Marginalia

Decide Once ¶

When you’re young, you have all these things to worry about—should you go there, what about your mother. And you worry, and try to decide, but then something else comes up. It’s much easier to just plain decide. Never mind—nothing is going to change your mind. I did that once when I was a student at MIT. I got sick and tired of having to decide what kind of dessert I was going to have at the restaurant, so I decided it would always be chocolate ice cream, and never worried about it again—I had the solution to that problem. Anyway, I decided it would always be Caltech.

Richard Phillips Feynman and Ralph Leighton, “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” (1985)

• deciding on how something should be from now on or how not to have to make the same decisions over and over again
• Outsourcing Decision Making
• some of my notes have attached various little things on what I’ve decided in relation to their topics

Periodic Reconstruction ¶

• Shikinen Sengu or the ritual of rebuilding
• In Japan the Ise Jingu Grand Shrine is rebuilt every 20 years exactly the same way as during the 7th century.
  • the new version is identical to the previous one and built right next to it
  • the rebuilding includes creating replicas of all the artifacts surrounding the ceremony
  • recreating a sizable fraction of the 7th-century economy

Reconstructing Your Systems ¶

• Start with a fresh environment next to the old one and bring things into the new environment only when you need them.
  • Consider if you need something or could in fact do without it.
• Reconstruct this whole note management system every now and then
  • Once a year or biennially archive all the notes accumulated over the previous year.
  • The next year do the same, but also delete the previous archive.
• Reconsidering and removing parts of the routine that no longer serve you.
• Change your behaviors, reärrange the environment.
• Cast the exuviæ

Reducing, removing, simplifying ¶

Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n’y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n’y a plus rien à retrancher.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “Terre des Hommes” (1939)

• “Less, but better”—Dieter Rams
• Clutter is costly
• Hick’s law: increasing the number of choices will increase the decision time logarithmically
  • analysis paralysis
• Removing something that’s causing a problem over adding something new that would solve it.
  • the adage: you can’t outrun a bad diet
• Every solution tends to introduce multiple new problems.
  • Can I trade multiple problem-inducing solutions for a single problem?

Unofficial Practice ¶

How do you act when no one’s looking—when you’re not looking?

The idea behind this is to let the practice permeate past the time boundaries set aside for it. I may lift weights, but then avoid any physical challenges outside the gym. I may meditate and be mindful for 15 minutes every morning but then mindless the rest of the day. Sometimes the status quo pushes you to go against what you believe in during your practice. You see everyone taking the elevator so you won’t even think about the stairs. It does take awareness to recognize something in a different context. Why do you practice if not to take it beyond itself? Practice for the sake of practice.

You Go to School With the First One ¶

And perhaps also with the next one. Don’t count on the first attempt at most things to be a success. For this reason allow for some slack in case things need doing over. Don’t fear mistakes—there are none. It’s a learning experience.

There are a couple of related ideas in software. The first one is solving every problem twice. The second solution takes less time and has the potential of being of higher quality. The other idea is what Frederick Brooks writes about in “The Mythical Man-Month”. He names it the second-system effect. The first system is built carefully as the architect is still learning and ends up being sparse and clean. However, as they notice what they can improve on, they set these ideas aside to be used on the next system. For this reason the second system gets over-designed and results in being superfluous.

I wouldn’t experiment with new recipes if I had to subject someone besides myself to its outcome. It’s a single meal, out of all the things I’ll ever cook for myself, but a higher percentage to those who receive something I cook. Cooking has this characteristic that the output or solution is perishable. If the first attempt is perfect, but done too early, it needs redoing at a more appropriate time.

Still Reveries ¶

• interests and hobbies in support of the self-image
• zero point

Elsewhere: Outsourcing Decision Making