I'm committing now to try and publish 365 propositions between now and Christmas 2019 which I think are interesting and plausibly true.
1) It is more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true, for the same reason they say "all models are false, but some are useful." You cant fully describe reality with words and abstractions, what matters is how your models and beliefs influence behavior.
2) The ‘truthiness’ of a claim adds to its interestingness, that’s what makes truth important, the way it affects future attention and decisions.
1 and 2 are ripoffs of Whitehead, who is a goldmine for good quotes en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_No…
3) Every word means something slightly (or substantially) different depending on the speaker, which is why quote attribution matters, a relationship with an author or speaker gives you access to their private language.
On a less abstract note
4) The most important life change for me in 2018 was to start deliberately practicing dirty talk. I noticed that when something crossed my mind that seemed like it might be good dirty talk AND I was afraid to say it, it was almost always GREAT DIRTY TALK.
4) The most important life change for me in 2018 was to start deliberately practicing dirty talk. I noticed that when something crossed my mind that seemed like it might be good dirty talk AND I was afraid to say it, it was almost always GREAT DIRTY TALK.
I can’t recall ever having a faster feedback loop between intense fear, and reward for acting in the face of it. Immediate spillover effect of increasing quality of communication outside the bedroom, and the main thing I can direct my attention to when considering twitter now.
This thread continues, but you have to look into additional replies for 4 to find 5
5-31 Notes on the structure of thought and what's wrong with existing notes paradigm
32, I think @QiaochuYuan is pointing at something real here -- particularly the idea that explicit consent conversations have grown in importance as we have less obvious shared norms around the MEANING of interactions (sexual and otherwise)
33 Meaning in background is gone, every person is a culture unto their own, to establish common ground requires more communication work (see Creepy Uncle Joe) -- but it's worth it for the richer cocreation and connection that is possible.
34 Seperating "consent as tool" from "participation/mutual sovereignty/cocreation" is a super useful distinction. Also @QiaochuYuan is a total G for taking this on on his second day of Twitter. Ton of respect. Great thread!
35 Something about @AndrewYang's UBI I haven't seen anyone mention is what it may mean for communal living. I live with 7 others in beautiful house in SF. Lots of emotional labor and communication needed to build and maintain community. Rent is 8k, we'd be self sufficient w UBI.
36) Community, belonging, human touch -- too easy for these to become luxury goods today. Takes work to get good at living w others in close quarters, already totally worth it for extreme QOL improvement communal living brings when done right. Excited to see more take that path.
37) The US Navy's policing of global trade routes is responsible for the integration of the global economy, integration it doesnt actually need post cold war. As support is withdrawn (and it's being withdrawn), China and Germany esp are at massive risk. investorfieldguide.com/zeihan/
38) 95% of people are not confused enough
39) You know you've got a high trust context when you can freely talk about confusing things your gut tells you are important.
40) To discover unknown unknowns, you must navigate the swamp of confusion
41)
Power: Ability to hold your perspective (Top Down Model in Predictive Processing) and bring others to it. Aka - Ability to make your map match the territory.
Love: Ability to see from another's perspective, and choosing to act from that.
Hat tip @tasshinfogleman
Power: Ability to hold your perspective (Top Down Model in Predictive Processing) and bring others to it. Aka - Ability to make your map match the territory.
Love: Ability to see from another's perspective, and choosing to act from that.
Hat tip @tasshinfogleman
42) The power and horror of Twitter is that it allows you to engage with individual ideas out of context.
Power because you can build upon or propagate gems that are stuck in a garbage context
Horror because your ideas can be pulled from their context to be shown as garbage.
Power because you can build upon or propagate gems that are stuck in a garbage context
Horror because your ideas can be pulled from their context to be shown as garbage.
43) A great deal of physical pain and discomfort comes from muscle knots. Those knots are not your enemy though, they form adaptively to protect your body (a tight lower back is your body trying to protect your spine).
Psychological knots cause suffering, but are also adaptive
Psychological knots cause suffering, but are also adaptive
44) In massage, when you encounter a muscle knot, you want to apply steady pressure along the whole muscle and move through the knot -- at first -- to remind the knotted parts how they want to align.
Only when it is warmed up, and there is slack in the system can it release.
Only when it is warmed up, and there is slack in the system can it release.
45) There is no such thing as willpower. Takes just as much will to stay in bed past your alarm as to get up for a run.
When you're not doing things you think you SHOULD be doing, it just means you have some unexamined belief that doing that thing will conflict with deeper need
When you're not doing things you think you SHOULD be doing, it just means you have some unexamined belief that doing that thing will conflict with deeper need
46) It is possible for new people to know you (as you are) better than you know yourself.
You hold onto your past, and imagine your future. They can (if they are not busy projecting themselves onto you) see what is right in front of them at the moment.
You hold onto your past, and imagine your future. They can (if they are not busy projecting themselves onto you) see what is right in front of them at the moment.
47
48 Just as there are colors the human eye cannot see, and sounds the human ear can not hear, there are thoughts the human mind can not think.
49 We are nowhere close to the limit of thinkable thoughts
When you learn a new field (like math, chemistry, sociology), one of the key benefits is that your new vocabulary of concepts allows you to expand your own range of thinkable thoughts.
When you learn a new field (like math, chemistry, sociology), one of the key benefits is that your new vocabulary of concepts allows you to expand your own range of thinkable thoughts.
50) I regularly set aside multiple hours for in-person conversations or phone calls with interesting twitter friends.
I never (currently) set aside time to go through a friend's timeline and reply to all the tweets I find thought provoking.
Categorical error! Huge Opportunity
I never (currently) set aside time to go through a friend's timeline and reply to all the tweets I find thought provoking.
Categorical error! Huge Opportunity
51
52) That feeling of being stuck, sensing unprocessed emotion but not feeling them... That's Trauma
Accumulate enough and you'll feel nothing
More likely to occur when you feel powerless and not in touch with your values
Less likely when you have a plan
Accumulate enough and you'll feel nothing
More likely to occur when you feel powerless and not in touch with your values
Less likely when you have a plan
53 - Trust is built through making and keeping promises (to yourself and others) and is an insanely powerful tool for pushing through discomft in pursuit of longer term goals.
By another name: Self-coercion/Odysseus' Mast
Breaks when others force ur hand
By another name: Self-coercion/Odysseus' Mast
Breaks when others force ur hand
54 Twitter (or a Twitter client) could dramatically improve the UX for creating interlocking self referencing streams with by allowing search from within the input form.
Because it is friction filled, we only have a handful like @visakanv doing it right
Because it is friction filled, we only have a handful like @visakanv doing it right
55 -- You haven't really learned something until you've stated it in your own words.
If Amazon/Audible really cared about users getting lasting value from non-fiction books, they'd build a response feature like this, or expose an API so someone else could
If Amazon/Audible really cared about users getting lasting value from non-fiction books, they'd build a response feature like this, or expose an API so someone else could
56 -- Insight often comes from analogy.
Far more people would reach the frontier of human knowledge (and advance it by applying models from other domains) if a map such as this existed
Far more people would reach the frontier of human knowledge (and advance it by applying models from other domains) if a map such as this existed
57
58) You are a network, it is dancing inside that network where your good ideas come from
59
@seanaes what say you?
60 - 159
Interesting and plausibly true claims (aka Opinions) about Programming Languages
Interesting and plausibly true claims (aka Opinions) about Programming Languages
160. A single thread on twitter isn't the optimal way to do this.
Way too much noise if I @ mention someone
More fun to do topic level threads that weave together than a single list of hot takes.
Way too much noise if I @ mention someone
More fun to do topic level threads that weave together than a single list of hot takes.
161. It is ok to set audacious public goals and not hit them.
When I posted this last year, I hardly used twitter.
Having this goal pushed me far out of my comfort zone on thinking in public, and was a main factor in me getting so active here in the last 12 months.
When I posted this last year, I hardly used twitter.
Having this goal pushed me far out of my comfort zone on thinking in public, and was a main factor in me getting so active here in the last 12 months.
162. If I hadn't posted this last year, I almost certainly wouldn't have jumped on @vgr's Threadapoloza challenge (posted above)
Or started this Christmas eve thread on some of my weirdest thoughts.
Or started this Christmas eve thread on some of my weirdest thoughts.
@vgr 163.
162 on the surface conflicts with 53
but also getting too pissed at yourself / ashamed for not hitting public goals is a great way to shrink yourself as a person.
We must forgive ourselves, and have trust in ourselves even after failures
162 on the surface conflicts with 53
but also getting too pissed at yourself / ashamed for not hitting public goals is a great way to shrink yourself as a person.
We must forgive ourselves, and have trust in ourselves even after failures
164. I may have posted 200 other interesting and plausibly true things on my account in the last year and not threaded them here.
If I count them up and link them here after Christmas it still counts.
If I count them up and link them here after Christmas it still counts.
165. A key path to self forgiveness and rebuilding self trust is to set new goals - potentially harder, potentially in adjacent domain based on new info from the goal.
Don't give up on yourself because you fell. Pick yourself back up and go again -- this is how you get strong.
Don't give up on yourself because you fell. Pick yourself back up and go again -- this is how you get strong.
166. Whether I hit 365 this year after indexing other threads or not, I'm going to complete the goal, and add a further 365 by Christmas 2020.
730 is target now.
When I do that you can trust me on this area, and I'll trust myself here again too. And more.
730 is target now.
When I do that you can trust me on this area, and I'll trust myself here again too. And more.
167. Self-trust is one of the most fundamental psychological - things...
Critical in relationships
Extremely critical for founders/inventors/scientists/creatives
Critical in relationships
Extremely critical for founders/inventors/scientists/creatives
168. You have to break convention to discover new things in the world.
You have to be right when everyone else is wrong.
The world will tell you not to trust yourself, and this can be an extremely heavy emotional weight to carry.
You have to be right when everyone else is wrong.
The world will tell you not to trust yourself, and this can be an extremely heavy emotional weight to carry.
169. If you try to do something no one has ever done before, many people will tell you you can't do it.
They may be right.
They may be right.
170. When you're basing major life decisions around a contrarian belief, and those decisions have a major impact on your lives and the lives of those you care about... small dings to self trust can be extremely extremely painful, and possibly knock you off your feet for a while.
171. You think, well shit, if I cant even trust myself to find my keys/respond to an email on time/keep the living room clean... how the hell can I trust myself to achieve **audacious goal X**
172. There are asshole who will try and reinforce that belief, try to make you feel bad about yourself for not prioritizing the thing they wanted you to do, attack your self trust to manipulate you.
FUCK THEM
FUCK THEM
173. Forgiveness is a super dope concept.
It's ok to forgive those assholes. It's really good for you to do. For yourself. For the world.
Don't drink venom to poison them. Hatred and resentment are venom.
Ok to ignore/discount their narratives about you though
U special ❄ U
It's ok to forgive those assholes. It's really good for you to do. For yourself. For the world.
Don't drink venom to poison them. Hatred and resentment are venom.
Ok to ignore/discount their narratives about you though
U special ❄ U
174. Getting overprotective of your beliefs - especially about self trust and self efficacy - can be super super harmful
So can believing that X about yourself implies Y when it doesn't.
Learn about bucket errors, you're making them, they hurt you.
lesswrong.com/posts/EEv9JeuY…
So can believing that X about yourself implies Y when it doesn't.
Learn about bucket errors, you're making them, they hurt you.
lesswrong.com/posts/EEv9JeuY…
175. Henry ford is right, which implies there are levels of TRUTH outside of bayesian priors.
Bay area rationalist (surrounding LessWrong) don't really grok this as a community, which is why they aren't as creatively generative/agentic as the Post Rats surrounding Ribbonfarm.
Bay area rationalist (surrounding LessWrong) don't really grok this as a community, which is why they aren't as creatively generative/agentic as the Post Rats surrounding Ribbonfarm.
