When you find yourself doing something, always ask: “What is the purpose, what goal is this activity trying to achieve?” Then, “Do I approve of this goal?”, and if positive, “What is the best way of working to achieve this goal?”. Quite often, the answer to the last question will disagree with the original activity.
Likewise with beliefs. When you consider any question, and find yourself holding some level of certainty about an answer to that question, consider, “Why do I believe so?”, then, “Do I agree with these reasons?”, and for the reasons you do agree with, “What do these reasons lead me to believe about the question?”
This allows you to gradually munch on cached thoughts, ensuring that they are regularly updated and optimized.
(The section about beliefs equally applies to all questions raised at each step, including “Do I approve of this goal?”.)
...get frustrated when we have to tolerate continued ambiguity. Raising the value of > the stakes can increase need for closure—which shuts down complexity tolerance > when complexity tolerance is most needed.
That rang quite true and meshed with Lost Purposes in that if the only goal is to eliminate ambiguity or find a label, attentiveness to the method and actual goal are muddled.
Related topics are also discussed in:
Lost Purposes
Which Parts Are “Me”?
When you find yourself doing something, always ask: “What is the purpose, what goal is this activity trying to achieve?” Then, “Do I approve of this goal?”, and if positive, “What is the best way of working to achieve this goal?”. Quite often, the answer to the last question will disagree with the original activity.
Likewise with beliefs. When you consider any question, and find yourself holding some level of certainty about an answer to that question, consider, “Why do I believe so?”, then, “Do I agree with these reasons?”, and for the reasons you do agree with, “What do these reasons lead me to believe about the question?”
This allows you to gradually munch on cached thoughts, ensuring that they are regularly updated and optimized.
(The section about beliefs equally applies to all questions raised at each step, including “Do I approve of this goal?”.)
Thanks much for those links. Both were wonderful. I especially liked the second.
Also, there was a link to Leaky Generalizations which contained this:
That rang quite true and meshed with Lost Purposes in that if the only goal is to eliminate ambiguity or find a label, attentiveness to the method and actual goal are muddled.