Comment by skowmunk | Hacker News Reader

Comment by skowmunk | Hacker News Reader

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That phrase "points of information" is a common term I apply to all pieces of knowledge, whether it is gained through practical hands on experience, reading, observations and analysis or talking with others to know what they gained from their hands on experience, reading, observations or analysis and so on.

End of the day, however it is gained, first hand or second hand, it is all knowledge.

To quite some extent, if one is low on one type of knowledge, one can make up with increasing the knowledge from another source.

Imagine a 3-d space filled with points. Some points may be of one color, some of another color, some bigger, some smaller, but all can be used if you want to make a network of points/pattern (that is, form an idea using that knowledge/points)

In fact, though not explicit, the benefits of having a network(the people type) is this, to have access to a much bigger universe of points than one's own, to increase the ability to find solutions(which is an idea, at the end) to one's problems.

That phrase "points of information" is a common term I apply to all pieces of knowledge, whether it is gained through practical hands on experience, reading, observations and analysis or talking with others to know what they gained from their hands on experience, reading, observations or analysis and so on. End of the day, however it is gained, first hand or second hand, it is all knowledge.

No: it is not "all knowledge." There are also things like judgment, and wisdom.

I repeat: I think you're heading down a rat-hole with this "meta-belief system." You're creating an extremely reductionist epistemology, and sooner or later, it's going to start skewing your judgment.

First, I would have to thank you for your first comment:

"I think you're going down a rat-hole by trying to frame things in terms of "points of information". There's a lot more to "experience" than the simple collection of data points."

After I replied to it, on examining my own reply, I found out your comment was the perfect example for a good enough analysis to find a good enough solution to a problem of mine. Now my challenge is to practice that solution enough to make it effortless.

Coming back to "judgment" and "wisdom"

What is wisdom, but accumulated knowledge, hopefully filtered through the sieve of common sense? (irrespective of whether that knowledge is factual or purported to be factual)

What is judgment, but a decision based on that accumulated knowledge, once again, irrespective of whether that knowledge is factual or purported to be factual?

I believe that, whether one is conscious or not of them, we are predominantly slaves to our beliefs (while still being capable of modifying them, and of course, the beliefs themselves are subject to change because of stimulus, whether it is internal or external stimulus). So I think it is worth to keep developing beliefs that are 'good', 'strong' and 'reason' based.

This development of the "meta-belief system" is sort of an experiment of my own, based on certain observations and personal convictions, and also inspired by TPS (Toyota Production System), the Zero defect goal (impossible to achieve, but gives rise to the right actions), COS, (Cummins Operating system, people don't follow it all the time, still it gives rise to the right efforts more often than not), the mission statements extolled in six sigma classes and big corporations.

All these are simple set of words that are not meant to put out in detail what one should do in each and every situation, but still are remarkably efficient in ensuring that most actions in particular situations are in particular direction (hopefully the right one) more often than not.

So that's how a "meta-belief system is supposed to work, at least in my definition of it. Its supposed to be like a substratum/foundation for beliefs on which other beliefs can exist on the basis of reason, or like an equation in maths or physics from which one can derive more practical equations that can be applied to different practical problems.

Well.. if you check with me in 10 years, I think I would have collected enough wisdom to know if this judgment to develop this meta-belief system and try to live by it was right or not. And you can tell me then if my judgment was skewed or not :)

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