Hmm, I’m noticing that a surprisingly large portion of my recent creative progress can be traced down to a single “isthmus” (a key pattern that helps you connect many other patterns). It’s the trigger-action-plan of
IF you see an interesting pattern that doesn’t have a name THEN invent a new word and make a flashcard for it
This may not sound like much, and it wouldn’t to me either if I hadn’t seen it make a profound difference.
Interesting patterns are powerups, and if you just go “huh, that’s interesting” and then move on with your life, you’re totally wasting their potential. Making a name for it makes it much more likely that you’ll be able to spontaneously see the pattern elsewhere (isthmus-passing insights). And making a flashcard for it makes sure you access it when you have different distributions of activation levels over other ideas, making it more likely that you’ll end up making synthetic (isthmus-centered) insights between them. (For this reason, I’m also strongly against the idea of dissuading people from using jargon as long as the jargon makes sense. I think people should use more jargon, even if it seems embarrassingly supercilious and perhaps intimidating to outsiders).
There are two ways to try and solve the maze: find a path (search, prime &babble) or find constraints by finding walls.
If I need to go from the left to the right In a maze then highlighting continuous vertical stretches of wall from top to bottom will yield bottlenecks while horizontal highlighting along paths yield isthmuses.
Both techniques can be used together
Hmm, I’m noticing that a surprisingly large portion of my recent creative progress can be traced down to a single “isthmus” (a key pattern that helps you connect many other patterns). It’s the trigger-action-plan of
IF you see an interesting pattern that doesn’t have a name
THEN invent a new word and make a flashcard for it
This may not sound like much, and it wouldn’t to me either if I hadn’t seen it make a profound difference.
Interesting patterns are powerups, and if you just go “huh, that’s interesting” and then move on with your life, you’re totally wasting their potential. Making a name for it makes it much more likely that you’ll be able to spontaneously see the pattern elsewhere (isthmus-passing insights). And making a flashcard for it makes sure you access it when you have different distributions of activation levels over other ideas, making it more likely that you’ll end up making synthetic (isthmus-centered) insights between them. (For this reason, I’m also strongly against the idea of dissuading people from using jargon as long as the jargon makes sense. I think people should use more jargon, even if it seems embarrassingly supercilious and perhaps intimidating to outsiders).
I dig the word isthmus and I like your linked comment about it being somehow dual to a bottleneck (i.e. constraint).
It seems quite related to Wentworth’s mazes. I.e. see the picture https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/nEBbw2Bc2CnN2RMxy/gears-level-models-are-capital-investments
There are two ways to try and solve the maze: find a path (search, prime &babble) or find constraints by finding walls.
If I need to go from the left to the right In a maze then highlighting continuous vertical stretches of wall from top to bottom will yield bottlenecks while horizontal highlighting along paths yield isthmuses. Both techniques can be used together
Quite cool imho
owo thanks
Seems like Andy Matuschak feels the same way about spaced repetition being a great tool for innovation.