Mental Models

Epistemic rationality is about building accurate maps instead. This correspondence between belief and reality is commonly called “truth,” and I’m happy to call it that.1

Instrumental rationality, on the other hand, is about steering reality—sending the future where you want it to go. It’s the art of choosing actions that lead to outcomes ranked... See more

Moods are created by habitually. It’s not a singular event that throws us off - it’s the pattern of continually experiencing a thought that compounds its effect and makes it feel valid.

I need to create crisis in my life because I am actually afraid of living it.

The pattern of unnecessarily creating crises in my life is an avoidance technique. It distracts me from actually having to be vulnerable, or accountable for all the things I am afraid of.

I am never upset for the reason I think I am. At the core of my desire to create... See more

The first point is about making effective decisions. The second is about making good ones. You might think they’re the same, but they are not. Decisions that bring immediate results, like closing a sale or filling a vacancy, may be effective, but they don’t necessarily lead to the things that truly matter in life, like trust, love, and health. Good

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Here is a process that a shaman lady I know has for reckoning with suppressed anger. Interestingly I find this much more effective than the "hit things while screaming route" which actually now seems like a way to AVOID fully feeling one's rage https://t.co/28XAUD0uA2

May 23, 2024

1. I know what makes people grow more reliably than anything else. It is: taking on a difficult project with some amount of public accountability. This can be large or small: a lecture series, a business, a blog, a house, a child, etc.


2. It’s strange, but I know that it’s common to resist positive emotions, as well as negative ones. Ask

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Complexity increases because adding is easy and removing is dangerous.

Whenever there's a problem, we add: a new person, requirement, or process. We never subtract.

Why?

Because everything that already exists has a champion. That clause in the tax code, that step in the process, that feature in the product ... someone fought for it, and they'll fight... See more