Thought Experiments that'll Unlock your Genius
Thought Experiments that'll Unlock your Genius
Three Point Thursday #7 | Miracles, Autodidacts, and Zombies
Here’s your weekly three-pointer, to open your mind.
Read the online version here
The mission of “Three Point Thursday” & about the author here
The Miracle
“We're still in the first minutes of the first day of the Internet revolution.”—Scott Cook
I wish I could go back in time.
I’d tell someone I have access to everything ever written down.
Their reaction would be great. “There’s no library that big, you idiot” they’d say.
I’d then tap my magical piece of metal a couple times, and show them that indeed there is, in cyberspace.
And I’d show them I can also:
Learn any skill imaginable (YouTube)
Listen to conversations between the smartest people alive (podcasts)
Pull up data on all the world's financial markets + businesses (articles/apps)
Read history from any time period from any cultures perspective (books)
View an accurate map of the globe and translate messages into any language within that map (Google maps + translate)
Communicate with anyone in the world instantly (iMessage/WhatsApp, FaceTime, email)
The ancients would think I’m a god!
These technological miracles would be inconceivable to every generation of humans except us. Immense opportunities have been created.
Most humans lived in a time before sedentary society (nomadic hunter gatherers). Their best opportunities were finding an animal to kill so they wouldn’t starve.
And even most of the humans throughout civilizational times would be grateful just for the privilege of owning a book, or getting a letter delivered. Opportunities were still generally limited.
You may be thinking, duh, I know I can do all those bullet points.
But are you really maximizing the potential that exists thanks to those capabilities?
The Great Revolution
"We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain.”—Stephen Hawking
Don’t underestimate the power of these *new* learning and communication opportunities we now have.
You’ve heard about the industrial revolution—big changes in the way humans lived, interacted, and conducted business due to technological advances.
But we are living through the most dramatic revolution of them all: the internet revolution.
And many people still don’t even have access to it. There are 7.9 billion people on Earth. But in 2022, there are only 4.66 billion internet users. (according to FinancesOnline.com).
What’s it going to be like when everyone’s online?
Perhaps the only thing crazier than the internets rapid growth is how *relatively* new it is considering how long humans (or at least human-like ancestors) have been around (millions of years). When you zoom out, you realize we are in the early days. It’s only been around for about 40 years.
The unprecedented explosion of changes brought about by social media, search engines, and instantaneous video streaming will continue.
Isn’t it exciting to be living at the beginning of the most transformative era in human history?
I say yes, but it’s also both surprising and unsettling how many people seem to be blind to this revolution (or at least they take it for granted).
The Great Opportunity
“The multiplication force of technology on cognitive differences on technology is massive.”—Jordan Peterson
Are you taking advantage of the greatest invention there ever was?
Or when online, do you tend to mindlessly consume entertainment and news, instead of learning skills and absorbing wisdom?
I always think…if all the books, recordings, and ideas from the most accomplished geniuses are available in cyberspace, what is stopping me from becoming a genius?
Maybe the fact that I go to a school called zoomass. Or that I still spend an incredible amount of time obsessing over the NFL and NBA.
Regardless, I’m confident the only thing stopping anyone is laziness or distraction (or both).
It’s crystal clear that in 2022 all that’s required for competence in any domain is focus, determination, and persistence (granted you have an internet connection).
“Free education is abundant, all over the internet. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.” —Naval Ravikant
The Rise of Internet Autodidacts (Good)
“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. The only function of a school is to make self education easier; failing that, it does nothing.”—Issac Asimov
“You don’t need college to learn stuff…you can learn anything for free. So I think college is for fun and to prove you can do your chores…you can basically learn anything on YouTube.”—Elon Musk
I’ve got some bad news.
You’ve been bamboozled, hood-winked, and flat out deceived!
How?
You’ve been told all your life that school is the best place to learn.
But who is the better teaching faculty, the narrow perspective of tenured professors who want you to buy their book and adopt their politics, or the infinite database holding generations human knowledge (the internet)?
Obviously you do learn at school. I certainly have. And it’s always going to be important for kids to go to school to develop fundamental skills like critical thinking, reading, writing, and basic math.
And I’d be a fool to downplay the positives of university. Though I’d argue that the more important aspect of college is who you meet, I’m sure most people learn quite a lot from their classes.
But the most powerful lessons, and more importantly the most enjoyable, will come from reading books, listening to podcasts, and doing research on your own. By following your curiosity.
The School of Curiosity
Richard Feynman was a physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1965.
He developed a process for teaching himself anything called the Feynman Technique.
Often, school leaves you with a pathetic comprehension of what you were taught. Because you weren’t even interested or because you just memorized stuff to get a good grade instead of really understanding it.
So consider this method of learning instead.
It’ll ensure you gain fundamental understandings of concepts. And with the internet, it’s more practical than ever.
There are 4 main steps to this technique of effective self-education:
Choose a concept you want to understand. Focus on absorbing its basics deeply.
Go explain it to a 12 year old (or to anyone as simply as you can).
Recognize the gaps in your understanding & return to reading/listening to more about it.
Upgrade and refine your explanations + organize and review what you’ve learned.
Teaching other people about a concept forces you to develop a deeper understanding.
Because when you instruct someone about a topic and they don’t get it, you’ll recognize that you, not them, need a better comprehension (to be able to explain it clearer).
Hence step #3.
You’ll also realize that people who describe things in a complicated way do so because they don’t have a real grasp of what they’re talking about. Which is why it's important to simplify your explanations by mastering the basics, so you don’t become Mr.It’scomplicatedtoexplainbutIunderstanditandyoudon’tIswear.
And most importantly: through this process, you’ll feel the true power of self-education and following your curiosity.
The Rise of Overstimulated Zombies (Bad)
“The art of knowing is knowing what to ignore.”—Rumi
Past generations were deprived of information and long-distance communication.
We are the exact opposite today.
We are drowning in excess information (social media), most of which tends to be misleading (clickbait) or deliberately negative/controversial/fear-inducing (News).
Mind-numbing Tik Tok dance trends and incessant angry tweets are wreaking havoc. They are dumbing down millions of people, one day of endless scrolling at a time.
Stuck in the Matrix
Distractions will destroy you.
If you want to learn while on your phone, you can’t just float through a sea of random information daily.
Why are mindlessly going on and switching between apps? You’re pulling your mind in so many directions.
How do you expect to have the ability focus if you habitually go on your phone for no reason, open Instagram, then Tik Tok, then Snapchat, then Twitter, back to Tik Tok, back to Instagram all in the matter of 20 minutes?
Doing this is literally destroying your intellect.
It’s too much random, unconnected information to process all at once. It scrambles your brain.
No wonder you can’t focus. You’ve conditioned your mind to be numb to what it’s seeing/hearing because it’s overloaded with stimulus.
Meanwhile, you simultaneously feel another tug, the phantom call of a different, addictive, social media app.
It’s a hellish feedback loop that many in our generation are hopelessly trapped in.
The Antidote
If you can escape the matrix, and be enlightened instead of addicted, you can extrapolate all the ways in which you’ll eventually be better off—financially, in relationships, health-wise etc.
All because you woke up, and freed your mind.
Because you started to absorb long-form content (books and podcasts) that increases your ability to focus, think clearly, be calm and rational, and actually go deep into understanding a topic (characteristics not applicable to social media).
Chris Williamson is a podcaster from Britain (I recommend).
When on Joe Rogan’s show recently he referred to social media as ‘processed information’ (processed food is unhealthy, natural food is healthy).
It’s not a perfect analogy but you get the point. Books, podcasts, and conversations with intelligent people are the ‘natural information’. Tik Toks, IG reels, and Tweets are the ‘processed’. A little bit is fine, but if that’s all you consume, well, you’re fucked.
Be Purposeful
“The road to hell is not paved with good intentions. It is paved with lack of intention.”—Dr. Gabor Maté
In our hyperconnected world, it’s not realistic to completely cut out ‘processed information’ as Williamson calls it, but you can at least be smarter about how consume it.
It’s wise to have in mind exactly what you’re going to do when you open your phone.
Because if you don’t have a purpose, you’re not using the technology, it’s using you.
When you start take your phone out of your pocket, ask yourself: “What app am I about to go on, for how long (approximately) and for what purpose?”
This may sound ridiculous, but if you do it, you’ll realize: most of the time you pulled your phone out for no reason at all!
The consequence of consuming with no intention?
Again, Random bombardment of often useless or misleading information that you probably won’t remember anyway.
Why are you doing that to yourself?
When online, be deliberate with your actions, instead of assaulting your mind with anxious scrolling.
And also, take a break from the screens every once and a while.
Go outside. People severely underestimate how much clearer they’d think if they just moved their body while getting some sun and fresh air.
How to have a Clear Mind
Here’s 4 strategies related to using your phone that have increased my focus and accelerated my learning:
Turning off all notifications except messages. It’s impossible to read articles or absorb podcasts effectively if you get pulled away by Instagram or World Series of Poker notifications every 2 minutes. Real-life poker is more fun anyways.
Not going on your phone for the first 30 minutes - hour of every day. To be able to focus throughout the day, let yourself wake up before you start bombarding your mind with whatever ridiculousness got sent into the group chat while you were asleep. Laugh at it when you're actually awake.
Not going on your phone for the last 30 minutes—hour of every day. ‘The Huberman Lab podcast explains:
“The eye and brain clocks are very sensitive at night and the light signals to the body that it's daytime, which can alter your sleep for several days.”—Andrew Huberman
I struggle to follow this one, especially during weekends. But I’ve noticed how much more rested I feel when I do. Better sleep = better mood, memory, and focus which = more effective learning. The two best alternatives I’ve found to scrolling social media before bed: stretching or reading a book.
Curating what content you consume. Be selective about what is on your timeline on social media. Unfollow/mute accounts that aren’t of service to you. You can watch your old friends' snapchat stories all day, or absorb stories from the smartest, healthiest, and wealthiest people alive. I suggest doing the latter more frequently.
“You become what you give your attention to.”—Seneca