The first in a series of bite-sized rationality prompts^[1].

This is my most common opening-move for Instrumental Rationality. There are many, many other pieces of instrumental rationality. But asking this question is usually a helpful way to get started. Often, simply asking myself "what's my goal?" is enough to direct my brain to a noticeably better solution, with no further work.

Examples

Puzzle Games

I'm playing Portal 2, or Baba is You. I'm fiddling around with the level randomly, sometimes going in circles. I notice I've been doing that awhile. 

I ask "what's my goal?"

And then my eyes automatically glance at the exit for the level and realize I can't possibly make progress unless I solve a particular obstacle, which none of my fiddling-around was going to help with.

Arguing

I'm arguing with a person, poking holes in their position. I easily notice considerations that feel really compelling to me that reinforce that my side is correct. I notice it's getting heated. 

I ask "what's my goal?"

And then realize I had basically been trying to look smart and "win" some kind of imaginary points. But what I actually needed to do was change their mind. Which requires modeling their current beliefs and figure out what would actually persuade them, not what cached beliefs are compelling to me. 

(Or, which requires de-escalating the tension and making it feel safe for them to consider changing their mind, whereas I'd previously been actively been implying that if I was right, they were dumb and should feel dumb. Nobody wants to feel that way)

((Or, maybe... I actually want to learn and potentially change my mind about something, and repeating reasons that I already think I'm right isn't really helping anyone, I need to be asking myself "okay, but what would change my mind?))

Product Discovery

I'm writing up a proposal for what my team should do next. I'm fleshing out a lot of details, getting excited about possibilities. I notice I've spent a couple days on this.

I ask "what's my goal?"

And the answer is "help my boss figure out what we should do next." My boss has given me a couple weeks to come up with some pitches for what to do. And I realize:

a) for the first week, I should probably doing a lot more exploring of radically different ideas rather than latching onto the first one I came up with.

b) I should be anticipating what my boss's objections will be, since it's ultimately his call.

I begin strategically directing my attention to areas that will help me find more novel ideas, and asking "what would be the fastest way to figure out if this idea is any good?"

Triggers

When is it a good time to ask "what's my goal?"?

One good time is "when you are first starting a project, or planning your day/week", so you just skip ahead past a lot of meandering unstrategic false starts on the wrong problem.

(Sometimes, at the beginning of a project, you will decide "my goal is to figure out what-the-hell-I'm-even-doing, and the best way to do that is via meandering play without stressing about goals." But, like, now you've doublechecked)

Another good time is "when you get a nagging feeling that you're doing the wrong thing" or "you notice you sure have been spending a lot of time on this particular step, and are feeling bored or frustrated."

Exercises for the Reader

Note: if you don't feel like doing all of these, maybe try just one of whichever is easiest.

Come up with 1-2 recent times you would have benefited from asking yourself "what's my goal?" earlier.

Come up with 1-2 projects/actions you're currently in the middle of, where you have a nagging suspicion you're not really tackling the right goal. 

Come up with 1-2 moments you expect to run into in the next week where it seems likely you're going to go tackle something without really understanding your goals and predictably waste some time.

See also summoning-sapience and Humans are not automatically strategic 

1. ^{^}

   I am experimenting with the mantra "your rationality paradigm is not complete until it is decomposed into simple sentences that people can immediately understand."