I had just finished a chapter of a Taleb book before finding this and wholeheartedly agreeing with it. One of the problems outside of a school setting is that children can’t be forced to read whole books (but can be bribed to!). I’m as guilty as any parent of trying and failing to get our two to read what I thought they “should” be reading.
The turning point came when I heard a terrific line from Naval: Read what you love until you love to read.
I’ve stopped trying to curate reading material for our children and now help them to get any book that’s age appropriate, as long as they make an effort to get through it. There’s some trial and error. Our bookshelf now has everything from Japanese anime to Stephen King and lots in between. Variety is the spice of life.
Good observation Kevin. I run youth sports leagues and camps. Reminds me of what I tell parents often: We have to love the thing before we will spend time on the tedious parts. It's from Alfred Whitehead and he called the stages of learning: Romance, Technical, and Broad Application (maybe?). You can go out of order but don't sleep on the romance stage. Schools spend lots of times on the technical part.
Laughed out loud at your name in the context of this essay. Currently reading “The Odyssey”. I read so many different things to get different perspectives and try to reword my brain.
Perfectly put! It's sometime hard to gain perspective and remind ourselves that this is the big picture and not the hope of copying faster to get ahead.. VC-driven investment fashions and cookie-cutter accelerator programmes have generated more formulaic start-ups, but the market will eventually reward the more original and creative thinkers. You're very correct in distinguishing between 'utilizing playbooks' for tasks versus the venture formulated by playbook. These same observations and criticisms apply to entertainment content creation by formula (struggling to find something to watch recently because Hollywood has written it according to a particular well defined genre??)...
Love this but worried about what it actually means when one of your biggest drivers is to try and help others, to make life easier for them... How does playbook differ from framework I wonder? *Ponders*
I'd like to think that a framework offers a structure to explore, rather than a fixed answer that worked at a certain point in time. In other words a framework helps guide inquiries, not giving the answer and therefore stifling thinking.
"My friend Mike loves reading just for the sake of it more than anyone I know, because of The Agony and the Ecstasy, a 1987 biographical novel about Michelangelo that his AP European History teacher assigned as summer reading heading into 10th grade."
This cuts both ways though. Parents nurtured a natural love of reading in me, but the school assigned books (along with the school required annotating and associated assignments) snuffed it out a bit.
Those are powerful words that (paraphrasing) we won't be surpassed and made redundant by AI unless humans become AI like. We shouldn't be training ourselves to compete against AI in ways we can't measure up- the data and successful recipes of the past (playbooks). We should be training ourselves for creativity, authenticity, and experimenting with emotionally moves us, and designing our own unique personal "books of play"! Thanks Packy for your reflections on this topic. I think so many business owners need to hear this, to be open to experimenting with different ways to achieve their goals...especially in the dog training world!!
Would you say the core difference between staying human and becoming machines is enjoyment (or retaining the capability to enjoy something rather than just “getting things done”?
I think enjoyment is part of it, although there are plenty of things that aren't enjoyable in the moment but are meaningful and good to do. Maybe self-motivated and directed as opposed to fully extrinsically motivated and directed.
Iain McGilchrist's The Master and His Emissary has a lot to say on this phenomenon. This narrowing you describe is a kind of left-brainification that AI excels at but goes against the thing that makes us human.
Yes! I actually had him in an earlier draft (mentioned that Mike is the kind of person who reads The Matter With Things for fun and has good takes on it), but didn't make that connection myself. Good call.
The small: ‘Thanks to Claude for editing.’ comment at the bottom. Interesting given the nature of the post: i’m curious how much did claude help with editing this post 💡
I wholeheartedly agree with this. Ever since startups became prestigious in the late 90s, all the ambitious folks seeking fame and fortune crowd the profession. These are people who want the result but not the process. Part of the reason I moved to Austin instead of SF when I was younger was because of the playbook mentality I observed in SF (now that I'm older I realized that trait isn't specific to SF. It's everywhere.)
I love reading.
I had just finished a chapter of a Taleb book before finding this and wholeheartedly agreeing with it. One of the problems outside of a school setting is that children can’t be forced to read whole books (but can be bribed to!). I’m as guilty as any parent of trying and failing to get our two to read what I thought they “should” be reading.
The turning point came when I heard a terrific line from Naval: Read what you love until you love to read.
I’ve stopped trying to curate reading material for our children and now help them to get any book that’s age appropriate, as long as they make an effort to get through it. There’s some trial and error. Our bookshelf now has everything from Japanese anime to Stephen King and lots in between. Variety is the spice of life.
Good observation Kevin. I run youth sports leagues and camps. Reminds me of what I tell parents often: We have to love the thing before we will spend time on the tedious parts. It's from Alfred Whitehead and he called the stages of learning: Romance, Technical, and Broad Application (maybe?). You can go out of order but don't sleep on the romance stage. Schools spend lots of times on the technical part.
Excellent essay. It reminds me of Culkin's quote, "We shape our tools and then our tools shape us."
The more we depend on AI to outsource our thinking, the more robotic we become.
This rings true for me on so many levels. Thank you - really needed to read this today.
Laughed out loud at your name in the context of this essay. Currently reading “The Odyssey”. I read so many different things to get different perspectives and try to reword my brain.
Perfectly put! It's sometime hard to gain perspective and remind ourselves that this is the big picture and not the hope of copying faster to get ahead.. VC-driven investment fashions and cookie-cutter accelerator programmes have generated more formulaic start-ups, but the market will eventually reward the more original and creative thinkers. You're very correct in distinguishing between 'utilizing playbooks' for tasks versus the venture formulated by playbook. These same observations and criticisms apply to entertainment content creation by formula (struggling to find something to watch recently because Hollywood has written it according to a particular well defined genre??)...
Love this but worried about what it actually means when one of your biggest drivers is to try and help others, to make life easier for them... How does playbook differ from framework I wonder? *Ponders*
I'd like to think that a framework offers a structure to explore, rather than a fixed answer that worked at a certain point in time. In other words a framework helps guide inquiries, not giving the answer and therefore stifling thinking.
Thanks Joyce, makes sense 😍
"My friend Mike loves reading just for the sake of it more than anyone I know, because of The Agony and the Ecstasy, a 1987 biographical novel about Michelangelo that his AP European History teacher assigned as summer reading heading into 10th grade."
This cuts both ways though. Parents nurtured a natural love of reading in me, but the school assigned books (along with the school required annotating and associated assignments) snuffed it out a bit.
A slightly related take on the doubling down on the human being the best approach https://www.joanwestenberg.com/shitposting-our-way-through-the-singularity/
Those are powerful words that (paraphrasing) we won't be surpassed and made redundant by AI unless humans become AI like. We shouldn't be training ourselves to compete against AI in ways we can't measure up- the data and successful recipes of the past (playbooks). We should be training ourselves for creativity, authenticity, and experimenting with emotionally moves us, and designing our own unique personal "books of play"! Thanks Packy for your reflections on this topic. I think so many business owners need to hear this, to be open to experimenting with different ways to achieve their goals...especially in the dog training world!!
Optimization invites entropy. Playbooks are worse; they are soulless optimization.
Very astute observations and sage advice. This is one of the best pieces on any subject I have read in quite some time.
Could not agree more! Do that humans are brilliant at. If you are not "world class" then lean into something really hard where you can be world class.
Would you say the core difference between staying human and becoming machines is enjoyment (or retaining the capability to enjoy something rather than just “getting things done”?
I think enjoyment is part of it, although there are plenty of things that aren't enjoyable in the moment but are meaningful and good to do. Maybe self-motivated and directed as opposed to fully extrinsically motivated and directed.
Iain McGilchrist's The Master and His Emissary has a lot to say on this phenomenon. This narrowing you describe is a kind of left-brainification that AI excels at but goes against the thing that makes us human.
Yes! I actually had him in an earlier draft (mentioned that Mike is the kind of person who reads The Matter With Things for fun and has good takes on it), but didn't make that connection myself. Good call.
Welp now I want to read The Matter With Things even more!
Nicely done. Thanks for pointing it out as it was must needed.
The small: ‘Thanks to Claude for editing.’ comment at the bottom. Interesting given the nature of the post: i’m curious how much did claude help with editing this post 💡
It's more of an emotional support blanket haha -- some useful feedback but mostly want "This isn't terrible"
I wholeheartedly agree with this. Ever since startups became prestigious in the late 90s, all the ambitious folks seeking fame and fortune crowd the profession. These are people who want the result but not the process. Part of the reason I moved to Austin instead of SF when I was younger was because of the playbook mentality I observed in SF (now that I'm older I realized that trait isn't specific to SF. It's everywhere.)