“Finally, the obvious question: what extra information do you mentally track, which is crucial to performing some task well?”
When I try to cook something complicated by recipe, I go over each line of the recipe and previsualize all the corresponding physical actions. I previsualize the state, amount, location and the transitions for each object. Objects = {pots, pans, ingredients, oil, condiments, package, piece of trash, volume of water, stove, task-completion times, hands, free seconds/minutes for cleaning during the cook, towel, tissue paper...}. This tells me where the recipe is underspecified or needs to be adapted to my kitchen and allows me to fix the uncertainty beforehand, instead of giving me a puzzle in the moment where a bunch of parralelized tasks severely limit the estimated available interruption-free cognitive capacity. I try to go for a high-fidelity visual simulation and run it multiple times (obviously I speed it up). If the recipe is already chunked into stages, I mentally review them seperately. I also think of the “why” of the steps within the recipe. It’s far easier to memorize a complex structure, if I can logically appreciate why it looks like that. Also I mentally set markers for expected free minutes, where I have time to re-review the next stage.
If I do all of that, cooking something complex becomes quite joyful and easy, instead of stressful. I am not really a visual thinker. Visual thinking is aversive to me. Or perhaps… it’s more anti-mimetic, as it’s just not a cognitive option that naturally occurs to me. Because I’m just far more performant in thinking by combining verbal abstractions. Path dependency and all that. However, intellectually I know, that if I could sharpen and practice my visual thinking subskill, I can in time dramatically increase my cognitive capabilities. For example, I recently found the recursive formula for cubes, just by visualizing it whilst drinking coffee in my gym. (no written notes) m:= n+1 m^3= n^3 + 3n^2 + 3n + 1 [normally, you’d only use n instead of defining m as the successor, but I find this to be needlessly difficult, because it causes a ton of interference for me]
It was a bit challenging, but also something that I just started spontaneously doing for fun. And I’m pretty sure I could find the general formula for n^m (m being a natural number) too, next time I have a liminal context, that usually ends up seeing me preoccupied with fantasies and mentally rehearsing arguments. For a true visual thinker, this probably is “just obvious” but this is me shrinking the gap. So… baby steps.
But during my day-to-day cognitive operations the hyerbolic utility functions (fancy way of saying “impatience”) means, I don’t want to use those underdeveloped skills. Practicing unusual thought patterns with no clear momentary payoff is frustrating and cognitively exhausting. And if I’m drained like that, I’m at very high risk for the YouTube/book/daydreaming/websurfing-etc. -cognitohazards.
But for cooking something difficult, visualization has proven so extremely useful, that I’ll always do it there now. Because when I am lazy and just read and execute the recipe as I go along (my prior default), the whole process is far more cumbersome, frustrating and the outcome is unsatisfying. And I don’t actually get much better or more comfortable at cooking itself. Because visualization has such incredibly high applicability in this domain, I actually have far less internal resistance when using it. Therefore can visualize far better in this context, than normally. And by updating what I’m actually already capable of, I’m slowly making it more salient/less anti-mimietic/less aversive as an option.
I like the (n+1)3 bit, I took the time to try it out in my head too and it was a fun puzzle. I wonder if I can actually get better at visualization practicing problems of that difficulty level?
“Finally, the obvious question: what extra information do you mentally track, which is crucial to performing some task well?”
When I try to cook something complicated by recipe, I go over each line of the recipe and previsualize all the corresponding physical actions.
I previsualize the state, amount, location and the transitions for each object. Objects = {pots, pans, ingredients, oil, condiments, package, piece of trash, volume of water, stove, task-completion times, hands, free seconds/minutes for cleaning during the cook, towel, tissue paper...}.
This tells me where the recipe is underspecified or needs to be adapted to my kitchen and allows me to fix the uncertainty beforehand, instead of giving me a puzzle in the moment where a bunch of parralelized tasks severely limit the estimated available interruption-free cognitive capacity. I try to go for a high-fidelity visual simulation and run it multiple times (obviously I speed it up).
If the recipe is already chunked into stages, I mentally review them seperately. I also think of the “why” of the steps within the recipe. It’s far easier to memorize a complex structure, if I can logically appreciate why it looks like that. Also I mentally set markers for expected free minutes, where I have time to re-review the next stage.
If I do all of that, cooking something complex becomes quite joyful and easy, instead of stressful.
I am not really a visual thinker. Visual thinking is aversive to me.
Or perhaps… it’s more anti-mimetic, as it’s just not a cognitive option that naturally occurs to me. Because I’m just far more performant in thinking by combining verbal abstractions. Path dependency and all that.
However, intellectually I know, that if I could sharpen and practice my visual thinking subskill, I can in time dramatically increase my cognitive capabilities.
For example, I recently found the recursive formula for cubes, just by visualizing it whilst drinking coffee in my gym. (no written notes)
m:= n+1
m^3= n^3 + 3n^2 + 3n + 1
[normally, you’d only use n instead of defining m as the successor, but I find this to be needlessly difficult, because it causes a ton of interference for me]
It was a bit challenging, but also something that I just started spontaneously doing for fun. And I’m pretty sure I could find the general formula for n^m (m being a natural number) too, next time I have a liminal context, that usually ends up seeing me preoccupied with fantasies and mentally rehearsing arguments.
For a true visual thinker, this probably is “just obvious” but this is me shrinking the gap. So… baby steps.
But during my day-to-day cognitive operations the hyerbolic utility functions (fancy way of saying “impatience”) means, I don’t want to use those underdeveloped skills.
Practicing unusual thought patterns with no clear momentary payoff is frustrating and cognitively exhausting. And if I’m drained like that, I’m at very high risk for the YouTube/book/daydreaming/websurfing-etc. -cognitohazards.
But for cooking something difficult, visualization has proven so extremely useful, that I’ll always do it there now. Because when I am lazy and just read and execute the recipe as I go along (my prior default), the whole process is far more cumbersome, frustrating and the outcome is unsatisfying. And I don’t actually get much better or more comfortable at cooking itself. Because visualization has such incredibly high applicability in this domain, I actually have far less internal resistance when using it. Therefore can visualize far better in this context, than normally. And by updating what I’m actually already capable of, I’m slowly making it more salient/less anti-mimietic/less aversive as an option.
I like the (n+1)3 bit, I took the time to try it out in my head too and it was a fun puzzle. I wonder if I can actually get better at visualization practicing problems of that difficulty level?
Of course. Till they become too easy, then you’d need something harder.
Or you practice speed, I suppose.
I tried to solve (n+1)^4 visually. I spent about five minutes, and was unable to visualise well enough.