FWIW I’d be interested in reading you spell out in more detail what you think you learnt from it about simulacra levels 3+4.
Re “writing the bottom line first”: I’m not sure. I think it might be, but at least this connection didn’t feel salient, or like it would buy me anything in terms of understanding, when thinking about this so far. Again interested in reading more about where you think the connections are.
To maybe say more about why (so far) it didn’t seem clearly relevant to me: “Writing the bottom line first”, to me, comes with a sense of actively not wanting, and taking steps to avoid, figuring out where the arguments/evidence leads you. Maps of maps feels slightly different in so far as the person really wants to find the correct solution but they are utterly confused about how to do that, or where to look. Similarly, “writing the bottom line first” suggests that you do have a concrete “bottom line” that you want to be true, wherelse empty expectations don’t have anything concrete to say about what you would want to be true - there isn’t (hardly) any object-level substance there. Most succinctly, “writing the bottom line first” seems closer to motivated reasoning, and maps of maps/empty expectation seem closer to (some fundamental sense of) confusion (about where to even look to figure out the truth/solution). (Which, having spelt this out just now, makes the connection to simulacra levels 3+4 more salient.)
I meant that empty expectations are another anchor for antidoting writing the bottom line first.
As for simulacra levels:
I switch into the mode of ‘trying to be helpful’ or ‘trying to be seen as helpful’, instead of ‘trying to solve the problem they asked me to solve for them’.”
This highlights how we switch abstraction levels when we don’t know how to solve a problem on the level we’re on. This is a reasonable strategy in general that sometimes backfires.
Glad to hear it seemed helpful!
FWIW I’d be interested in reading you spell out in more detail what you think you learnt from it about simulacra levels 3+4.
Re “writing the bottom line first”: I’m not sure. I think it might be, but at least this connection didn’t feel salient, or like it would buy me anything in terms of understanding, when thinking about this so far. Again interested in reading more about where you think the connections are.
To maybe say more about why (so far) it didn’t seem clearly relevant to me: “Writing the bottom line first”, to me, comes with a sense of actively not wanting, and taking steps to avoid, figuring out where the arguments/evidence leads you. Maps of maps feels slightly different in so far as the person really wants to find the correct solution but they are utterly confused about how to do that, or where to look. Similarly, “writing the bottom line first” suggests that you do have a concrete “bottom line” that you want to be true, wherelse empty expectations don’t have anything concrete to say about what you would want to be true - there isn’t (hardly) any object-level substance there.
Most succinctly, “writing the bottom line first” seems closer to motivated reasoning, and maps of maps/empty expectation seem closer to (some fundamental sense of) confusion (about where to even look to figure out the truth/solution). (Which, having spelt this out just now, makes the connection to simulacra levels 3+4 more salient.)
I meant that empty expectations are another anchor for antidoting writing the bottom line first. As for simulacra levels:
This highlights how we switch abstraction levels when we don’t know how to solve a problem on the level we’re on. This is a reasonable strategy in general that sometimes backfires.