Have you heard of Goodhart’s Law? If not, I have come to believe it is a crucial piece in understanding why complex systems in which intelligent agents adapt their behavior can easily deteriorate over time: If agents are rewarded for optimizing a proxy, and they have limited resources to spend on improving their condition across… Continue reading The Goodhart-Sinclair Trap
Category: Life
The Terror of Suspicion
The other day, I watched Jordan Peterson having a conversation with Michael Malice, the author of “Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il“. I really recommend watching the video. One core aspect that Michael talks about is people eliminating their own freedom through self-censorship. They choose conformity, become small and unobtrusive, and hide… Continue reading The Terror of Suspicion
Wanting, Liking, and Loving
The other day, I was on a weekly call with three other people I am taking an online course with. Going through this experience together, I sense that we have become really good friends. I expressed to them my anxiety about everything that could go wrong with the apartment my husband and I are about… Continue reading Wanting, Liking, and Loving
The Truth in The Expanse
Over the past five weeks, I took part in a series of calls under the heading of “Warm Data Labs“. The participants, broken out into groups of 3 or 4 people at a time and shuffled three times per call, were asked to answer open ended questions such as: “how are you tending to …?”,… Continue reading The Truth in The Expanse
Reciprocal Openings
Earlier this week, I took part in an empathy circle practice organized by Rebel Wisdom together with Edwin Rutsch and a group of facilitators. I was part of a group of five people, and after we engaged in this practice, we all reported on the effect this had: each of us, in different words, experienced… Continue reading Reciprocal Openings
Free-Energy in NVC
This post is a follow-up to my previous post, “Words as Windows or Walls“. I feel intuitively drawn to more deeply explore the connection between Nonviolent Communication—NVC for the remainder of this post, which is a process I learned about, together with some of the concepts described by it—and one particular way of describing (human)… Continue reading Free-Energy in NVC
Words as Windows or Walls
The title of this post comes from a song that I learned about while listening to Marshall Rosenberg’s 9-CD Nonviolent Communication training. The song is called “Words are Windows, or they are Walls”. He sings it after relating an anecdote about nuns in a convent: they were stuck on the question of whether or not… Continue reading Words as Windows or Walls
Individual vs. Collective Value
Yesterday, I was listening to a panel discussion on academic freedom. Close to an end, I noticed a conflict arising in me: many practical situations require that I seek and find value or utility in the connection to other humans—anyone who has ever networked to get anything done can attest to that. If you know… Continue reading Individual vs. Collective Value