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1/ Why are(/were) rules on the upswing again?
"the root cause is growing market demand for anomie-busting"
But this isn't a list it's a framework
"a good theory of life rules, and a meaningfully systematic procedure for generating them"
"the root cause is growing market demand for anomie-busting"
But this isn't a list it's a framework
"a good theory of life rules, and a meaningfully systematic procedure for generating them"
1a/ Why not just follow some rules?
"In the short term, other people’s rules can get you through a rough patch. In the medium term, you have to at least adapt them to your own life. But in the long term, only making your own rules works."
"In the short term, other people’s rules can get you through a rough patch. In the medium term, you have to at least adapt them to your own life. But in the long term, only making your own rules works."
1b/ Most rule sets suck anyway
"They do not, in other words, constitute clean MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) coverage of the messiness of life, capable of bringing order to chaos in any sort of guaranteed way."
"They do not, in other words, constitute clean MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) coverage of the messiness of life, capable of bringing order to chaos in any sort of guaranteed way."
2/ Then why even have rules?
"Here’s the central dogma of my theory of life rule sets: Life rule sets are about governing task-negative cognition."
And you're there a lot
"Mind wandering is the brain basically running potentially useful prospective thought processes."
"Here’s the central dogma of my theory of life rule sets: Life rule sets are about governing task-negative cognition."
And you're there a lot
"Mind wandering is the brain basically running potentially useful prospective thought processes."
2a/ "Task-negative cognition is how you solve...open-ended, leaky kind of problems where any seemingly specific problem like 'find a satisfying job' ends up being equivalent to the life-the-universe-and-everything problem of just living a good life."
3/ Task-positive can run on instinct/habit
"you don’t have a preference...You don’t need a rule. Do whatever."
"This has a crucial effect: for task-positive work, means-ends reasoning is enough. You don’t need values, principles, rules, or ethical ruminations."
"you don’t have a preference...You don’t need a rule. Do whatever."
"This has a crucial effect: for task-positive work, means-ends reasoning is enough. You don’t need values, principles, rules, or ethical ruminations."
3a/ DMN thought is missing a constraint
"What is common to all these themes is that they involve things you care about, but lack sufficient information, agency, computational tractability, or environmental enabling conditions to act on."
"What is common to all these themes is that they involve things you care about, but lack sufficient information, agency, computational tractability, or environmental enabling conditions to act on."
3b/ It's the Wild Wild West
"The DMN is the source of both much of our creativity, and much of our obsessional anxiety. It is the source of both our best growth experiences, and our worst experiences of stuckness. It is the seat of both genius and depression."
"The DMN is the source of both much of our creativity, and much of our obsessional anxiety. It is the source of both our best growth experiences, and our worst experiences of stuckness. It is the seat of both genius and depression."
4/ Null sets are still sets, attempting to stop the DMN
"The simplest kind of rule set is one with zero rules. This is meditation."
Yoga and such (+TPN) count too
"The more active and sensorily open your DMN-mode, the safer it is because the more it is reined in."
"The simplest kind of rule set is one with zero rules. This is meditation."
Yoga and such (+TPN) count too
"The more active and sensorily open your DMN-mode, the safer it is because the more it is reined in."
4a/ You aren't just controlling the DMN, it's border control
"any kind of cognitive discipline practice also manages switching between task-positive and task-negative cognition...in both directions"
"a life rule set is basically a sort of cognitive prosthetic"
"any kind of cognitive discipline practice also manages switching between task-positive and task-negative cognition...in both directions"
"a life rule set is basically a sort of cognitive prosthetic"
5/ The framework
"It is an approximate visualization of the wandering range of the DMN, that I think is almost MECE and internally consistent."
"You can use this template to make between 4 to 12 rules, by following the cues associated with each numbered location."
"It is an approximate visualization of the wandering range of the DMN, that I think is almost MECE and internally consistent."
"You can use this template to make between 4 to 12 rules, by following the cues associated with each numbered location."
6/ 4-12?
"There are three natural levels to using the map: beginner, intermediate, and advanced...Nobody is stopping you from making rules beyond your level, but chances are they’ll be vacuous platitudes if you try...before you’ve had the necessary life experiences"
"There are three natural levels to using the map: beginner, intermediate, and advanced...Nobody is stopping you from making rules beyond your level, but chances are they’ll be vacuous platitudes if you try...before you’ve had the necessary life experiences"
6a/ The beginner method is only 4 rules, a 2x2
"Rule 1 is your out-group-dealings rule. Rule 2 is your in-group dealings rule. Rule 3 is your sell-out rule. Rule 4 is your artisan/how-to-be-a-precious-snowflake rule."
"Rule 1 is your out-group-dealings rule. Rule 2 is your in-group dealings rule. Rule 3 is your sell-out rule. Rule 4 is your artisan/how-to-be-a-precious-snowflake rule."
6b/ Intermediates add 2 more and "don’t so much transcend the I-it/I-thou divide as blur it."
"Rule 5 to define your relationship to history, and the future, and how you fit"
"Rule 6 to define your basic relationship to a public life...a conscious attitude about being about X."
"Rule 5 to define your relationship to history, and the future, and how you fit"
"Rule 6 to define your basic relationship to a public life...a conscious attitude about being about X."
6c/ Advanced starts to see in 3D
"Here’s a law of rule-making: you are always in an existential crisis, whether or not you know it"
"the triangle is actually a Penrose triangle. An impossible triangle that has a break in it somewhere, cleverly disguised via an optical illusion"
"Here’s a law of rule-making: you are always in an existential crisis, whether or not you know it"
"the triangle is actually a Penrose triangle. An impossible triangle that has a break in it somewhere, cleverly disguised via an optical illusion"
6d/ "Rules 7-12...govern navigation of existential crises"
"3 basic regimes: I-thou (rat to crow, home to public, the be-somebody edge), I-it (rat to goat, home to frontier, the do-something edge) and public (goat to crow, frontier to public, been there, done that edge)"
"3 basic regimes: I-thou (rat to crow, home to public, the be-somebody edge), I-it (rat to goat, home to frontier, the do-something edge) and public (goat to crow, frontier to public, been there, done that edge)"
6e/ "Rules 7-8 are about navigating ratspace crises. These are crises involving your most private, intimate personal life."
Intimacy and physicality
"Our intimate relationships are where our socially defined identities start to bleed into our physically defined ones."
Intimacy and physicality
"Our intimate relationships are where our socially defined identities start to bleed into our physically defined ones."
6f/ "Rules 9-10 are about navigating goatspace crises. These involve your most extreme where-no-one-has-gone-before frontier explorations of life possibilities."
'Sciencing' and measurement
"humans are the measure of the meaning of life, not things to be measured for meaning."
'Sciencing' and measurement
"humans are the measure of the meaning of life, not things to be measured for meaning."
6g/ Rules 11-12 are "rules you apply when you realize something you’re thinking about or doing might have consequences beyond your own life."
Public action and persona
"One governs the decision to go public, the other defines the nature of the act of appearing in public."
Public action and persona
"One governs the decision to go public, the other defines the nature of the act of appearing in public."
7/ There isn't prework, rules usually emerge via living
"Often your first version of Rules 7-12 are discovered via crashing into a crisis and coming out alive."
"Often your first version of Rules 7-12 are discovered via crashing into a crisis and coming out alive."
8/ Don't ignore the void in the middle
"As you approach the center of the triangle, your rules start to break down, first into memes, aphorisms, and jokes"
"you cannot actually stop your mind from wandering across the boundary, into the triangle and inching towards the void"
"As you approach the center of the triangle, your rules start to break down, first into memes, aphorisms, and jokes"
"you cannot actually stop your mind from wandering across the boundary, into the triangle and inching towards the void"
8a/ 'Check out' any time you like
"I like thinking of the void dot as a literal attention blackhole. When your attention wanders closer than you can handle, you can enter non-terminating thoughts."
"I like thinking of the void dot as a literal attention blackhole. When your attention wanders closer than you can handle, you can enter non-terminating thoughts."
8b/ But you [may] never leave
"Each time you visit, thoughts that don’t kill you will make you stronger. But there’s always the chance that you’ll think that one thought that can break your mind."
"Each time you visit, thoughts that don’t kill you will make you stronger. But there’s always the chance that you’ll think that one thought that can break your mind."
