3 ms·

It is interesting that Marc Andreesen was having a bit of a X crash out over his belief that introspection is bad [1] I disagree because I tend to seek a middl

by zoogeny 7mo ago

It is interesting that Marc Andreesen was having a bit of a X crash out over his belief that introspection is bad [1] I disagree because I tend to seek a middle way. I would agree that too much (excessive) introspection is bad. But I would argue that too little is equally bad. I think obsessively examining ones own comment history would verge on excessive. I'm wondering how much LLM analysis of my public and private life can remain healthy. 1.https://x.com/pmarca/status/2035190797218587116 https://x.com/pmarca/status/2035190797218587116

inetknght 7mo ago
> I think obsessively examining ones own comment history would verge on excessive If you write a journal, do you not sometimes review the things you've written? This is no different. If you read the whole journal every day before writing a new entry, then perhaps it is a but excessive. But a review once or twice a year is not a bad thing.
- zoogeny 7mo ago
  I very much take your point, and literally the paragraph before I said "... I tend to seek a middle way". So if you think reviewing once or twice a year is right for you, then go for it. But to answer your specific question: I do keep journals and I almost never review them. I have a box with 20+ years of handwritten journals in it. Once every couple of years I'll even open the box and flip through a few pages of a few of the books and read a couple of pages. But that is generally all I do and I have no desire to do any more than that. I also have maybe 100 journal entries in Google Docs and to the best of my recollection I have never read a single one of them after they were written. Lately I've been using LLMs as a kind of active journal, where I engage in a dialogue as a means to externalizing my thoughts and refining ideas through critical feedback. I have never gone back and re-read any of those conversations. I'm not making a value claim here, just answering you honestly. It isn't that I think one should or shouldn't review their journals, it is that it doesn't give me pleasure to do so and I find no personal value in it.

by zoogeny 7mo ago

inetknght 7mo ago

> I think obsessively examining ones own comment history would verge on excessive If you write a journal, do you not sometimes review the things you've written? This is no different. If you read the whole journal every day before writing a new entry, then perhaps it is a but excessive. But a review once or twice a year is not a bad thing.

zoogeny 7mo ago
I very much take your point, and literally the paragraph before I said "... I tend to seek a middle way". So if you think reviewing once or twice a year is right for you, then go for it. But to answer your specific question: I do keep journals and I almost never review them. I have a box with 20+ years of handwritten journals in it. Once every couple of years I'll even open the box and flip through a few pages of a few of the books and read a couple of pages. But that is generally all I do and I have no desire to do any more than that. I also have maybe 100 journal entries in Google Docs and to the best of my recollection I have never read a single one of them after they were written. Lately I've been using LLMs as a kind of active journal, where I engage in a dialogue as a means to externalizing my thoughts and refining ideas through critical feedback. I have never gone back and re-read any of those conversations. I'm not making a value claim here, just answering you honestly. It isn't that I think one should or shouldn't review their journals, it is that it doesn't give me pleasure to do so and I find no personal value in it.