I’d like to see more examples, though it’s quite possible they’re sensitive or otherwise bad to discuss in public. But right now I feel that I understand the model in theory but not at all where I should be applying it.
General ambitious-ness, in any given field, where {X} is not accomplishing much and {Y} is committing to projects you don’t have the skills for: Adam has opportunities to do some important things and is skilled enough that they aren’t too hard for him. Bob has a range of opportunities of varying significance, so he needs to think about whether something is at his level before trying it. Charles is newer to this field than Bob, so he has to be extra-careful not to be overambitious. David would be in the same situation as Bob, but his boss has really high standards, so if he’s careful not to be overambitious, he’ll take criticism for not getting enough done. Edgar didn’t know he was going to need this skillset, but has been forced into it for one reason or another.
Having a detailed plan, where {X} is disorganization and {Y} is lack of flexibility. Affordance widths depend on what it is that you’re planning—how organized and flexible it needs to be.
Self-improvement (or any kind of effort to improve something), where {X} is inefficiency and {Y} is premature optimization. Affordance widths depend on how beneficial your default behavior is, and how much effort it takes to change.
There was some context to this in this meta thread about using personal examples of social stuff on frontpage posts, which I’ve just added some additional thoughts to. tldr: I think fictionalized examples are basically fine.
Fictionalized examples, of course, give a convenient amount of wiggle room as to who’s on which side of the example in the non-fictionalized real world.
If your goal is to make it clear who is on the side of a given thing, that’s fine, just not for frontpage. The point of frontpage is to be relevant regardless of how embedded in the rationality community you are.
Note: non-frontpage posts that deal with tribal/social stuff tend to get more traction than frontpage posts, so this doesn’t strike as particularly censorous.
I’d like to see more examples, though it’s quite possible they’re sensitive or otherwise bad to discuss in public. But right now I feel that I understand the model in theory but not at all where I should be applying it.
General ambitious-ness, in any given field, where {X} is not accomplishing much and {Y} is committing to projects you don’t have the skills for: Adam has opportunities to do some important things and is skilled enough that they aren’t too hard for him. Bob has a range of opportunities of varying significance, so he needs to think about whether something is at his level before trying it. Charles is newer to this field than Bob, so he has to be extra-careful not to be overambitious. David would be in the same situation as Bob, but his boss has really high standards, so if he’s careful not to be overambitious, he’ll take criticism for not getting enough done. Edgar didn’t know he was going to need this skillset, but has been forced into it for one reason or another.
Having a detailed plan, where {X} is disorganization and {Y} is lack of flexibility. Affordance widths depend on what it is that you’re planning—how organized and flexible it needs to be.
Self-improvement (or any kind of effort to improve something), where {X} is inefficiency and {Y} is premature optimization. Affordance widths depend on how beneficial your default behavior is, and how much effort it takes to change.
There was some context to this in this meta thread about using personal examples of social stuff on frontpage posts, which I’ve just added some additional thoughts to. tldr: I think fictionalized examples are basically fine.
Fictionalized examples, of course, give a convenient amount of wiggle room as to who’s on which side of the example in the non-fictionalized real world.
If your goal is to make it clear who is on the side of a given thing, that’s fine, just not for frontpage. The point of frontpage is to be relevant regardless of how embedded in the rationality community you are.
Note: non-frontpage posts that deal with tribal/social stuff tend to get more traction than frontpage posts, so this doesn’t strike as particularly censorous.