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> But once you've set your goal point, your "something good" axis, the natural temptation is to optimize your slope until you're steadily progressing against it
by naniwaduni 4y ago
> But once you've set your goal point, your "something good" axis, the natural temptation is to optimize your slope until you're steadily progressing against it. And that's dangerous, because you might forget that the "something good" axis was arbitrary to begin with.
If you're optimizing your slope, that at least implies your slope is something you can optimize. How do you optimize your y-axis?
- nostrademons 4y agoThat's the point - you don't. Once you're faced with something that you can't optimize because there's not even a clear definition of what "good" is, a lot of those rational tools of hill-climbing, success, continuous improvement, etc. fall out the window. And that's why it's a fun and rewarding rabbit hole to go down. Because when you're faced with an arbitrary, intractable problem, that's when you need to start developing the fuzzy, emotional side of yourself. That's when you need to start making hard choices about what you want your life to look like and what you're going to care about, and you're finally faced with a situation where there's no right answer, and you only have your feelings to go by. Then you can return to the hill-climbing and optimization as a tool to achieve those arbitrarily-chosen goals, but now you look at them only as tools.
- rocqua 4y agoWhat if, rather than maximizing the slope, you maximize your authority over the slope. That seems closer to the original point of the article too. The general idea is that being a quick learner is universally valuable because it means you can reach a steep slope over many different dimensions. Hence allowing you to react much better.