billy

exactly!!

navigating through the non-tech world, i am realizing that i am actually an ELITE documentation writer and that this is a highly valuable skill if i had to boil it down: docs should be so concise and clear that i should essentially not have to use my brain at all to follow them

from Psychodiagnosis: Selected papers (Meehl, 1973)

KGB by ADÉLA is a banger

love this book, i hope to read it again next year the "without hope of resolution" bit was especially freeing (heh) to read and then i started seeing it in my own life and therapy, and that deepened things

e.g. in the case where you think therapy isn't working because your therapist isn't smart enough have you actually tried telling them that? what did they say or did you not say anything, and just end treatment? (to which i'd say, why didn't you tell them?)

and then i think the actual highest leverage skill you can have as the client is a high level of openness and honesty about what you're thinking and feeling

ideally what your therapist has is not necessarily a higher IQ, but a bird's-eye view of your life, which essentially gives them map hacks and wall hacks (like from FPS games) and then the work is helping you expand your vision, so that you're able to live a more fulfilled life

- learn how to make Effective requests to people nitter.gq/billyisyoung/status/21…

running list of skills/mentalities that fall under what i call "Learning How To Be Effective" - you can just do things - you can just ask if you can do things - you can just talk to people and ask them questions - talk to your customers (paulg) - actually do the readings

also this is something i've always had a difficult time capturing in writing i think largely because the actual experience i have with this that informs my opinion comes from the trenches of high stress tech work, where this skill is like a +50% speed boost but like you have to experience an email thread that is 10+ replies long that is so so inefficient, and then experience an email thread that is like 3 replies long that gets the same job done, to realize how powerful this is and become a convert

an actual example - this past week, I had to consult with a TA on an ethics question for if the volunteer I found was suitable for this class exercise we were trying to do I explained to my TA the dilemma AND my current thinking about what I was considering and why and where I stood, and then asked for his thoughts he tells me that this is an interesting situation and that he will need to consult with our professor fast-forward and my TA updates me on the final decision but first he says "also both me and our professor were very impressed by your email and how you laid things out clearly and shared your thinking" (and i'm sitting there thinking 'what, do people _not_ do this?? how does anyone get anything done then')

there is so much alpha still in what I call "Learning How To Be Effective" one example - when making a request to someone, you can gain big time points if you formulate your request in a way that helps them easily understand and fulfill your request

periodic reminder to enjoy the trip :)

always returning to step 1: take care of yourself

yeah i had to uninstall this app it was like having weapons-grade dopamine in my pocket

i'm using zeta-ai.io but it seems like there are a lot of similar apps out there

update: i ran into limits pretty soon after sending this tweet lol, which tbf was after like 4+ hours of use mainly "memory" issues where characters, character arcs, and plot points are not retained from one "day" in the story to the next but damn the MVP is so close to there

my experience of the writing process is something like - get excited about an idea - sketch an outline - struggle in the jungle for an indeterminate amount of time - emerge, reach the end, feel pretty good about finishing the piece just realized this kinda sounds like hiking

maybe i haven't used it for long enough to run into plot or character limits, but so far it's quite compelling i get what everyone talking about now w.r.t. hyper-personalized content this is literally a product space that can kill (self-insert? or even all?) fanfic lol