There’s a kind of rhythm to the four phases of naturalism. To me, they feel a bit like oscillation between zooming out and zooming in, or like inhaling and exhaling. The first phase (Locating Fulcrum Experiences) has a broad exploratory feel, like zooming out; it’s sort of meandering, touching on this and that until I’ve found the right thing to hone in on. The second phase (Getting Your Eyes On) emphasizes focused attention, and involves a lot of precision and detail. It’s more like zooming in.
This third phase, “Collection”, zooms out again.
I found this a pretty interesting frame. (I don’t know that I have anything noteworthy to do with the interestingness, but, I liked it)
What I like most about the gamified version of collection is that the people who really get into it tend to find themselves steering toward situations where they’ll encounter their fulcrum experience. You might worry that steering toward fulcrum experiences would skew the data on how the experience shows up in daily life; and that’s true, it does.
Hmm. Well, the thing I was trending towards wanting to focus on was “me responding unhelpfully to a certain type of frustration/annoyance”, and, uh, as I was reading this section I first was like “oh yeah the tap-the-leg thing makes sense”, and then I felt a bit of a creeping dread of “oh, uh, well I’m not sure I want to steer towards this sort of annoyed feeling.”
...
(I notice some yellow flag of the distinction between “wanting to understand what’s up with how I respond unhelpfully to this flavor of annoyance”, vs “wanting to fix it”. My impression is that this sequence is… not opposed to fixing things, but, is maybe trying to stay focused on the understanding part without preoccupation with fixing getting in the way, or something. Also, I do recall that you said it’s better to have read the whole sequence before launching into it. I’m finding the pace of reading and digesting one post every few days a good pace, but probably will end up trying stuff out in the meanwhile)
Predict, Observe, Update
I found this a pretty useful handle that seems like an obvious-thing-to-do in retrospect. I think this might make a good separate top-level post that feels more standalone (in particular I think it’s the sort of thing that could be useful to people reading the title and the first paragraph, just as a prompt to consider this particular feedback. loop as something to try more explicitly)
Problem 1: I’m worried that gamified noticing will cause more of something that I want less of.
Oh, that sure was the thing I thought about earlier. What will Logan say about this?
[reads words about what Logan has to say about it]
...okay, sure, seems reasonable.
However, not everyone is comfortable making public announcements about the private workings of their minds to anyone who happens to be in earshot. “What do the other monkeys think about this?” is rarely a clarifying thought when you’re trying to figure out what your own mind is up to.
So a lot of people, myself included, benefit more from a private announcement, something that no one else can hear or see
Sure seems relevant to the “noticing I’m annoyed” thing. Yeah, seems doable.
When should I go back to an earlier phase? When should I move on?
If things are going really well with Collection, I usually recommend sticking with it until your daily tallies have leveled off and your POU-loops have largely stabilized. This could take anywhere from a week to a few months, depending on your skill level, what you’re studying, and how many times you loop back to previous phases.
Something about this helped reconnect me to the concept of “following this course in it’s entirety, rather than just trying out some random pieces of it it on a whim.” The notion that I practice noticing and keep track of how much I notice until the rate has leveled off both reconnected the possibility as well as potential value of seeing this through as a longer project.
Liveblog notes:
I found this a pretty interesting frame. (I don’t know that I have anything noteworthy to do with the interestingness, but, I liked it)
Hmm. Well, the thing I was trending towards wanting to focus on was “me responding unhelpfully to a certain type of frustration/annoyance”, and, uh, as I was reading this section I first was like “oh yeah the tap-the-leg thing makes sense”, and then I felt a bit of a creeping dread of “oh, uh, well I’m not sure I want to steer towards this sort of annoyed feeling.”
...
(I notice some yellow flag of the distinction between “wanting to understand what’s up with how I respond unhelpfully to this flavor of annoyance”, vs “wanting to fix it”. My impression is that this sequence is… not opposed to fixing things, but, is maybe trying to stay focused on the understanding part without preoccupation with fixing getting in the way, or something. Also, I do recall that you said it’s better to have read the whole sequence before launching into it. I’m finding the pace of reading and digesting one post every few days a good pace, but probably will end up trying stuff out in the meanwhile)
I found this a pretty useful handle that seems like an obvious-thing-to-do in retrospect. I think this might make a good separate top-level post that feels more standalone (in particular I think it’s the sort of thing that could be useful to people reading the title and the first paragraph, just as a prompt to consider this particular feedback. loop as something to try more explicitly)
Oh, that sure was the thing I thought about earlier. What will Logan say about this?
...okay, sure, seems reasonable.
Sure seems relevant to the “noticing I’m annoyed” thing. Yeah, seems doable.
Something about this helped reconnect me to the concept of “following this course in it’s entirety, rather than just trying out some random pieces of it it on a whim.” The notion that I practice noticing and keep track of how much I notice until the rate has leveled off both reconnected the possibility as well as potential value of seeing this through as a longer project.
the next essay, which is called “experimentation”, will talk directly about the “fixing it” thing