Tried not to prune this time, at the encouragement of the post :)
A class of bugs in a software project: General factors here could be a bad programmer, bad architecture, legacy code, etc.
Motivation/Akrasia: Several bad habits can stem from the same underlying source, e.g. inner misalignment between your “parts”. You could call these “bug generators”
Laws of physics are a general factor in physical phenomena (not exactly a numeric factor)
Having problem X is a general factor in the symptoms of the problem. (highly generalized aging example)
Sports. Physical versions of the general factor: strength, gym habits, etc. (This is like g for intelligence)
Discord servers (and communites generally) have a general factor made up of the administrators and core members
Culture has a general factor (is downstream of) of social media influencers, movies/media, and university culture.
Bonus exercise
Akrasia: People often intervene in symptoms (block distractions, commitment devices, etc) rather than the general factor of inner misalignment. I have a whole blog post about this.
Is the average of the outputs (say, net productivity) the same as the general factor? Not exactly, increased inner alignment & mental health can reduce productivity in the short term (and conversely, unhealthy productivity hacks can increase it in the short term.)
PS: After glancing at AllAmericanBreakfast’s answer I’m unsure if I should say “X is a general factor of [positive manifold items...] or “X is a general factor with positive manifold items [...] ”; probably doesn’t matter)
I love your examples. You also often directly mention multiple general factors in your comment, which is a great example of something I didn’t properly investigate in the post, of mixings where different factors have similar effects on some area.
The laws of physics are also a particularly nice and creative example. This arguably generalizes to other laws of nature too, and to human-enforced laws of society.
Tried not to prune this time, at the encouragement of the post :)
A class of bugs in a software project: General factors here could be a bad programmer, bad architecture, legacy code, etc.
Motivation/Akrasia: Several bad habits can stem from the same underlying source, e.g. inner misalignment between your “parts”. You could call these “bug generators”
Laws of physics are a general factor in physical phenomena (not exactly a numeric factor)
Having problem X is a general factor in the symptoms of the problem. (highly generalized aging example)
Sports. Physical versions of the general factor: strength, gym habits, etc. (This is like g for intelligence)
Discord servers (and communites generally) have a general factor made up of the administrators and core members
Culture has a general factor (is downstream of) of social media influencers, movies/media, and university culture.
Bonus exercise
Akrasia: People often intervene in symptoms (block distractions, commitment devices, etc) rather than the general factor of inner misalignment. I have a whole blog post about this.
Is the average of the outputs (say, net productivity) the same as the general factor? Not exactly, increased inner alignment & mental health can reduce productivity in the short term (and conversely, unhealthy productivity hacks can increase it in the short term.)
PS: After glancing at AllAmericanBreakfast’s answer I’m unsure if I should say “X is a general factor of [positive manifold items...] or “X is a general factor with positive manifold items [...] ”; probably doesn’t matter)
I love your examples. You also often directly mention multiple general factors in your comment, which is a great example of something I didn’t properly investigate in the post, of mixings where different factors have similar effects on some area.
The laws of physics are also a particularly nice and creative example. This arguably generalizes to other laws of nature too, and to human-enforced laws of society.
Some other ones after adding “non-causal/reversed causal direction” and “summary” to my prompt
Knowledge. with a positive manifold of books read, articles read, courses taken, projects done, work experience, age
Social Skills. with a positive manifold of sensitivity, looks, compassion, generosity, voice, eye contact, body language, and of course, books read ;)