I find it useful to imagine an infinitely large book that walks you through how to solve any given problem. It doesn't exist, and can't exist, but sometimes we can catch glimpses of it.
Having a procedure menu sounds like something very useful to have when learning anything new (or living and dealing with life's problems)
Having a list of ~10 procedures with rough outlines of when they work would be a nice booster that I'd like. It would solve one of the hardest problems I have: How to start dealing with the problem. The amorphousness of that problem makes it high friction to even just sit down. Having a clear first step (look at the damn list) would help, even in cases where I'd decide I don't need the list.
Yeah, for sure. I do in fact have / am developing such a list and this is the bit I've not yet figured out how to talk about without telling people about my "esoteric magical practice".
I think it's probably the case that it works better with everyone maintaining their own lists though (and then telling others about what's on them and using them to build more general procedures). e.g. there are a bunch of procedures I use which are very heavily optimised for my own needs and affordances, and that probably work well for others if they share those and need adapting if they don't.
Such a lovely idea. I work in product and so have plenty of diagnostic lists like this written down for when I encounter some difficult roadblock, but I’ve never thought of bringing that into my personal life. Might just try!
Thanks for engaging read as always David! When thinking about the differences between people, my mind got going on the function of lifestyles and principles in the context of the Manual. They probably work similar to how you describe experts as pattern-matching and reducing the search space of procedures but maybe slightly differently as well.
Thinking back on various points in my life, it seems like many of my procedures were not just suboptimal but actively bad — largely as a result of lifestyle issues. Imagine answers to questions like “How should I make ends meet this month?” Or “I need to pass this class that I’m so far behind on”.
Maybe the correct procedure, optimized for effort and self-perception & ability, was to sell drugs (which I’ve never done, to be clear lol) to all my classmates and to get both money and homework answers from them in exchange. It is A solution, but probably net negative for most everyone involved.
Principles, on the other hand, (often lacking in my youth) work very well to constrain the solution space and so even small ethical axioms can help one function like a more seasoned ethical expert. One of the old boons of pagan & religious community even — one need not be a priest etc etc.
My mind is trying to wriggle some analogous Gödel theorems into this context of principled decisions but not quite sure what that looks like haha…need some more noodling bike rides.
:)
Taj
P.s looking forward to hearing about these esoteric magics. Now that they’ve been teased, you’re almost obligated to share haha
Interestingly, I recently was fixing my fiancees 2017 Ford focus hatchback, and I don't think it has the auto-radio issue - maybe a UK version thing? In any case, this was the platonic ideal of car repair. A notice popped up on the driver's screen for "brake bulb fault". I pulled the housing, replaced the bulb (had an extra from the last time), and put the housing back on. Total time, 5 minutes.
I wish the Manual existed. Google, yt, and enthusiast forums do a decent job in the real world, for some things. The hardest part of those methods is the need to examine sources for their angle, and lack of consistent coverage for some domains. I wonder if you could do a decent job with a llm ala the diamond age today?
I think the radio thing has some complicated preconditions to trigger it, but I've never figured out quite what they are. I think the car has to think it "should" be playing the radio for some reason (e.g. if I unplug my phone while I was playing an audiobook this will reliably do it).
I've definitely heard about this problem in the US (a friend warned me about it and I went "surely not..." and then was unpleasantly surprised), but I think it might just be about the Android auto issue rather than the radio, so it's certainly not impossible that it's a UK-specific problem.
The problem is that I use the speakers for stuff (which seems key to triggering it), so this only works if I remember to turn it off on exiting the car, which I'm unlikely to reliably remember to do.
Ah, her model doesn't have Android Auto, that's likely the difference. After some testing, it seems like it respects the setting of the radio on and off, but turning off the engine while Bluetooth is connected (in any state, playing, paused, etc) does restart playing when the car is started.
I can almost hear the requirements meetings for this "feature".
Having a procedure menu sounds like something very useful to have when learning anything new (or living and dealing with life's problems)
Having a list of ~10 procedures with rough outlines of when they work would be a nice booster that I'd like. It would solve one of the hardest problems I have: How to start dealing with the problem. The amorphousness of that problem makes it high friction to even just sit down. Having a clear first step (look at the damn list) would help, even in cases where I'd decide I don't need the list.
Yeah, for sure. I do in fact have / am developing such a list and this is the bit I've not yet figured out how to talk about without telling people about my "esoteric magical practice".
I think it's probably the case that it works better with everyone maintaining their own lists though (and then telling others about what's on them and using them to build more general procedures). e.g. there are a bunch of procedures I use which are very heavily optimised for my own needs and affordances, and that probably work well for others if they share those and need adapting if they don't.
Such a lovely idea. I work in product and so have plenty of diagnostic lists like this written down for when I encounter some difficult roadblock, but I’ve never thought of bringing that into my personal life. Might just try!
Thanks for engaging read as always David! When thinking about the differences between people, my mind got going on the function of lifestyles and principles in the context of the Manual. They probably work similar to how you describe experts as pattern-matching and reducing the search space of procedures but maybe slightly differently as well.
Thinking back on various points in my life, it seems like many of my procedures were not just suboptimal but actively bad — largely as a result of lifestyle issues. Imagine answers to questions like “How should I make ends meet this month?” Or “I need to pass this class that I’m so far behind on”.
Maybe the correct procedure, optimized for effort and self-perception & ability, was to sell drugs (which I’ve never done, to be clear lol) to all my classmates and to get both money and homework answers from them in exchange. It is A solution, but probably net negative for most everyone involved.
Principles, on the other hand, (often lacking in my youth) work very well to constrain the solution space and so even small ethical axioms can help one function like a more seasoned ethical expert. One of the old boons of pagan & religious community even — one need not be a priest etc etc.
My mind is trying to wriggle some analogous Gödel theorems into this context of principled decisions but not quite sure what that looks like haha…need some more noodling bike rides.
:)
Taj
P.s looking forward to hearing about these esoteric magics. Now that they’ve been teased, you’re almost obligated to share haha
Interestingly, I recently was fixing my fiancees 2017 Ford focus hatchback, and I don't think it has the auto-radio issue - maybe a UK version thing? In any case, this was the platonic ideal of car repair. A notice popped up on the driver's screen for "brake bulb fault". I pulled the housing, replaced the bulb (had an extra from the last time), and put the housing back on. Total time, 5 minutes.
I wish the Manual existed. Google, yt, and enthusiast forums do a decent job in the real world, for some things. The hardest part of those methods is the need to examine sources for their angle, and lack of consistent coverage for some domains. I wonder if you could do a decent job with a llm ala the diamond age today?
I think the radio thing has some complicated preconditions to trigger it, but I've never figured out quite what they are. I think the car has to think it "should" be playing the radio for some reason (e.g. if I unplug my phone while I was playing an audiobook this will reliably do it).
I've definitely heard about this problem in the US (a friend warned me about it and I went "surely not..." and then was unpleasantly surprised), but I think it might just be about the Android auto issue rather than the radio, so it's certainly not impossible that it's a UK-specific problem.
Turning the volume to minimum might be an acceptable workaround?
The problem is that I use the speakers for stuff (which seems key to triggering it), so this only works if I remember to turn it off on exiting the car, which I'm unlikely to reliably remember to do.
Ah, her model doesn't have Android Auto, that's likely the difference. After some testing, it seems like it respects the setting of the radio on and off, but turning off the engine while Bluetooth is connected (in any state, playing, paused, etc) does restart playing when the car is started.
I can almost hear the requirements meetings for this "feature".