{"id":10487,"date":"2017-03-25T18:44:14","date_gmt":"2017-03-25T18:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/?p=10487"},"modified":"2019-04-15T10:58:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T10:58:24","slug":"0657-0658-principles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/","title":{"rendered":"0657 + 0658 \u2013 identify your principles by examining your behavior patterns"},"content":{"rendered":"

What are my principles?<\/p>\n

A bunch of my colleagues were chatting about our company values and it was an interesting discussion \u2013 some of us have been around since before we sat down to articulate them, and others have joined later on and encountered them as though they were always there. It was interesting to talk about why we came up with them in the first place, and how we were hesitant to codify them at the start, and how they\u2019ve since actually been useful in running the company because they help us evaluate decisions that have been made and so on.<\/p>\n

(The important thing to making this work is to be able to evaluate past decisions according to the stated values, celebrate good examples, and evaluate bad examples.<\/strong> A company\u2019s values are not what it says they are, but what it prioritizes, what it rewards. There is utility in having your actual values and stated values be aligned. If they are misaligned, then there are costs. There\u2019s the minor cost of carrying around a bunch of meaningless phrases that don\u2019t mean anything, and the more major cost of everyone now doubting the truth-value of everything else that is said in the organization.)<\/p>\n

Which brings me to thinking about my own personal values and principles. I prefer the word \u2018principles\u2019 to \u2018values\u2019, because the latter is quite a loaded phrase with all these moral implications. Principles is an easier term to work with. They\u2019re the fundamental, axiomatic assumptions we make about how to do things. Ask me what my values are, and honestly I have no idea where to begin.<\/strong> I\u2019ll probably make something up based on whatever is recent in my memory. Ask me what my principles are, and I think my mind is naturally led to more rigorous territory. But still not nearly as rigorous as I think I\u2019d like.<\/p>\n

Everybody has principles whether they realise them or not, whether they articulate them or not.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cI have no principles\u201d is still a system \u2013 you’ll still almost always have more things to do than you can actually get done, so you\u2019re always going to have to be making trade-offs. You might just not be aware that you\u2019re making these trade-offs, maybe because you\u2019re attending to whatever is most urgent, whatever is noisiest or scariest, or whatever is most fun or easy. Or maybe (this is highly improbable, in my opinion) you\u2019re Truly Random about how you prioritise things.<\/p>\n

If you examine a history of behaviour \u2013 whether a person\u2019s behaviour, or an organization\u2019s \u2013 you will almost definitely find patterns.<\/strong> (Your pattern-recognition system itself is likely biased, because humans are wired to recognise patterns even when they aren\u2019t there, so you have to be self-reflexive and consider whether the patterns you observe are actually there, or cherry-picked, or imagined.) But you will almost definitely find real patterns, because it\u2019s staggeringly difficult for any person or group of persons to be truly random. People are creatures of habit. Think of any old friend that you have, and how you may have had the same conversation with them dozens of times. Think of your own set of internal thoughts. Most people (myself included) have a surprisingly small number of thoughts. There\u2019s a great quote by Christopher Alexander about how \u201cIf I consider my life honestly, I see that it is governed by a certain very small number of patterns of events which I take part in over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most people can reduce their lives into a surprisingly small number of little patterns.<\/strong> If you examine these patterns of events and behaviours, you should be able to identify trade-offs that are made repeatedly. These repeated tradeoffs are indicative of preferences, or principles. Now, the phrase \u2018preference\u2019 is a bit loaded. There are people who repeatedly do things that they say they hate. And they look like they\u2019re suffering, like it\u2019s very unpleasant, and they seem really tired, guilty, ashamed, all of those things. But if they do it over and over again, then they have a \u2018preference\u2019 for it. It could be that they are not aware of other options, or that they don\u2019t believe that other options exist, or if they do exist, they seem impossible, or if they seem possible, it still seems too difficult or complicated. For example, for a long time I had an aversion to the kitchen<\/a>. The kitchen was an \u2018ugh field\u2019 for me. If my wife was in the kitchen, and she called to me to help her, I would literally ignore her, or say something like \u201cyup, coming\u201d and then not move. You could say that I had a preference for not-cooking. An aversion to cooking. Or I preferred eating takeout, which is typically unhealthier.<\/p>\n

As I write this, it occurs to me that language makes this a little more complicated than it has to be. Language is very loaded with meaning that isn\u2019t always intended. I just spent a seemingly unnecessary amount of time trying to work around the word \u2018preference\u2019. But really all I\u2019m trying to say is\u2026 when it comes to patterns of behaviour, people do behave in startlingly mechanical ways.<\/strong> I mean\u2026 animals can be incredibly mechanic. One of the things that often blows my mind is seeing my cats groom themselves aggressively after being startled. It\u2019s self-soothing behaviour. Humans do the same thing too, with junk food or internet distractions and notifications and whatnot. I remember reading a passage in Lives of a Cell where Lewis Thomas described how some insect would perform some act with mathematical precision \u2013 and if you moved the object, it would then repeat the action indefinitely for as long as you could be bothered to do it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m now thinking of something else, about how humans are blessed and cursed with fuzzy minds and fuzzy thoughts \u2013 evolutionary \u2018mistakes\u2019 that turned out to have some seeming biological advantage. (This is still yet to be seen, we may destroy ourselves yet. Or we may spread life beyond Earth. Which, in turn, is not obviously a good thing either. We\u2019ll see. Or not.) The point is \u2013 pre-humans are incredibly mechanical and methodical and precise. This leads to moths burning themselves in flames. Humans like to flatter ourselves by thinking that we\u2019re better than that. But we all get drawn to flames of our own. We systematically fall into traps designed to exploit our biases \u2013 fake news, clickbait, boobs on video thumbnails, cute cats\u2026 they\u2019re all the same sort of thing.<\/p>\n

We might differ on some finer points about determinism and free will, and about precisely how mechanical or predictable humans are. I think humans have the capacity to surprise themselves and each other, and that\u2019s where art and laughter comes from. But these surprises often tend to be rather \u2018localised\u2019, or discrete. Sometimes if we\u2019re lucky, it inspires or challenges a person to make a big change to their lives and to then restructure themselves to contribute to humanity in some cool way. But most of the time I think most people tend to be quite comfortably circling around a simple-ish life that they find fulfilling<\/a>. Not that simple is bad or anything, just that people are different.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m having an unusual amount of trouble sticking to the matter at hand in this vomit here, lol.<\/p>\n

Where I think we can find common ground is this: people are instinctively familiarity seeking, routine-seeking.<\/strong> I remember when I was a teenager there were some who liked to put on this persona of \u201coh I\u2019m so random haha\u201d, which was never quite as random as they\u2019d have liked to think<\/a>. There\u2019s a predictability to \u2018i\u2019m so random\u2019 randomness \u2013 for some it\u2019s quirky stuff, for some its gore, for some it\u2019s sex, whatever \u2013 it\u2019s about looking for things that are tangential or taboo, and people actually have almost depressingly few things to choose from.<\/p>\n

I mean, it\u2019s just challenging to be creative in general. Complete gibberish doesn\u2019t mean anything. So you have to pick something that\u2019s different in the right amounts, in the right way. I think \/r\/askreddit is quite a good place to hang out on to get a sense of people\u2019s originality and predictability. Music and fashion changes, but in a sort of cyclic, I refute my predecessor way. Yeah, let\u2019s talk about music. What was the last really original piece of music to come around? What was the last really novel pop song? Everything is a remix. People fundamentally want the same things. Creativity works within some anthropocentric constraints.<\/p>\n

Right? Okay.<\/p>\n

So I think I\u2019ve established that people are generally quite predictable most of the time, generally want the same things, generally fear and avoid the same things, and so on. Most people don\u2019t change that drastically (although we\u2019re all one hard, well-placed knock to the head away from becoming a completely different person). Some people change\u2026 and come to think of it I\u2019d really like to read a study that really dug deep into people who\u2019ve changed dramatically. I think Charles Duhigg referenced something like that in Power of Habit.<\/p>\n

But what I\u2019m getting at with all of this is\u2026 if people have patterns of behaviour, then those patterns of behaviour reveal their principles.<\/strong> If you\u2019re a striving sort of person, there\u2019s almost definitely a gap between your desired principles and your revealed principles. This is definitely the case for me. I was \u2018hoping’ to be asleep at midnight, and it\u2019s now 230am. So what does this mean? Am I not really serious about wanting to sleep early? In this case I let myself frame it as \u201coh, I want to write, too. I want to publish 3 word vomits a day. And I\u2019d rather sleep late than not publish.\u201d Is this always true? Not always. This is just the second day that I\u2019m making sure to publish 3 vomits in a day. Can I continue to keep the chain going? If so, then I can say that \u201cmy highest known, articulated principle is that I should publish 3 vomits every day. My 2nd strongest principle would be that I should sleep early.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do I achieve both? Wanting to publish 3,000 words a day and sleep before midnight sounds like a very achievable thing to me. So what\u2019s stopping me? I\u2019m starting too late. Why don\u2019t I start earlier? And I\u2019m working with distractions. A friend had texted me and I was enjoying myself texting back. So the question I have to ask myself is \u2013 is it acceptable to me to allow my friends\u2019 texting me to interrupt my writing, which then interrupts my sleep? It\u2019s okay if the answer is yes, but then I need to know why exactly that is okay.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So this is where we get to an interesting place. I get to decide now what is okay and what is not. And I\u2019m tempted to argue in defence of my immediate past behaviour, so I don\u2019t feel like I\u201dm betraying myself. I could rationalise it as \u201cwell, it was an interesting conversation, and interesting conversations are a part of being a good writer\u201d. It would be true. But I don\u2019t like this. The 3rd principle doesn\u2019t fit with the other two. Sleeping early leads to improved overall cognition and well being. Writing every day makes me a better writer. If I anticipated having a conversation at night, I should have gotten my writing done out of the way. Perhaps it would be prudent then to get my writing done first thing in the morning every day, so that I can then go about the rest of my day without worrying about whether or not something interesting is going to crop up and put me in a mess.<\/p>\n

That makes sense, right? Makes sense to me. So. Sleep early. Write 3 word vomits first thing in the morning. Let\u2019s try that tomorrow. Time for bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What are my principles? A bunch of my colleagues were chatting about our company values and it was an interesting discussion \u2013 some of us have been around since before we sat down to articulate them, and others have joined later on and encountered them as though they were always… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[348],"class_list":["post-10487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-word-vomit","tag-identify"],"yoast_head":"\n0657 + 0658 \u2013 identify your principles by examining your behavior patterns - 1,000,000 words by @visakanv<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"0657 + 0658 \u2013 identify your principles by examining your behavior patterns - 1,000,000 words by @visakanv\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What are my principles? A bunch of my colleagues were chatting about our company values and it was an interesting discussion \u2013 some of us have been around since before we sat down to articulate them, and others have joined later on and encountered them as though they were always…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"1,000,000 words by @visakanv\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-25T18:44:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-15T10:58:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"visakanv\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"visakanv\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"visakanv\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/#\/schema\/person\/00fa55864dce66e27bca9ff58fc30290\"},\"headline\":\"0657 + 0658 \u2013 identify your principles by examining your behavior patterns\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-25T18:44:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-15T10:58:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/\"},\"wordCount\":2049,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"identify\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Word Vomit\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/\",\"name\":\"0657 + 0658 \u2013 identify your principles by examining your behavior patterns - 1,000,000 words by @visakanv\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-25T18:44:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-15T10:58:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/#\/schema\/person\/00fa55864dce66e27bca9ff58fc30290\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"0657 + 0658 \u2013 identify your principles by examining your behavior patterns\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/\",\"name\":\"1,000,000 words by @visakanv\",\"description\":\"1,000 word vomits of 1,000 words each.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/#\/schema\/person\/00fa55864dce66e27bca9ff58fc30290\",\"name\":\"visakanv\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eb0258044c14d754c4ec19351286486b5cb4b0dbed3927a8e318a3da693d7ea3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eb0258044c14d754c4ec19351286486b5cb4b0dbed3927a8e318a3da693d7ea3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eb0258044c14d754c4ec19351286486b5cb4b0dbed3927a8e318a3da693d7ea3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"visakanv\"},\"description\":\"@visakanv\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/visakanv.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/author\/visakanv\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"0657 + 0658 \u2013 identify your principles by examining your behavior patterns - 1,000,000 words by @visakanv","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"0657 + 0658 \u2013 identify your principles by examining your behavior patterns - 1,000,000 words by @visakanv","og_description":"What are my principles? A bunch of my colleagues were chatting about our company values and it was an interesting discussion \u2013 some of us have been around since before we sat down to articulate them, and others have joined later on and encountered them as though they were always…","og_url":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/","og_site_name":"1,000,000 words by @visakanv","article_published_time":"2017-03-25T18:44:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-04-15T10:58:24+00:00","author":"visakanv","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"visakanv","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/"},"author":{"name":"visakanv","@id":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/#\/schema\/person\/00fa55864dce66e27bca9ff58fc30290"},"headline":"0657 + 0658 \u2013 identify your principles by examining your behavior patterns","datePublished":"2017-03-25T18:44:14+00:00","dateModified":"2019-04-15T10:58:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/"},"wordCount":2049,"commentCount":0,"keywords":["identify"],"articleSection":["Word Vomit"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/","url":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/","name":"0657 + 0658 \u2013 identify your principles by examining your behavior patterns - 1,000,000 words by @visakanv","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-03-25T18:44:14+00:00","dateModified":"2019-04-15T10:58:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/#\/schema\/person\/00fa55864dce66e27bca9ff58fc30290"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0657-0658-principles\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"0657 + 0658 \u2013 identify your principles by examining your behavior patterns"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/#website","url":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/","name":"1,000,000 words by @visakanv","description":"1,000 word vomits of 1,000 words each.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/#\/schema\/person\/00fa55864dce66e27bca9ff58fc30290","name":"visakanv","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eb0258044c14d754c4ec19351286486b5cb4b0dbed3927a8e318a3da693d7ea3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eb0258044c14d754c4ec19351286486b5cb4b0dbed3927a8e318a3da693d7ea3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eb0258044c14d754c4ec19351286486b5cb4b0dbed3927a8e318a3da693d7ea3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"visakanv"},"description":"@visakanv","sameAs":["http:\/\/visakanv.com"],"url":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/author\/visakanv\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10487"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11098,"href":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10487\/revisions\/11098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}