I had a very useful conversation with someone about how and why I am rambly. (I rambled a lot in the conversation!).
Disclaimer: I am not making much effort to not ramble in this post.
A couple takeaways:
1. Working Memory Limits
One key problem is that I introduce so many points, subpoints, and subthreads, that I overwhelm people’s working memory (where human working memory limits is roughly “4-7 chunks”).
It’s sort of embarrassing that I didn’t concretely think about this before, because I’ve spent the past year SPECIFICALLY thinking about working memory limits, and how they are the key bottleneck on intellectual progress.
So, one new habit I have is “whenever I’ve introduced more than 6 points to keep track of, stop and and figure out how to condense the working tree of points down to <4.
(Ideally, I also keep track of this in advance and word things more simply, or give better signposting for what overall point I’m going to make, or why I’m talking about the things I’m talking about)
...
2. I just don’t finish sente
I frequently don’t finish sentences, whether in person voice or in text (like emails). I’ve known this for awhile, although I kinda forgot recently. I switch abruptly to a new sentence when I realize the current sentence isn’t going to accomplish the thing I want, and I have a Much Shinier Sentence Over Here that seems much more promising.
But, people don’t understand why I’m making the leap from one half-finished thought to another.
So, another simple habit is “make sure to finish my god damn sentences, even if I become disappointed in them halfway through”
...
3. Use Mindful Cognition Tuning to train on *what is easy for people to follow*, as well as to improve the creativity/usefulness of my thoughts.
I’ve always been rambly. But a thing that I think has made me EVEN MORE rambly in the past 2 years is a mindful-thinking-technique, where you notice all of your thoughts on the less-than-a-second level, so that you can notice which thought patterns are useful or anti-useful.
This has been really powerful for improving my thought-quality. I’m fairly confident that I’ve become a better programmer and better thinker because of it.
But, it introduces even more meta-thoughts for me to notice while I’m articulating a sentence, which distract me from the sentence itself.
What I realized last weekend was: I can use Mindful Cognition to notice what types of thoughts/sentences are useful for *other people’s comprehension of me*, not just how useful m original thought processes are.
The whole point of the technique is to improve your feedback loop (both speed and awareness), which makes it easier to deliberate practice. I think if I just apply that towards Being More Comprehensible, it’ll change from being a liability in rambliness to an asset.
re working memory: never thought of it during conversations, interesting. it seems that we sometime hold the nodes of the conversation tree to go back to them afterward. and maybe if you’re introducing new concepts while you’re talking people need to hold those definitions in working memory as well.
I had a very useful conversation with someone about how and why I am rambly. (I rambled a lot in the conversation!).
Disclaimer: I am not making much effort to not ramble in this post.
A couple takeaways:
1. Working Memory Limits
One key problem is that I introduce so many points, subpoints, and subthreads, that I overwhelm people’s working memory (where human working memory limits is roughly “4-7 chunks”).
It’s sort of embarrassing that I didn’t concretely think about this before, because I’ve spent the past year SPECIFICALLY thinking about working memory limits, and how they are the key bottleneck on intellectual progress.
So, one new habit I have is “whenever I’ve introduced more than 6 points to keep track of, stop and and figure out how to condense the working tree of points down to <4.
(Ideally, I also keep track of this in advance and word things more simply, or give better signposting for what overall point I’m going to make, or why I’m talking about the things I’m talking about)
...
2. I just don’t finish sente
I frequently don’t finish sentences, whether in person voice or in text (like emails). I’ve known this for awhile, although I kinda forgot recently. I switch abruptly to a new sentence when I realize the current sentence isn’t going to accomplish the thing I want, and I have a Much Shinier Sentence Over Here that seems much more promising.
But, people don’t understand why I’m making the leap from one half-finished thought to another.
So, another simple habit is “make sure to finish my god damn sentences, even if I become disappointed in them halfway through”
...
3. Use Mindful Cognition Tuning to train on *what is easy for people to follow*, as well as to improve the creativity/usefulness of my thoughts.
I’ve always been rambly. But a thing that I think has made me EVEN MORE rambly in the past 2 years is a mindful-thinking-technique, where you notice all of your thoughts on the less-than-a-second level, so that you can notice which thought patterns are useful or anti-useful.
This has been really powerful for improving my thought-quality. I’m fairly confident that I’ve become a better programmer and better thinker because of it.
But, it introduces even more meta-thoughts for me to notice while I’m articulating a sentence, which distract me from the sentence itself.
What I realized last weekend was: I can use Mindful Cognition to notice what types of thoughts/sentences are useful for *other people’s comprehension of me*, not just how useful m original thought processes are.
The whole point of the technique is to improve your feedback loop (both speed and awareness), which makes it easier to deliberate practice. I think if I just apply that towards Being More Comprehensible, it’ll change from being a liability in rambliness to an asset.
re working memory: never thought of it during conversations, interesting. it seems that we sometime hold the nodes of the conversation tree to go back to them afterward. and maybe if you’re introducing new concepts while you’re talking people need to hold those definitions in working memory as well.
Could you explain (or give a link) what is “Mindful Cognition Tuning”?
Here you go!
http://bewelltuned.com/tune_your_cognitive_strategies