Insight #29: The value of theory crafting

Hello everyone and welcome back to The Book of Insights, #29: The value of theory crafting.

Before we get into it, this insight is once again based on the amazing work by dr. K over at the hg YouTube channel. Please do yourself a favour and check his stuff out. The video in particular for this one is called “Why you struggle to follow through”

• The video alone should be enough for the purposes of this book, that is to get your mind jogging so you find your own answers. However a few of you I think still see these to know my thoughts, so I shall give my interpretation of the video and I want to focus on one of the insights, the theory crafting.

• In the video, K describes an analysis of successful people who seem to be able to “just follow through” with their interests, without much external motivation. The “doers” of society, in this case two Olympic athletes.

• He goes on to tell about the four phases of becoming consistently self motivated and “good” at anything (especially things like careers or interests, hobbies).

Phase 1: Curiosity (Triggered situational interest)

• In this phase we encounter something that we like or initially peaks our interest. In his own example, breakdancing (classes).

• In this phase we don't really partake or do much regarding the thing itself. It is merely a first approach.

Phase 2: Maintained situational interest

• In this phase we continue the interest once again with little or sometimes no direct exposure or experience of the thing.

• In this phase it is very common to further the interest by research and learning, watching videos about it, reading about it, talking to people who do it. Without this consistent exposure we are likely to forget that thing that first sparked our curiosity.

A couple things to note about this phase:

• Feedback at this point is usually detrimental to the goal of getting a long term passion. For feedback to be effective we should be on phase 4.

• Negative emotions should be almost completely dismissed. There is no point in working through the negative emotion of not being able to play the guitar for the entire class if you don't know how to play the guitar. What matters is the ability to play, not the emotions regarding that.

Recommendation: If you want to get to passion, at this phase try to continue exposure, by any methods you can think of, even if they are only partially or tangentially related to the thing itself.

Phase 3: Theory crafting (Emerging individual interest)

• Here is where the magic happens and where I want to add emphasis to the importance of the steps taken in this phase.

• In this phase we go from external motivation to internal motivation. The way this happens is through theory crafting, that is to say thinking about your own way of doing things or the pros and cons of your approach. In this step we come up with ideas as to how we can make things work, what is effective and isn't, etc. We theorize.

• K uses videogames as an example and if you also play I believe it is an excellent example. Especially if you have played games with classes and a variety of play styles, there comes a point where even when away from the console or computer you are thinking, strategizing and theory crafting about your class, your choice of style and weapons, synergies and more.

• This step I believe looks kind of different depending on the interest or passion. For example in music it can show itself as asking yourself: How can I express this feeling? What chords or notes say what I want to say? What if I played this song faster, slower, with these and these changes?

• As yet another example take boxing. You might wonder, why is this stance effective? What if I change mid fight, or what if I focus on their hands instead of their face and expressions? Eventually these questions will begin to form ideas and styles. A more experienced fighter might tell you: “Try to throw your punches as fast as possible and without thinking twice. If they know it's coming your punch has already been avoided”. This idea comes as an answer to one or multiple questions. (This is an example btw I'm not a fighter, but you get the point)

• Through these almost mental workouts we change the interest from something external, that happens out there, to something that is ours, shows some part of our reasoning or thinking. This is what makes the motivation internal.

• This is a process and I believe the key is not on the theories themselves but on the path to proving them, wether right or wrong. In this exact mental state we are internally motivated to find out the answer, so it stops being about wether we win or not, wether we can play for the class or wether we can sell our paintings. It is about mentally mapping our way and discovering what that is.

Phase 4: Well developed personal interest

• This is the phase we usually compare ourselves to. In this phase the person has and continues to demonstrate a sustained interest and motivation on the thing, is highly knowledgeable and experienced.

• Here we also start appreciating the theories of others and the information that other people have found about the interest. We can mix and match with our own, and before this point external info (especially very deep and technical info) can even be detrimental.

That is the short and sweet of the video. Again at least for me the most important insight is that of theory crafting, for it is the answer to the questions “how do I motivate myself to practice this? How can other people work so much for their interests? Why do I endlessly learn or watch content about something instead of doing it myself and getting good myself?”

I hope this insight helps you develop those curiosities of yours into passions. Remember to ask yourself, “how do I want to approach this? Why? What are the pros and cons? What have I learned from all the content I've watched and how can I implement it? And then, go and get your own answers.

As a final note, I want you to re read the first point. It seems I set the right goal for this book, huh?

Until next time! (Hopefully not as long a wait as last time, sorry btw)