[extropy-chat] PR: Lanier trashing >Hism again...

[Emlyn]

On 05/08/05, Jay Dugger <jay.dugger at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 8/4/05, nvitamore at austin.rr.com <nvitamore at austin.rr.com> wrote:
> > Jaron is showing systems of behavior of someone who had once been
> > recognized as an original thinkers and who got stuck in his own genre.
> >
> > Some futurist thinkers advance at one point in their lives and then get
> > rigid and become irrationally prejudiced about others whose ideas branch
> > out further than their own.
> >
> [examples snipped]
> 
> Problem identified. How do we avoid it? Examples of particular
> dangers? How do we self-diagnose, and how do we solve it?
> 
> (Still waiting for Mike's teleportation references too.)
> --
> Jay Dugger
> BLOG: http://hellofrom.blogspot.com/
> HOME: http://www.owlmirror.net/~duggerj/
> LINKS: http://del.icio.us/jay.dugger
> Sometimes the delete key serves best.
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> 

I recognise this trait in myself sometimes. In software development
it's a constant problem, because the world moves so quickly. Anyone
who's been working in tech for a long time (hello just about everyone
on this list!) will understand the impulse to fight the new and stick
with what you understand.

In the computing world I really feel the speedup; things change much
more quickly now than they did at the start of my career. Also,
fundamental changes sneak up quietly while you are only noticing the
surface technology changes, and blindside you. To work in the computer
industry is either to have a shelf life, or to live with an ongoing
and perhaps increasing level of future shock (like Manfred Macx in
Accelerando).

Many people advise in programming that you have to be a constant
learner, come at it with beginner's mind, and I think that's a
no-brainer. However, I think that to really have longevity, you need
to be an expert forgetter, which is the really tough thing. It means
letting go of hard won knowledge, and what comes with it (especially
the status/prestige of the expert).

What I've noticed in recent times is an irrational predjudice toward
certain technologies, either in other areas from where I normally
focus (for me, the Linux world is this because I work in MS
technologies), or toward new stuff (where I tell myself "oh, it's just
the same old stuff being peddled out again, better to stick with the
tried and true").

That's the same problem the futurists have that Natasha describes. As
change overwhelms you, undermines your expert credibility and slowly
erodes your ability to relevantly contribute, it is a natural human
reaction I think to fight the change, even in those of us who
explicitly embrace change.

Self diagnosis with stuff like this best comes from periodically
explicitly examining your mental state. For this problem, you simple
want to ask "Do I have unusually high levels of fear and loathing? Do
I have perceived enemy *paradigms*? Are those paradigms pretty much
unexamined (see the process I outline below)? Is this more the case
than, say, a couple of years ago? 5 years ago? 10 years ago?". If the
level has increased, you may have this problem.

I'm a big fan of finding concrete ways to address what are essentially
emotional issues. For self diagnosis and addressing the problem, you
need unambiguous detection techniques and unambiguous solutions,
especially if you are the kind of intelligent person who can otherwise
rationalise the most irrational course of action (which most of us
here probably can!).

The technique I use for this problem is to work out what areas of tech
/ architectures / paradigms really crank up my fear & loathing. Then,
simply, I try to embrace them.

I do this by posing this question: "Imagine I loved this technology /
idea / whatever... what would that be like". The answer pretty much
always involves finding out more. For technologies, it usually means
building something using one or more of them.

Once I'm better informed, I try to give the tech/idea the same status
in my mind as the stuff I really like, and artificially keep it there
for a while (maybe a few weeks). I find I need to change my POV like
this to really get a feeling for the deep meaning behind whatever the
thing is. And often I suddenly see things from that other point of
view, and learn something!

Or, at this point I can reject the idea if it still seems like crap,
or if I can see why it is not good, but why its supporters would think
it is good (because I've tried being one).

This technique takes a lot of work; you've got to learn stuff under
your own steam. OTOH, I'm assuming that people on this list do that as
a matter of course anyway, so think of it as a way of directing your
ongoing self-education.

One warning though, doing this with Linux when you work in a Microsoft
shop earns you no friends, take it from me :-)

-- 
Emlyn

http://emlynoregan.com   * blogs * music * software *