I really, really liked this idea. In some sense it’s just reframing the idea of trade-offs. But it’s a really helpful (for me) reframe that makes it feel concrete and real to me.
I’d long been familiar with “the expert blind spot” — the issue where experts will forget what it’s like to see like a non-expert and will try to teach from there. Like when aikido teachers would tell me to “just relax, act natural, and let the technique just happen on its own.” That makes sense if you’ve been practicing that technique for a decade! But it’s awful advice to give a beginner.
This post extended my thinking about the expert blind spot. I hadn’t noticed that this would apply to things like the tradeoffs involved in an academic career. I remember encountering these pitfalls and getting weird advice about how to navigate them.
Thinking in terms of the gravity turn helped a lot of this click together for me.
It’s such a simple, clear metaphor.
I also found it an engaging read. Perhaps because I related to it so well from my own academic background. But as style goes, I think it’s solid.
My only criticism is that as a visual piece, the meat of this post comes across as a wall of text. It might have been nice for the author to find ways of breaking it up a little more. Modern online audiences aren’t used to reading books anymore!
But that’s pretty minor in the scope of things. I think it’s basically great as is.
I really, really liked this idea. In some sense it’s just reframing the idea of trade-offs. But it’s a really helpful (for me) reframe that makes it feel concrete and real to me.
I’d long been familiar with “the expert blind spot” — the issue where experts will forget what it’s like to see like a non-expert and will try to teach from there. Like when aikido teachers would tell me to “just relax, act natural, and let the technique just happen on its own.” That makes sense if you’ve been practicing that technique for a decade! But it’s awful advice to give a beginner.
This post extended my thinking about the expert blind spot. I hadn’t noticed that this would apply to things like the tradeoffs involved in an academic career. I remember encountering these pitfalls and getting weird advice about how to navigate them.
Thinking in terms of the gravity turn helped a lot of this click together for me.
It’s such a simple, clear metaphor.
I also found it an engaging read. Perhaps because I related to it so well from my own academic background. But as style goes, I think it’s solid.
My only criticism is that as a visual piece, the meat of this post comes across as a wall of text. It might have been nice for the author to find ways of breaking it up a little more. Modern online audiences aren’t used to reading books anymore!
But that’s pretty minor in the scope of things. I think it’s basically great as is.