How to Debug Your Brain


	How to Debug Your Brain

anpl32

11-24-2007 4:07 PM

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tags:

debug, brain, mind, theory, habits, howto, thinking

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/d4c12a5d-9eb3-4912-b7af-da1c37a2ec40/275DCC14-C183-486A-A28F-017BD3ACE1F5/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/11/08/how-to-debug-your-brain/" href="http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/11/08/how-to-debug-your-brain/" style="font-size: 11px;">www.scotthyoung.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/11/08/how-to-debug-your-brain/">Does this theory actually match the world?</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/11/08/how-to-debug-your-brain/">The only purpose of a theory is to reduce the infinite complexity of the world into a picture that can help make better predictions.  If the theory doesn’t make good predictions, the problem is with the theory – not the world.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/11/08/how-to-debug-your-brain/">How to Debug and Quit Being Stupid</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/11/08/how-to-debug-your-brain/">Step One - Know Your Theories</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/11/08/how-to-debug-your-brain/">Many of these might have bugs or be completely false.  Your next job is to get the data to debug with.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/11/08/how-to-debug-your-brain/">Step Two - Get Accurate Data</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/11/08/how-to-debug-your-brain/">Step Three - Make Controlled Changes</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/11/08/how-to-debug-your-brain/">Step Four - Rework Broken Theories</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/11/08/how-to-debug-your-brain/"><P>If you wanted to debug your studying theories you might start with a list like:</p> <UL>
<li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;">More studying creates more learning.</LI>
<li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;">The more interesting the material, the easier it is to learn.</LI>
<li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;">The best way to learn facts is through repetition.</LI>
<li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;">etc.</LI></UL></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/11/08/how-to-debug-your-brain/">You need to get accurate data to debug your theories in life.  This means <A href="http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/11/01/how-to-run-life-as-a-science-experiment/" linkindex="8" set="yes">running life like a science experiment</A>.  </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/11/08/how-to-debug-your-brain/">Set your trials for a specific period of time, and do everything reasonable to avoid distorting the results.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/275DCC14-C183-486A-A28F-017BD3ACE1F5/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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