I agree! Yes, measure their ideas by their own merit - add a pinch of salt into that measurement, and don't over-valorize them as people. Just keep in mind a voice of "well, these people led poor lives, so maybe I shouldn't accept their entire philosophies wholesale". Definitely do the work of integrating their ideas into your own worldview.
You're drawing on very important points from Taleb about the need for practical wisdom (phronesis) rather than abstract, oversimplified models - the model is not the territory, ludic fallacy, green lumber problem, etc.
I'm not sure that I would extend that argument to bashing on truth itself though.
"These days, I would answer, “It’s important to me to do what is useful, and therefore to believe whatever it is in that context that helps me act best.” A powerful perspective shift for me came when I loosened my mental grip on needing to know what is true, and instead focused on occupying whatever mindset it took to let me operate best."
How do you know what is useful? Presumably you think it's true that some things are useful and false that other things are.
How do you know what helps you operate best? It's either true or false that a certain belief helps a certain goal.
To take this back to Taleb, the green lumber trader has all sorts of practical, experiential knowledge about his market, even though he doesn't know abstract theories or even what it is that he's trading in the real world. But still, he has lots of truth - he knows that if some pattern happens, the price will respond in a certain way (probabilistically). Critically, this pattern is true more often than not, otherwise he would be broke. I think Taleb would say that his practical truth is "more true" than an academic model.
In summary, I don't see how you can contrast truth and usefulness. It's either true or false that one idea is more useful than another for some purpose. And any falsifiable model of the world is true to the extent that it is useful (scientific theories which explain many phenomena to a high degree of accuracy (useful) are considered true).
I agree with all of this! I don't mean to bash on the concept of truth itself - it's certainly true that something holds truth insofar as its useful in a given situation. Truth and usefulness are not in contrast to each other.
My gripe is more with these failure modes:
- Privileging abstract, distant models of Truth over what's useful or relevant at a given time
- Being preoccupied with the search for Truth (especially in a very abstract, brainy, detached-from-reality way) to an extent that doing real things gets forgotten about.
- Confusing a deeply thought out worldview with a correct worldview. How elaborate and well-interconnected your belief system is doesn't speak to how correct it is! You can think things through deeply and still arrive at the wrong conclusion on a given question - you can also "accidentally" (often through social factors) stumble upon the right conclusion.
More of "Useful Over True" than "Useful Not True", I suppose.
It's interesting because I also think the inverse is true: if you aren't having effective results in real life, have you considered whether your worldviews are sound and serving you? Thinking of extreme liberal or conservative ideology and how each obviously fails to uphold meaningful enough results at scale in reality.
absolutely loved this, tons of food for thought, especially in the latter half
upon reflection days in which i "avoid pleasure" without doing real work - as you say - fill up my life far more than i would like. what's your take on how to keep this from happening?
"I have a pet theory that capital allocation = “applied philosophy”. Maybe the best measure of the robustness of your worldview is how effectively you manage resources." - this is my favorite line in the whole essay
I'm very much guilty of spending plenty of time superficially avoiding pleasure without doing real work as well. Some scattered thoughts:
- Regularly question yourself on "Is this the best thing I could be doing right now?", nudging yourself to think of "best" as described by medium- and long-term goals instead of short-. Relatedly, "Will this matter in a week/month/year?"
- I have a personal list of "psychological signals" which indicate that I might be doing fake work: if it's to impress someone unimportant, if I'd feel bored if I weren't doing this thing, if I know for a fact that there's something more important but more painful I'm avoiding.
- Embrace pleasure! Increasing joy in your life is very much a useful thing to be doing. A happy, well-rested, emotionally-nourished you is also a more lucid and productive you.
And yeah, that pet theory piece was originally what I wanted to write a piece about but couldn't string the words together, so went off on this tangent instead. Maybe next time :)
Soldiers who are philosophers and philosophers who are soldiers!
Great piece Shahid!
I had a tutor at art school called Linda. She'd always refuse to talk to me about an idea unless I'd actually done/tried it. It's one of the most luminous lessons I got from higher education 🪚
Thanks for this. I liked the Paul Graham essay you linked. And I giggled at “intellectual masturbation” because that is exactly what some people do. Gotta live life grounded in practical reality. Gonna go live my happy life now and remind myself to learn from happy & fulfilled role models instead of miserable & disenchanted ones. 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼
It feels silly to disregard all the ideas of Kant and others because they were "incels"... We should measure their ideas by their own merit.
There is something about the process of evaluating and ranking philosophies that doesn't sit right.
I agree! Yes, measure their ideas by their own merit - add a pinch of salt into that measurement, and don't over-valorize them as people. Just keep in mind a voice of "well, these people led poor lives, so maybe I shouldn't accept their entire philosophies wholesale". Definitely do the work of integrating their ideas into your own worldview.
Questions + Action = Innovation
Questions – Action = Philosophy
I like this framing!
You're drawing on very important points from Taleb about the need for practical wisdom (phronesis) rather than abstract, oversimplified models - the model is not the territory, ludic fallacy, green lumber problem, etc.
I'm not sure that I would extend that argument to bashing on truth itself though.
"These days, I would answer, “It’s important to me to do what is useful, and therefore to believe whatever it is in that context that helps me act best.” A powerful perspective shift for me came when I loosened my mental grip on needing to know what is true, and instead focused on occupying whatever mindset it took to let me operate best."
How do you know what is useful? Presumably you think it's true that some things are useful and false that other things are.
How do you know what helps you operate best? It's either true or false that a certain belief helps a certain goal.
To take this back to Taleb, the green lumber trader has all sorts of practical, experiential knowledge about his market, even though he doesn't know abstract theories or even what it is that he's trading in the real world. But still, he has lots of truth - he knows that if some pattern happens, the price will respond in a certain way (probabilistically). Critically, this pattern is true more often than not, otherwise he would be broke. I think Taleb would say that his practical truth is "more true" than an academic model.
In summary, I don't see how you can contrast truth and usefulness. It's either true or false that one idea is more useful than another for some purpose. And any falsifiable model of the world is true to the extent that it is useful (scientific theories which explain many phenomena to a high degree of accuracy (useful) are considered true).
I agree with all of this! I don't mean to bash on the concept of truth itself - it's certainly true that something holds truth insofar as its useful in a given situation. Truth and usefulness are not in contrast to each other.
My gripe is more with these failure modes:
- Privileging abstract, distant models of Truth over what's useful or relevant at a given time
- Being preoccupied with the search for Truth (especially in a very abstract, brainy, detached-from-reality way) to an extent that doing real things gets forgotten about.
- Confusing a deeply thought out worldview with a correct worldview. How elaborate and well-interconnected your belief system is doesn't speak to how correct it is! You can think things through deeply and still arrive at the wrong conclusion on a given question - you can also "accidentally" (often through social factors) stumble upon the right conclusion.
More of "Useful Over True" than "Useful Not True", I suppose.
It's interesting because I also think the inverse is true: if you aren't having effective results in real life, have you considered whether your worldviews are sound and serving you? Thinking of extreme liberal or conservative ideology and how each obviously fails to uphold meaningful enough results at scale in reality.
Definitely!
absolutely loved this, tons of food for thought, especially in the latter half
upon reflection days in which i "avoid pleasure" without doing real work - as you say - fill up my life far more than i would like. what's your take on how to keep this from happening?
"I have a pet theory that capital allocation = “applied philosophy”. Maybe the best measure of the robustness of your worldview is how effectively you manage resources." - this is my favorite line in the whole essay
Thank you!
I'm very much guilty of spending plenty of time superficially avoiding pleasure without doing real work as well. Some scattered thoughts:
- Regularly question yourself on "Is this the best thing I could be doing right now?", nudging yourself to think of "best" as described by medium- and long-term goals instead of short-. Relatedly, "Will this matter in a week/month/year?"
- I have a personal list of "psychological signals" which indicate that I might be doing fake work: if it's to impress someone unimportant, if I'd feel bored if I weren't doing this thing, if I know for a fact that there's something more important but more painful I'm avoiding.
- Embrace pleasure! Increasing joy in your life is very much a useful thing to be doing. A happy, well-rested, emotionally-nourished you is also a more lucid and productive you.
And yeah, that pet theory piece was originally what I wanted to write a piece about but couldn't string the words together, so went off on this tangent instead. Maybe next time :)
Soldiers who are philosophers and philosophers who are soldiers!
Great piece Shahid!
I had a tutor at art school called Linda. She'd always refuse to talk to me about an idea unless I'd actually done/tried it. It's one of the most luminous lessons I got from higher education 🪚
Great article! Very important topic.
Thanks for this. I liked the Paul Graham essay you linked. And I giggled at “intellectual masturbation” because that is exactly what some people do. Gotta live life grounded in practical reality. Gonna go live my happy life now and remind myself to learn from happy & fulfilled role models instead of miserable & disenchanted ones. 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼
ADAM SMITH Not great; but maybe you're father capital family.
ADAM SMITH not great personality my mind; but may be your genes father capitalism family.