diff --git a/Blockchain.md b/Blockchain.md index 43eb182..b79743d 100644 --- a/Blockchain.md +++ b/Blockchain.md @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ # Blockchain - [A blockchain is a decentralized [[Databases|database]]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBC-nXj3Ng4). - - A blockchain is a worse database. It is slower, requires way more storage and compute, doesn’t have customer support, etc. [But has one dimension along which it is radically different. No single entity or small group of entities controls it](https://continuations.com/post/671863718643105792/web3crypto-why-bother). + - A blockchain is a worse database. It is slower, requires way more storage and compute, doesn't have customer support, etc. [But has one dimension along which it is radically different. No single entity or small group of entities controls it](https://continuations.com/post/671863718643105792/web3crypto-why-bother). - Blockchain solve the Byzantine Generals Problem: [How do participants in a decentralized network communicate and coordinate with each other towards some action without relying on a trusted third-party?](https://a16z.com/2019/11/08/crypto-glossary/). - Blockchains are "trustless". There are mechanisms in place by which all parties in the [[Systems|system]] can reach a consensus on what the canonical truth is. - Power and trust is distributed (or shared) among the network's stakeholders (e.g. developers, miners, and consumers), rather than concentrated in a single individual or entity (e.g. banks, governments, and financial institutions). diff --git a/Blogging.md b/Blogging.md index 046e47b..03337ad 100644 --- a/Blogging.md +++ b/Blogging.md @@ -32,4 +32,4 @@ 2. A few references. Connect the dots between some links, quotes from other sources. 3. An anecdote from your own work that provides rich texture and context for what you do. 4. Some open questions that invite people to discuss. -- [Keep making your post more opinionated until it reflects your true beliefs](https://twitter.com/HamelHusain/status/1751995737095709164). Don’t hedge. People want to hear what you think! +- [Keep making your post more opinionated until it reflects your true beliefs](https://twitter.com/HamelHusain/status/1751995737095709164). Don't hedge. People want to hear what you think! diff --git a/Company Knowledge Management.md b/Company Knowledge Management.md index 97f68e7..d3d2eb2 100644 --- a/Company Knowledge Management.md +++ b/Company Knowledge Management.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ If we think about a company as an organism, then a **knowledge management system There are some basic principles and [[values]] that will make maintaining and evolving a knowledge base easier over time. - **Transparency**. Everyone has access to everything. -- **Iterative Improvements**. Everything is a WIP. No need to say it’ll be updated later or add dates to pages. +- **Iterative Improvements**. Everything is a WIP. No need to say it'll be updated later or add dates to pages. - **Permissionless**. Anyone is able to edit anything. Similar to GitHub Pull Requests. Later, the resource owner can accept or reject the change. - **Interconnected**. Links between everything! @@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ There are some basic principles and [[values]] that will make maintaining and ev - [Decisions (and rationale) must be documented in a durable location. At GitHub they used to say everything should have a URL](https://haacked.com/archive/2020/04/07/introducing-aboard-beta/). That gives the company a **Decision Log**. - Important documents like Roadmaps should be easy to discover and people should be able to comment on and have discussions around them. That promotes keeping it up to date. - [[Design Docs]] should have an explicit place, also acting as an historical log. -- [[Documentation]] should have a common entry point to increase discovery. Each team can have it’s own [[processes]] on top. +- [[Documentation]] should have a common entry point to increase discovery. Each team can have it's own [[processes]] on top. - At a company level, each team documents differently. To make the most of that, grow the knowledge organically and locally, not top down. Each team should have its own permissionless and open way of working and should be made public to the rest of the company. That way they can evolve the system to fit their needs. Then, there is a standard protocol to share information between teams. - The protocol serves as the team communications API. An abstraction over the inner works of the team that is common to all the other teams. - E.g: Each team having a homepage README with links to their slack, ticket system and processes. @@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ Whenever you need to thoroughly brief a group of people on an important matter, 2. Objective. **What** you want to achieve. 3. Plan. **How** you want to achieve it. 4. Logistics. What budget and resources are available, and how they are used. -5. Communications. How you’ll be coordinating among yourselves and with others in order to achieve your goal. +5. Communications. How you'll be coordinating among yourselves and with others in order to achieve your goal. ## Resources diff --git a/Curiosity.md b/Curiosity.md index c6ab899..c8084b3 100644 --- a/Curiosity.md +++ b/Curiosity.md @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ - Never stop [[learning]], practice [[Thinking|rational thinking]] and internalize [[mental models]] and other concepts that will help you think more effectively. - Knowledge is a powerful tool. The more you [feel like a noob](http://paulgraham.com/noob.html), the better. Feeling stupid now is better than feeling stupid in 10 years. - [Reality has a surprising amount of detail](http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail). Knowing more about the world makes you enjoy it more. [Understanding how music is made increases the pleasure you get from music](https://youtu.be/JbVfcZxfIZo). - - Real things exist in essentially infinite resolution. [Looking closer always reveals more, and it’s often not what you’d expect](https://www.raptitude.com/2023/10/the-truth-is-always-made-of-details/). + - Real things exist in essentially infinite resolution. [Looking closer always reveals more, and it's often not what you'd expect](https://www.raptitude.com/2023/10/the-truth-is-always-made-of-details/). - Do stuff! Whatever is you work on, is worthwhile as long as you share your learnings. In the worst case, if your [[ideas]] don't work out, the community will learn why that approach doesn't make sense. - Remix ideas. Ideas are impacted by [[evolution]]. The most useful ones survive and evolve. [Innovation is product of the combinations of ideas](https://youtu.be/XUAIIQFoufs). Everything is a remix! - Fail early and often. There is only one guaranteed way you'll won't get something you want, and that's not to pursue it. [Mistakes](https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/So_you%27ve_made_a_mistake_and_it%27s_public...) are the portals of discovery. diff --git a/Data/Dashboards.md b/Data/Dashboards.md index 8e318f8..b2c9424 100644 --- a/Data/Dashboards.md +++ b/Data/Dashboards.md @@ -70,6 +70,6 @@ The value is that now discussions are happening about the data. - That the data is correct. - That the transformation logic is correct. - That the data is complete. -- The dashboard is always just a snapshot of "what" is happening, but knowing the underlying base level data is always needed to understand "why" it’s happening. +- The dashboard is always just a snapshot of "what" is happening, but knowing the underlying base level data is always needed to understand "why" it's happening. - Usually, answers don't lead to Eureka moments, they lead to follow up questions and follow up questions. - Having 20 dashboards means one is always likely to be up or down by a statistically significant amount. diff --git a/Data/Data Practices.md b/Data/Data Practices.md index 56d126d..632c493 100644 --- a/Data/Data Practices.md +++ b/Data/Data Practices.md @@ -80,8 +80,8 @@ The aim is to answer the following questions each time: 2. **What should I learn from this?** or, Why should I care? Include the **most useful information,** and/or a **clear takeaway**. For folks who only have a few seconds to scan the message, it should be **easy to spot** the **most valuable** bit of the insight, the **reason** this exploration was considered worth sharing. 3. **What caught my eye?** Share a chart or a related resource! 4. **What if I want to know more?** A **link to additional information** can be valuable for people who have time for more than a quick scan and want to understand how you developed the insight, or do some of their own related exploration. -5. **What if I have a question?** Explicitly **inviting questions** and responses is crucial. It’s the best part of sharing an insight! This is where you get to learn about things your colleagues know that you don’t, or what they’re curious about but has not yet risen to the level of becoming a data request from them. -6. **What if posting this prompts a whole bunch of follow-up questions, or exposes incorrect assumptions?** If you have hit on something that’s interesting to a lot of people there likely will be questions that spin off, new ways to slice the data you’re looking at, or assumptions you have made that need to be corrected. +5. **What if I have a question?** Explicitly **inviting questions** and responses is crucial. It's the best part of sharing an insight! This is where you get to learn about things your colleagues know that you don't, or what they're curious about but has not yet risen to the level of becoming a data request from them. +6. **What if posting this prompts a whole bunch of follow-up questions, or exposes incorrect assumptions?** If you have hit on something that's interesting to a lot of people there likely will be questions that spin off, new ways to slice the data you're looking at, or assumptions you have made that need to be corrected. ### Slack Template diff --git a/Data/Data Quality.md b/Data/Data Quality.md index e0bc7dc..08c529e 100644 --- a/Data/Data Quality.md +++ b/Data/Data Quality.md @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ - [[Data Culture|Data is a product]] and that means that you can do postmortems (5 whys) and incident reports on data quality issues. - [There are two strategies to detect quality issues](https://towardsdatascience.com/data-observability-vs-data-testing-everything-you-need-to-know-6f3d7193b388): - Data Testing. Involves checking `null` values, distributions, uniqueness, known invariants, etc. - - Data Observability. Since you can’t predict all the failure modes, you can use automated monitoring, alerting, and triaging to identify and evaluate data quality issues. + - Data Observability. Since you can't predict all the failure modes, you can use automated monitoring, alerting, and triaging to identify and evaluate data quality issues. - Four categories of characteristics about your data form [the four pillars of Data Observability](https://www.metaplane.dev/blog/the-four-pillars-of-data-observability): 1. The *Metrics* and *Metadata* pillars describe the internal characteristics of our data itself and its external characteristics 2. The *Lineage* and *Logs* pillars describe internal dependencies within our data and its interactions with the external world data at any point in time. diff --git a/Data/Experimentation.md b/Data/Experimentation.md index c3335e3..81ca2af 100644 --- a/Data/Experimentation.md +++ b/Data/Experimentation.md @@ -19,14 +19,14 @@ We do not live in an ideal world, so we need to be very deliberate and thoughtfu - Generate hypotheses based on actual observations. All experiments should have a hypothesis in plain English. - Do not simply copy what other companies are doing (do not assume that other companies tested and validated something). - Choose one primary metric in advance to determine "winner" while keeping a few guardrail metrics. -- [You're probably **not measuring what you thought you were measuring**](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9kNxhKWvixtKW5anS/you-are-not-measuring-what-you-think-you-are-measuring). But if you measure enough different stuff, you might figure out what you’re actually measuring. +- [You're probably **not measuring what you thought you were measuring**](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9kNxhKWvixtKW5anS/you-are-not-measuring-what-you-think-you-are-measuring). But if you measure enough different stuff, you might figure out what you're actually measuring. - Log generously. - Stack rank all ideas based on level of effort and potential impact -- also required sample size/run time to get results. - Continuously validate tracking implementation. - Think carefully when choosing your randomization unit. - Run more A/A tests. - The best two places to run an A/B test: In early planning(what kinds of story do people want) and when adding finishing touches(alternative versions of a scene). -- Remember, you’re measuring averages. +- Remember, you're measuring averages. - A great way to help people understand the importance of healthy scrutiny and [how our biases work](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11468377-thinking-fast-and-slow) can be to do a session where people guess the impact of an A/B test before you reveal it. You can use [online calculators](http://experimentcalculator.com/) to estimate the length of an experiment. If your experiment is estimated to take a very long time, you can go for a different metric with a higher baseline rate or only care about bigger changes. @@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ You can use [online calculators](http://experimentcalculator.com/) to estimate t - Experiment summary: - We believe that... {describe your hypothesis in one sentence}. - To verify that, we will... {describe your test in one sentence}. - - And we’ll measure the impact on... {metrics}. + - And we'll measure the impact on... {metrics}. - Hypothesis. What are we expecting to happen? What can we monitor to detect problems with this? - Business problem - Supporting data diff --git a/Data/Machine Learning.md b/Data/Machine Learning.md index 26b1147..8eb1681 100644 --- a/Data/Machine Learning.md +++ b/Data/Machine Learning.md @@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ These points are expanded with more details in courses like [Made With ML](https ## Tips - Use pre-commit hooks. Start with the basics — black, isort — then add pydocstyle, mypy, check-ast, ... -- Version your data! Don’t overwrite raw datasets. +- Version your data! Don't overwrite raw datasets. ### ML In Production Resources diff --git a/Data/Metrics.md b/Data/Metrics.md index 061f087..1946fb8 100644 --- a/Data/Metrics.md +++ b/Data/Metrics.md @@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ - [Every metric you use should have an Operational Definition](https://twitter.com/ejames_c/status/1732621626259484953). 1. A criterion — the thing you want to measure. 2. Test procedure — how will you measure the thing? - 3. Decision rule — how will you decide if the thing you’re measuring should be included in the count? + 3. Decision rule — how will you decide if the thing you're measuring should be included in the count? - A process is predictable if it just contains routine variation. It is unpredictable if it contains both routine and special variation. You can only improve a process if you first make it predictable. - Metrics should help forming a working causal model of the business you're in so you know what interventions you can make and can predict the consequences. diff --git a/Data/Product Analytics.md b/Data/Product Analytics.md index 4c86b9c..c77423c 100644 --- a/Data/Product Analytics.md +++ b/Data/Product Analytics.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ Product analytics can be defined as the way companies analyze what their users a - [Have one clear owner for: event implementation, QA, stakeholder buy-in on metrics from events. For each of these areas, ownership extends forever to make sure there are no regressions](https://twitter.com/sarahmk125/status/1521814508045582336). - Measure tracking quality and treat all tracking bugs as production incidents. - Data trust issues come when data producers and data consumers doesn't work together. Aim to shorten the data loop. E.g: [The feedback loop for the performance engineer is much faster and reliable (same person tracks and analyzes) than for the standard engineer that doesn't look at the data to see the impact they made with their changes](https://www.heavybit.com/library/podcasts/the-right-track/ep-8-defining-the-data-scientist-with-josh-wills-of-weavegrid/). -- [Product Analytics is hard because when you instrument the events you don’t know what you want to analyze. When you analyze them you often didn’t capture what you want to measure](https://twitter.com/pedram_navid/status/1511362347490631782). Also, Ad-Blockers. +- [Product Analytics is hard because when you instrument the events you don't know what you want to analyze. When you analyze them you often didn't capture what you want to measure](https://twitter.com/pedram_navid/status/1511362347490631782). Also, Ad-Blockers. - Even tracking is seen as an after-the-fact activity instead of something integrated into day-to-day design and development. - No one gets promoted for doing a good tracking work. People get promoted for delivering features. - [Some of hard things](https://twitter.com/_MRogers/status/1511426752735760392): building a common nomenclature, knowing what exists, what's reusable/equivalent in new features, testing, aligning across different platforms... diff --git a/Decentralized Autonomous Organizations.md b/Decentralized Autonomous Organizations.md index d390aa9..eb0aebc 100644 --- a/Decentralized Autonomous Organizations.md +++ b/Decentralized Autonomous Organizations.md @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ ## Resources -- [A beginner’s guide to DAOs](https://linda.mirror.xyz/Vh8K4leCGEO06_qSGx-vS5lvgUqhqkCz9ut81WwCP2o). +- [A beginner's guide to DAOs](https://linda.mirror.xyz/Vh8K4leCGEO06_qSGx-vS5lvgUqhqkCz9ut81WwCP2o). - [Everything you need to know about DAOs](https://foundation.app/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-daos). - [The Handbook of Handbooks for Decentralized Organizing](https://hackmd.io/@yHk1snI9T9SNpiFu2o17oA/Skh_dXNbE?type=view). - [Resources For Decentralized Organizing](https://commonslibrary.org/resources-for-decentralised-organising/). Also [summarized in slides](https://geo.coop/sites/default/files/patterns_of_decentralized_organizing.pdf). diff --git a/Decentralized Protocols.md b/Decentralized Protocols.md index 163a02e..1e89ae7 100644 --- a/Decentralized Protocols.md +++ b/Decentralized Protocols.md @@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ - **[Progressive decentralization](https://a16zcrypto.com/content/article/progressive-decentralization-crypto-product-management/) optional centralization.** - A decentralized protocol can work with a centralized provider. It has the benefits of both (might be fast but no lock users in). - A major downside of decentralized protocols/networks is that they tend to perform poorly. Hubs are efficient. -- [It's the properties decentralization gives us that we care about, not decentralization itself](https://haseebq.com/why-decentralization-isnt-as-important-as-you-think/). Decentralization is a global, emergent property. You can feel latency, you can feel transaction fees, but networks ostensibly feel the same whether they’re centralized or decentralized. Decentralization is valuable when it lets you do new things fundamentally better, not old things fundamentally worse. +- [It's the properties decentralization gives us that we care about, not decentralization itself](https://haseebq.com/why-decentralization-isnt-as-important-as-you-think/). Decentralization is a global, emergent property. You can feel latency, you can feel transaction fees, but networks ostensibly feel the same whether they're centralized or decentralized. Decentralization is valuable when it lets you do new things fundamentally better, not old things fundamentally worse. - Ultimately, [users don't care about decentralization](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38694551). Most of the time, it doesn't matter if the service is distributed or comes from a single server sitting in someone's basement. Users want to use services (chat, write mails, watch videos, have a website, buy stuff, sell stuff) and not run infrastructure of any kind. Decentralization is a means to an end, not an end in itself. - If a system requires a centralized part, a great alternative is give the user the ability to point to other centralized things taking care of that part. - If you have a protocol, try enforcing the desired behavior using the protocol. Your ideas of how to solve it might not be the best and adding a protocol restriction (incentives/penalties) will make people figure out. diff --git a/Documentation.md b/Documentation.md index 77c704f..3b50256 100644 --- a/Documentation.md +++ b/Documentation.md @@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ - A how-to guide is goal-oriented, shows how to solve a specific problem with a series of steps. E.g: a recipe in a cookery book. - An explanation is understanding-oriented, provides background and context. E.g: an article on culinary social history. - A reference guide is information-oriented, describes the machinery and is accurate and complete. E.g: a reference encyclopedia article. -- [If someone’s having to read your docs, it’s not "simple"](https://justsimply.dev/). Remove filler words. +- [If someone's having to read your docs, it's not "simple"](https://justsimply.dev/). Remove filler words. - [Principles to keep in mind when writing documentation](https://mkaz.blog/misc/notes-on-technical-writing/). - The purpose of technical writing is to help users accomplish tasks as quickly and effectively as possible. - People learn by doing, prefer to be shown and not told. diff --git a/Dogs.md b/Dogs.md index a4088c9..60cd41a 100644 --- a/Dogs.md +++ b/Dogs.md @@ -110,4 +110,4 @@ - [Dog Training Reddit Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dogtraining/wiki/index) - [Kikopup Youtube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup) -- [Zak George’s Youtube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZzFRKsgVMhGTxffpzgTJlQ) +- [Zak George's Youtube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZzFRKsgVMhGTxffpzgTJlQ) diff --git a/Feedback.md b/Feedback.md index c365d89..16ee04a 100644 --- a/Feedback.md +++ b/Feedback.md @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ All feedback is good feedback. If you agree with it, it tells you something abou - When someone tells you how to fix it, they're almost always wrong. - Collect feedback from everybody. -Your goal is not to do what _you_ think is best, it's to help _others_. This includes respecting their preferences, and respecting their autonomy. It's key that you listen to feedback, be open to the possibility that your actions are systematically unhelpful, and work to build better models of your friends and their preferences. In an ideal world I’d only take the actions that are net good, and avoid all of the ones that are net bad, but in a limited information world this is impossible. And empirically, actually trying _far_ outweighs not trying at all. But you still want to get as net good as possible! +Your goal is not to do what _you_ think is best, it's to help _others_. This includes respecting their preferences, and respecting their autonomy. It's key that you listen to feedback, be open to the possibility that your actions are systematically unhelpful, and work to build better models of your friends and their preferences. In an ideal world I'd only take the actions that are net good, and avoid all of the ones that are net bad, but in a limited information world this is impossible. And empirically, actually trying _far_ outweighs not trying at all. But you still want to get as net good as possible! ## Taking Feedback diff --git a/Goals.md b/Goals.md index e71e489..7a98fb7 100644 --- a/Goals.md +++ b/Goals.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Goals are good for setting a direction. [[Systems]] are for making progress. You - Minimize decision points. The main thing that consumes willpower isn't the process of doing a task, it's deciding to do the task in the first place. The goal is to get stuff done, not to decide to get stuff done. - Shape the default. The ideal situation is for doing the right action to feel like the default. -- You don’t hit a quantitative goal by focusing on the goal. You hit a quantitative goal by focusing on the process. +- You don't hit a quantitative goal by focusing on the goal. You hit a quantitative goal by focusing on the process. - Beware trivial inconveniences. Think of decisions in terms of activation energy. Some decisions need more energy than others depending on how are setup. Make the good decision effortless. Remove friction from the path to your goals. - [A better wording for goals is "quests"](https://www.raptitude.com/2024/08/do-quests-not-goals/). A quest is an adventure, and you expect it to be one that changes you (gives a reward), not just your situation. diff --git a/Health.md b/Health.md index b92af4e..9fca05d 100644 --- a/Health.md +++ b/Health.md @@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ **How you live** affects **how long** and **how happy** you live. So, don't [maximize misery](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO1mTELoj6o). Your health has an impact on everyone around you too. You get healthy, and more importantly stay healthy, by accumulating significant, but livable, [[Life Advice|improvements to your lifestyle over time]], and building on that. -- Run experiments and try new things. This will make you explore the world so you can exploit it later. Go for variety and surprise. Don’t keep doing the same thing. [Most things in life have diminishing marginal utility, so maximizing utility implies doing a lot of things a bit](https://twitter.com/mattsclancy/status/1415470466047827968). -- [Algernon's Law](https://www.gwern.net/Drug-heuristics): your body is already mostly optimal, so adding more things is unlikely to have large positive effects unless there’s some really good reason. +- Run experiments and try new things. This will make you explore the world so you can exploit it later. Go for variety and surprise. Don't keep doing the same thing. [Most things in life have diminishing marginal utility, so maximizing utility implies doing a lot of things a bit](https://twitter.com/mattsclancy/status/1415470466047827968). +- [Algernon's Law](https://www.gwern.net/Drug-heuristics): your body is already mostly optimal, so adding more things is unlikely to have large positive effects unless there's some really good reason. - Although [[time]] is the ultimate resource, the lack of energy will always be the first limiting factor. Therefore prioritizing health (like it or not, you're a physical object), [[Sleep]], [[Fitness|exercise]], and other such aspects will always pay off far more than what you sacrifice on them. [These areas should take priority over anything else](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QTkij5fmPXPd7GD4Z/review-of-scott-adams-how-to-fail-at-almost-everything-and). - Our bodies and minds are built to live in a tribe in 50,000BC, which leaves modern humans with a number of unfortunate traits (fixation with [[Social Media Issues|tribal-style social survival]], attracted to [[Nutrition|energy dense food]], ...). - Build [[Systems]] to take the right actions effortlessly through [[Habits]]. diff --git a/Incentives.md b/Incentives.md index 0f7fe52..6645c16 100644 --- a/Incentives.md +++ b/Incentives.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ Behavior is hard to fix. When people say they've learned their lesson they under - To reach a [[Goals|goal]], reduce friction or increase incentives/rewards. - To build better institutions, alter the incentive landscape. Great incentives create great outcomes. - Humans are astonishingly bad at establishing incentives—we consistently invite manipulation and unintended consequences. -- You can’t force other people to change. You can, however, change just about everything else. And usually, that’s enough! +- You can't force other people to change. You can, however, change just about everything else. And usually, that's enough! - Two types of incentives: - Intrinsic incentives are internal—created by self-interest or desire. - Extrinsic incentives are external—created by outside factors (reward, punishment). diff --git a/Large Language Models.md b/Large Language Models.md index d89f73f..3bba525 100644 --- a/Large Language Models.md +++ b/Large Language Models.md @@ -18,11 +18,11 @@ - Be very specific about the instruction and task you want the model to perform. The more descriptive and detailed the prompt is, the better the results. - Some additions: - [Short ones](https://x.com/simonw/status/1799577621363364224) like; Be highly organized. Be concise. No yapping. - - Suggest solutions that I didn’t think about. + - Suggest solutions that I didn't think about. - Be proactive and anticipate my needs. - Treat me as an expert in all subject matter. - Mistakes erode my trust, so be accurate and thorough. - - Provide detailed explanations, I’m comfortable with lots of detail. + - Provide detailed explanations, I'm comfortable with lots of detail. - Value good arguments over authorities, the source is irrelevant. - Consider new technologies and contrarian ideas, not just the conventional wisdom. - You may use high levels of speculation or prediction, just flag it for me. diff --git a/Learning.md b/Learning.md index 9249064..a26cf67 100644 --- a/Learning.md +++ b/Learning.md @@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ - Have an Analogy about it. - Visualize it in a Diagram. - Gather Examples. Examples are an amazing way to learn things! - - Examples are an excellent way to resolve lossy information transfer - they’re a completely different channel of communication than normal. If nothing else, they serve as an error check. + - Examples are an excellent way to resolve lossy information transfer - they're a completely different channel of communication than normal. If nothing else, they serve as an error check. - Examples are a great way to transfer tacit knowledge, without necessarily making it legible - this is what it means to build intuition. - Come with a Plain-English description of the concept. - Then, dive into the Technical side. @@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ 2. Valid environment (few random events, controlled, ...). 3. Timely feedback. 4. Deliberate practice. -- Knowledge is built up through layers. You need more basic knowledge before you can access more advanced knowledge. You can’t learn things that are too far removed from your knowledge tree. +- Knowledge is built up through layers. You need more basic knowledge before you can access more advanced knowledge. You can't learn things that are too far removed from your knowledge tree. - Lasting and solid foundations are made by experiencing. - For some subjects, [there's no speed limit](https://sive.rs/kimo). If you're more driven than most people, you can do way more than anyone expects. - A great way to spot what is probably true in any field is to find multiple people with different worldviews on a topic and see which parts do they agree upon. diff --git a/News.md b/News.md index 4321898..22a95ae 100644 --- a/News.md +++ b/News.md @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ - The profit comes from advertising, and advertising revenue is maximized by pulling the largest audience, holding their attention for the longest possible time, and putting them into the mental state most conducive to purchasing the products of the advertisers (which turns out to be helplessness and vulnerability). This is why the news always starts out with a sensationalist take on a topic of at least plausible national interest, takes a detour into truly horrific and depressing irrelevant tragedies is one that unfortunately crossed my screen when doing research for this article, then ends on an uplifting note with something like a defiant entrepreneur or a caring soup kitchen. An emotional roller-coaster ride every day of the week. They don't explore solutions. - [There isn't enough actual news (ie events that are "new") to fill the standard news slot — so the fillers became pundits and commentators interpreting "news" and "potential news" for us](https://jjbeshara.com/2018/11/20/the-information-pathology-2/). Humans are good at finding efficiencies, and potential events far outweigh the number of past events, and potential negative events captivate our attention better than potential positive events, so these news-cycles naturally became dominated by commentators interpreting any number of potential negative events. - [Progress happens too slowly to notice](https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/lots-of-overnight-tragedies-no-overnight-miracles/), setbacks happen too fast to ignore. Bad things can happen fast, but almost all good things happen slowly. Even if the trendlines are improving, the feeling the news give is the opposite. -- Online & mainstream media and social networking have become increasingly misleading as to the state of the world by focusing on ‘stories’ and ‘events’ rather than trends and averages. This is because as the global population increases and the scope of media increases, media’s urge for narrative focuses on the most extreme outlier datapoints—but such datapoints are, at a global scale, deeply misleading as they are driven by unusual processes such as the mentally ill or hoaxers. +- Online & mainstream media and social networking have become increasingly misleading as to the state of the world by focusing on ‘stories' and ‘events' rather than trends and averages. This is because as the global population increases and the scope of media increases, media's urge for narrative focuses on the most extreme outlier datapoints—but such datapoints are, at a global scale, deeply misleading as they are driven by unusual processes such as the mentally ill or hoaxers. - [Sturgeon's law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law): 90% of everything is crap. News are often "correct" on a basic level, but really more like "yes, but it's complicated" on a deeper level. If you've ever seen a surface-level description of something you know about at a deep level, and you realize how wrong it is, or at least how much nuance it's missing. Realize that it's like that with everything. - [On certain topics, it's good to remember that you're often being informed by the most delusional people](https://twitter.com/waitbutwhy/status/1436006304892559365). - [The news's obsession with having a little bit of information on a wide variety of subjects means that it actually gets most of those subjects wrong](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews). diff --git a/Parenting.md b/Parenting.md index 3024767..4473044 100644 --- a/Parenting.md +++ b/Parenting.md @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ - Treat children with respect. They are very smart, they just lack experience. If they "misbehave", talk to them and explain why this is not good. If you can't find an explanation, chances are you are wrong and you should reevaluate your position. - [Answer questions with **as much detail as they want**](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/8gapy2nLy4wysXSGL/parenting-rules). - You're already doing reinforcement training. - - We already reinforce behavior all the time, including bad behavior, often without meaning to. So you might as well notice what you’re doing. + - We already reinforce behavior all the time, including bad behavior, often without meaning to. So you might as well notice what you're doing. - Children train parents as well as the other way around. - [Instead of punishing bad behavior, the emphasis should be on noticing and reinforcing good behavior](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Cf2xxC3Yx9g6w7yXN/notes-from-don-t-shoot-the-dog). - [Be consistent](https://www.jefftk.com/p/predictable-parenting). Kids will have a predictable context to follow and are less stressed from the context being ambiguous. diff --git a/Politics.md b/Politics.md index 1173ad1..89fb074 100644 --- a/Politics.md +++ b/Politics.md @@ -26,8 +26,8 @@ - A good counter argument is that people might not be educated enough to make the best decision and a centralized institution could do it much better for them (e.g: a government banning lead from most products is credited with the most significant global drop in crime rates in decades). - Most political debates are people with different time horizons talking over each other. - [Liberalism has a few big economic problems](https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/02/22/repost-the-non-libertarian-faq/); [[coordination]] issues (Moloch), irrationality and lack of information. - - You are not an individual self in the first place, you're an ecosystem of parts. It’s teamwork all the way down! -- The costs of regulations are regressive: [much more easily absorbed by big companies than startups](https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/12/08/a-something-sort-of-like-left-libertarianism-ist-manifesto/). The problem with banning and regulating things is that it’s a blunt instrument. + - You are not an individual self in the first place, you're an ecosystem of parts. It's teamwork all the way down! +- The costs of regulations are regressive: [much more easily absorbed by big companies than startups](https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/12/08/a-something-sort-of-like-left-libertarianism-ist-manifesto/). The problem with banning and regulating things is that it's a blunt instrument. - _Could laws be self corrected?_ When a law is approved, If X is not archived in Y time, withdraw law. Many of the problems people worry about probably won't exist in 10 years. There are likely new problems you could never have guessed would come up. [When writing a policy, include a few internal facing failure signals and a few external facing failure signals that make clear the policy isn't working anymore](https://bellmar.medium.com/the-death-of-process-cdb0151a41fe) and might be better to revisit. - Sometimes the more important thing is not [[Making Decisions|better mechanisms for the final decision-making step]], but better mechanisms for [discussing and coordinating](https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1433396553591320578) what to propose (explore the space) in the first place. - We should be exploring alternatives ways of doing things. Right now we have mostly one type of political system, one type of voting system and one method of science funding for example. diff --git a/Public Speaking.md b/Public Speaking.md index 8d72c72..4990e3b 100644 --- a/Public Speaking.md +++ b/Public Speaking.md @@ -5,10 +5,10 @@ Some great advice for [public speaking presentations](http://www.jilles.net/perm - Start the presentation with a set of questions that will be answered through the presentation. Start with an empowerment promise. Outline what the audience will know by the end of the talk. - Find a way to connect with the audience right away. - Don't expose one bullet point of a list at a time. Your audience will ask to go back a slide or two, you end up half way in a build, or worse, with an empty slide. None of this is needed. -- Don't just read the words on a page or sound like you’re delivering a memorized speech. +- Don't just read the words on a page or sound like you're delivering a memorized speech. - [The best talks are stories. The best stories involve repetition.](https://speakerdeck.com/holman/the-talk-on-talks) Tell a personal story to make your ideas more sticky. - Adjust your tempo of speaking to match the urgency of the story. -- Anticipate the audience’s skepticism and use it to your advantage. +- Anticipate the audience's skepticism and use it to your advantage. - Use fewer words. There is a place for details and context, but the most important is the actual message you want to get across. - Have a summary. Aim to have 3 big points/takeaways. - Structure. Stories can be told in many different ways. One way that works well in most situations is to divide the story arc up in Situation, Complication and Solution. Leaving one of these three components out will seriously hamper your ability to convince your audience, just like it is hard to ascend a staircase with stairs missing. diff --git a/Quotes.md b/Quotes.md index 43d8f64..5dba99e 100644 --- a/Quotes.md +++ b/Quotes.md @@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ A quote is a distilled piece of knowledge. These are some of my favorites. - You either move information from one place to another, or you move mass from one place to another. - The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinion. Arnold H. Glasow. - If you think without writing, you only think you're thinking. Leslie Lamport. ^645051 -- It's _chapuzas_ all the way down. Me on my dreams. +- It's _chapuzas_ all the way down. Me, dreaming. - [You will observe with concern how long a useful truth may be known, and exist, before it is generally received and practiced on](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV3dnLzthDA). Benjamin Franklin. - People are tribal. The more settled things are, the bigger the tribes can be. The churn comes, and the tribes get small again. Amos Burton. - What got you here won't get you there. Marshall Goldsmith. diff --git a/Resolving Disagreement.md b/Resolving Disagreement.md index e4040fc..76bc709 100644 --- a/Resolving Disagreement.md +++ b/Resolving Disagreement.md @@ -13,12 +13,12 @@ We should be arguing in a constructive fashion: treating arguments as an opportu - As much data as possible to backup claims. [Cognitive biases](https://www.titlemax.com/discovery-center/lifestyle/50-cognitive-biases-to-be-aware-of-so-you-can-be-the-very-best-version-of-you/) are limits and mistakes in human judgment that prevent someone from acting rationally. They are present in every aspect of human life, and in tense situations like arguments, they tend to appear more often as emotions are heightened and the brain gets overloaded. - Agree on the terminology. Similar understanding of terms makes discussion more productive. - Separate the topic from the community. E.g: cryptocurrencies have toxic communities but very interesting ideas. -- If you debate it it right, you’ll end up respecting the other person. -- [Sometimes, you'll end up with **high-level generators of disagreement**](https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/05/08/varieties-of-argumentative-experience/). It is what remains when everyone understands exactly what’s being argued, and agrees on what all the evidence says, but have vague and hard-to-define reasons for disagreeing anyway. +- If you debate it it right, you'll end up respecting the other person. +- [Sometimes, you'll end up with **high-level generators of disagreement**](https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/05/08/varieties-of-argumentative-experience/). It is what remains when everyone understands exactly what's being argued, and agrees on what all the evidence says, but have vague and hard-to-define reasons for disagreeing anyway. - [Make disagreement fun](https://twitter.com/waitbutwhy/status/1461620476363612169): - Your motivation for arguing is more "obsession with finding the truth" than "winning a competitive game". - Adjust your conviction level to fit your knowledge of the topic. - - Attack my ideas, not people. Assume everyone is doing the same and don’t take disagreements personally. + - Attack my ideas, not people. Assume everyone is doing the same and don't take disagreements personally. - Never agree with me just for the sake of being agreeable. - Acknowledge when you are wrong. diff --git a/Science.md b/Science.md index 8fc74f6..5073a30 100644 --- a/Science.md +++ b/Science.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ - Science is how humanity learns. - Science itself isn't "true". It's a constantly refining process used to uncover truths based in material reality and that process is still full of mistakes. Do not treat science as a dogma, but rather as a refining process to uncover truths about reality. -- [Science is not clearly visible, like a comet bearing down on you](https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/movie-review-dont-look-up). Science is like the Gnostic God. It exists, somewhere out there, perfect in itself. It is pure and right and beautiful. If you could hear it, it would certainly speak Truth. Yet here we are, in the stupid material universe, seeing through a glass darkly. Good sometimes looks like evil, evil often looks like good, and there’s some jerk with the head of a lion and the body of a snake psyching us out at every turn. +- [Science is not clearly visible, like a comet bearing down on you](https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/movie-review-dont-look-up). Science is like the Gnostic God. It exists, somewhere out there, perfect in itself. It is pure and right and beautiful. If you could hear it, it would certainly speak Truth. Yet here we are, in the stupid material universe, seeing through a glass darkly. Good sometimes looks like evil, evil often looks like good, and there's some jerk with the head of a lion and the body of a snake psyching us out at every turn. ## Open Science Resources diff --git a/Systems.md b/Systems.md index 882f660..b13562a 100644 --- a/Systems.md +++ b/Systems.md @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ If everyone agrees the current system doesn't work well, who perpetuates it? Som A system needs competition and [slack](https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/05/12/studies-on-slack/) (the absence of binding constraints on behavior). By having some margin for error, the system is allowed to pursue opportunities and explore approaches that improve it. -Interaction between system actors causes **externalities**: the consequences of their actions on _other actors or processes_. This is important because, intuitively, humans are self-centered, and it’s easy to not notice the effects your actions have on others. And it almost never feels as _visceral_ as the costs and benefits to yourself. The canonical examples are [[coordination]] problems, like climate change. Taking a plane flight has strong benefits to me, but costs everyone on Earth a little bit, a negative externality. And a lot of the problems in the world today boil down to coordination problems where our actions have negative externalities. +Interaction between system actors causes **externalities**: the consequences of their actions on _other actors or processes_. This is important because, intuitively, humans are self-centered, and it's easy to not notice the effects your actions have on others. And it almost never feels as _visceral_ as the costs and benefits to yourself. The canonical examples are [[coordination]] problems, like climate change. Taking a plane flight has strong benefits to me, but costs everyone on Earth a little bit, a negative externality. And a lot of the problems in the world today boil down to coordination problems where our actions have negative externalities. Most large social systems are pursuing objectives other than the ones they proclaim, and the ones they pursue are wrong. E.g: [The educational system is not dedicated to produce learning by students, but teaching by teachers—and teaching is a major obstruction to learning.](https://thesystemsthinker.com/a-lifetime-of-systems-thinking/) diff --git a/Teamwork.md b/Teamwork.md index 102551a..23a38f3 100644 --- a/Teamwork.md +++ b/Teamwork.md @@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ - A more focused backlog makes it easier and faster to plan cycles, and ensures the work will actually get done. - [Balance putting code where they are most comfortable while optimizing for speed vs putting the code where it belongs when considering a longer term perspective on the overall system.](https://twitter.com/jmwind/status/1477399261700526080). - **Focus on business outcomes, not on technologies.** -- When you start from a shared understanding – that you’re all doing your best you can – you can foster a compassionate working environment. +- When you start from a shared understanding – that you're all doing your best you can – you can foster a compassionate working environment. - Everyone on your team should assume that everyone else on the team is doing their best work, given their circumstances. - Trust people with freedom. Add [[Processes]] where you need to replace some level of trust. - Share as much context as you can. @@ -112,8 +112,8 @@ - Most software or processes should be opinionated. In increases [[Coordination|collaboration]]. Flexible processes lets everyone invent their own workflows, which eventually creates chaos as teams scale. - As teams scale, traditional approaches to decision making force a tradeoff between transparency and efficiency. - The easiest way to ensure everyone can understand the how and why of a decision is to adopt systems that, through their daily operation, ensure such context is automatically and readily available to those who might want it (and explicitly not only those who presently need it). -- [Run 1:1s (one-on-ones)](https://erik.wiffin.com/posts/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-11s/). A recurring meeting with no set agenda between a manager and one of their reports. Don’t make it a status update (these should be async). Chat about anything bothering you, career growth or type work that is interesting for you. End it with actionable next steps. -- Say no a lot, up front. [Distractions are anything that doesn’t help you keep your existing features running, or deliver your top priority faster](https://alexturek.com/2022-03-07-How-to-do-less/). Finishing work is more important than starting it. +- [Run 1:1s (one-on-ones)](https://erik.wiffin.com/posts/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-11s/). A recurring meeting with no set agenda between a manager and one of their reports. Don't make it a status update (these should be async). Chat about anything bothering you, career growth or type work that is interesting for you. End it with actionable next steps. +- Say no a lot, up front. [Distractions are anything that doesn't help you keep your existing features running, or deliver your top priority faster](https://alexturek.com/2022-03-07-How-to-do-less/). Finishing work is more important than starting it. - As a new team member: - Ask questions without judging. Never ever be _negative_ about the stuff they created. It was done for a reason. - Beware of [Normalization of Deviance](https://danluu.com/wat/). @@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ - There's a real danger in thinking that what made you successful in the past will make you successful now. - Read all the things. - The team you'll be working on will probably have some kind of [normalized deviance](https://danluu.com/wat/). Try to [understand why everything is as it is](https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/) before doing any recommendations. Don't come in with "the answers". - - [Chesterton’s fence](https://www.meyerperin.com/posts/2022-04-02-chestertons-fence.html) is an important concept to keep in mind when starting a new job or a new scope of work. The [context of why a certain architectural choice was made](https://vickiboykis.com/2021/11/07/the-programmers-brain-in-the-lands-of-exploration-and-production/) is just as important as understanding its current pain points. + - [Chesterton's fence](https://www.meyerperin.com/posts/2022-04-02-chestertons-fence.html) is an important concept to keep in mind when starting a new job or a new scope of work. The [context of why a certain architectural choice was made](https://vickiboykis.com/2021/11/07/the-programmers-brain-in-the-lands-of-exploration-and-production/) is just as important as understanding its current pain points. - Record first impressions / friction log as you go. [Beginner's mind has real value](https://eugeneyan.com/writing/onboarding/)! - Build great relationships so you can be supported in decisions to get some early wins. - One of the most valuable things you can do during onboarding is update/write documentation and [create/update checklist of all the processes](https://lifeitself.org/tao/onboarding#create-an-onboarding-issue). This will help you and your team in the long run. diff --git a/Thinking.md b/Thinking.md index 8f9856a..eb40aff 100644 --- a/Thinking.md +++ b/Thinking.md @@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ - Believing you're rational makes it easier to fool yourself mistaking your intuitions with rational decision. - Stress test your ideas/assumptions/beliefs with experiments and facts as many times as possible. - Anything you know or do could be wrong. You get less dumb by saying things and getting feedback. [We all have crony beliefs](https://meltingasphalt.com/crony-beliefs/). From time to time, do a self-audit and figure out which ideas you've come to hold sacred and remind yourself that they're just ideas. - - Many beliefs are held because there is a social and tribal benefit to holding them, not necessarily because they’re true. + - Many beliefs are held because there is a social and tribal benefit to holding them, not necessarily because they're true. - A great way to do that is to [bet on everything](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ybYBCK9D7MZCcdArB/how-to-measure-anything) where you can or will find out the answer. Even if you're only testing yourself against one other person, it's a way of calibrating yourself to avoid both overconfidence and under-confidence, which will serve you in good stead emotionally when you try to do [[Fallacies|inadequacy reasoning]]. It'll also force you to do falsifiable predictions. - A tool to assign a percentage to a belief is [the equivalent bet test](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/EtxTDPMXrbmpheiAt/how-the-equivalent-bet-test-actually-works). - Instead of thinking "I'm sure X is fake!", try to think in terms of probabilities. E.g: I think there's a 90% chance X is fake. Instead of thinking in terms of changing your mind, think in terms of updating your probabilities. [This mindset](https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-the-scout-mindset) makes it easier to remember that it's not a question of winning or losing, but a question of being as accurate as possible. “Probability update” is less emotionally devastating than "I said X, but actually ~X, so I was wrong"). diff --git a/Time.md b/Time.md index 0305950..3634adb 100644 --- a/Time.md +++ b/Time.md @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ Time is the most valuable and least replaceable resource. Just like money, [time - Learn to prioritize, and value your time. "I don't have time" is another way of saying "it's not a priority". Busyness is a lack of priorities. - Doing one thing requires giving up another. Whenever you explicitly choose to do one thing, you implicitly choose not to do another thing. Embrace the many things you'll never do. - Your work will be endless, but your time is finite. You cannot limit the work so you must limit your time. Hours are the only thing you can manage. - - Learn to say no. Be ruthlessly deliberate with your time and attention. We guard our money carefully yet we often treat our time as if it’s a limitless resource. + - Learn to say no. Be ruthlessly deliberate with your time and attention. We guard our money carefully yet we often treat our time as if it's a limitless resource. - Lists help you to summarize your next steps and to not lose focus. If you place them in a very visible place it makes easier to accomplish [[Goals]]. - Decompose lists items into smaller steps. - Doing the same thing over and over again without getting tired is what computers are good at, humans have other skills. diff --git a/Writing a Roadmap.md b/Writing a Roadmap.md index ef451e4..1c28d40 100644 --- a/Writing a Roadmap.md +++ b/Writing a Roadmap.md @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ # Writing a Roadmap -[Setting direction is one of the most important things you’ll do when building a product and company. A clear direction aligns everyone to work toward the same goals](https://linear.app/method/roadmap). It helps individuals make daily decisions, teams prioritize projects and all members of your organization feel motivated toward a shared purpose. Without direction, it’s harder to work together, know what to focus on and make meaningful progress. +[Setting direction is one of the most important things you'll do when building a product and company. A clear direction aligns everyone to work toward the same goals](https://linear.app/method/roadmap). It helps individuals make daily decisions, teams prioritize projects and all members of your organization feel motivated toward a shared purpose. Without direction, it's harder to work together, know what to focus on and make meaningful progress. Best practices to follow when building and managing a roadmap: