Okay, I’ll take a stab at answering. I’m kind of loath to do this because one of the main points of this post is that specific techniques are overemphasized and I think specific examples won’t help with this, but perhaps a more expansive description on my part can avoid that pitfall.
In 2010, I read Patri Friedman’s Self-Improvement or Shiny Distraction, which I consider to be an essentially correct indictment of things around here, or at least things around here circa 2010. This is the post that sort of jolted me out of complacency with regards to my own training.
In my experience with the martial arts, I consistently apply things that I’ve drilled a lot (to the point where it takes conscious effort to not do some things—I was once called up to be a dummy for someone demonstrating a certain type of deceptive fencing attack and found it very difficult to not parry the attack, deception or no, since I had drilled the parry to that particular deception so often) I inconsistently apply things that I don’t drill, and I don’t apply things that I don’t drill.
Rationality is, in my experience, very much the same (others have noticed this too). I consistently apply thought patterns and principles that I’ve invested serious time and effort into drilling, I occasionally apply thought patterns and principles that I’ve thought about a fair amount but haven’t put really serious effort into, and I don’t apply thought patterns or principles that I’ve heard of but not really thought about. I’m actually rather embarrassed that I didn’t notice this until reading Patri’s post in 2010, but so it goes.
One example of a specific rationality skill that I have invested time and effort into drilling is that of keeping my identity small. I read a lot and I read fast, and hence when I was first linked to a Paul Graham essay I read all of them in one sitting. Keep Your Identity Small stuck with me the most, but for a while it was something I sort of believed in but hadn’t applied. Here’s some evidence of me not having applied it—note the date.
However, at one point in early 2011 I noticed myself feeling personally insulted when someone was making fun of a group that I used to belong to, and more importantly I noticed that that was something that I wasn’t supposed to do anymore. How could this be?
Well, quite frankly, it was because despite high degrees of theoretical knowledge about rationality, I lacked the practice hours required to be good at it. Unfortunately, most rationality skills are rare enough that knowing a little bit beyond a password-guessing level makes you seem very advanced relative to others. But rationality, except in certain competitive situations, isn’t about being better than others, it’s about being the best you can be.
So to make a long story short, I devised methods and put in the practice hours and got better, and now I actually know a few things instead of sort of knowing a few things. I winced at how low-level I used to be when I read that post from 2010, but all in all that’s probably a good sign. After all, if I didn’t think my old writing was silly and confused, wouldn’t that indicate that I hadn’t been progressing since then? Three years of progression should yield noticeably different results.
That I cannot do, as it really would be just describing specific techniques. I may do so in a later post, though, and will link it here if and when that happens.
I spent a fair amount of time in martial arts and have a similar attitude toward generalization of kata/form. This idea is standing behind my consistent emphasis on the benefits of coding (particularly TDD) for this community. It builds thought patterns that are useful for tasks that computers typically perform better.
Okay, I’ll take a stab at answering. I’m kind of loath to do this because one of the main points of this post is that specific techniques are overemphasized and I think specific examples won’t help with this, but perhaps a more expansive description on my part can avoid that pitfall.
In 2010, I read Patri Friedman’s Self-Improvement or Shiny Distraction, which I consider to be an essentially correct indictment of things around here, or at least things around here circa 2010. This is the post that sort of jolted me out of complacency with regards to my own training.
In my experience with the martial arts, I consistently apply things that I’ve drilled a lot (to the point where it takes conscious effort to not do some things—I was once called up to be a dummy for someone demonstrating a certain type of deceptive fencing attack and found it very difficult to not parry the attack, deception or no, since I had drilled the parry to that particular deception so often) I inconsistently apply things that I don’t drill, and I don’t apply things that I don’t drill.
Rationality is, in my experience, very much the same (others have noticed this too). I consistently apply thought patterns and principles that I’ve invested serious time and effort into drilling, I occasionally apply thought patterns and principles that I’ve thought about a fair amount but haven’t put really serious effort into, and I don’t apply thought patterns or principles that I’ve heard of but not really thought about. I’m actually rather embarrassed that I didn’t notice this until reading Patri’s post in 2010, but so it goes.
One example of a specific rationality skill that I have invested time and effort into drilling is that of keeping my identity small. I read a lot and I read fast, and hence when I was first linked to a Paul Graham essay I read all of them in one sitting. Keep Your Identity Small stuck with me the most, but for a while it was something I sort of believed in but hadn’t applied. Here’s some evidence of me not having applied it—note the date.
However, at one point in early 2011 I noticed myself feeling personally insulted when someone was making fun of a group that I used to belong to, and more importantly I noticed that that was something that I wasn’t supposed to do anymore. How could this be?
Well, quite frankly, it was because despite high degrees of theoretical knowledge about rationality, I lacked the practice hours required to be good at it. Unfortunately, most rationality skills are rare enough that knowing a little bit beyond a password-guessing level makes you seem very advanced relative to others. But rationality, except in certain competitive situations, isn’t about being better than others, it’s about being the best you can be.
So to make a long story short, I devised methods and put in the practice hours and got better, and now I actually know a few things instead of sort of knowing a few things. I winced at how low-level I used to be when I read that post from 2010, but all in all that’s probably a good sign. After all, if I didn’t think my old writing was silly and confused, wouldn’t that indicate that I hadn’t been progressing since then? Three years of progression should yield noticeably different results.
Could you unpack the training montage a bit? I don’t really know what you mean by this.
That I cannot do, as it really would be just describing specific techniques. I may do so in a later post, though, and will link it here if and when that happens.
I spent a fair amount of time in martial arts and have a similar attitude toward generalization of kata/form. This idea is standing behind my consistent emphasis on the benefits of coding (particularly TDD) for this community. It builds thought patterns that are useful for tasks that computers typically perform better.