Seems like the first step is to notice that your environment is X, as opposed to some other hypothetical Y. Then you can ask “why is it X instead of Y?”
Without the alternatives, even imaginary, the question about the environment sounds like “why X is X?”, which invites the answer “tautologically, duh”. The world is what it is, because that’s kinda what “reality” means, right?
With alternatives, the world is a mechanism. We can ask what forces are moving its state towards X, instead of Y or Z. Is it a consequence of some natural forces, so even if we could magically switch the world to Y or Z, it would gradually chance back to X? If this is the case, then we have some interesting natural forces to study. Maybe we can use them to overcome them, like the knowledge of gravity allows us to construct an airplane. Or maybe it is a Schelling point, so if we could magically switch the world to Y (and brainwash everyone into believing it was always Y), it would remain Y. Then, who knows, maybe we could artificially establish Y as a Schelling point of some smaller environment, and see if we can make it expand from there.
Sometimes the environment is adversarial, in the sense that it was shaped by people following their selfish incentives, willing to make trade-offs whenever less utility for you means more utility for them. It can help to remind yourself that them following their incentives is a choice, not a law of nature.
For example, whenever you deal with a helpful employee of a corporation or a bureaucracy telling you “I am really sorry, I wish I could help you, but what you want is not allowed by our rules” (framing the situation as: people are friendly, but what you want is simply impossible), you might want to remember that those rules were also set up by some humans… and if they end up hurting you and helping the corporation/bureaucracy, who knows, maybe that was exactly the intention (reframing the situation as: the friendly humans are just a facade for the unfriendly humans). Like, maybe there is a good reason for the rule, maybe it prevents some abuse; but maybe the rule is actually there to abuse you. Or it can be somewhere in the middle, like some abuse is probably unavoidable, and someone with the power decided that it should be you who pays the cost.
Whenever I encounter a new system/situation/environment, I often find myself automatically asking “What are the possible ways this could be, which of those would I most prefer, and can I make that happen?” Even in mundane situations, there is often low-hanging fruit for improvement that most people don’t notice or bother to take.
Seems like the first step is to notice that your environment is X, as opposed to some other hypothetical Y. Then you can ask “why is it X instead of Y?”
Without the alternatives, even imaginary, the question about the environment sounds like “why X is X?”, which invites the answer “tautologically, duh”. The world is what it is, because that’s kinda what “reality” means, right?
With alternatives, the world is a mechanism. We can ask what forces are moving its state towards X, instead of Y or Z. Is it a consequence of some natural forces, so even if we could magically switch the world to Y or Z, it would gradually chance back to X? If this is the case, then we have some interesting natural forces to study. Maybe we can use them to overcome them, like the knowledge of gravity allows us to construct an airplane. Or maybe it is a Schelling point, so if we could magically switch the world to Y (and brainwash everyone into believing it was always Y), it would remain Y. Then, who knows, maybe we could artificially establish Y as a Schelling point of some smaller environment, and see if we can make it expand from there.
Sometimes the environment is adversarial, in the sense that it was shaped by people following their selfish incentives, willing to make trade-offs whenever less utility for you means more utility for them. It can help to remind yourself that them following their incentives is a choice, not a law of nature.
For example, whenever you deal with a helpful employee of a corporation or a bureaucracy telling you “I am really sorry, I wish I could help you, but what you want is not allowed by our rules” (framing the situation as: people are friendly, but what you want is simply impossible), you might want to remember that those rules were also set up by some humans… and if they end up hurting you and helping the corporation/bureaucracy, who knows, maybe that was exactly the intention (reframing the situation as: the friendly humans are just a facade for the unfriendly humans). Like, maybe there is a good reason for the rule, maybe it prevents some abuse; but maybe the rule is actually there to abuse you. Or it can be somewhere in the middle, like some abuse is probably unavoidable, and someone with the power decided that it should be you who pays the cost.
Whenever I encounter a new system/situation/environment, I often find myself automatically asking “What are the possible ways this could be, which of those would I most prefer, and can I make that happen?” Even in mundane situations, there is often low-hanging fruit for improvement that most people don’t notice or bother to take.