I like having these distinctions laid out to think about. While it’s on my mind I’d like to share an extension of Brienne’s quadrants I’d made in my own notes.
To “Easy vs. Difficult” and “Fast vs. Slow”, I added a third dimension of “Hype vs. Signal”. A grand epiphany can turn out to be insight porn. A long gruel to attain wizardry could be an investment scam. Bug patches can be surface-level fads. Tortoise skill practice might be lotus-eating distraction.
(I may have been a bit disillusioned with rationality lore at the time I named these. Because yes, it *was* demoralizing to get 2-3% returns when I expected bursts of 300%.)
A useful core can have many subtly-off instantiations. The expected signal-to-noise ratio matters, when you’re figuring out where it makes sense to focus your efforts.
I like having these distinctions laid out to think about. While it’s on my mind I’d like to share an extension of Brienne’s quadrants I’d made in my own notes.
To “Easy vs. Difficult” and “Fast vs. Slow”, I added a third dimension of “Hype vs. Signal”. A grand epiphany can turn out to be insight porn. A long gruel to attain wizardry could be an investment scam. Bug patches can be surface-level fads. Tortoise skill practice might be lotus-eating distraction.
(I may have been a bit disillusioned with rationality lore at the time I named these. Because yes, it *was* demoralizing to get 2-3% returns when I expected bursts of 300%.)
A useful core can have many subtly-off instantiations. The expected signal-to-noise ratio matters, when you’re figuring out where it makes sense to focus your efforts.