Comment by FerociousTimes | Hacker News Reader

Comment by FerociousTimes | Hacker News Reader

The original topic that you cited is symptomatic of ineffectual autodidacticism (knowledge management) and analysis paralysis.

As for the former, I recommend taking notes diligently while studying/learning new topics and filing these notes appropriately where you make consulting the original material be it YT videos, online tutorials/posts, articles or books unnecessary since your notes are more than enough and are kept up-to-date accordingly; adding, removing or archiving as you deem necessary.

As for the latter, I struggled with this lately but I think that I made some progress to overcome this roadblock by making snap decisions on the spot by resorting to the old trick of "heads or tails" everytime I start to overthink a solution, and for more overwhelming alternatives, I built a custom randomizer that's fed a list of choices, and then spits the decision that I should make, and I comply with its wish enthusiastically every time.

I wouldn't say that this is the most efficient decision making process out there but for me action is always far better than inaction, and I don't think that perpetual state of deliberations and contemplation was any better as it hindered any progress to be made in the name of picking the most rational or efficient course of action to be taken which it didn't seem to emerge no matter how hard I tried to think a way out of it.

Let me applaud you. I’m 43 years ald autodidact. And it’s only last month I started to take some note in a notebook about my reading. I feel this simple thing missing in my life had a huge negative effect.

So many content I read, watch and my brain is never full of new things new topic new understanding but the biggest difficulty is recalling things when needed. Taking notes, summarising key points, and being able to reread it has a huge power to structure though and articulating idea between them. Also it’s avoid thing to stay in a vague memory in the brain. Also I use my notebook to write down any idea that cames to my mind anytime. Cause the brain is never stopping working, while I pop, while I walk the dog out, while I shop. Anytime I feel I have something interesting showing up I my mind I write it down.

Since almost 2 months. And I can say this simple act was the missing piece in my life.

In a year or two, when that notebook has been filled and replaced with newer notebooks, make some time to go back and reread. It is wild sometimes, re-reading things I forgot I know/knew. Pretty sure this helps for recall, even if not, it is still nostalgically entertaining.

Edit: swapped 'enlightening' for 'entertaining'. Admittedly, could be both.

I just want to share my agreement on picking any path forward when confronted with analysis paralysis. I also suffer from this and have found that ANY choice is better than no choice in this situation, precisely because moving forward gives you more information. For me making a decision in the face of uncertainty was very uncomfortable because I always want to be perfect, but what I found is that the new information you get even when you pick the wrong path forward makes making the right decision after that point orders of magnitude easier. I have trained myself to get past the discomfort of making a less-than-perfect decision to “lube the rails”, so to speak, on making future decision easier.

Thirded, and I want to expand on your point about "picking the wrong path". For a lot of decisions (especially low-stakes ones) you don't even have to go down the path. Just having taken a decision, arbitrary as it is, gives you information.

Simple example, happens often: my partner and I want to go out to eat, but can't make up our minds where. Take the top two choices and flip a coin. Then just see how you each feel about that decision the coin made. Often it reveals a stronger preference than anyone was aware of. In that case, disregard the coin's choice. And if it doesn't, then just follow the coin's choice, since you're not losing anything by it.

And I would like to expand on this answer. Most of the time I noticed, that it doesn’t even matter what I choose because each option has pros and cons and most of the time they have equal weight (otherwise it would be easy to choose). So in the end, I‘m happy regardless what I choose. The example with the food fits quite well here too.

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