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Comment by bbor | Hacker News Reader

Wow, this is… this is amazing. I thought my system was genius only I could derive, but here you’ve got a ton of it written down, plus a whole bunch of other ideas that sound great - I love “ABZs” in particular, and the “three Me’s” is great. On that note, read some Extended Mind philosophy if you haven’t, originally from Chalmers I believe

Out of curiosity, do you think this is self-treatment for attention deficiencies, or just an effective set of strategies? In other words, is this a life strategy or a work strategy?

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> On that note, read some Extended Mind philosophy if you haven’t, originally from Chalmers I believe

Literally considering writing a book on extended mind theoretic ideas. Highly recommend Andy Clark's "Supersizing the Mind" (2010).

> do you think this is self-treatment for attention deficiencies, or just an effective set of strategies? In other words, is this a life strategy or a work strategy?

Both. At first (~10 years ago) it was about managing deficiencies, but before long I was performing far above the average neurotypical knowledge worker.

> I thought my system was genius only I could derive.

Spoilers: Nobody is that special. Even the greats in history stand out only due to a complex combination of talent, dedication, position, and opportunity.

Couldn't agree more. I always return to the following quote [1] from Marvin Minsky, who's an intellectual hero of mine:

> Most people think that accomplishments like [those of geniuses] require "talents" or "gifts" that cannot be explained… [but] I suspect that genius needs… unusually effective ways to learn. It’s not enough to learn a lot; one also has to manage what one learns. Those masters have, beneath the surface of their mastery, some special knacks of “higher-order” expertise, which help them organize and apply the things they learn. It is those hidden tricks of mental management that produce the systems that create those works of genius.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Society-Mind-Marvin-Minsky/dp/0671657...

It’s the Markov decision process

OODA loop?

> OODA loop?

Observe, Overreact, Deny, Apologise?

[Edit]. Just kidding. OODA is foundational.

I'm Out Of DA loop, can anyone explain...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop

See sibling comment for a good definition. OODA is the repetitive loop of observing, understanding, planning and executing. The military talk about getting inside the enemy's OODA loop, by which they mean having a faster decision-making cycle.

But back in the network-enabled-capability day, they also used to talk about self-synchronising units operating on the cusp of tactical anarchy, but then Afghanistan happened and they had a collective sense-of-humour failure regarding these future operational concepts.

This mindset is more useful in a competitive environment where you want to cycle new information in a faster loop than your opponent. Thinking about it, I’m not sure it would be that valuable in my typical corporate experience - no outer loops to get inside of. Maybe my managers so I can stay a step ahead?

Observe situation as it is, Orient yourself and resources in this new situation, Decide on next action, Act.

The application is identical. TFA just renames it to Aim Fire Scan with an even more conflict-oriented sequence name.

The main "get inside the loop" takeaway from OODA is just "Be agile and respond quickly to outcomes" rather than "March forward on your original plan", when applied in a non-competitive environment.

Same schtick, different pile.

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