Snippets: January 2023
Good solutions • Play • Believing what is useful • Small insights • Making the most of time
Welcome to the start of a new year! I’ll get straight into what’s been on my mind recently:
If you're lucky, your solutions work well enough to become the next generation's problems. This comes from a quote from an interview with Ezra Klein. It's true that one big reason why innovation is slowing down is because of increasingly strict regulations and checks being put in place - and while their intentions might be good, I think we would make much more progress if we remind ourselves that everything we create will be imperfect. The best case scenario is that the tools we build today become outdated in 10 years. To obsess over future-proofing is ultimately futile. The whole point of creating something is so that others can eventually make it better.
Do what feels like play to you, but work to others. I've heard this from multiple sources, but it's something that resonates strongly with me. With the rate at which technology is progressing, the likelihood is that automation and technology will make up for (and outperform you at) the things you're poor at. Therefore if you want to make an impact with your career, you should play to your strengths as far as possible. The only caveat here is when it comes to interpersonal relationships. There's no shortcut for that.
Believe what is useful, not true. Another idea I have to credit Derek Sivers for. The placebo effect is a really powerful factor that's been well-documented in medical literature, and I can't help but wonder how far it extends to other areas of life. It might be that the things we believe in aren't true now, but humans, more than any other species, have an uncanny ability to turn their convictions into reality. Regardless of how you feel about agency and free will, you can't discount that beliefs are self-reinforcing and fundamentally shape who we are.
How involved are you? Most people have heard of ChatGPT by now, but it’s likely that only a small fraction of those folks have actually tried using it. Out of that number, an even smaller percentage might have tried exploring the model’s capabilities and refining outputs with multiple prompts. Even fewer still might have attempted to find faults and limitations within the model. When it comes to everyday technology, most of us have a superficial understanding of how things work, and that might be good enough to get by, but there is always more to learn. Reading through Richard Feynman’s autobiography, I'm struck by just how far he goes to satisfy his own curiosity, and the difference it’s made in the way he approaches problems. The next time you come across a common phenomenon, it might be worth investigating for yourself how it really works.
What's the smallest unit of insight? It's much easier to tackle a large body of work if you can isolate, itemize, then assemble small kernels of truth. I use this technique very often in writing - using private channels on telegram to save sentences, quotes and articles that I find interesting. Writing an article then largely involves assembling those insights together. I believe that this approach extends well into almost every field - in effect, what I’m really describing here is the Zettelkasten. I recommend setting one up for yourself, both for managing knowledge and improving your creative output.
Battles are won or lost far before the encounter itself. Success is all about preparation and the habits we've built up over a lifetime. I think that having this long-term perspective is helpful and often overlooked, both in understanding our shortcomings and setting ourselves up for success. I’m reminding myself that the results I see (or don’t see) in 6 months will be determined by the actions I take today.
Weekly reviews. As a new year begins, I think it's worth taking stock of just how much time we have left. You get a very different sense of perspective when you start to quantify the time you have left. More often than not, people in the later half of their lives lament over missed opportunities and experiences. It's not that some of us have more time than others, but rather that our lives are structured such that it's too easy for us to live on autopilot. The truth is that we only get so many chances to get things right. That's why this year, I'm committed to doing weekly reviews (I'll also link an excellent template for a yearly review here). As much as I've learnt in the past 6 months, I don't want the flow of routine to lead me into complacency.
That's all from me for now. Till next time!