fordDream.scroll
Changed around line 34: And then I watched in awe as the scene rewound to the pie and then showed it com
+ # Related posts
+
juggling.scroll
Changed around line 1
+ date 2025-6-10
+ tags All Thinking Ford
+ title Juggling Ideas
+ container 500px
+ standardPost.scroll
+
+ # A few words about juggling
+
+ When I was a kid I learned to juggle.
+
+ Barely.
+
+ I could handle 3 balls for about 30 seconds.
+
+ I bluster, that if I practiced, I could handle 5 and go for minutes.
+
+ This Reddit thread estimates a week of practice to juggle 3, a month to juggle 4, and a year to juggle 5.
+ https://www.reddit.com/r/juggling/comments/oafk92/how_long_did_it_take_you_to_learn_to_juggle_5/ Reddit thread
+
+ Wikipedia has a whole page on Juggling world records. No one can _continuously_ juggle more than 7 balls. The time record for 7 is 16 minutes. Someone juggled 6 for 30 minutes. The record for 5 is 3 hours and 44 minutes. For 3 it's 13 hours.
+ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggling_world_records Juggling world records
+
+ The takeaway is this: *some humans can juggle more than others but even the greatest max out at 7.*
+
+ ***
+
+ # Mental juggling and JIQ
+
+ It is not physical juggling that I'm interested in.
+
+ I'm interested in mental juggling.
+
+ What if humans had the same mental juggling limits as physical?
+
+ We could compress the IQ scale to a JIQ scale of 1-7.
+
+ A person with a JIQ of 1 could handle only 1 mental ball at a time. Dogs would have a JIQ of 1.
+
+ // can animals juggle? how many? why do i have a mental image of a seal juggling?
+
+ A person with a JIQ of 6 gets overloaded by adding 1 more concept, and the whole thing comes tumbling down.
+
+ A person with a JIQ of 7, could handle 7 without becoming overloaded. These would be the geniuses of the world.
+
+ You can imagine a superlinear difference between the solutions from a 6 versus a 7.
+
+ ***
+
+ # Where do I rank?
+
+ On the JIQ scale, I think I'm a 5. Probably a 4 on a lot of days, and maybe a 6 on a really exceptional day.
+
+ I should probably be very grateful for this. Instead, I'm annoyed I'm not a 7. I've encountered a number of 7s in my life, and am in awe--and a bit jealous--of their mental capabilities.
+
+ I'm constantly looking for/trying to invent new thinking tools to help me mentally juggle more, to be able to think, if even briefly, as a 7.
+
+ ***
+
+ # Concepts as Balls
+
+ Lately I've been exploring a minimal universal 3D/4D language where all concepts are represented by balls.
+ som.html exploring
+
+ A simple example is thinking of a water molecule as a ball containing 2 balls of hydrogen and 1 ball of oxygen.
+
+ A larger example would be particle physics, where each particle type is a ball. Most people can juggle the simpler 3 ball particle set of electrons, protons and neutrons.
+
+ But the current full Standard Model set contains over a dozen balls, which already exceeds humanity's juggling limit:
+ // and that's ignoring their anti-particles!
+
+ standardModel.png
+ caption A chart of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. I think each of these also has an anti-particle, but we're already way over the juggling limit.
+ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Model Standard Model of Particle Physics
+
+ ***
+
+ # Trying to Juggle Thousands of Balls
+
+ I've been reading microbiology papers and mentally turning each sentence into scenes of balls. Often there are many hundreds of concepts (balls) explicitly discussed in these papers. And not only that, but these concepts depend on other concepts, so there's another 10-100x dependency balls to juggle to fully grok a paper - tens of thousands of balls!
+
+ How does one mentally juggle that many?!
+
+ With practice you can probably get a little better.
+
+ There are probably tricks, such as fasting, that might put your mind in a state that can handle a few more.
+
+ But even then, you are orders of magnitude away from being able to juggle everything all at once and so you must focus on one set at a time.
+
+ ***
+
+ # Focusing on Subsets
+
+ Humans divide and conquer. Different groups of humans have focused on different, small subsets of balls, mastering those and contributing their insights to the common body of knowledge.
+
+ Where should the divisions be? You want to find causally linked subsets. Juggling insulin, toenails, and hair follicles is not as useful as juggling insulin, glucose, and the pancreas.
+
+ ***
+
+ # Collective Juggling
+
+ Simple causal models can build upon each other to create things of tremendous complexity.
+
+ If you spherically modeled a modern CPU/GPU, you'd have billions of balls, with perhaps a million unique conceptual balls needed to describe it.
+
+ No human can juggle that many in their head all at once, but a million humans, each refining and assembling a subset of 5 - 7, can do a collective juggling act that dwarfs any individual performance.
+
+ ****
+
+ # Related posts
+
+ printRelated Ford
+
+ // Claude Shannon wrote an interesting paper on juggling.
+
+
+
standardModel.png
assholes.scroll
Changed around line 1
- tags All Life Startups
+ tags All Life Startups Arguments
+ _Update: I think this is one of my (hopefully few) posts that is wrong. It's probably always worth the time to "respectfully disagree" and avoid hyperbolic zingers. See updates later in the post._
+
Changed around line 51: Direct, blunt feedback to someone about specific bad *_behavior_*, that may come
- I do not advocate flipping the bit on people. I believe all people are mostly good, and all can learn to improve their behavior, but they require honest feedback to do that. It's also important to remember due to natural information assymetry, we are naturally biased to judge ourselves by our intentions but others by their actions. Often I give someone blunt feedback and they respond bluntly back correcting me because I was wrong! This is a great outcome that we would not have reached had I flipped the bit on them and not risked being an asshole.
+ I do not advocate flipping the bit on people. I believe all people are mostly good, and all can learn to improve their behavior, but they require honest feedback to do that. It's also important to remember due to natural information asymmetry, we are naturally biased to judge ourselves by our intentions but others by their actions. Often I give someone blunt feedback and they respond bluntly back correcting me because I was wrong! This is a great outcome that we would not have reached had I flipped the bit on them and not risked being an asshole.
Changed around line 97: Instead of declaratives ask questions.
+ # Update: I respectfully disagree
+ The question trick has backfired a couple times. I see now that though it drops the anger, it adds condescension.
+ dateline 6/10/2025
+
+ Now I'm trying the "I respectfully disagree. ___. But I could be wrong." sandwich. It states your confidence, but states your respect for the other person, makes them more likely to consider your perspective, and states your honest openness to being wrong and changing your own position.
+
Changed around line 114: Instead of declaratives ask questions.
+
+ # Related
+ printRelated Arguments
+
conformism.scroll
Changed around line 1
- tags All Thinking
+ tags All Thinking Arguments
Changed around line 46: To explore contrarian ideas while respecting the schools who have gotten us this
+ # Related
+ printRelated Arguments
dont-flip-the-bozo-bit.scroll
Changed around line 1
- tags All Programming Life
+ tags All Programming Life Arguments
Changed around line 42: But this is a bad solution. The two presented above are better.
- Origin of the term?
+ # Related
+ printRelated Arguments
+
write-thin-to-write-fast.scroll
Changed around line 117: Jets are great, but beware jet lag when traveling. Big screens are great, but be
- Has the frequency of this advice appearing gone up as screens got wider?
- Consider vertical languages like Japanese
+ # Reader Comments
+ - Anton writes to say he thinks the reason for narrow columns in newspapers is to maximize text density for large texts. He also points me to a great read on ventilated prose, "in my opinion, it aides editing on the computer even better, while keeping the lines short."
+ https://vanemden.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/ventilated-prose/ ventilated prose
+
som.scroll
Changed around line 120: What do you think? Send feedback you'd like me to post to breck7@gmail.com, or a
- Maciek pointed me to the highly relevant "holons" and "holarchies":
- - First draft posted 5/25/2025
+ - A tangental note from Anton makes me wonder if angular diameter would be a useful primitive to keep in mind.
+ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_diameter angular diameter
- Another way to frame this idea could be an attempt to come up with a simple grammar to allow the techniques of finite element method/discrete element method to be more widely applied. FEM is "the mesh discretization of a continuous domain into a set of discrete sub-domains, usually called elements."
som.scroll
Changed around line 119: What do you think? Send feedback you'd like me to post to breck7@gmail.com, or a
- Maciek pointed me to the highly relevant "holons" and "holarchies":
- holyarchy.webp
+ holarchy.webp
- First draft posted 5/25/2025
- Another way to frame this idea could be an attempt to come up with a simple grammar to allow the techniques of finite element method/discrete element method to be more widely applied. FEM is "the mesh discretization of a continuous domain into a set of discrete sub-domains, usually called elements."
som.scroll
Changed around line 118: What do you think? Send feedback you'd like me to post to breck7@gmail.com, or a
+ - Maciek pointed me to the highly relevant "holons" and "holarchies":
+ holyarchy.webp
- First draft posted 5/25/2025
- Another way to frame this idea could be an attempt to come up with a simple grammar to allow the techniques of finite element method/discrete element method to be more widely applied. FEM is "the mesh discretization of a continuous domain into a set of discrete sub-domains, usually called elements."
holarchy.webp
conformism.scroll
Changed around line 1
+ date 2025-6-04
+ tags All Thinking
+ title Understanding Conformism
+ container 500px
+ standardPost.scroll
+
+ Every time I see a school of fish, I'm bewildered by the conformity. Every fish looks and swims the same.
+
+ Don't fish have a desire to be individuals? Where are all the contrarians?
+
+ Today I coded a little simoji simulation and surprised myself-even well meaning contrarians can cause a lot of damage!
+
+ ***
+
+ # The Simulation
+
+ In this very simple sim every fish swims to the edge of the screen.
+
+ If every fish conforms every fish makes it safe:
+
+ conformist.mp4
+ width 500
+ Explore in Simoji
+ center
+ https://simoji.scroll.pub/#simoji%0A%20%0A%20fishClass%0A%20%20width%2030%0A%20%20height%2030%0A%20%20speed%2010%0A%20%20onTick%0A%20%20%20move%0A%20%20angle%20West%0A%20%0A%20%F0%9F%90%A0%0A%20%20fishClass%0A%20%20onTick%20.05%0A%20%20%20turnRandomly%0A%20%0A%20%E2%9C%A8%0A%20%20width%2030%0A%20%20height%2030%0A%20%E2%98%A0%EF%B8%8F%0A%20%20width%2030%0A%20%20height%2030%0A%20%0A%20%F0%9F%90%9F%0A%20%20fishClass%0A%20%20onLeftEdge%0A%20%20%20replaceWith%20%E2%9C%A8%0A%20%20onTopEdge%0A%20%20%20replaceWith%20%E2%98%A0%EF%B8%8F%0A%20%20onRightEdge%0A%20%20%20replaceWith%20%E2%98%A0%EF%B8%8F%0A%20%20onBottomEdge%0A%20%20%20replaceWith%20%E2%98%A0%EF%B8%8F%0A%20%20onHit%0A%20%20%20%F0%9F%90%9F%0A%20%20%20%20turnRandomly%0A%20%20%20%F0%9F%90%A0%0A%20%20%20%20turnRandomly%0A%20%20%20%0A%20%0A%20%2F%2F%20insertAt%20%F0%9F%90%A0%20300%20100%0A%20insertCluster%20200%20%F0%9F%90%9F%20400%20100%0A%20
+ target _blank
+
+ However, if even a single fish gets curious and goes in a contrarian direction, all hell breaks loose:
+
+ contrarian.mp4
+ width 500
+ Explore in Simoji
+ center
+ https://simoji.scroll.pub/#simoji%0A%20%0A%20fishClass%0A%20%20width%2030%0A%20%20height%2030%0A%20%20speed%2010%0A%20%20onTick%0A%20%20%20move%0A%20%20angle%20West%0A%20%0A%20%F0%9F%90%A0%0A%20%20fishClass%0A%20%20onTick%20.05%0A%20%20%20turnRandomly%0A%20%0A%20%E2%9C%A8%0A%20%20width%2030%0A%20%20height%2030%0A%20%E2%98%A0%EF%B8%8F%0A%20%20width%2030%0A%20%20height%2030%0A%20%0A%20%F0%9F%90%9F%0A%20%20fishClass%0A%20%20onLeftEdge%0A%20%20%20replaceWith%20%E2%9C%A8%0A%20%20onTopEdge%0A%20%20%20replaceWith%20%E2%98%A0%EF%B8%8F%0A%20%20onRightEdge%0A%20%20%20replaceWith%20%E2%98%A0%EF%B8%8F%0A%20%20onBottomEdge%0A%20%20%20replaceWith%20%E2%98%A0%EF%B8%8F%0A%20%20onHit%0A%20%20%20%F0%9F%90%9F%0A%20%20%20%20turnRandomly%0A%20%20%20%F0%9F%90%A0%0A%20%20%20%20turnRandomly%0A%20%20%20%0A%20%0A%20insertAt%20%F0%9F%90%A0%20300%20100%0A%20insertCluster%20200%20%F0%9F%90%9F%20400%20100%0A%20
+ target _blank
+
+ # Takeaways
+
+ I have been a brash contrarian in my life. Perhaps too unsympathetic to those following the herd and/or attempting to guide the herd.
+
+ While I maintain that the payoffs in nature are extremely variable and warrant thorough exploration of ideaspace, I can see that perhaps I should strive to be a more _courtesous_ contrarian.
+
+ To not be contrarian excessively just to practice being contrarian, but to only be contrarian for a few rare ideas, and courteously from the edges.
+
+ To explore contrarian ideas while respecting the schools who have gotten us this far.
+
+ ****
+
+
+
conformist.mp4
contrarian.mp4
fish.simoji
Changed around line 1
+
+ fishClass
+ width 30
+ height 30
+ speed 10
+ onTick
+ move
+ angle West
+
+ 🐠
+ fishClass
+ onTick .2
+ turnRandomly
+
+ ✨
+ width 30
+ height 30
+ ☠️
+ width 30
+ height 30
+
+ 🐟
+ fishClass
+ onLeftEdge
+ replaceWith ✨
+ onTopEdge
+ replaceWith ☠️
+ onRightEdge
+ replaceWith ☠️
+ onBottomEdge
+ replaceWith ☠️
+ onHit
+ 🐟
+ turnRandomly
+ 🐠
+ turnRandomly
+
+
+
+ insertAt 🐠 400 100
+ insertCluster 50 🐟 400 100
+
+ atTime 20
+ insertCluster 50 🐟 1000 100
+ atTime 50
+ insertCluster 60 🐟 1000 100
+
mathematics.scroll
Changed around line 18: My gut says yes, my brain says maybe, and so I shall give it a go.
- I aim to explain the essential concepts of the Mathematics humans write on rectangular surfaces. In order words, I'm limiting my scope to talk about _2D written mathematics_ only. Even written math is out of scope, as I've already shown that in earlier work.
+ I aim to explain the essential concepts of the Mathematics humans write on rectangular surfaces. In other words, I'm limiting my scope to talk about _2D written mathematics_ only. Even math implented as computer programs (Mathematica, for example) is out of scope, as I've already examined thosein earlier work.
som.scroll
Changed around line 119: What do you think? Send feedback you'd like me to post to breck7@gmail.com, or a
- First draft posted 5/25/2025
- - Another way to frame this idea could be Finite element method for everyone. FEM is "the mesh discretization of a continuous domain into a set of discrete sub-domains, usually called elements."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_element_method Finite element method
+ - Another way to frame this idea could be an attempt to come up with a simple grammar to allow the techniques of finite element method/discrete element method to be more widely applied. FEM is "the mesh discretization of a continuous domain into a set of discrete sub-domains, usually called elements."
+ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_element_method finite element method
+ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrete_element_method discrete element method