Chapter 1: The Introduction

The number of bugs programmers have introduced has been constant the last 40 years. Possibly because we’ve focused on the wrong things. Everything is our own fault. Ideas are created and communicated in teams. The social interaction provides a foundation for the matrix of applications, laws and machine vehicles.

The two most important skills for a human being are Communication skills and Learning and Thinking skills. Programmers have to learn constantly – both new tech, how users will interpret their work, the quirks of their teammates, the change in industry, and the changing characteristics of the project.

“Agile Methods” differ from traditional plan-based methods, most notably in eschewing rigid rules and discarding old schedules in favor of adapting to real-time feedback.

The essence of “pragmatic” is to do what works – for you. Grow and adapt every time you learn something useful and don’t hold on to ideas that are illogical or conflicting.

1.2 Consider the Context

Everything is interconnected: the physical world, social systems, thoughts, logic of a computer – everything forms one immense, interconnected system of reality. Nothing exists in isolation; everything is part of the system and part of a larger context. Because of this, small things can have unexpectedly large effects. That disproportional effect is the hallmark of nonlinear systems. These actions could be as simple as thinking a thought to writing a sentence on a computer. Although, they are not equivalent.

The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization – Peter Senge. He popularized the term, systems thinking, to describe a different approach of viewing the world. In systems thinking, one tries to envision an object as a connection point of several systems, rather than as a discrete object unto itself. For example, a tree is a connection of at least two systems: the processing cycle of leaves and air and of roots and earth. It’s not static; it’s not isolated. ALWAYS CONSIDER THE CONTEXT.

1.3 Everyone Is Talking About This Stuff

A lot of people were talking about the topics Andy was interested in:

• MBA and executive level training
• Cognitive science research.
• Learning Theory
• Nursing, health care, aviation, and other professions and industries
• Yoga and meditative practices
• Programming, abstraction, and problem solving
• AI research

*Heisenberg and his quantum uncertainty principle, the more general observer effect posits that you can’t observe a system without altering it.

When you start to see the same set of ideas, with similar threads, showing up with different guises in these different areas, that’s usually a sign that there is something fundamental here.

Companies are starting to adopt policies such as yoga and meditation in order to combat rising health care costs. When money is involved a company will take any measure in order to alleviate it.

1.4 Where We’re Going

In this book, everything is connected, but it is hard to appreciate that with the linear read of a book. You often can’t get a sense of what is connected when faced with a bunch of “see also” references in the text. Andy draws a big map with the hope of clearing some of that confusion.

First is, “Why your brain works as it does”. The Dreyfus model of skill acquisition provides a way of looking at how you move beyond beginner to mastery of a skill. Harnessing and applying your own experience, understanding context, and harnessing intuition.

We’ll look at exploiting underutilized ways of encouraging better thinking and creativity, where intuition comes from and when to trust it. Intuition is a fantastic skill, except when it’s wrong. There are a lot of “bugs” in human thinking. These are the in-built biases, influences from when you’re born and from your cohort, your innate personality, and hardware problems.

We also approach learning in a broad sense. Planning techniques, mind maps, a reading technique called SQ3R, and the cognitive importance of teaching and writing.

We learn from experience but experience has no guarantee of success. Forcing experience doesn’t work either. You need to create an efficient learning environment with feedback, fun, and failure; deadlines; and see how to gain experience virtually with mental grooving.

Learning to focus and understanding why change is hard are the final tasks.

Chapter 2: Journey from Novice to Expert

The Dreyfus model of skill acquisition outlines five discrete stages through which one must pass on the journey from novice to expert. Nurses used this model in the early 80s.

The Dreyfus model is a construct theory. Event theories can be measured, can be verified and proven. Construct theories are intangible abstractions; it makes no sense to speak of “proving them”. Instead, construct theories are evaluated in terms of their usefulness. Mind is an abstraction. It is just an abstract concept.

2.1 Novices vs. Experts

He interviewed two people for a piano gig. One person looked like they performed incredibly because of the effort that was put in (novice). However, the other got it because they made it look easy (expert). An expert finds it difficult articulating expertise. It is hard to explain their actions in fine detail; many responses are so well practiced they are preconscious actions. This makes their actions almost look magical since we can’t perceive the possibility without gaining the experience ourselves.

2.2 The Five Dreyfus Model Stages

The model is situational so it is applicable per skill. Not a trait or talent model. Most adults are experts at walking and novices at tax preparation. The difference is the requirement of steps in order to figure something out or if it is intuitive.

Stage 1: Novices. Little to no experience. That may count a developer who has “10 years” of experience when really they have 1 year of the same thing repeated over 10 years (not counted as experience). Novices are concerned with their ability to succeed; with little experience to guide them, they don’t know whether their actions will turn out okay. They typically don’t want to learn, they just want to accomplish a task and are vulnerable to confusion when things go awry. They need recipes or instructions to get things done. This is how call centers can function with little experience. Learning is painful and most of the time we want to avoid it (especially in the example of tax prep). The problem with rules is they can be misinterpreted and vague (Clinton esque – it depends on what you mean when you say…). This is called infinite regression. Rules get you started but take you no further.

Stage 2: Advanced beginners. They can break away from the fixed rules a little bit but still have problems troubleshooting. They want information fast and don’t want to be bogged down with a simple explanation again. They don’t want the big picture. No holistic understanding and don’t want one yet. If you try to force it on them they will dismiss it as irrelevant.

Stage 3: Competent. Practitioners can start developing conceptual models of the problem domain and work with these models effectively. They can begin to seek out and apply advice from experts. No longer knee jerk responses and will seek to solve problems based on previous experience. However, there is still difficulty without fine details to focus on. These people are usually the ones who “have intuition” and are “being resourceful”. Typically in leadership positions and can teach novices and try to avoid annoying the experts.

Stage 4: Proficient. They need the big picture. They want to learn the framework and will be very frustrated by oversimplified information. They can correct poor task performance. They reflect on how they’ve done and revise their approach to perform better next time. They can read case studies and learn from others. They learn to “test everything that can possibly break.”

Stage 5: Expert. The primary sources of knowledge and information in any field. Continually looking for better methods and ways of doing things. They write the books, the articles, and do the lecture circuits. Only 1-5% of population. They work from intuition rather than reason. A combination of subtle clues will give the person the answer but they won’t be able to come to a conclusion as to why. They are very good at targeted, focused pattern matching.

2.3 Dreyfus at Work

When you’re not very skilled in an area you are more likely to think you’re actually pretty expert at it. In the paper “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-assessments”, psychologists Kruger and Dunning bring up a story about a thief who robs a bank in broad daylight. He was confident that wearing lemon juice on his face would make him invisible (second-order incompetence). Charles Darwin said “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.” Once you become an expert, you become painfully aware of just how little you really know.

When making experts write rules for novices it helps the novice but when you get the experts to follow their own rules they lose their expert edge. You can’t herd a racehorse. Rules for novices and intuition for experts.

Most people don’t go any further than stage 2 for most skills in their lives. They find what they need and go no further. Metacognitive abilities (self-awareness) is only possible at the higher skill levels. This means lower level practitioners overestimate their abilities by as much as 50%. If you have an expert on your team you should accommodate them since they are rare and useful. Although, keep in mind that experts are not always good teachers as teaching is a skill unto itself. It is better to get somebody slightly above their level to train them.

For mastery, Dr. K. Anderson Ericsson says:

• You need a well defined task
• The task needs to be appropriately difficult – challenging but doable.
• The environment needs to supply informative feedback that you can act on.
• It should also provide opportunities for repetition and correction of errors.

Trumpeter Clark Terry would say: Imitate, assimilate, innovate.

For teams you need high performers, a consistent team (don’t rotate people), a safe environment, good incentive, and a good structure.

2.6: Beware the tool trap

Don’t rely on models or confuse them with reality in a profession. Things change and so do people. So, by relying on a model it may lose its use and the team will suffer because of it. Overreliance on formal models rewards herd behavior and devalues creativity. Be careful what traits you devalue. Don’t alienate experienced practitioners in favor of novices. Don’t spell out too much detail – leads to infinite regression. Don’t oversimplify the complex. Do not demand excessive conformity. Context is critical. Learn when to break the rules. Don’t sloganize speech or it loses meaning.

Actions:

• Rate yourself on your skills at work. List how it impacts you.
• Identify other skills where you are a novice, advanced beginner, etc. Be aware of second order incompetence.
• What do you need to advance to the next levels?
• Think back on problems within a team. Could it have been avoided if the team knew about this model? What can you do different going forward?
• Who are your teammates and where are they on their journey? How can that be helpful to you?

Chapter 3: This Is Your Brain

3.1 Your Dual-CPU Modes

CPU 1 is linear, logical thought, and language processing. It is slow and uses a small amount of brain real estate. If it is not processing it will set an idle-loop routine that is seen as internal chatter. CPU 2 is like a digital signal processor. Like a super regular-expression search engine, responsible for searching and pattern matching. Sometimes it can grab matching patterns that aren’t related. It can go searching while you are thinking about something else and return a result asynchronously. No verbal processing so the results are typically non-verbal.

If CPU 1 is being used, CPU 2 can’t get access and vice versa. They interfere with each other. From now on linear will be L-mode and holistic CPU 2 is R-mode (rich). You need both: R for intuition, problem solving, and creativity and L for working through details and making things happen.

R mode acts as a search engine for long-term memory and ideas that are “in-process” but the non-verbal aspect makes it difficult to do things like remember dreams. It is also difficult to control. It is the peripheral vision of the mind.

An enzyme located in the synapses called PKMzeta acts as a mini memory engine that keeps memory up and running by changing facets of the synapse contacts. If the process stops, you will lose that memory no matter what it is. Memories are maintained by an executing loop rather than being stored.

3.2 Capture Insight 24×7

Once you start keeping track of ideas, you’ll often get more of them. Your brain will sop supplying you with stuff if you aren’t using them. Capture the idea and work with it.

3.3 Linear and Rich Characteristics

The fastest processing is the muscle memory response. Doesn’t travel up the cortex.

L-mode provides the following:

• Verbal – using words to name, describe, and define
• Analytic – Figuring things out step-by-step and part-by-part
• Symbolic – Using a symbol to stand for something
• Abstract – Taking out a small bit of information and using it to represent the whole thing
• Temporal – Keeping track of time and sequencing one thing after another
• Rational – Drawing conclusions based on reason and facts
• Digital – Using numbers as in counting
• Logical – Drawing conclusions based on logic (theorems and well stated arguments)
• Linear – Thinking in terms of linked ideas, one thought directly following another, often leading to a convergent conclusion.

The R-Mode is decidedly holistic and wants to see the whole picture at once, perceiving the overall patterns and structures. It works spatially and in relation to other things. Intuitive and makes leaps from insight. Occasionally not rationally as it is based on hunches and leaps of insight. They include:

• Non-verbal
• Synthetic
• Concrete
• Analogic
• Non-rational
• Spatial
• Intuitive
• Holistic
• Non-linear

The expert relies on the R-mode to make intuitive and creative decisions where others must be rational and analytical to accomplish a task. Learn by synthesis as well as analysis. Don’t dissect the frog, build it.

3.4 Rise of the R-Mode

We tend to have a cultural bias towards L-Mode thinking and think of R-Mode thinkers as the lesser of mortals. It appears to be vestigial and only useful in the world gone by. This is mostly because L-Mode thinking brought us out of the caves. However, that overreliance on L-Mode has lost us some of our R abilities.

Being happy broadens your thought processes and is essential to learning. Once you get angry or fearful your brain starts shutting down extra resources in preparation for fight or flight.

Chapter 4: Get in Your Right Mind

When being confronted with new information it is the uncomfortable and repelling information that you should probably learn first.

4.1 Turn Up the Sensory Input

Add sensory experience to engage more of your brain. Tactile enhancement is a good place to start. It helps visualization and generating imagery with participants. Also, use cross-sensory feedback such as:

• Writing down
• Drawing a picture
• Describe verbally
• Engage in discussion with teammates; respond to questions and criticisms
• Act out the roles involved

Your brain is always hungry for this sort of cross-sensory, additional, novel stimulus. Changing your environment regularly feeds your brain.

4.2 Draw on the Right Side

Drawing involves seeing. This pulls from the R-Mode, which is quite underutilized in programmers.

4.3 Engage an R-Mode to L-Mode Flow

Write drunk, revise sober. Get used to something first before trying too hard to reign it in. You can also use another person to take on another mode. The navigator can see the bigger picture while the driver is analytical.

Metaphor is the common ground for both verbalization and images. Use metaphor and random juxtaposition to flex the creative mind. Make novel connections in weird places. Humor is based on identifying relationships and distorting them.

4.4 Harvest R-Mode Cues

When trying to write, you will encounter resistance. Niggling self-doubt to wildly creative procrastination to a myriad assortment of other distractions and excuses. Once you start writing it is important to maintain the flow. Don’t worry if the technical issues distract you or wondering if it needs to be edited.

Write your morning pages first thing in the morning. Write at least 3 pages, long hand. Do not censor. Do not skip a day. Once the initial resistance wears off you’ll start to harvest thought with R-Mode. You haven’t put up defenses yet so are not adapted to “reality”.

To really kick-start the R-Mode you can try doing different things and messing up your habits. You’ll start to see the world differently. Pick up on subtle cues.

Chapter 5: Debug Your Mind

Humans are not rational creatures. We often believe leaders make logical decisions but in reality that idealized process is virtually never followed. We make decisions based on faulty memory and our emotional states at the time, ignoring crucial facts and fixating on irrelevant details because of where and when they occur.

5.1 Meet Your Cognitive Biases

Anchoring: Just seeing a number will affect how you predict or decide some quantity. By offering an example you can prime somebody’s perception on what something is worth.

Fundamental Attribution Error: We tend to ascribe other people’s behavior to their personality, instead of looking at the situation and the context in which their behavior occurs. We might excuse our own actions more easily. In reality, context is everything.

Self-serving Bias: The tendency to believe that if the project is a success, I’m responsible. If I failed, I’m not.

Need for closure: We are not comfortable with doubt and uncertainty – so much so that we’ll go to great lengths to resolve open issues. Resolving a problem early just masks it rather than solves it.

Confirmation Bias: Everyone looks for choice facts to fit your own preconceptions and theories.

Exposure Effect: We tend to prefer things because they are familiar.

Hawthorne Effect: People change their behavior when they know they are being studied. Discipline is high, the excitement of something new fuels the effort. Eventually it wears off.

False Memory: It’s easy for your brain to confuse imagined events with real memories. We’re susceptible to the power of suggestion. Memory may be rewritten and changed with age, experience, worldview, focus, etc.

Symbolic Reduction Fallacy: Quick symbolism to represent something complicated, which loses the nuances and truth.

Nominal Fallacy: Labeling a thing means you can explain it or understand it but a label is just that; and naming it alone does not offer any useful understanding.

How to overcome your biases:

• Do not discount unobserved or rare phenomena as impossible. Like discovering the existence of a black swan. Watch the outliers: “rarely” doesn’t mean “never”.
• Defer closure. Don’t fixate on a decision prematurely because you will reduce your options, perhaps to the point of eliminating the successful choice. Be comfortable with uncertainty.
• You don’t remember very well. Memory is unreliable and old memories change over time. The palest ink is better than the best memory.

5.2 Recognize Your Generational Affinity

Anything in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and a part of how the world works. Anything invented between 15-35 is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything after 35 is against the natural order of things.

The biases that drive you change over time and will be different across generations. Some folks value job stability at the expense of abuse from their boss whereas others will leave at the slightest perceived offense. We tend not to wonder why we value the things we do. They could be instilled from parents, peers, or models. You are a product of your times. You and the rest of your cohort are united by shared memories, common habits, and popular styles, as well as age and station in life at the time. Examples are:

• Risk taker vs. risk adverse
• Individualism vs. teamwork
• Stability vs. freedom
• Family vs. work

Four generational archetypes and their dominant characteristics:

• Prophet: Vision, values
• Nomad: Liberty, survival, honor
• Hero: Community, affluence
• Artist: Pluralism, expertise, due process

Archetypes produce opposing archetypes in the following generation. Nomad->X-er, Prophet->Boomer, Artist->Silent (1925) and Homeland, Hero->GI (1901-24) and millennial.

Hedge your bets by embracing diversity. This prevents being pigeonholed and falling to your biases.

5.3 Codifying Your Personality Tendencies

Myers Briggs Type Indicator:

• Extravert (E) vs. Introvert. Inward or outward orientation. E is energized by people and socializing and the introvert is territorial and need private mental and environmental space. 75% of population are E.
• Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N): How you obtain information. The sensing emphasizes practicality and facts and N are imaginative, appreciate metaphor, and are innovative. N may skip off to a new activity before the first is over. S see this as flighty and N see them as plodding. 75% are S.
• Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F). How you make decisions. T make decisions based on rules. F evaluate the personal and emotional impact in addition to the applicable rules. T’s view may seem cold blooded to most F folks. The T see F as bleeding hearts. 50:50 with more females as F.
• Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P). Decisions are closed or open-ended. Judge quickly or keep perceiving. J are uneasy until they make a decision. P are uneasy when they make a decision. 50:50.

5.4 Exposing Hardware Bugs

Lizard Logic. How to act like a lizard:

• Fight, flight, or fright. Being fully aroused immediately. Be ready to start swinging or run. If it is really bad just freeze with fear.
• Get it now. Everything is immediate and automatic. Don’t think or plan; just follow your impulses and focus on excitement. Use sports metaphors A LOT. Answer emails or surf the web instead of work.
• Be dominant. Claw and scratch to the leader of the pack so you can abuse everyone you know.
• Defend the territory. Never share info or space. Mark your territory and protect your interests. If someone does something without you, cry foul and demand to know why you weren’t included.
• If it hurts, hiss. Don’t fix the problem, spend your energy fixing the blame to someone else instead. Let everyone know it is not fair.
• Like me = good; not like me = bad. Your side is good and the other evil. Explain this to your teammates often.

Notice how long it takes you to get over your initial reaction to a perceived threat. How does your reaction change once you “think about it”?

Act on that impulse but not immediately. Plan for it; schedule it. Does it make sense later?

Write a new movie. If you’re troubled by a given film that keeps replaying in your head, sit down and craft a new one with a happy ending.

Smile. There’s evidence to suggest smiling is as effective as antidepressant medication.

5.5 Now I Don’t Know What to Think

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas-covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.” Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

Trust intuition, but verify. If you believe your way intuitively feels better, great, but make sure it isn’t a cognitive bias at play first. Get some feedback, create a prototype, run some tests, and chart some benchmarks. Do what you need to to prove your idea is good, because your intuition may be wrong.

If you are dead solid convinced of something, ask yourself why. How do you know> Says who? Compared to whom?

• How do you know?
• Says who?
• How specifically?
• How does what I’m doing cause you to…?
• Compared to what or whom?
• Does it always happen? Can you think of an exception?
• What would happen if you did (or didn’t)?
• What stops you from…?

Is there anything you can actually measure? Get hard numbers on? Any statistics? What happens when you talk this over with a colleague or someone with a very different perspective to you? Do they passively agree? Is that a danger sign? Do they violently oppose the idea? Does that give it credibility or not?

If you think you’ve defined something, try to define its opposite. This can help to avoid nominal fallacy. If all you have is a label it is hard to pin down its opposite in any detail. Contrast a behavior, an observation, a theory, etc. in detail. This gives you a deeper look at your definition with a more critical and attentive eye. Expectations color reality. This is why certain faux news channels use sensationalism.

When in conflict, consider basic personality types, generational values, your own biases, others’ biases, the context, and the environment. Examine your own position carefully.

Chapter 6: Learn Deliberately

6.1 What Learning Is…and Isn’t

The majority of all scientific information is less than 15 years old. In some areas of science, the info doubles every three years. The word learning contains unpleasant baggage, conjuring up images of youthful chalk dust torture, the mind-numbing tedium of corporate-mandated “copy machine training”, or similarly ersatz educational events. Education comes from the Latin word educare, which means “led out”, in the sense of being drawn forward. Typically we think of education as something that is done to a learner rather than what is drawn out.

• Learning isn’t something that is done to you; it’s something you do.
• Mastering knowledge alone, without experience, isn’t effective.
• A random approach, without goals and feedback, tends to give random results.

6.2 Target SMART Objectives

Specific: Narrow a goal down to something concrete.

Measurable: How do you know when you’re done? Use actual numbers. If you can’t it probably isn’t specific enough. Take small bites and measure incrementally. “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

Achievable: If something isn’t actually achievable it will feel soul-suckingly frustrating. Be reasonable and make goals based on where you are now.

Relevant: Does this really matter to you? Is it actually in your control?

Time-boxed: You need a deadline. Without one, a goal will languish and be perpetually put aside. Take small bites, give yourself frequent milestones and you’ll be motivated when you meet them.

The objectives may encompass family, business, finance, community, and environment usually.

6.3 Create a Pragmatic Investment Plan

PIP: Have a concrete plan. Be very specific in your plan; use SMART objectives and goals, and devise different levels of goals over time. For instance – Now (what’s the next action you can take), goals for next year, goals for five years out.

Diversify. Make a conscious action to diversify your attention so you don’t have all your eggs in one basket. Consider the risk vs. return ratio. Not only will the payoff be uncertain it will also affect the way you think and do things. So, anything you learn will have value; it just may not be direct, commercial, on the job value. Don’t forget that time does not equal value.

Active, not passive, investment. Always get feedback and realistically judge how things are going. You have to stop and reevaluate your portfolio. Is it performing as expected? Have things changed?

Invest regularly (Dollar-Cost Averaging). You may pay too much for stock but sometimes you get a great deal. The average should smooth out and pay-off. You need to make a commitment to invest a minimum amount of time on a regular basis. Create a ritual if needed. Plan what to do before sitting down.

6.4 Use You Primary Learning Mode

General leaning styles:

• Visual learners need to see the material – and the instructor. Pictures and graphs all work well and they will be sensitive to body language and facial expressions.
• Auditory learners have to hear the material. Lectures, seminars, and podcasts. Tone of voice, speed, and other nuances.
• Kinesthetic learners learn by moving and touching. Good for sports or arts and crafts.

Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence:

• Kinesthetic – sports, dancing, DIY projects, woodworking, etc.
• Linguistic – Verbal arguments, storytelling, reading, writing
• Logical/mathematical – Math, numbers, sciences, taxonomics, geometry
• Visual/spatial – using diagrams/plans, sketching, painting, manipulating images
• Musical – Playing music, recognizing sounds, rhythms, patterns, remembering slogans and verses
• Interpersonal – Empathetic; senses feelings, intentions, and motivations of others
• Intrapersonal – Self-reflective; works from an understanding of inner feelings, dreams, and relations with others

Everyone has combinations of these in varying amounts and some are more geared to L or R mode. However, don’t use Gardner’s categories as an excuse. They may change with experience.

Adult learners are motivated to learn to satisfy their own interest and needs, units studied should be real-life situations, analysis of the learner’s experience is the core method employed, they need self-direction, the instructor must allow for differences in style, time, place, and pace.

Study groups are legit:

• Ask for proposals. See what’s on everyone’s mind.
• Select a proposal and a leader. They don’t have to be an expert, just passionate.
• Buy books.
• Schedule lunch meetings.

6.6 Use Enhanced Learning Techniques

Better ways to deliberately read and summarize written material.

Use mind maps to explore and find patterns and relationships.

Learn by teaching.

6.7. Read Deliberately with SQ3R

Survey: Scan the table of contents and chapter summaries for an overview.

Question: Note any questions you may have.

Read: Read its entirety.

Recite: Summarize, take notes, and put into your own words.

Review: Reread, expand notes, and discuss with colleagues.

6.8 Visualize Insight with Mind Maps

Start with a largish piece of paper, write the subject title in the center of the page, and draw a circle, for each major subject subheadings, draw lines from them recurse for additional hierarchal nodes, continue.

Chapter 7: Gain Experience

Build to learn, not learn to build.

Fail efficiently with better feedback.

Groove your neural pathways for success.

7.1 Play in Order to Learn

We seem to have a cultural tendency to shovel information in and hope it is useful later. Absurd.

On your next problem, put yourself in the picture. Anthropomorphism helps leverage experience.

Explore and get used to a problem before deciding on the facts. Come back to more exploration after absorbing the formal facts. Then back.

Play, in every sense of the word.

7.2 Leverage Existing Knowledge

Problem solving with George Polya

• What are the unknown aspects?
• What do you know? What data do you have?
• What constraints and what rules apply?

Make a plan, execute it, and review the results.

• Try to think of a familiar problem having the same or similar unknowns.
• Draw a picture.
• Solve a related or simpler problem; drop some constraints or use a subset of the data.
• Were all the constraints and data used? If not, why not?
• Try restarting the problem.
• Try working backward from the unknown toward the data.

7.3 Embed Failing in Practice

A man’s errors are his portals of discovery – James Joyce, 1882-1941.

Debugging means solving problems, generally of our own making. Errors, mistakes, and oversights. “I don’t know” is a good start.

Create an exploratory environment. Make it safe to experiment. You need the following:

• Freedom to experiment. Design time with few repercussions.
• Ability to backtrack to a stable state. If things turn to shit you can go back a step and try again.
• Reproduce any work product as of any time. Can you run what you did months ago again?
• Ability to demonstrate progress. You can’t get anywhere without feedback. Did this experiment work better than the previous one? How do you know?

You are the least creative when under time pressure. Deadlines are god for L-Mode thinking but not R. There is even a time pressure hangover after the fact. It affects your creativity. Your vision narrows under pressure.

Once the pressure of failing is relieved you tend to succeed. You can be attentive, comfortable and observe.

Perception is based on prediction. Prediction is based on context and past experience, so real time input takes a back seat.

Always be the worst guy in a band, because you will improve dramatically. Surround yourself with highly skilled people. Get used to the feeling of success and you will create a groove in the mind for it. Experience using scaffolding.

Chapter 8: Manage Focus

8.1 Increase Focus and Attention

Attention Deficit. There is only so much you can pay attention to, and there are so many things competing for your attention. Beware idle-loop chatter.

Instead of saying you don’t have the time it would be better to say you don’t have the bandwidth. If you practice meditation you will have lasting concentrative effects. Vipassana is a form of relaxed awareness.

• Find a quiet spot, free from distraction or interruption.
• Sit comfortably, alert posture, with a straight back. Take a moment to release any body tension.
• Close your eyes and be aware of your breath.
• Be aware of the rhythm, the length, and quality of the inhale and exhale. Don’t try to change it, just be aware.
• Keep mind focused on breath or thoughts. Do not begin a conversation with yourself.
• You may go over the same topics. When attention wanders let thoughts go and bring the awareness back to breath.
• Even if your attention wanders, the exercise of bringing back helps.
• You can try segmented breathing. Lower belly and abdomen, the chest and ribcage, and the very upper chest and collar bones.

8.2 Defocus to Focus

Have a recipe for mental marinade. Have you tried others?

Have you criticized others for their time spent in the mental marinade? What will you do differently now?

Have you been criticized for marinating?

8.3 Manage Your Knowledge

Create an exocortex. A log of notes, drawings, and books that contain ideas that are external to your brain that can be referenced.

A personal wiki is an example of an external brain. A text based mind map. Once you start writing down your ideas you’ll start to see examples of them out in the real world. The act of externalizing it makes it open for discussion.

8.4 Optimize Your Current Context

Computers have the ability to swap context easily and naturally. We aren’t, so it is mentally expensive if something interrupts us or breaks our flow. It is called context switching.

Context switching. How much disposable attention do you have? Multitasking takes a heavy toll to productivity. It costs 20-40% of productivity. Every time you swap tasks you drop thought and reload new thought in. Switching back requires reuploading it. Each interruption might take 20min of recovery. The cocktail of stressors leads to cognitive overload. Constantly interrupting your tasks with messages and emails drops your IQ 10 points vs. marijuana which only drops 4.

Prepare for distractions. Set distraction free zones but if you know somebody will interrupt at a certain time use it as a chance to do a new task.

Use multiple monitors to avoid context switching.

Chapter 9: Beyond Expertise

Start with a plan. Block out time and fight for it. Keep track of what you’ve accomplished and review them when you feel like you haven’t done enough. A great use of the exocortex.

Inaction is the enemy, not error.

New habits take time. 3 weeks minimum.

Belief is real. Your thoughts will physically alter the wiring of your brain and your brain chemistry.

Take small, next steps. Low hanging fruit. Keep the big goal in mind but not trying to map out all the steps. Just the next one.

9.2 What to Do Tomorrow Morning

• Start taking responsibility; don’t be afraid to ask “why”? or “how do you know?” or “how do I know?” or to answer “I don’t know yet.”
• Pick two things that will help you maintain context and avoid interruption, and start doing them right away.
• Create a Pragmatic Investment Plan, and set up SMART goals.
• Figure out where you are on the novice-to-expert spectrum in your chosen profession and what you might need to progress. Be honest. Do you need more recipes or more context? More rules or more intuition?
• Practice. Having trouble with a piece of code? Write it 5 different ways.
• Plan on making more mistakes.
• Keep a notebook on you. Doodle. Mind map. Take notes. Keep thoughts loose and flowing.
• Open up your mind to aesthetics and additional sensory input.
• Start a personal wiki on things you find interesting.
• Start blogging. Comment on books you read, and read more. Use SQ3R and mind maps.
• Make thoughtful walking a part of your day.
• Start a book-reading group.
• Get a second monitor, and start using a virtual desktop.
• Go through the “next actions” for each chapter and try them.

9.3 Beyond Expertise

Once you believe in your own expertise you begin to close off your mind to possibilities. You stop acting curiously. You may resist change in your field for fear of losing authority. Your own judgement and views can imprison you.