Hmm, I’m noticing that a surprisingly large portion of my recent creative progress can be traced down to a single “isthmus” (a key pattern that helps you connect many other patterns). It’s the trigger-action-plan of
IF you see an interesting pattern that doesn’t have a name THEN invent a new word and make a flashcard for it
This may not sound like much, and it wouldn’t to me either if I hadn’t seen it make a profound difference.
Interesting patterns are powerups, and if you just go “huh, that’s interesting” and then move on with your life, you’re totally wasting their potential. Making a name for it makes it much more likely that you’ll be able to spontaneously see the pattern elsewhere (isthmus-passing insights). And making a flashcard for it makes sure you access it when you have different distributions of activation levels over other ideas, making it more likely that you’ll end up making synthetic (isthmus-centered) insights between them. (For this reason, I’m also strongly against the idea of dissuading people from using jargon as long as the jargon makes sense. I think people should use more jargon, even if it seems embarrassingly supercilious and perhaps intimidating to outsiders).
Hmm, I’m noticing that a surprisingly large portion of my recent creative progress can be traced down to a single “isthmus” (a key pattern that helps you connect many other patterns). It’s the trigger-action-plan of
IF you see an interesting pattern that doesn’t have a name
THEN invent a new word and make a flashcard for it
This may not sound like much, and it wouldn’t to me either if I hadn’t seen it make a profound difference.
Interesting patterns are powerups, and if you just go “huh, that’s interesting” and then move on with your life, you’re totally wasting their potential. Making a name for it makes it much more likely that you’ll be able to spontaneously see the pattern elsewhere (isthmus-passing insights). And making a flashcard for it makes sure you access it when you have different distributions of activation levels over other ideas, making it more likely that you’ll end up making synthetic (isthmus-centered) insights between them. (For this reason, I’m also strongly against the idea of dissuading people from using jargon as long as the jargon makes sense. I think people should use more jargon, even if it seems embarrassingly supercilious and perhaps intimidating to outsiders).