Weekly I/O: How higher ceilings make us more creative, Are you wasting time when exploring passion, Idea promotion over self-promotion
#88: The Cathedral Effect, Wasting Time and Explore Passion, Idea Promotion over Self-promotion, Read Fewer but Better Books, On God Side Instead
Hi friends,
Greetings from San Francisco!
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. The Cathedral Effect: Higher ceilings can make us more creative by triggering feelings of freedom and encouraging people to see broader abstract connections.
Paper: Influence of Ceiling Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing That People Use
When people are in rooms with high ceilings, they think differently than when they're in rooms with low ceilings.
Edward Hall, an American anthropologist and research pioneer in cross-cultural research, noted that a small chapel is likely to convey the notion of confinement or restrictedness, while a grand cathedral feels vast and open. This changes how our minds work, and is known as "The Cathedral Effect".
Moore et al. also proposed that low ceilings may encourage quieter, more restricted play in their Recommendations for Child Care Centers. J. Meyers-Levy and R. Zhu concluded that people in rooms with high ceilings tend to:
Be primed of freedom-related concepts instead of confinement-related ones.
Rely more on abstract and relational elaboration instead of item-specific.
Find more commonalities instead of differences.
Solve problems in more nontraditional and creative ways.
These effects happen only when people notice the ceiling height. So it doesn't work if they're oblivious to their surroundings. The vertical volume of the room primes concepts of either freedom or confinement, which in turn influences how people process information and solve problems.
Thanks to Lewis O’Brien for sharing this with me!
2. One way to tell whether you're wasting time when exploring your passion is to ask if you're producing or consuming.
Article: How to Do Great Work
In Paul Graham's words on how to explore and find your passion:
"The old also have the advantage of knowing which advantages they have. The young often have them without realizing it. The biggest is probably time. The young have no idea how rich they are in time. The best way to turn this time to advantage is to use it in slightly frivolous ways: to learn about something you don't need to know about, just out of curiosity, or to try building something just because it would be cool, or to become freakishly good at something."
"That "slightly" is an important qualification. Spend time lavishly when you're young, but don't simply waste it. There's a big difference between doing something you worry might be a waste of time and doing something you know for sure will be. The former is at least a bet, and possibly a better one than you think."
And how to tell whether you are time when exploring things in this slightly frivolous way:
"One way to tell whether you're wasting time is to ask if you're producing or consuming. Writing computer games is less likely to be a waste of time than playing them, and playing games where you create something is less likely to be a waste of time than playing games where you don't."
Also in David Perell's words:
"If you want to explore a new skill, don’t just consume information. Do the thing too. If you want to learn about music, don’t just listen to a lot of music. Play it too. Every activity has indescribable aspects you can only discover in the course of action."
3. When sharing our work, reframe it as idea promotion instead of self-promotion. Focus on sharing in the excitement of discovery without attempts to claim priority.
Article: The Early History Of Smalltalk
Many people hesitate to share their work because they're uncomfortable with self-promotion. I used to struggle with this, too. However, we can think about sharing through a different perspective as promoting ideas rather than promoting ourselves.
The main difference between idea promotion and self-promotion is intention. Idea promotion is about sharing your work to benefit others, while self-promotion is about showcasing yourself for personal recognition.
In Adam Grant's words, self-promotion is saying, "Look at me, I'm special!", posting about awards, sharing lots of selfies, and putting yourself in the spotlight. In contrast, idea promotion is saying, "I created something I'm proud of, and I hope it brings you value or joy."
By not sharing your work, you might be keeping something valuable from people who could benefit from it.
As Alan Kay, in The Early History Of Smalltalk, referenced from Goethe, we should "share in the excitement of discovery without vain attempts to claim priority.
4. Read fewer but better books. Deep reflection on fewer books is more valuable than consuming many books without thought.
Book: Essays and Aphorisms
From Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer:
“As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself; because only through ordering what you know by comparing every truth with every other truth can you take complete possession of your knowledge and get it into your power."
"You can think about only what you know, so you ought to learn something; on the other hand, you can know only what you have thought about."
Why? Because when we read, the author thinks for us. We can read ourselves stupid if we just repeat the author's mental process.
5. When pursuing ambitious goals, don't pray and ask for God to be on your side. Pray and hope to be on God's side, for God is always right.
Podcast: Sam Altman on 20VC
On the journey of building towards Artificial general intelligence(AGI), Sam Altman said:
"I never pray and ask for God to be on my side, I pray and hope to be on God's side and there is something about betting on deep learning that feels like being on the side of the angels."
Having a strong conviction is so important because the road towards any ambitious goal is never a straight line. When things don't work, you must take a leap of faith to stay motivated and try harder.
The original quote is from Abraham Lincoln:
"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."
Recap
Try answering these five simple questions to review and reinforce what you've learned:
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And as always, feel free to send me any interesting ideas you came across recently!
Looking forward to learning from you.
Cheers,
Cheng-Wei
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Great stuff mate. Thanks for sharing!
like the second point!