Good, original thinking feels present to me—as if mental resources are well-allocated.
The thought which prompted this:
Sure, if people are asked to solve a problem and say they can’t after two seconds, yes—make fun of that a bit. But that two seconds covers more ground than you might think, due to System 1 precomputation.
Reacting to a bit of HPMOR here, I noticed something felt off about Harry’s reply to the Fred/George-tried-for-two-seconds thing. Having a bit of experience noticing confusing, I did not think “I notice I am confused” (although this can be useful). I did not think “Eliezer probably put thought into this”, or “Harry is kinda dumb in certain ways—so what if he’s a bit unfair here?”. Without resurfacing, or distraction, or wondering if this train of thought is more fun than just reading further, I just thought about the object-level exchange.
People need to allocate mental energy wisely; this goes far beyond focusing on important tasks. Your existing mental skillsets already optimize and auto-pilot certain mental motions for you, so you should allocate less deliberation to them. In this case, the confusion-noticing module was honed; by not worrying about how well I noticed confusion, I was able to quickly have an original thought.
When thought processes derail or brainstorming sessions bear no fruit, inappropriate allocation may be to blame. For example, if you’re anxious, you’re interrupting the actual thoughts with “what-if”s.
To contrast, non-present thinking feels like a controller directing thoughts to go from here to there: do this and then, check that, come up for air over and over… Present thinking is a stream of uninterrupted strikes, the train of thought chugging along without self-consciousness. Moving, instead of thinking about moving while moving.
I don’t know if I’ve nailed down the thing I’m trying to point at yet.
Sure, if people are asked to solve a problem and say they can’t after two seconds, yes—make fun of that a bit. But that two seconds covers more ground than you might think, due to System 1 precomputation.
Expanding on this, there is an aspect of Actually Trying that is probably missing from S1 precomputation. So, maybe the two-second “attempt” is actually useless for most people because subconscious deliberation isn’t hardass enough at giving its all, at making desperate and extraordinary efforts to solve the problem.
Good, original thinking feels present to me—as if mental resources are well-allocated.
The thought which prompted this:
Reacting to a bit of HPMOR here, I noticed something felt off about Harry’s reply to the Fred/George-tried-for-two-seconds thing. Having a bit of experience noticing confusing, I did not think “I notice I am confused” (although this can be useful). I did not think “Eliezer probably put thought into this”, or “Harry is kinda dumb in certain ways—so what if he’s a bit unfair here?”. Without resurfacing, or distraction, or wondering if this train of thought is more fun than just reading further, I just thought about the object-level exchange.
People need to allocate mental energy wisely; this goes far beyond focusing on important tasks. Your existing mental skillsets already optimize and auto-pilot certain mental motions for you, so you should allocate less deliberation to them. In this case, the confusion-noticing module was honed; by not worrying about how well I noticed confusion, I was able to quickly have an original thought.
When thought processes derail or brainstorming sessions bear no fruit, inappropriate allocation may be to blame. For example, if you’re anxious, you’re interrupting the actual thoughts with “what-if”s.
To contrast, non-present thinking feels like a controller directing thoughts to go from here to there: do this and then, check that, come up for air over and over… Present thinking is a stream of uninterrupted strikes, the train of thought chugging along without self-consciousness. Moving, instead of thinking about moving while moving.
I don’t know if I’ve nailed down the thing I’m trying to point at yet.
Expanding on this, there is an aspect of Actually Trying that is probably missing from S1 precomputation. So, maybe the two-second “attempt” is actually useless for most people because subconscious deliberation isn’t hardass enough at giving its all, at making desperate and extraordinary efforts to solve the problem.