The Big Problems
Entry question: What the f*ck are you doing in life?
Note: This is gonna be a really short post. I’m invoking the 300-word clause of The Great 300-Word Experiment.
(Ed: Turned out to be pretty long. Funny how that happens.)
Important Problems
These are some questions that Richard Hamming used to go around asking his colleagues (He was a big-time mathematician and computer science guy and stuff).
What are the most important problems in your field?
Are you working on one of them?
Why not?
Think of all the stuff you’re not doing. How likely is it that you’re working on the problems that will have the most impact?
Am I talking about things whose impact you haven’t yet realized? Like some critical secret truths about the world you haven’t yet discovered?
Nah. There are things you know right now that will have insane awesome impact. And you’re not working on them. Neither am I. Not cool.
Name three
Okay. Over the long term, the aim is to solve all our problems and raise the Quality of our lives like hell.
But that’s a bit too abstract. Let’s look at the concrete things we want.
Let’s assume for now that we have some sort of idea about what we want to achieve (more on that coming soon). What should we do?
We need to figure out what we need to do.
We need to do it.
What are some problems with that? Why haven’t we already figured out what we need to do? Why aren’t we doing it?
First of all, humans suck at thinking clearly about stuff. There are a lot of things that prevent us from observing reality as it is. Then, we can’t make the correct inferences from the data we have. And, in any case, our memory is limited. Our processing power is limited. Our skills fade, our body rots, and our mind turns to mush with age.
Worst of all, we suck balls at executing on ideas. Remember Akrasia? Yup. That can shoot a hole in any grand plans you have.
And these aren’t two separate stages. Gaining accurate knowledge about the world and executing plans often go hand in hand. When you execute on some plan, you discover that some of the ideas were mistaken. So you seek some more knowledge and update your ideas. Then, you take some more action. And so it goes.
Ask not what Rationality can do for you
Ask what you can do for Rationality.
We want to ensure that we get to our goals, that we see the Impact we want in our lives.
So, the most obvious target would be to crack the problem of Akrasia. Hard, I know, but there is no go for it. As far as I can see, it is one of the most important problems in the world. Fix it and we would be achieving a lot lot more. And hopefully, the new inventions and solutions we create would lead to even more inventions and solutions.
Akrasia is the bottleneck in the process of getting the Impact we want to see. We have buttloads of awesome ideas. It is in the execution that we falter.
Are we working on it? Not really.
Why not?
Cos, you know, I have more important things going on in my life. So many TV shows to catch up with. So many blog posts online to read. So many movies to watch. Such entertainment. Much fun.
Learning to take it slow. Not.
Also, we need to optimize our ability to learn new things. Taking Action is not the only bottleneck. There is also a huge knowledge gap. We need to know a lot more things if we are to solve the important problems.
Thus, we would need to deliberately optimize our learning process. We need to be more efficient. This current state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue. What? We learn something one day. We understand it perfectly well. And then, a month later, poof! It’s gone. No trace of it. I have forgotten almost all the “ideas” I painstakingly came up with in my past essays.
We can’t waste spend so much time learning new things. I’ve been programming now for so many years and I still suck at it. It takes me months to become even slightly comfortable hacking on a new project.
(Okay, I’m gonna be a bit critical now. Know that I have tremendous respect for all these people. I am like a fly compared to them. But the truth has to be said.)
There are mathematicians out there. Scientists. Economists. CEOs. Many of them have been in their field for decades now. Why do they still suck so much? If you’ve been working in a biological research lab for two decades now, shouldn’t you have learnt like a motherf*cker from the experience? Shouldn’t you be like the Lord God Master of your field? I mean, seriously, come on!
(If anybody says that they don’t suck, well… show me the results. No Imp…)
This sucks.
This is unacceptable. We can’t keep forgetting important things like this. We need to patch up our goddamn Leaky Buckets. And we need to develop the ability to learn f*cking fast. We should be like a motherf*cking army marching across entire fields of knowledge, blasting apart anything that stands in our way and conquering whole kingdoms. Instead of crawling on our stomachs, one painful inch at a time, losing days of progress for even the slightest setback.
The current rate of progress is too slow. By the time we make any meaningful advances, we would be on our deathbeds. Not cool.
The fire within
Let’s not use wank words like Akrasia. Let’s be even more specific.
Motivation.
Why am I not working directly on the things most important to me?
Cos I do not feel like it.
Cos I feel like doing anything else in the world except that.
Cos it is so f*cking damn Hard.
Cos I feel like a motherf*cking dumbass when I try and I don’t get any results.
Cos I have no hope that I will succeed.
Cos there is nobody whose footsteps I can follow in. If someone had already solved all these problems, they’ve done a pretty good job of hiding it.
Yes, all this makes me sound like the world’s biggest dumbass. I have an idea of the most important thing I should be doing and I’m not doing it! What a fool! Until you turn your gaze inwards and realize the same thing about yourself. This sucks.
Prachchnae… adhae paesi theerkanum… Ippadi aalaalukku valathindae irunthaa namma area-va yevan madhippaan?
(Problem… you need to talk it over and solve it… if you just keep blowing it up more and more, who will respect our team and our area?)
– The barber from Chennai 600028
We need to figure out how to kick motivation’s ass.
Nothing but the Truth
We need a way of finding out the truth. Like real fast.
The winning ways, the ways that will give us the Impact we want, will probably most easily be achieved when we are in possession of the Truth. It’s like oil. He who has it most wins. Or gets invaded.
What’s that? You’ve already got the Scientific Method for uncovering the truth? Oh yeah, what good has it done you (you, specifically)?
Step 1: Form a hypothesis.
Step 2: Do an experiment to test your hypothesis.
Step 3: Measure the results.
Step 4: Make a cardboard poster.
– The Scientific Method, according to Hermione Granger
We can’t just stop with theory. We won’t stop until we actually have the Impact in our hands. Otherwise, economists have pretty much already solved the problem of how to make perfect decisions in theory. Dude, they own the term “rational”.
But, evidently, it isn’t enough. We need more. Much much more. We don’t want the truth-seeking device to be some complex, cumbersome, monolithic, ten-tonne lab equipment in some underground research center, being cooled by industrial-strength air-conditioners and requiring special lab suits to work with. We want it to be available right where we are, anywhere, anytime.
We don’t want it to be some high-tech military weapon that can melt an entire building in seconds but is a bitch to set up and transport. A bazooka would be better.
What we have now are water-pistols. We don’t even really want to know the truth in most cases. And when we do, we use half-assed methods to get at it. And we are blissfully unaware of the entire parts of our mind working hard at distorting the picture before it reaches us. We have no clue whether we have got to the truth or not. How do I know that? The same old way… Not cool. Not acceptable.
The tip of the iceberg
These are just a few of the most important problems facing us. If you find yourself with some free time and a resolve to kick ass, do take them on.
I haven’t even mentioned the others. Social problems - which can hijack our minds and literally stop any progress from happening. Unnecessary drama and crap and interpersonal issues can drain your motivation and evaporate innovation. Social rejection and status problems can lead to way more severe problems. Look around you. On the other hand, when it goes well, it can multiply your happiness and productivity and boost progress by attracting more people.
Physical health problems. Psychological problems. Disease. War. Death. Aging. Crime. General crap.
The bigger the problem, the harder it is to get yourself to work on it.
– Paul Graham, Good and Bad Procrastination
Let’s not make the same mistake we’ve all been making so far. We’ll take on each of the problems in coming essays.
No more dead cops!!
– Random policeman at the press conference, The Dark Knight
No more crap!!
– SPK
(h/t to Thalaivar Paul Graham for sparking this off in Good and Bad Procrastination)
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