at least time scales mostly linearly
Dunbar’s number applies
Definitely I’ve never had more than one “voice” going at a time, even if there are two or three voices interrupting and taking over in rapid succession. This accords with what I’ve heard from other people, though I haven’t specifically asked about whether people ever hear two-or-more.
I think in a given three-second span I can track something like the “mood” of at least three different perspectives or advisors at once? The same way that (if my own experience generalizes) you can be in a room with ten people, and someone says something, and you immediately have a visceral feeling about how several of the other people will react.
Since a recent meditation retreat, I can notice the mood of a group of people—but that isn’t the same as having a specific feeling about all individual reactions and aggregating over it. If you can do the latter I’m impressed.
It’s usually far from “all.” It’s more like, in this room with ten people who I know reasonably well, any given development will tend to provoke specific, identifiable reactions from my mental model of 1-4 of them. If ten minutes go by, my attention will land on almost everyone at some point, and I’ll have clear intuitions for almost everyone at some point, but in any given moment some will be much more salient than others.
That sounds like what experienced managers I know seem to be capable of, though they wouldn’t phrase it in terms of advisors.
Yeah, at this point we’re drifting away from the concept of “a curated mental model” and into just “general mental impressions,” or something. But they’re contiguous concepts, in my head—they’re just different in something like vividness or intensity or clarity. I can “turn my focus” toward what’s just a whispering impression, and it becomes more of what I’m thinking of as a fully-fledged emulation, or I can shove an emulation into the back of my mind and ignore it and it subsides into just being a tickle of awareness.
Yes. That rhymes well. I can better describe what goes on with these emulations now.
My primary mental mode is thinking in concepts. Probably related to what Kaj called conceptese. I struggled to find concepts for people; some intermediate structure was missing. With your shoulder advisors, I have found it. And I can apply all the machinery that I have for concepts.
With meditation practice, I got better at noticing thoughts forming or concepts activating. Following your instructions, memories of friends are brought up, and let babble—mostly their expressions. Some do feel easier—have higher emulability. There is quick back and forth between your suggestions and own experimentation. A list is updated with results. First spontaneous activations happen—just fleeting sentences. Like an idea coming up.
My prediction is that this will go the same way many concepts and skills do with me: After a short time of being very concrete, they will stop standing on their own but become part of my overall way of being. Thus less like a person advising but more like just knowing what is going on (your “general mental impressions”). At least if it goes efficiently, otherwise it will remain as a tool used consciously but rarely.