{"id":421483,"date":"2010-03-12T13:12:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-12T17:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5587346.post-6652049196030456697"},"modified":"2010-03-12T13:55:53","modified_gmt":"2010-03-12T17:55:53","slug":"changing-habits-how-do-i-know-what-i-dont-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/421483","title":{"rendered":"Changing habits: How do I know what I don’t know?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Cognitive error: defining the possible. Accepting the rules. Failing to question. how many things in my life are like my shoelaces? How can I uncover them?<\/p>\n

It is costly to change habits. It requires cognitive work, the transition time has an efficiency cost, and there’s a risk the final result will be a regression. In the past I changed technology habits too quickly, and suffered through abandoned solutions.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there’s my shoelace tying. For forty years I unwittingly tied granny knots. Then I read a NYT essay on shoelace tying, rear view mirrors, and habits<\/a>. It wasn’t hard to change my shoe lace tying, I had only to reverse the sequence of the first knot to produce reliable square knots. From the same article I’ve changed how I set my rear view mirrors (I think I had changed back in the 90s however, and then forgot and went back to old habits!).<\/p>\n

Similarly I’ve changed how I tie up cords and cables, looping them into a figure-eight on my fingers<\/a>. That took a while to learn, but now it’s very fast and it’s made my life much neater.<\/p>\n

I used to open bananas from the top. An article suggested that the bottom worked better (allegedly chimps do it that way). I agree.<\/p>\n

In each case it never occurred that there was a better way to do things. That’s not true in the computing world. There’s a geek fetish for finding ways to work more effectively on a computer – and I frequently find and communicate lessons learned there. My Voice Memos.app post<\/a> is a recent example. In theory sites like Lifehacker and 42 folders should be a source of these kinds of ideas, but they have too much noise to be useful (no noise, no traffic – tyranny of the market).<\/p>\n

So how can I know what I don’t know? How can I identify my longstanding assumptions that are flat out wrong — like the assumption that all shoe laces came loose? How do I test my reasoning and look for unquestioned habits and assumptions?<\/p>\n

What else am I missing?<\/p><\/div>\n

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Update<\/b>: I asked Google: “How do I spot my own blind spots<\/a>?” and got:<\/div>\n
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