matto

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I'm a big fan of the Replacing Guilt series. But I've always found the "guilt" part troubling because it always felt there was something more behind, something even more primitive.

Perhaps it's just me or people like me but now I believe that thing is fear. Completely subjectively I had an experience recently while watching my thoughts (inspired by https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/bbB4pvAQdpGrgGvXH/tuning-your-cognitive-strategies) and noticed that certain chains if thoughts terminated as if at a wall made up of this panicky feeling, the one where you feel your chest tigthen and your breathing become shallow and difficult. It felt a lot like fear.

Looking forward to your next posts in the series!

Thanks, this is incredibly useful.

I think I understand enough to put together a curriculum to delve into this topic. Starting with the harvard course you recommended.

I'm reminded of a post from not too long ago: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/bbB4pvAQdpGrgGvXH/tuning-your-cognitive-strategies

I haven't run through the exercise that it suggests, but I've borrowed an idea that seems in line with the framework in this post. Internally, I call it a brain debugger.

Basically, from time to time I ask myself what am I thinking and what was I thinking before. To better illustrate what I mean in the context of this post, here's an example:

  • trying to solve problem at work
  • trying to solve problem at work
  • BREAK: I'm thinking about a problem at work. I was thinking about it before.
  • trying to solve a problem at work
  • getting upset at coworker for last week's meeting
  • BREAK: I'm thinking about how upset I am at my coworker. I was thinking about solving a problem at work. WAT? How did I get here? Coworker X isn't even here. Wait, I'm in an imaginary situation. Coworker X isn't here. Why am I arguing with them? Let's go back to work problem

In other words, it's helping me catch myself when my brain is getting stuck in a goodharting loop.

(This doesn't solve the underlying problems, but it does to help with reflection)

This is good advice that I've seen work very well, both for myself and others.

There is, however, a related problem, or rather a metaproblem: how do you choose what to whitebox?

Going with the programming example, the field is huge. Do you invest time into ML? Linux? Rust? Data engineering? SRE?

Then, within each of those categories you can find vast categories: as an SRE do you focus on observability or CI/CD or orchestration or...? Each is a 1-3+ year subfield in itself.

You can use a heuristic like "what's useful for my job" but even then, unless you're already an expert and working in exactly your domain, the number of categories could be vast.

I've been investing my time in seemingly evergreen domains like Linux, programming (python/go), and containers. I want to expand into statistics/metrics.

I'm curious how you and others here have managed this question though.

Thanks! I'll look this over.

Out of curiosity,

Most people with a strong intuition for statistics have taken courses in probability. It is foundational material for the discipline.

Do some people learn statistics without learning probability? Or, what's different for someone who learns only stats and not probability?

(I'm trying to grasp what shape/boundaries are at play between these two bodies of knowledge)

Thanks! This is really helpful--I think this is exactly what I'm trying to do.

Are these texts part of a specific academic track/degree or field of study? It sounds like something someone in engineering would spend a semester on. But also like something someone could spend a career on studying.

You raise a good question, but it still relies on following the (historical) authority of the Academy. Perhaps the Academy has changed? Perhaps the environment the Academy is operating has changed, forcing the Academy to adjust?

Of course, this would apply to the non-Academy, ie. broader society, as well--but at different rates, and also different directions.

A stab at answering your question: you should only apply an update based on the Academy if the Academy is an important entity for you. This isn't binary. Awards factor into my perception of movies, but only play a minor role.

As someone who's experienced this, I've found that Slack is a helpful idea to bring to bear.

Sometimes, trying to utilize the small segments of free time leads to scheduling so much work that one small interruption snowballs into a huge failure. So I've often asked myself, "What can I do to create more slack so that I do have the required bigger chunks of time to truly focus on work that matters?"

Wish I had heard this sooner. Coming from a place where every purchase had to be planned out weeks in advance, and after finding financial stability, it took me some years to realize I shouldn't be trying to optimize the purchase of chopsticks or closet hanger.

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