In response to my childhood and needing to escape bad defaults that just seemed like reality, I’ve grown up deeply asking these questions regularly but particularly earlier on with regular revisits as I learn, explore, and reprioritize. They are meta questions about the question and asking them while doing a thing can stop you from doing the thing. Doing this can open massive cans of worms that can trigger regress to first principles and undecidable value judgements. This can become recursive and lead to paralysis if used too much, without self compassion, or if paired with natural anxiety. Asking the question repeatedly about the same consideration and carefully redoing the work to get a good answer can get boring and wasteful over time so as your confidence in a path grows (assembly of paths, priorities, etc.) the value of asking reduces and so the scope about which you ask usually shifts. While you’re not asking value can shift but priorities and values are important given limited time and attention. Something not working or being as good as you believe is reasonable to expect for a small enough amount of energy to receive is a good trigger. If you aren’t asking then a meta trigger is important to consider what improvements could be made and in that same question what ladders you can extend to others for context improvement and isolation protection if not also altruism. I find a decision to be satisfied to be important such that improvements are a delightful bonus rather than an endless treadmill.
To be more specific about “regularly”, the most intense period of asking was when my consciousness, planning, and intentionality were really coming online. I had a big backlog of deeply unmet needs/desires, missing skills/habits, and my self analysis about the dysfunctionality of my embodied strategies was really coming online to point out my deficiencies. The evidence was ineffectiveness at accomplishing my goals and serving my needs. During that time I was obsessively asking at any time not otherwise distracted and deeply engaged. I’d estimate 40% of weekly waking hours with days approaching 80-90%. These were times of immense and sometimes unsettling growth. It would not have felt worth the cost if it had not been necessary, if my life and modus operandi had been working. Those early days were focused on more specific, concrete concerns, decisions, and operations (let’s bundle this as Q). As time has gone on the considerations shifted to assemblies of Qs, explorations and tests of how Qs interact, and on to structures of Q assemblies with far greater complexity and combinatoric considerations that include multi-agent game theory. Over time I would estimate that I’ve settled into a cadence of 5-10% of weekly waking hours with spikes around changes and developments in life. That said, I have tried to arrange to put profitable business behind raising that number but I have so far failed. It’s become at least a pleasurable past time that I enjoy sharing in partnership but that can be even more complex and hard to find partners for.
I suspect this built my intellect and competence which has largely made my life relatively wonderful (in broad comparison to the population but starkly so against the trajectory I had been on prior) and given me the empowerment to navigate life with an intentionality, consciousness, and skill that I do not observe often. I could recommend nothing more than getting very serious and exceedingly honest about such questions.
In response to my childhood and needing to escape bad defaults that just seemed like reality, I’ve grown up deeply asking these questions regularly but particularly earlier on with regular revisits as I learn, explore, and reprioritize. They are meta questions about the question and asking them while doing a thing can stop you from doing the thing. Doing this can open massive cans of worms that can trigger regress to first principles and undecidable value judgements. This can become recursive and lead to paralysis if used too much, without self compassion, or if paired with natural anxiety. Asking the question repeatedly about the same consideration and carefully redoing the work to get a good answer can get boring and wasteful over time so as your confidence in a path grows (assembly of paths, priorities, etc.) the value of asking reduces and so the scope about which you ask usually shifts. While you’re not asking value can shift but priorities and values are important given limited time and attention. Something not working or being as good as you believe is reasonable to expect for a small enough amount of energy to receive is a good trigger. If you aren’t asking then a meta trigger is important to consider what improvements could be made and in that same question what ladders you can extend to others for context improvement and isolation protection if not also altruism. I find a decision to be satisfied to be important such that improvements are a delightful bonus rather than an endless treadmill.
To be more specific about “regularly”, the most intense period of asking was when my consciousness, planning, and intentionality were really coming online. I had a big backlog of deeply unmet needs/desires, missing skills/habits, and my self analysis about the dysfunctionality of my embodied strategies was really coming online to point out my deficiencies. The evidence was ineffectiveness at accomplishing my goals and serving my needs. During that time I was obsessively asking at any time not otherwise distracted and deeply engaged. I’d estimate 40% of weekly waking hours with days approaching 80-90%. These were times of immense and sometimes unsettling growth. It would not have felt worth the cost if it had not been necessary, if my life and modus operandi had been working. Those early days were focused on more specific, concrete concerns, decisions, and operations (let’s bundle this as Q). As time has gone on the considerations shifted to assemblies of Qs, explorations and tests of how Qs interact, and on to structures of Q assemblies with far greater complexity and combinatoric considerations that include multi-agent game theory. Over time I would estimate that I’ve settled into a cadence of 5-10% of weekly waking hours with spikes around changes and developments in life. That said, I have tried to arrange to put profitable business behind raising that number but I have so far failed. It’s become at least a pleasurable past time that I enjoy sharing in partnership but that can be even more complex and hard to find partners for.
I suspect this built my intellect and competence which has largely made my life relatively wonderful (in broad comparison to the population but starkly so against the trajectory I had been on prior) and given me the empowerment to navigate life with an intentionality, consciousness, and skill that I do not observe often. I could recommend nothing more than getting very serious and exceedingly honest about such questions.