The Lesson to Unlearn by Paul Graham (2019)

https://www.paulgraham.com/lesson.html

Layers of Meaning

Two weeks ago, in Hidden Complexity, I mentioned how authors sometimes have simple ideas and then fill your mind with examples to help you apply them in the real world. Depending on who you are, these examples may impact you differently and connect more strongly or weakly to a different

Too Soon to Tell - A Taoist Parable (139 BCE)

I first heard this on an Infinite Loops podcast with Derek Sivers (I can't remember if it was Part 1 or Part 2). I tend strongly to absolutes and forget that everything exists in an ebb and flow. The parable below was first documented in China over two

Hidden Complexity

We tend to oversimplify. We want a straightforward story, cause, and effect with a few ingredients that align with our worldview. These stories can be helpful but may not have the full context or truth. Importantly, without these simplifications, we wouldn't survive. Getting out of the house in

Seeming Slack

I tend to try to optimize everything. I love being efficient and getting things done quickly. But while every system can be optimized quantitatively, that doesn't mean it should be. Sometimes, some form of je ne sais quoi can't be entirely captured in the numbers (or

Update on 'Embracing Limits in 2024'

Last year, I set some limitations for myself and wanted to reflect on how it turned out. I am writing this to determine what worked and what didn't, so there is a reasonable chance you do not care. Feel free to skip this Thought. The goal was to

Favorite Books of 2024

I wanted to finish off the year by making a list of my favorite books from 2024. It started as a top five, but six really stuck out, so I split it into three non-fiction and three narratives. Narrative (Kinda Fiction) 1. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (2020)—This is a

The Right Word

Language is fascinating. We are constantly immersed in thoughts defined by our current language and part of a culture that has grown up in our language. Despite this immersion, we don’t give much thought to the impact of language. The language we speak, in some cases, can be limiting.

Summer 2024 Thoughts on AI

Recently, preparing for an event, I started pulling together some of my thoughts on the current state of AI. Considering I haven't posted in a while, I figured sharing them could make for a good post. I would love to hear any thoughts this post prompts. Short-Term Generative

The Acceleration of Addictiveness by Paul Graham (2010)

https://paulgraham.com/addiction.html

The Egg by Andy Weir (2009)

https://galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

Zoom Out

The Design of Everyday Things says innovation happens in two ways: incremental and radical. Incremental innovation comes from trying to make existing processes better. Radical innovation comes from thinking beyond the process to what the person tries to accomplish. As Harvard Business School marketing professor Theodore Levitt said, "People

Hidden Hooks

Lately, I have read about user interface/product design for software. I have read the two books Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug and Hooked by Nir Eyal (who also wrote Indistractable, which I previously discussed). The first is more tactical, while the second focuses more on

Shorts

The Tail End by Tim Urban (2015)

https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html

Bayes' Behavior

There is a concept in probability called Bayesian updating[1] that I think about quite a bit. I will skip all the math because while the equation is clear, the assumptions are incredibly subjective and make the equation worthless for this discussion. If you want a more detailed mathematical explanation,

Discoverability of the Infinite

Discoverability is a design concept representing whether you can determine possible actions when presented with an interface or object. As an easy example, below is an image of a clock radio designed by Dieter Rams. It has two simple controls on the front, "Volume" and "Tuning"

Economic Sense vs. Human Sense

About two weeks ago, I thought it would be interesting to review the Daniel Thoughts I had posted so far to see if there were any common themes. The idea that humans are not machines occurred the most. This seems obvious and easy to believe in isolation, but I find

Mental Models in Action

Toward the end of 2023, I re-read Farnam Street's The Great Mental Models series. For those unfamiliar, mental models are concepts from various disciplines that have uses beyond their original application. A simple example is evolution, which is traditionally focused on biology but applied to many subjects, such

On Focus

As mentioned in a previous post, I recently went down a focus rabbit hole, reading Stolen Focus and Indistractable and some relevant excerpts from The Shallows and The World Beyond Your Head. Initially, I thought the narrative would be that we struggle with short-term attention, causing significant productivity decreases. While

Embracing Limits in 2024

I have difficulty accepting limits and have always tried to be everything to everyone. This may happen as you age, or I have just failed enough times to finally admit I have limitations, even if I don't fully accept them. Recently, though, I found constraints to be positive.

The Low-Friction Life

I consistently do things I look back on later and think, “Why did I do that?" While that happens with big things occasionally, I am thinking about the small ones. I choose to watch a TV show I don't care much about instead of reading a book

The Great Montage

I hate to admit it, but in hindsight, Suits had an outsized impact on my consideration of attending law school. Seeing Mike come in with an analysis or answer, Harvey delivers the result eloquently. Who doesn't want to be like that? What I was missing, though, was that

Magnitude's Melancholy

Sitting in a restaurant the other day, I saw a picture of a group of people eating outside what seemed to be the original location. Ten people chatted with warm smiles on their faces. When I looked away from the picture, I saw something different. A dimly lit restaurant with

The Erosion of Shared Context

When reading Stephen Wolfram's article about AI I referenced a couple of weeks back, it stuck with me his assessment that these models can take your bullet points and work them into a shared context. That completely sums up communication and is what I am doing now, taking