This story is about rapid iteration rather than quantity. The “quantity” is the detritus of evolution created while learning to produce a perfect pot. If a machine was producing pots it would generate great quantity but the quality would not vary from one iteration to the next.
There are many stories and heuristics in engineering lore suggesting rapid iteration converges on quality faster than careful design. See also: OODA loops, the equivalent military heuristic.
Originally, this post was part of “Don’t Fear Failure”. I intended for it to talk about low-cost failures, how practicing helps, and then do a bit of talking about how rationalists should be able to pay mindful attention to their mistakes in order to learn from them before they get right back up and try again.
So basically advocating rapid iteration after desensitizing people to failing.
However, I wasn’t quite able to tie it all together and it just felt like it dragged on. So instead I split it up into a post which says that failing isn’t that bad, and another about how practice pays off.
I could follow up with another post which more clearly spells out rapid iteration, but that might be a bit much. I’d rather move on to talking about perfectionism and unduly favoring the status quo.
This story is about rapid iteration rather than quantity. The “quantity” is the detritus of evolution created while learning to produce a perfect pot. If a machine was producing pots it would generate great quantity but the quality would not vary from one iteration to the next.
There are many stories and heuristics in engineering lore suggesting rapid iteration converges on quality faster than careful design. See also: OODA loops, the equivalent military heuristic.
That’s true.
Originally, this post was part of “Don’t Fear Failure”. I intended for it to talk about low-cost failures, how practicing helps, and then do a bit of talking about how rationalists should be able to pay mindful attention to their mistakes in order to learn from them before they get right back up and try again.
So basically advocating rapid iteration after desensitizing people to failing.
However, I wasn’t quite able to tie it all together and it just felt like it dragged on. So instead I split it up into a post which says that failing isn’t that bad, and another about how practice pays off.
I could follow up with another post which more clearly spells out rapid iteration, but that might be a bit much. I’d rather move on to talking about perfectionism and unduly favoring the status quo.
Could be wrong though.