Weekly I/O: How to fail more and learn, Double meaning of "release", Random intermittent reward
#62: Failure in 20s, Double meaning of Release, Random Intermittent Reward, Discoverability and Understanding, Procedural and Declarative Knowledge
Hello friends,
Greetings from New York City!
Here's your weekly dose of I/O. I hope you enjoy it :)
Input
Here's a list of what I'm exploring and pondering on this week.
1. Our twenties are about watching our dreams go up in flames and learning from the ashes. Sometimes failure is the only way to learn, and what if the worst case is just moving back with our parents?
Book: Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making
During a significant portion of our twenties, we can assume that many of our choices will not work out, and the companies we join or start will likely fail. Early adulthood is about watching our dreams go up in flames and learning as much as possible from the ashes.
Once we step out of school, there's no book or test. If we fail, we learn. In most cases, it's actually the only way to learn, especially if we're creating something new that the world has never seen before.
How to overcome the fear of failure? Remember that when we're early in our career, the worst that can happen if we take significant risks is probably just moving back with our parents and seeking support there.
2. Regarding sharing creative work, the word "release" carries a double meaning. It signifies that the work is made available to the public and that the author is liberated from the pursuit of perfection.
Podcast: Derek Sivers — The Joys of an Un-Optimized Life | The Tim Ferriss Show
Focusing too much on perfection while engaging in creative work can lead to unnecessary stress. It's important to mark a task as completed so that we can move on to the next work. Allowing unfinished projects to accumulate due to excessive perfectionism can weigh us down. Therefore, we must prioritize completion and realize that, at some point, things need to be considered "good enough" to move forward.
When we say somebody releases an album or a book, the word "release" has a beautiful double meaning. When the creative piece is released, it signifies that the work is made available to the public and that the author is liberated from the pursuit of perfection.
On overcoming perfectionism, this reminds me of #27.2 from Adam Grant: When it comes to idea generation, quantity is the most predictable path to quality.
3. Random Intermittent Reward is the most powerful mechanism to keep people repeating the same behavior. Social media triggers dopamine hits intermittently to keep us scrolling.
Podcast: Master Your Mind & Change Your Brain - Andrew Huberman | Modern Wisdom 496
The concept of intermittent variable rewards (also known as random rewards), discovered by psychologist B.F. Skinner, explains the motivation behind repeating behaviors. When scrolling through social media, we don't know when we are going to come across something highly interesting or rewarding. As a result, we continue scrolling, eagerly anticipating the next captivating post, whether it's a thrilling event or a shocking incident like a riot or someone jumping off a building.
Abnormal things like tragic events have a strong pull on our attention. Thus, we end up endlessly scrolling, constantly seeking the next dopamine hit without knowing when it will occur precisely. This behavior shares a similar underlying mechanism with gambling.
And that's how social media utilizes intermittent random rewards to trigger dopamine releases, making users continue scrolling and continuously seeking the next rewarding experience.
4. What makes a design good? Examine it using the Discoverability and Understanding Framework.
Two of the most essential characteristics of good design are discoverability and understanding. Discoverability refers to how easy to identify what actions are possible and know where and how to perform them. Understanding involves comprehending how the product should be used and what all the different controls and settings mean.
These two characteristics can serve as benchmarks for evaluating the quality of a design. Take ChatGPT, for instance. A text input field and a send button ensure clear discoverability about what actions are available. As to understanding, it may take some time for first-time users to grasp the context. But due to its excellent discoverability, users can understand the context and establish correlations after a few interactions with the interface.
5. Procedural knowledge tends to be retained longer than declarative knowledge in our memory. All skills start as declarative knowledge and gradually transition to procedural through practice.
Book: Ultralearning and The Design of Everyday Things
What's the phone number of your mom? In the last house you lived, as you entered the front door, was the doorknob on the left or right? These two questions both involved long-term memory, but in different ways. The first question requires recalling factual information, known as declarative knowledge. The second question is usually easier answered by recalling the actions performed to open the door, called procedural knowledge.
Evidence suggests that procedural knowledge, like riding a bike, is stored differently from declarative knowledge, such as understanding trigonometric functions. This difference between "knowing how" and "knowing what" highlights that procedural skills, which are permanently memorized, are less likely to be forgotten than declarative knowledge, which requires a clear recall.
An important learning theory argues that most skills are developed in stages, starting with declarative knowledge but becoming procedural with practice. Typing serves as a clear example of this progression. We need to remember letter positions consciously when we first start typing. After enough practice, looking down at the keyboard becomes unnecessary. We can even remember all letter positions by imagining typing on an invisible keyboard.
The fact that procedural knowledge can be retained longer suggests a valuable strategy. Instead of trying to memorize a large amount of information or skills on average, focusing on consistently reinforcing a core set of information can allow it to become procedural knowledge and be stored for a longer duration.
That's it. Thanks for reading. Since I always want to know more about my readers, please let me know which input you find most useful or interesting. You can take 5 seconds and reply to this email with a number!
They said image makes a post more engaging, so here you go 😛:
As always, feel free to send me any interesting ideas you came across recently!
Looking forward to learning from you.
Best,
Cheng-Wei