Notes on philosophy, creative and practical thinking skills

Notes

• separate the processes of creation from improving

  • creation is about building

    • 维持创造者思维，专注于 将脑中的想法转变为可工作的最小实现的过程
    • MVP - 顺应自身当前的代码素养，不额外付出打磨的精力

  • Improving is refactoring and algorithms

    • 再重构和优化，提升工程能力

  • you cann't write and edit, or sculpt and polish, or make and analyze at the same time

    • while you invent, don't select. while you sketch, don't inspect. while you write the first draft, don't reflect. At the start, the creator mind must be unleashed from judgement.

How to think clearly

• TODO

• The really smart thinkers are clear thinkers.

  • They understand the basics at a very fundamental level
  • Fundamentals are key to understanding how things work, and most high performers have the fundamentals down in their respective disciplines.
    It could be in science, music, architecture or anything.
  • I would rather understand the basics really well than memorize all kinds of complicated concepts
    • I can't stitch together and can't retrive from the basics.

• Conflict Resolution Diagram

  • Find win-win solutions to conflicts

• reference

  • critical thinking
  • Tools for better thinking
  • 保罗·格雷厄姆：如何成为独立思考的人？
  • How to Think For Yourself
  • How to think clearly
  • Rethinking Fear

improve your ability to reason/think

• "work on hard problems and talk to smart colleagues" by Paul Graham

• work on hard problems till it's simple, then think about how I would coach my former self through it

• 独立思考能力和分辨能力

  • 表达和发挥你的兴趣
  • 有趣味又有自己独立的主见，独立的思考的完整人
  • 活着的一个重要目的 是 自由最大化
    • 自由自在的生活

• Fear is temporary. Regret is forever.

Think rationally about the heart

• Listen to your heart/values, and train your mind to work in harmony with it

  • Make choices that best serve your values and that prioritize the ones that are most important to you

  • Think carefully and let your values play a big role in decision-making, but do so rationally

• Identify your deepest values

  • TODO

    • your family values - education, wealth, appearance
    • what do u do for a living?
    • how to spend your money on?

  • What comes from your heart

    • the heart maybe based on things like your past/experiences, needs/how you feel, and the present/other people around you,choices

  • how to listen to your heart

    • write what comes to you
      • write or think without letting in the doubting voice
      • "I have a feeling that ..."
      • "My heart tells me that ..."
    • find a quiet place where you can let your emotions and thoughts flow freely

  • listen to your heart, don't trust it automatically

    • sometimes it's wrong

• Use your values within your rational thought process

  • Gain as much information as you can about choices

    • what is the probable benefit of a decision? will it be something you'll ever regret? your rational mind and heart may be giving you conflicting thoughts and a decision, and you will need to seek out all possible detail and evaluate it

  • Identify problems: what might go wrong?

  • Explore options: think carefully about what's best for you

    • your first intuition might be right. howerver, sometimes, your heart needs to be balanced with a rational decision

• Consider the problem in terms of your highest values

  • How do the possible solutions relate to your values
    • make a map of your values - from most important to least - to see where they land in your personal hierarchy

• listen to you heart

  • the heart is decidedly different -- softer and simpler

    • in the mind, judgments and reactions are in control and you feel justified being judgemental and angry

  • shift your attention on the heart area and reconnect with feelings of care and appreciation or other heart qualities of self-compassion, compassion for others, forgiveness, appreciation and kindness, then be able to distinguish intuitive heart feelings from mental and emotional preferences

    • shift your attention to the area of your heart and breather slowly and deeply
    • activate and sustain a genuine feeling of appreciation or care for someone or something in your life
    • radiate these feelings of care and appreciation toward yourself and others
    • Notice how this extended radiation of care has affected your body, emotions and thinking
      • you get your head in sync with your deeper heart intent

  • focus on your body, not your mind

    • what does your body feel like right now? pay attention to the feeling of the clothes on your skin, and try to ignore any thoughts that you're having
      • experience physical sensations that are associated with emotions

• reference

  • Make your heart and mind work together

Practical Thinking skills

Bruce Lee - who are you

• harmony

JK Rowling - how to make life decisions <- a Fool creativity

• Neve give up on the things you love

• Concentration

  • become true to yourself
  • only concentrate on matters truly important to you

• Set yourself free from fear

  • already been living through the worst times
  • the freedom would empower one to face failure courageously
  • see this as an opportunity to be a new start

• gain new knowledge about yourself from her failure

  • you will never truly know yourself or the strength of your relationships until both have been tested by adversity

  • human beings are born with survival abilities to tackle unprecedented challenges by reorientations of their mindsets and optimizing abilities

• happiness

  • happiness is not about a checklist of personal acquisitions or external recognitions
  • true personal happiness is about enlightened self-knowledge, self-confidence, integrity, and a sense of mission and responsibility

• the humility to know that

  • "Life is difficult and complicated and beyong anyone's total control and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes."
  • never give up, and stand up again
  • be humbled by the experience of being challenged by setbacks and failures, which she has successfully overcome

Nick Vujicic - How to Love

• attitudes

  • gratitude leads to appreciate what you already have
  • the attitude of action
  • empathy with people
  • forgiveness can set you free
    • "I forgave all of those kids who mocked and teased me. I forgave them to unburden myself of anger and resentment. I like myself"

• love

  • nurture him with love, support and encouragement from his parents

  • self-love because his families's love

  • find your true purpose, and nurture your functional excellence

    • "each of us has some gift - a talent, a skill, a craft, a knack - that gives us pleasure and engage us, and the path to our happiness often lies within that gift"

De Bono - Six Thinking Hats to upgrade the creativity and collaborate with people effectively

• The White Hat presents pure facts

  • report only the factual data related to the issues at hand
  • do not take sides and avoid being affected by any emotion

• The Red Hat expresses emotion

  • express your emotions, intuition, gut feelings

• Black Thinking Hat highlights cautions

  • question all the ideas proposed

• Yellow Thinking Hat suggests benefits

  • the positive attitude motivates you to look for opportunities and solutions
  • "This might work if we move the production plan"

• Green Thinking Hat applies Creativity in provocative operation

  • suggest growth and creative discoveries
  • help to realize the ideas of the Yellow Thinking Hat
  • answer the challenges of the Black Thinking Hat

• Blue Hat masters Processes

  • set the meeting agenda, draw conclusions and control the time
  • "Let's summarize the points first"

De Bono - use Provocative Operation skills in Creativity application

• crazy ideas

  • escape from common sense
  • reverse common sense and flip it on its head
  • exaggeration in numbers and quantities only
  • distort a sequence of the events so that the whole situation is twisted
  • wishful thinking

• modify crazy ideas into effective solutions

  • extract the goal or principle you want to fulfill

  • focus on the difference between the crazy and normal idea

    • what sort of product can capture this special difference?

  • monitor from moment to moment

    • you die before you die

  • extract positive aspects of a crazy idea

  • observe the circumstance when you have applied the crazy idea

    • you will see problems and challenges , and from this, mdoify the crazy ideas

Moser-Wellman's five-face creativity to upgrade the creativity

• Seer - visualize the scenarios or ideas in his mind

  • visually check and practise

• Observer - notice the details

  • curiosity combined with the power of noticing the details
    • keep track of his observation
    • see the extraordinary from the ordinary
    • see the unfamiliar from the familiar

  • Just check out the world around you

  • observe the real details of the real situation

• Alchemist - mix the knowledge from different domains and turn it into a new application

  • analogical thinking in different user cases
  • derive from the unusual association of unrelated elements

• Fool - Celebrate it

  • they would have the strong determination and persist with perseverance
  • the fool's inversion skill
  • "so what ?"
  • "what if I persevered?"

• Sage - less is more and better

  • "what simple solution could I create?"
  • remove all unnecessary elements
  • extract simple but inspiring morals from history
    • practical wisdom can be generated from the knowledge of history
    • turn history into inspiration and wisdom for solving the big problems of the world

Positive Values - develop and upgrade your potentials and talents

• 表达你的兴趣，发挥你的兴趣和价值

• Aristotle's answer is that you should develop your talents for your ultimate good/happiness

• From Kant, you should cultivate your talent for your rationality and moral duty

  • Act only on the maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law
  • you benefit from various sorts of contributions made by different talented people in society; by the categorical imperative, you should play your part and cultivate your talents, otherwise, it's unfair and morally wrong

• From Mill, for your personal and social happiness

  • you can taste your personal happiness through the cultivation of your creative imagination like the intellectual and moral dimensions
  • when everyone fosters and contributes their talents, the outcome is more happiness in society

Aristotle - be your best self for your ultimate good

• a successful life is a life of fullilled happiness

  • cultivate your potentials and talents

• happiness comes through achieving the best version of you

  • aiming at the functional excellence as a virtue according to the natural order

    • everything has its unique nature and function in the nature order

    • when an object fulfills the function of its kind to the highest level, it achieves a sort of functional excellence

    • strive for functional excellence would be the ultimate purpose or final end of the existence of anything in the universe

  • aim at the excellence you possess is indeed the very source of your long-term happiness - eudaimonia

    • an ultimate purpose for our existence in the universe is about the development of our potentials and talents as humans

    • success belongs only to those who manifest the virtue of character

  • only people with the genuine excellence would achieve happiness

    • keep sharpening your existing strengths
    • minimizing your weaknesses through learning and practice
    • the doctrine of the golden mean can keep you honing your skills in order to achieve excellence

• The Golden Mean - a balance between our rationality and our animal drives

  • do it just right

    • do the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place to the right person
    • don't do too much, and don't do too little

  • use common senste to start with, then we learn through trial and error

    • observe and learn from good examples, and being excellence takes practice
    • don't be disappointed at your failures
      • luck, good or bad, always plays its part
    • take challenges as opportunities to cultivate your strengths and work on your weakness

  • live a life of continual improvement (learn from your mistakes)

    • deliberate before taking any action for a better and more appropriate result

    • evaluate and seek further ways of improvement after taking any action

    • repeat the appropriate action and turn it into our habit

Immanuel knat - treat others as you want to be treated for your rationality and moral duty

• the importance of the Moral values - right and wrong

• The moral law is categorical imperative

  • thinking rationally is the only thing that tells us what is right and wrong
    • not god, not other people, not our gut feelings
  • the sophisticated reasoning skills direct us to make the right choices in life

• how can we use reason to know what is right

  • Act only on "categorical imperative" - a universal law

    • an unconditional commitment
    • avoid beging affected by any personal concerns or self-interests

  • a genuinely morally good person only if he acted unconditionally

  • Treat others as you want to be treated as a goal

    • being moral isn't easy, but it's not impossible, it's a matter of free choice

  • need to know the intention of the agent before you can make a fair moral judgment

• how a moral life forms the core of a successful life

  • integrity and honesty - lying is always wrong

    • because lying couldn't be universalized as a moral right for everyone

  • respect people as an individual - the humanity principle

    • every human being has value in dignity
    • do not use people only as a tool for you to gain something
    • they are aleady complete - they are ends in themselves

  • respect your humanity

    • recognize and respect whatever is included in your humanity
    • cultivate your own talents

  • self-love and rational optimism

    • respect the value of your own life
    • more than a tool to help you avoid pain or obtain happiness
    • have self-love by looking for solutions
    • solutions are always there if you keep looking

John Mill - Happiness in each parties for your personal and social happiness

• sustainable personal happiness from the intellectual and moral dimensions

  • acquistion of knowledge

    • keep your curiosity and a life-long learning attitude

  • cultivate your creative imagination

    • reading, watching, listening, doing yoga or meditation
    • become an active participant by understanding and even mastering the tech of the works and activities so much so that you are authoring your own aesthetic experience from those creative works and activities

  • cultivate your moral sentiments

    • develop a compassion for other people and humankind in general

  • not only body pleasures

• The happiness of the greatest number of people

  • selfish interests must be terminated by death

  • happier not just for yourself but also for others

    • cultivate your affection for your family, friends, community, and humankind

总结自思考的技术

• 不要把假设和结论混为一谈; 搜集证据,印证假设到导出真正结论过程中的逻辑思考

• 认清现象和原因的不同; 很多都不是原因,而是现象(结果)

  • 在许多个案中,真正的原因只有其中一个,而其他只是这个原因导致的现象

• 如果发现自己的假设是错的,重新做假设,再次出发就行了

  • 一直悔恨自己的人生,与固执于错误的假设是一样没有意义的

• 在提出假设的阶段,真正的成败挑战才登场

  • 解决问题的能力,就是为印证假设不辞辛苦的行动力
  • 给出的建议中,只要有一个就足够了

• 逻辑思考的基础在于累积事实,如果呈现的是事实,就一定要虚心接受

  • 当自己的意见和对方不同时,以秉持事实为证的信念

• 线性思考行不通; 科学的方法是问为什么,理由

  • 真的是这样吗? 才是工作的开始,要听的是论点
  • 一个问题有数百个变量,且随时间而变化,所以答案不唯一; 要准确做出判断几乎不可能 ,但是以科学的方法思考,则可做整体的控制
  • 现在已进入像叶子不知会掉落何处的复杂体系中,几乎所有问题都没有答案
  • 培养孩子养成动脑思考的习惯,让孩子对无解的问题设法提出假设,并不厌其烦努力证明自己的假设是否正确

• 世界上许多问题本来就没有答案; 那些忠于自己,能够找出属于自己的答案的人,其生命力比起已经习惯别人给出答案的人,一定更为强韧

  • 就算没有答案,也会自己提出假设,反复求证,直到找出答案; 不管碰到任何困难,都勇于接受挑战,坚持到底,才是教育的根本
  • 思考方式,重视的是如何才能导出结论,而不是有没有知识
  • 以假设前提进行回答,有前提就有结论的思考模式; 对问题的前提先做个明确的假设,若前提错误,可以改变前提再回答

• 不太需要思考的事,尽量减少思考,且绝不没事自寻烦恼,生活要非常简单,把能规律化的事情规律化

  • 训练自己常保持好奇心,和别人接触的机会增长见识
  • 做一些可以让自己生存下去的投资,请问你成长了多少
  • 最伤脑筋的是做什么事都半途而废的人
  • 碰到自己没有遇到过的问题时,尝试解决
  • 常常提出质疑,然后找出问题的解决方法

关于实证主义哲学和生活方式

从证实 到证伪

• 科学 - 可证伪性

  • 现在科学 从发现正确 到 修正假设，试错中 尽量接近对

    • 科学是 不断探索未知，修正假设的过程中的一系列实践， 不是绝对正确的真理
    • 专家会搞错，但知道怎么根据专业知识不断调整认知，尽量接近对

  • 现在正确的，将来都可能是错误的

• sicence needs to fail

  • To move forward, science needs to fail, which runs counter to our human desire for certainty

  • rahter than give up, we struggle along a scale of process. The journey to understand more about the mysteries of the world and explain them with reason is the core of our nature

  • Science isn’t something to believe in, nor is it an absolute. It’s a cyclic process of evaluating and changing your mind based on new, better evidence and data

experienced or seen rather than theory

• 实证主义

  • 经验归纳 -> 用丰富的具象事物 来 验证 理论假设

    • 一种信息是让你认识到更多的事实，另外一种信息是 加深你对世界的理解； 探寻更广（非更多）的第一种信息是用来排出候选的第二种信息，而不是用来印证第二种信息；
      如果没有对具象事物足够的细节把握，抽象的思维方式很容易陷入自说自话，纸上谈兵的困境

  • 发现一个新现象， 到依据这一新发现形成一个假设， 再到发送一个新探测器去检测这一假设

• 判例法

  • 经验主义 - 依靠感官认识世界， 再进行“归纳思维”， 不同于 理性主义

    • 司法更加能动性
    • 更能 “反馈” 以及适应社会动态

  • 更 “稳定和延续性”， 更有助于确保商人的基本人权

  • 普通法 向 成文法 靠拢 （成文法（议会的法律） 优于 普通法 （法院的规定）

    • 在民主化的背景下 但保证法制

• 经验主义 -> 实证主义的方法论 -> 实验科学 《= 归纳法， 而不是推理

  • 从观察事件入手，从经验观察出发， 通过精确描述，推断出自然规律， 进而证实这些事件

  • 实证科学的可操作性

  • 通过观察归纳建立一个理论后，在该理论基础上进行演绎推理，预测可能的现象； 然后通过实证检验为这个理论及其演绎寻找 -> Bayesian

    • 先有碎片而后不断构建框架

    • 不断根据新的碎片 修正甚至打破旧的框架 并构建新的框架， 开始比较慢，但最终会后来居上

      • 先有框架后有碎片，容易上手，开始会看上去遥遥领先，但后面就僵化而无法增长
      • 框架固化后 最大坏处 是容易偏执的去 “占小便宜吃大亏”， 因为已经成为本

    • 当我们观察，了解这个世界的时候，一定要靠更多的事实，经验做基础， 而不是急于把它套在一个很大的理论框架，概念上

      • 很多大的成败都不是可以简单归于一般性的原因，有很多具体的原因； 很多细小的事情决定成败，后来的成功失败又重新塑造了人们对历史对社会对人生的看法

    • 所有的决定都是微观的，是在具体的环境里面对具体问题做出的

  • observe -> find patterns -> create a short-cut framework -> realize your framework sucks

    • ask open-ended quesitons
    • seeing some patterns in the answers
    • make a framework from these patterns. now I can make decisions quickly
    • wait, this is a situation my framework does not account for

  • 证伪主义 -> 科学的工作就是 通过寻找不符合理论的观察/实验 来对理论进行证伪

• 理性主义

  • 理性推论而非经验观察提供最确实的理论知识体系
  • 知识仅仅存在于完美的独立世界； 我们感受的世界，是对完美知识世界的部分复制
  • 演绎推理

• 自由市場 vs 计划经济

  • 自由市场 是动态均衡， 强调 事后纠正
  • 计划经济 事静态均衡， 强调 事前计划

• 道德

  • 纳粹和社会主义者, 都将问题于答案之间的起因和细节全部忽略
  • 只由问题的现象直接跳跃到 道德的答案
    • 将一切问题引向为道德层
    • 不需要你自己百分百干净（道德评判）， 只要看你说的是否有道理或是事实，无论你是否别有用心，否则再干净也不行
  • Intentions don't matter. Actions do.
    • That's why being ethical is hard

• cognitive vs emotional intelligence

  • one cognitive factor is an analytical thinking style - thinking

    • tend to act according to reason rather than intuition

  • emotional intelligence - feeling

    • easily discern the emotions and motives of others

Empiricism

• 演化的保守主义 - 相信普通人的常识和习惯

  • 抽象理念可能会出错，但常识就可靠的多，因为常识毕竟经过时间的考验
  • 生活的经验，朴素的常识 比 抽象的真理更重要
    • “我从不让抽象的东西主宰自己” - 柏克

  • 一方面直觉非常重要，可是另一方面又要及时吸取新的观念修正自己的直觉

  • from John Locke, David Hume to Edmund Burke

• 内在世界 创造 外在世界

  • mind create reality

    • 我们大脑只能接受这个光谱： 苹果是红色的

  • 我认为看到的世界 或 我认为看到的困境

    • 困境跟我們如何去感知这个困境有直接关系； 它不是客观存在的，只不过是你认为而已
    • 走出困境一个很重要的一点 是 要有一个不同的眼光 去看这个困境
      • 比如 他们不知道我的需求是什么， 我没有表达我的需求

  • 如何无解的一个问题，虽然可能现在还无解，但如果我知道规律是这样的话，如果我能从更高的角度上去看它，它就不一样

    • "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it" - Albert Einstein

  • when you communicate with another person, you're exploring the depths of your own consciousness

    • the essence of love is the decision to connect or not

    • the purpose of each relationship is to teach you how to love yourself from the inside out

      • when you learn to love everyone and everything, you come into align with your true self

Rationalism

from plato, Aristotle, Descartes, to Gottfried Leibuiz

Bayesian vs frequentist

reference

• Creative and Practical Thinking Skills
• A Little History of Philosophy by Nigel Warburton
• Introduction to Philosophy: God, Knowledge and Consciousness
• Fallen Leaves by Will Durant