The forceful, moralizing tone of the article was helpful for me to internalize that I need the skill of noticing, and then bucking, incentives.
Just a few days ago, on Dec 31st, I found myself trying to rush an important blogpost out before 2020 ended, so it could show up next year in the 2020 LW Review. I found myself writing to some people, tongue-in-cheekly saying “Hey guys, um, the incentives say I should try to publish this today. Can you give feedback on it, and/or tell me that it’s not ready and I should take more time?”
And… well, sure I can hide behind the tongue-in-cheekness. And, “Can you help review a blogpost?” is a totally reasonable thing to ask my friends to do.
But, also, as I clicked ‘send’ on the email, I felt a little squirming in my heart. Because I knew damn well the post wasn’t ready. I was just having trouble admitting it to myself because I’d be sad if it were delayed a year from getting into the next set of LW Books. And this was a domain where I literally invented the incentives I was responding to.
It was definitely not the Incentives, It Was Me.
I still totally should have asked my friends for help here. But I knew the answer to my primary question “is it shippable today?”. So I didn’t need to impose any urgency on their help.
This is sticking out in my mind, not because the local instance was very important, but because the moral muscle of noticing a principle in the moment, and applying it, is pretty important. Someday there will be a higher stakes thing where this matters more, and I was disappointed in myself for not getting the answer right in the low-stakes case.
I was able to notice at all, just a little too late, in large part due to this post. I hope to do better next time.
Personal Anecdote:
“It wasn’t the Incentives. It was me.”
The forceful, moralizing tone of the article was helpful for me to internalize that I need the skill of noticing, and then bucking, incentives.
Just a few days ago, on Dec 31st, I found myself trying to rush an important blogpost out before 2020 ended, so it could show up next year in the 2020 LW Review. I found myself writing to some people, tongue-in-cheekly saying “Hey guys, um, the incentives say I should try to publish this today. Can you give feedback on it, and/or tell me that it’s not ready and I should take more time?”
And… well, sure I can hide behind the tongue-in-cheekness. And, “Can you help review a blogpost?” is a totally reasonable thing to ask my friends to do.
But, also, as I clicked ‘send’ on the email, I felt a little squirming in my heart. Because I knew damn well the post wasn’t ready. I was just having trouble admitting it to myself because I’d be sad if it were delayed a year from getting into the next set of LW Books. And this was a domain where I literally invented the incentives I was responding to.
It was definitely not the Incentives, It Was Me.
I still totally should have asked my friends for help here. But I knew the answer to my primary question “is it shippable today?”. So I didn’t need to impose any urgency on their help.
This is sticking out in my mind, not because the local instance was very important, but because the moral muscle of noticing a principle in the moment, and applying it, is pretty important. Someday there will be a higher stakes thing where this matters more, and I was disappointed in myself for not getting the answer right in the low-stakes case.
I was able to notice at all, just a little too late, in large part due to this post. I hope to do better next time.