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Tags: self-help Philosophy practice
Reference: R: The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
A theory is like medicine (or government): often useless, sometimes necessary, always self-serving, and on occasion lethal. So it needs to be used with care, moderation, and close adult supervision. — Nassim Taleb (need to validate if it was him or he quoted someone else)
When you rely too much on theory you can get into trouble. Why? Because theory is an idealized and simplified model of the world, which leads you to mistake map for the territory, to focus on pure and well-defined "forms," whether objects, like triangles, or social notions, like utopias, or [forecasts]
Why is this happening? In short, our minds are not designed to handle the complexity of the modern world. Here are a couple of reasons for that.
As a result, we confidently but falsely create theories based on a small subset of reality ignoring or rejecting all of the rigid and messy details that either don't fit into our current narrative or which we are simply unable to compute (this is where Black Swans hide). What's worse, we are unaware of that ignorance and arrogance.
To fight that illusion you must bring the metaphysical into the physical, theory into practice, plans into deeds, thoughts into actions.
Only by externalizing your theories can you uncover all of the rigid and messy details that your idealized and simplified theory is missing. You will see if your model of the world will hold water when faced with reality. You can know all about the theory of how to ride a bike, but we all know that theory won't prevent you from falling off this bike on your first try.
Develop when theory is useful FleetingNote
Don't get me wrong, theory is sometimes useful and necessary. Heck, the ability to theoretize is what makes us different from animals (P: Collective imagination made us human (intersubjectivity)). When is theory useful then? To make a leap of faith, to create a hypothesis. (connected P: You can make great discoveries by "asking" reality a question)
However, once you have theory, you must close the gap between it and reality as soon as you can. The more you postpone it and build your idealized model, the more the delusion will grow.
Relevant notes:
P: You're not as rational as you think: we are mostly irrational but we think that we aren't.
P: People judge mostly emotionally: we make quick intuitive judgements and later create stories to rationalize them.
PN: Writing is the best facilitator for thinking: Writing is a form of externalizing theory can make your ideas more complete and precise.
P: Use randomness to improve yourself: putting your ideas into practice and actually doing stuff exposes you to black swans that are hidden in the gap between theory and reality, which often lead to many serendipitous discoveries.
This is also why you're breaking down stories. To uncover as many uknowns as possible.
Learning Processized: How to learn effectively: validating your knowledge shows you the holes in your understanding.
P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical is the ultimate cure for the ludic fallacy. Nothing can tell you more about the validity of your theories than implementing them in the real world.
Work hard without bigger expectations to "find something"—i.e., ship stuff, bring the metaphysical into the physical, do versus think, experiment versus theoretize—and let reality serendipity enter your daily life.
Implementation and internalization produce the expertise that is required to become a master or an expert. In other words, you need to put the concepts into practice in various situations to get the necessary experience.
P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical: only by doing you can realizing the potential of your plans because only then reality can validate them.
Theory is great but unless it's put into practice it's closer to a fairy tale than it is to reality (P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical I need to create a better note about that).
Is theory necessary to make the 'jump' of logic, to figure out that something that doesn't exist might be possible and why. In other words, it's a prerequisite for hypotheses. And it should stay a prerequisite until it's validated empirically. P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical
Is theory necessary to make the 'jump' of logic, to figure out that something that doesn't exist might be possible and why. In other words, it's a prerequisite for hypotheses. And it should stay a prerequisite until it's validated empirically. P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical
Experiments, compel you to bring the metaphysical into the physical. They force you to clash theory with reality. Reality is ruthless, it will leave strip your idea of its subjective glare and leave only what's true.
By doing something you know (an objective or hypothesis) you find something that you didn't was there.
This shows that our platonicity and ludic fallacy—ridding reality of Black Swans through simplification due to our cognitive limitations—can work in our favor. You see, the hypothesis that hid BS could hide BS of the positive kind. When you test your hypothesis—implement it in reality—those BS get exposed leading to new things. The new things can be innovative on their own or they can act as a spare part (that was previously missing) to spark a novel idea. (PN: Most new ideas are incomplete)
P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical: goals is a theory that needs to be put into action
P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical: similarly, introverted thinkers should force themselves to push their rich internal intellectual fruits.
P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical: usually you'll learn (and internalize) most by actually doing stuff.
Secondly, this excerpt shows the recipe for creativity. In short, you must do stuff. Like in PN: How to get startup ideas, it's best to work on what interests you and keep living in the future. By building—i.e., externalizing your ideas in the physical world—you will discover things that only reality can disguise to you like in P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical
The best way to maximize it is to do as much stuff as possible. Doing, implementing, bringing the metaphysical into the physical will produce the most serendipity.
P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical: Ideas are abstract and subjective. You need to bring the into reality to discover if they will hold the water.
PN: Internalization leads to expertise; P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical: developing expertise.
By doing something you know (an objective or hypothesis) you find something that you didn't was there.
This shows that our platonicity and ludic fallacy—ridding reality of Black Swans through simplification due to our cognitive limitations—can work in our favor. You see, the hypothesis that hid BS could hide BS of the positive kind. When you test your hypothesis—implement it in reality—those BS get uncovered, leading to new things. The new things can be innovative on their own or they can act as a spare part (that was previously missing) to spark a novel idea. (PN: Most new ideas are incomplete)
P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical: doing strips books of their misconceptions.
P: Bring the metaphysical into the physical: putting things into practice reduces the unknowns.