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Knowledge Theory

Reference resources are expected to be accessed repeatedly.

LessWrong

Think Time

  • think-time modeling (structured thinking about why and how mental work takes time)
  • intent
  • checklist
  • schedule
  • today goals
  • timestamping (pre-task/post-task)
  • goal/task time estimation
  • focus timeblock
  • durable progress (value that is hard to lose/destroy; ex. well-stored toilet paper)
  • if blocked, change task, return later
  • if uncertain, prefer adaptable paths

Design

  • goal abstraction (ex. going to the grocery store, going to get food, preparing food to eat now/later, preparing to live, living to feel/be good)
  • goal specification (ex. in this application, low-noise means under 50dB)
  • goal decomposition (ex. low-noise means both low dB and smooth sound-type)
  • relevant factor list (ex. safety, reliability, performance)
  • needs vs wants
  • feature list
  • application list (normal cases, edge cases)
  • ideal and real possibilities (consider a design space without constraints, comparing to one with today-constraints) (this is a spectrum space, not black-white space)
  • practical ideas/options list (design elements and categories) (a complete list offers brute-force process of elimination)
  • element combination (ex. multi-material design)
  • element division (ex. latch can divide into latch-frame, latch-lock, latch-interface, etc.)
  • minimum functional design (material, complexity, data)
  • single factor optimization
  • min-max analysis (of specific value) (task scope or design scope)
  • stack analysis (for sequential design layers) (abstract or concrete)
  • option tree (trunk/branch)
  • functional substitutes (what alternative functions/design-elements can somewhat replace this function?)
  • functional absence (what happens to the design/operation of the system without this function?)
  • user experience vs world state-changes (some changes are experienced not by intended users; instead by bystanders, other entities, and the rest of the universe) (world state-changes often indirectly affect the user experience)
  • second-to-second UX simulation (small time-segment focus)
  • A-Z UX simulation (step-completeness focus)
  • lifetime simulation ("cradle-to-grave"; development and production and distribution to operation and maintenance and recycling)
  • present-to-future simulation (reality-dynamics focus)
  • application environment simulation
  • constraint walk-forward (add modern constraints one-by-one into an empty design-space)
  • constraint walk-back (remove constraints one-by-one from a draft in the design-space)
  • first principles modeling (fundamental interactive laws)
  • basic elements modeling (fundamental elements for desired function)
  • false tradeoffs
  • breakable assumptions/premises
  • design path completion (do this for full-draft exploration/context; avoid tunnel-vision and first-idea only-idea bias)

Evaluation

  • current-reality research (ex. existing products)
  • peer review
  • guiding document research
  • history research (ex. past intergenerational upgrade logic)
  • experimental learning vs thoughtful learning (spectrum idea) (consider which is better for a specific situation, problem, current skillset) (ex. better to spend 1 hour thinking of problems and solutions than 10 hours building the same problems and solutions) (ex. better to spend 1 hour building problems and solutions than 10 hours thinking the same problems and solutions)

Meta, Communication!

Last Updated: 2021-03-22

The purpose of this guide is to clarify the fundamental ideas required for efficient communication.

What is efficient communication?

  • Faster symbol processing
  • Complete comprehension of intended ideas
  • Deeper second-order idea connections
  • Correct mapping to useful/actionable personal-relevance

Ideas and Symbols

What is an idea?

An idea is a mental representation or model of reality.

It is a meaningful fragment of information.

It is the interpretation of something.

It can be abstract or concrete, real or imaginary.

What is a symbol?

A symbol is a physical representation of an idea.

A symbol is observed then interpreted as an idea.

Symbols are usually a compact pattern of distinct, standardized elements (ex. alphabet) constrained by a communication method (ex. writing, speaking).

Symbols connect to ideas through the interpretation-logic of the observer.

Symbols are usually defined universally (common words) for repeated use across a community, but they can be defined for single-use (ex. temporary codenames).

Symbols can express ideas that are unintended, ambiguous, incomplete, ... Be careful.

This is the communication sequence.

I think ideas to ideas. I connect ideas to symbols. I write those symbols.

You read those symbols. You connect symbols to ideas. You think ideas to ideas.

Quality and Understanding

Text and Keywords

Text is an effective category of symbols.

Text is compact. It requires less data-size (per idea) than pictures, videos, and audio clips. It can be written quickly.

Text is portable. It can be copy/pasted quickly and easily.

Text is compatible. It can be written with a simple pen or standard keyboard. It can be conveyed by vision, audio, and touch (ex. braille) in various ways (ex. books, websites).

Keywords are textual words and phrases that convey an important idea.

Example, "from" is a normal word, "energy" is a keyword.

Our Communication Standard

Fast Comma

We like using the comma for concise sentences that retain clear separation of ideas. Example, this sentence. Flow worse, speed/size better.

Unity Dash

We like using dash-symbols to clearly communicate the unity of multiple words to mean a single idea. Especially valuable for clarity in complex or otherwise-ambiguous sentences.

One Idea, One Word

Diverse words offer nuance and reader-engagement (ex. marvelous, magnificent, incredible), but we prefer a functional focus. The goal is compact vocabulary with major functional differences in the idea-keyword pairs.

So we use idea-keyword maps like this:

  • Absolute Good, Neutral: Ok
  • Absolute Good, Positive1: Good
  • Absolute Good, Positive2: Great
  • Comparative Good: Better
  • Highest-Available Good: Best
  • Highest-Possible Good: Perfect
  • Highest-Imaginable Good: Ideal

We prefer keywords that are quick (low letter count, low syllable count) and clear (unique spelling/sound from other words, understandable-at-a-glimpse).

One Idea, One Combo

We like basic-keywords and their short-combinations over new words with low-marginal-meaning. Example, words like "beautiful" and "handsome" are all replaced by "looks good".

Dense Lines

We like efficient sentences packed with important ideas and spaced across short paragraphs.

Idea Toolbox

There exists a subconscious toolbox of ideas (and their respective keywords) that one accumulates through their mastery of a language.

Just as the general-learning-curve combines familiar ideas to understand new ones, the most basic keywords are the ingredients to complex ideas and mental-models.

Conscious consideration of the basic toolbox supports to-the-point communication and sharper idea-to-idea awareness.

Practical1:

  • What happened? Tell me the good news then the bad news.
  • This option has better reliability and worse ergonomics.
  • I think the best plan is to stay here for tonight.

Basic ideas often exist as sets of 3. Within a 3-set, one idea has absolute meaning and forms a spectrum for the other two to mean opposing directions. Example, temperature-hotter-colder.

Basic 3-sets can substitute the opposing-direction idea-pair with a contextual-value idea-pair. Example, texture-smooth-rough. The range of values for smooth/rough are relative, therefore dependent on context (general human touch vs precision machine friction).

Controlled Vocabulary

A controlled vocabulary is a list of standard keywords typically used to simplify knowledge-management processes such as tagging and searching. Furthermore, it offers better clarity for the reading experience but causes repetition that worsens nuance/engagement.

Without a controlled vocabulary, knowledge-management is complex and error-prone with needlessly scattered or ambiguous words such as with synonyms and homonyms. For example, suppose you search your files for a certain document using the "NOTES" tag, but unable to find it because it was actually tagged with the word "ESSAY" instead.

For example, we like simple keywords for goodness.

  • GOOD, NEUTRAL, BAD
  • BETTER, WORST
  • BEST, WORST

Meta, Knowledge!

Revision: 2020-07-12

Goal of this Document

A versatile examination of the thinking process to better understand and use the truth.

Truth

Truth is reality in its past, present, and future. What has been, what is, what could be, and what will be. Truth is the immediate state of the world and the complex patterns of cause-and-effect that structure the specific dynamics of change.

Truth is the most accurate understanding of reality. With accuracy, one projects their best possible power towards intended results. With realism, one maps abstract ideals to actual possibilities.

Preparation

Truth prepares the best possible action as relevant questions meet actionable answers. The truth of everything always points to the best answer, yet an incomplete truth can point to the worst answer. Every situation creates context for some truths to become good (improves the answer), neutral (no effect), or bad (worsens the answer). Some good truths are the sum of smaller truths that individually are bad or do not change the answer. For a given situation, all or enough of its good truths always point to the best answer. Preparation is the completion of good truths.

Suppose that you are in a hotel room and thirsty. You find a can of juice on the bedside table. Will you drink it? What truths can drive this decision? The hotel environment is generally safe (truth1). The can is unopened and untampered (truth2). The can is labeled with a brand you trust (truth3). The can expired many years ago (truth4). Drinking the juice will lead to hospitalization and death (truth5). Statistically, a pre-packaged hotel drink is fine over 99.99% of the time (truth6). In this situation, truths 1-3 and 6 drive a YES (drink it) and therefore are BAD. Truths 4-5 drive a NO (do not drink it; ideally trash it) and therefore are GOOD. Truth5 is future-knowledge that must be learned by mapping from the present situation, such as truth4. Truth4 can be learned by looking for the expiration date labeled on the can. If the expiration label is missing or badly smudged, you can predict the age of the can by the brand-graphics version OR adjust truth6 to exceed your risk tolerance threshold. If the expiration label is incorrect and at a recent timestamp, you would be terribly misled.

Versatility, Efficiency

A question. The correct answer is provided and applied. Success. A slightly different question. The old answer is applied. Failure. Efficient yet narrow.

A question. The correct answer and general logic are taught. A slightly different question. The correct answer is applied. Success. Versatile yet time-consuming.

Many simple questions. The correct answers are provided and applied. Success. A complex question, expressed incompletely or inaccurately. The best answer is provided and applied. Failure. Importance of correct questions; limits of perfect truth source.

A correct answer. 4 minutes of perfect action. The next question. 1 minute of thinking to the correct answer. Repeat. Non-overlapping question-answer sequence at 80% time efficiency.

A correct answer and the next question. 4 minutes of perfect action, multitasked with thinking to next correct answer. Repeat. Overlapping question-answer sequence at 100% time efficiency. Physically perfect performance and time efficiency are sustained as long as the next correct answer is prepared non-disruptively in parallel before end of current perfect action.

A question and starting premise. 10 major ideas required to logically reach the correct answer. 40 major ideas actually processed, with most time spent processing irrelevant/suboptimal ideas. Evaluation, 25% idea efficiency with significant deviation from ideal idea sequence.

A question and starting premise. 1 major idea per minute expected. 30 major ideas actually processed in 10 minutes. Evaluation, 3 major ideas per minute, as good idea speed.

Definition, Organization

What is a "definition"? A definition is a combination of known ideas used to describe the unknown idea of an unfamiliar keyword.

Example, Tool: Tools are physical things that broaden or deepen the interactive ability of a mind on reality. The human body is the fundamental tool of the human mind.

What is "organization"? Organization means connecting known ideas together to build a greater idea or a mental model with greater complexity and accuracy.

Example, Mineral Map: Combine the simple ideas "map", "mineral", "density", "elevation" to get the complex idea of "a topographic map of minerals in the area categorized by ore density and vein elevation".

Consideration, Memory

What is consideration? Considering is the movement of an idea from subconscious storage to active memory. Because it is possible to know good ideas yet fail to consider them during a relevant task, organizing good ideas for fast-relevant consideration is important.

What is memory? Memory is a container of known information. Memory exists on a spectrum of ease-of-access, from internal (ex. human brain) to external (ex. USB drive). External electronic memory is an efficient way to improve thinking consistency (ex. checklist) and reliability (ex. greater retention rate compared to typical human forgetfulness), but bounded by access time and tool requirements. Memory also exists on a dynamic spectrum of logical activity, from active memory (conscious) to archived memory (subconscious). Memory is understood as blocks that can be evaluated at different levels of scope and quantity (ex. a book is a larger memory block than one of its paragraphs).

Consequences

What is knowledge ultimately good for? It has physical and mental consequences. Knowledge can help you change the world accurately to your intentions. Knowledge can cause you to feel more or less satisfied emotionally. All learning must be justified by its marginal impact on the physical and mental future.

Example: A book that is certainly known to be not enjoyable for you and not containing useful ideas for your future. Reading that book is not justified.

Types of Knowledge

What are knowledge types? Knowledge types are general categories of memory blocks based on what ideas are included and how the ideas are arranged for observation by the intended audience.

Rational, Irrational

Rational knowledge can be learned accurately by applying strong logic to sufficient fundamental information.

Example: With knowledge of addition, multiplication, and order-of-operations, what is 2 + 4 x 10? The answer is 42.

Irrational knowledge can only be learned accurately through a trusted source. Strong logic can only achieve categorical answers for irrational questions. Irrational knowledge is weakly connected to fundamental information.

Example: What is my name? Probable answer category is a human-prouncible sequence under 100 syllables. Specific answer can only be guessed.

Example: How many fingers am I holding up behind my back? Probable answer set is 0 to 5. 6 or more is possible with unusual mutations and augmentations. Specific answer can only be guessed.

Content creators should seek to improve the efficient accessibility of high-value irrational knowledge.

Preparation, Reference

Preparation knowledge is learned before action. It should be intuitively remembered, contain timeless ideas, and build versatile skills.

Example: The English language. It is most useful when remembered critically (alphabet to vocabulary/grammar to meaningful structured content). It is a standard that will usefully last long into the foreseeable future. It unlocks basic communication skills such as reading/writing, talking/listening.

Reference knowledge is used during action. It should be accessed on-demand, contain specific ideas, and guide task performance.

Example: Comprehensive list of mathematic equations.

Reference knowledge is efficient because it focuses on ideas that drive the correct action.

Example: Press the red button.

Content, Pointer

Some knowledge is directly related to the understanding of the world. This is content.

Some knowledge simply helps you navigate the physical world to other information. These are pointers.

What is an index? It is a list of keywords related to a central idea. An index is usually organized alphabetically, but it can be arranged in any meaningful sequence. With familiar keywords, the index is content for reviewing already-learned ideas. With unfamiliar keywords, the index is a set of pointers for symbolically-guided navigation. An index is the most storage-efficient idea format, but suffers a lack of guiding content for completely unfamiliar keywords.

What is a dictionary? It is a list of keywords and their definitions. It is an index that provides familiar content for each major keyword.

What is a tutorial? It is a chronological sequence of specific instructions for getting something done. It uses a step-by-step keyword-list. It focuses on actionable content and generally avoids pointers to maintain the instructive flow.

Landscape of Knowledge

The landscape of knowledge is the existence of all information in reality from which you can learn the truth.

Idea-Reality Connection

Consider the connection between information and reality. You can change an idea to make it true to reality. Or, you can change reality to make it true to an idea.

Example: Consider the idea "a sheet of paper is on my table". You can change the idea to "a sheet of paper is on some table". Or, you can place paper on your table. Either option strengthens the idea-reality connection.

Accessibility

Consider accessibility as the path to observe or change a part of the landscape.

The physical world. To learn we had to go to specific places and observe/conduct real experiments.

Physical records. With books we could learn at libraries closer to home and read experimental data from trusted authors.

Digital records. With computers we can learn at home. The physical accessibility of information has grown significantly.

Understanding

RAW INFO

Example, Vision: What you see with your eyes is fundamentally a canvas of colors combined with natural depth perception. Without supporting ideas, only a single colorful scene exists. No separation of objects, behind-view inferrence, cause-effect prediction, directional sense, or hand-eye coordination.

INTERPRET:

Transform raw information into clear ideas.

Example, Natural: The outline of a human figure in the forest.

Example, Symbolic: The word "hungry".

CONNECT:

Example, Familiar Combination: What is the sum of "event", "agreement", and "schedule"? Appointment.

FILTER UNIQUE: The repetition of existing knowledge does not expand your knowledge. Pursue unfamiliar ideas.

For the access of specific ideas from internal and external memory.

Example, Internal Access: List 10 significant ideas associated with your area of expertise. Note the marginal time spent from the first to the 10th.

Example, External Access: Go to Wikipedia and search for something. Note the time spent.

Practical

What does understanding knowledge theory actually help you do?

Idea Processing

Know how to read text, interpret pictures, watch videos faster with full comprehension.

Example: Watch a video at 2X speed and 100% comprehension.

Know how to connect interpreted ideas to known ideas faster and deeper.

Example: Read an article forming 10X deeper connections.

Idea Filtering

Know what is worth reading, sooner.

Know what to skip with minimal disruption of processing flow.

Idea Planning

Know what information you actually need now/later.

Know how to get that information, by thinking or navigating.

Idea Organization

Know how to organize existing information for efficient access and long-term reliability.

Know how to create/edit compressed information for efficient processing.

Critical Thinking

Know how to connect a problem to a solution with meta-mastery of the knowledge required.

Know how to form new ideas by combining existing ideas.

Time Efficiency

Every mouse-click, mouse-movement, and key-press incurs a time-cost of action.

Every symbol, syllable, and whitespace incurs a time-cost of observation.

Consider:

Rational Confidence, the skill of setting and adjusting one's confidence to be proportional to one's correctness.

Efficient Completion of Good Truths, the skill of quickly gathering the minimum set of positive-marginal-value truths required to guide the current understanding to the best possible decision.

Flow Organization of All Available Ideas, the skill of preparing access/consideration paths to all known-and-unknown ideas, to improve the speed and quality of one's long-term idea-thinking-sequence.

.

Meta, Principles!

REV: 2020-06-21

Versatile ideas to make decisions correctly and quickly in any field of work.

Safety

Prioritize safety first. People tend to neglect and underprepare for safety until they (or those they care about) are seriously harmed. It is easy to be lulled into a false sense of security.

Be fully consistent with safe behaviors and procedures. Do not let fickle convenience tempt dangerous exceptions that invite accidents.

Balance the preparation of proactive (prevention) and reactive (cure) solutions. Avoid unnecessary risks and reduce necessary risks.

Resources are limited. Budget wisely to defend against the most significant dangers and implement the most cost-efficient solutions.

Build a habit of identifying immediate and upcoming hazards and risks. Danger-spotting intuition is a key defense during distracted activities.

Reversibility

Prefer decisions with reversible consequences.

You will make mistakes. When you make a serious mistake, you need to be able to take it back.

Resilient Value

Make lasting decisions that generate useful value for a long time even when plans change, environments evolve, and exceptions emerge. When the future unravels in unexpected ways, you want your purchased resources, learned knowledge, and produced work to stay relevant.

Rational Awareness

Keep up your conscious intensity and logical rigor.

Routinely consider what you are doing and why you are doing it.

Optimization

Always be seeking a better outcome.

Adopt a common process to efficiently find the best areas for improvement across multiple situations.

Specify key metrics to help distinguish upgrades from downgrades. Think deeper about each metric, simulating real world consequences instead of assigning simple weights of relative importance. Be sure to consider special factors that are too dangerous to miss or ignore.

Design solutions to be convenient (ex. road signs) and universal (ex. red for stop/danger)

Prefer structural solutions (ex. mandatory checklist) over personal solutions (ex. verbal reminder).

Prefer automatic solutions (ex. smoke alarm) over manual solutions (ex. check periodically for a fire).

Completion

Finish what you start and start only what you will finish.

Know what is and is not worth doing; starting, continuing, finishing.

Stop and reconsider when the value of completion becomes unclear.

The scope of completion ranges from steps and tasks to projects and plans.

Completion precedes the efficient reorganization of the mindspace and workspace, bringing closure to old whirlpools.

Balanced Interpretation

Stay sharp enough to cut through weak ideas, yet soft enough to absorb unfamiliar truths.

Accept your immediate knowledge as ever-imperfect in complex ways.

Self Control

Be able to actually do what you know is the best path.

You are not in control if you consistently fail to perform your best known course of action.

Prepare the flow of information to meet the 3 requirements of conscious, rational action:

  • Awareness (to consider the action, ex. alarm clock reminds you to do something important)
  • Rational Confidence (to logically determine the best action)
  • Willpower (to actually perform the best known course of action)

Overcome the first-try confidence barrier and the first-step inconvenience bias.

Directional Clarity

Be clear about your ultimate objectives.

Balance progress between short-term and long-term goals.

Stay flexible and avoid over-committing your resources. You want to be able to pivot your goals based on new information.

Time Efficiency

Perform every task with quality and speed, striving to do the best you can with the time you have.

Time efficiency is not only about the efficiency of a single task but also about the consistency of efficient performance, the prioritization of task timings, and the selection of necessary tasks. In other words, you must perform your current task efficiently, perform all upcoming tasks efficiently, perform the right tasks at the right times in the right order, and plan for the most important tasks that you can complete within your time constraints.

Useful Learning

Learn with purpose, towards some fundamental combination of mental satisfaction and valuable action. Only you can decide which beliefs you are happy to hold or driven to refine.

Pursue the truth if you want to accurately translate your intentions and decisions into actions and real world consequences. The truth helps you get what you want from reality, if what you want from reality requires the truth.

Fundamental Understanding

Master the basics. Deep knowledge is rooted in the truest understanding of the most elementary ideas.

Incremental Improvement

Learn with the pragmatic perspective of growing in small steps.

Comfortable Expertise

Master skills enough to perform superbly with ease.

Scientific Intuition

Learn ideas deeply enough to be able to think about their conceptual and numerical approximations naturally.

Real-Time Pressure

Develop skills under continuous time constraints and complex multi-factor scenarios.

Proportional Consideration

Spend more time and request more feedback on more important decisions.

Know when to be decisive and when to be cautious.

Concrete Simulation

Plan for the future by simulating specific short-term and long-term situations. Abstract ideas tend to oversimplify the real world and cloud judgment around critical initiatives.

True Causality

Know what truly causes what.

Consider the exponential gaps in causal predictions. Seemingly small decisions can have big consequences and seemingly big decisions can have small consequences.

Direct Evaluation

See things for what they actually are.

Total Preparation

Foresee all possibilities.

Mitigate the major risks.

React to unexpected events with versatile contingency plans. Recall your prepared plans as the situation evolves.

Complete Planning

Plan beyond the moment and forecast the full schedule of every step required to accomplish a major goal. A truly complete plan is a continuous line of real action mapped to every second of the present and future.

Continuous Risk

Stay vigilant, as something can go wrong at any time. Risk is a persistent function of imperfect observation, imperfect logic, and inaccessible information.

Comparative Clarity

Understand your options by exploring alternatives.

Sometimes it is easier to determine the better of two than the quality of one.

Sampling

Try one before committing to more.

Batching

Do many at once.

Leverage economies of scale and divide fixed costs by many units produced.

Accomplish many goals in one smooth sequence.

Clear Expectations

Communicate what you want.

Plan and agree to what should happen when something goes wrong, before something goes wrong.

First-Time Excellence

Do it right the first time.

Avoid the frustration and sunk cost of incurring even a single major problem.

Regular Action

Build habits around important tasks.

Convenient Action

Set up your tasks to be easier to do and they are more likely to get done.

Steady Action

Move cautiously to avoid unintended injuries and damage.

Move slowly at first to signal your action to others for a noticeable timeframe.

Timed Action

Act at the right time and in the right order.

Perfect Action

Strive to take the perfect action that equals the best possible life you can realistically experience from this moment onwards.

Question every allocation of your time and resources against what you truly want to accomplish in life. Pick your battles.

Do what unmistakably needs to be done. Consider the do-it-now heuristic for simple, quick, and certain tasks.

Power of One

One is simple:

  • One place to store and find things.
  • One goal to prioritize.
  • One dependable tool to use and maintain.
  • One detail to remember.
  • One clear plan to perform without confusion.
  • One good option to make an unmistakably good decision.

Power of Two

Two is reliable.

The value of using two.

  • When the first fails, the second continues to function while the problem with the first is detected and resolved.
  • When the first exceeds capacity, the second adds immediate capacity while extra capacity is prepared for the future as necessary.

The value of using one, storing one.

  • When the first fails to a short-term event that affects all in use, the second provides recovery with low downtime.

Power of Three

Three is versatile:

  • The first development is conservatively sparse. The second development is ambitiously bloated. The third development is well-balanced. (Third System Effect)
  • Two people can sleep while one person watches (Overwatch Efficiency)
  • One person can work while two people watch (Overwatch Redundancy)

Possibility Over Probability

When the stakes are high, think through normal and abnormal possibilities.

Key Element Organization

Key tasks can be defined and prioritized in a checklist.

Key limits can be defined and cross-examined in a constraint list.

Key design choices can be defined and referenced in a central document.

Usability

Create things for use.

Complete Use

Use products for their full effective life.

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