Daylen's Instinctual Dump

[daylen]

Website update: Index and CSS pages are coming along. All the categories and subcategories are contained in a 2-layered grid. Working on the articles for each subcategory. This will take a while given there are 9 categories and 62 subcategories total. The high number of concepts being used here is purposeful to insure a fairly high conceptual resolution. Overlap is to be expected yet still kept to a reasonable minimum. Each article will for the most part be linear with line-breaks to separate different approaches and images scattered throughout. Bigato has been kind enough to help introduce me to the art of programming and review my code from time to time. The site is being hosted on github pages for now. I am calling it "Cognition Grid" due to the format and non-linear methodology.

https://daylenjbonner.github.io/cognition-grid/

Note: I added four new sub-categories to Structs since the last commit ( extroversion, introversion, perception, judgement).

[daylen]

I thought of an interesting sub-categorical approach for Levels and Syncs with micro, meso, and macro delineated by two well-defined methods or systems. For Levels, the methods are chemical and social, and for Syncs, the systems are organizations and cities. These will all be interpreted in the context of cognition or patterns of thought/behavior from many different angles.

[daylen]

Okay, just made a new commit that required an extensive amount of bash and vim commands. There must be a slightly more efficient way to do this, and I will figure it out next time(*). For now, I established studs (blank pages with sub-category specific head data) for the second-layer of the site with links from the index.

Good thing I have hand exercise equipment.

(*) For instance, there must be a way to pipe cat output to multiple files at once without using a script.. will probably do some research tonight.

[daylen]

Fixed site for mobile, changed fonts, changed spacing, reduced code complexity, and now working on content for functions. This site will likely be very simple without any JS. It will just serve as a basic reference site and addition to my portfolio. I will probably start another project before too long that provides a testing service or even an interface for creating tests so that users can do the work for me (with voting and stuff). This would be a good way for me to work on JS skills and get a web development job. May also make a simple personal site can serves as a hub for my projects and as a resume.

[daylen]

The site now has bare-bones entries on all the functions. I also updated site link to all lower case letters and that is reflected in link provided above. These sections will be fleshed out overtime as I recall distinctions and make new observations. Will likely focus on axes next.

Also reduced sizes of elements to better support mobile (hopefully).

[daylen]

This is a bit random but provides interesting case study for the development of Ni tests. Example of ESFJ reviewing a House MD episode and demonstrating PoLR Ni. There are two other episodes as well. House is INTJ which is particularly great for this because of switched dominate and PoLR functions. In the previous episodes the ESFJ projected his Fe onto house.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7CIVZNn3Fg

I study all kinds of people studying people. I wonder how I can study people studying people studying people.

[daylen]

Working on cognitiongrid slowly but surely. This is a very long-term project mainly just to document the development of a descriptive model. I do not want/need to rush this. In the meantime, looking into other angles of approach to learn programming in general.

Todo
Read code
- website sources
- Linux
- Minecraft mods (just went down this rabbit hole.. much better game with mods)

Write code
- personal site
- awk scripts
- Go back-end tutorial
- possibly a simple personality survey site (may not even need JS)
- possibly continue on doing ProjectEuler problems (currently at 15 or so)
.. looking for small, server side projects to get my feet wet

Research
- server types and history
- server technologies
- Minecraft server functionality
- awk
- Go
- Reactjs
- databases
- quality assurance
- networking and security

[sid3]

Have you seen the minecraft servers that are like runescape? I have considered checking them out, Minescape looks pretty good.

[daylen]

@sid I have not, but I am curious. The number of mods for minecraft is absolutely absurd. There is one for LoTR and another that makes it into a space game. It can be sandbox, RPG, multiplayer, FPS, VR, or a mixture of all the above.

[sid3]

I know what I'm doing over spring break lol

[daylen]

OptiFine + shaders improves graphics and performance significantly. Also, 1.12.2 has the largest variety of available mods (13,14,15 just add ocean, village, and bee content).

[sid3]

Thanks for the tips! I will let my sister know too, its her game after all.

[daylen]

BSD is winning me over. I will probably just go for it and replace my windows+linux desktop dual boot with FreeBSD. All the games I tend to play are available for *nix anyway. Installed OpenBSD on my old thinkpad that has been collecting dust in a bin of old/broken electronics. I would perhaps use OpenBSD on desktop, but I am looking for speed and features to play with. On the thinkpad I didn't even need to install additional packages and just switched the window manager to cwm with slight color configuration. Learned how to setup wifi with hostname files so that was cool.

I seem to lean towards dynamic window managers on laptops and stacking for desktops. Otherwise I just spend too much time tweaking small details on the desktop or looking for greener grass elsewhere and it hurts my productivity. Xfce or openbox suffices for now. Will probably look into undergoing this transition monday since this weekend my mom and I are playing minecraft in our highly modded world.

Didn't really need to prepare for anything. I already had buckets of beans, lentils, and flax seeds; several cans of tomatoes and green beans; bulk toilet paper and some other household items. For entertainment I have a few computers, the internet, an arduino kit, about 200 books, exercise equipment, paper, and a curious mind. Then I also shadow this forum called 'ERE' with a bunch of paranoid NTJ's.

[daylen]

@bigato I probably could have guessed that. With st and surf? Firefox is slow on openbsd and youtube is unusable. How do you overcome this?

[daylen]

T420 but never mind, I just tested it and it works fine. Before I tested in a virtual machine and only allocated 2GB of RAM so it clearly hit a memory ceiling. This is good news since I may be able to use it on desktop. First I will test minecraft performance.

[daylen]

Been in extreme introvert mode where I partially integrate Ti-Si-Ni-Fi and allocate minimal attention to the extroverted functions. A pandemic is the perfect time for this!

I have a more refined vision now. Time to get back into web development/design and writing.

[daylen]

Motivated by 7w5's recent journal post, here is what I have been reading and contemplating during lock-down:

1. Map and Territory by Eliezer Yudkowsky: Highly recommended for understanding the communication gap between experts and laymen. The theme is treating rationality as an art form improved through rigorous training akin to a martial art. Would pair well with Probability Theory: The Logic of Science by Edwin Jaynes.

Here is a relevant passage: "Oh, and you'd better not drop any hints that you think you're working a dozen inferential steps away from what the audience knows, or that you think you have special background knowledge not available to them. The audience doesn't know anything about an evolutionary-psychological argument for a cognitive bias to underestimate inferential distances leading to traffic jams in communication. They'll just think you're condescending."

2. Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber: Basically a more rigorous origin story for how economies emerged. Proposes an alternative to barter as the origin of currency. Highlights the importance of tribal structure and inter-tribal tribute. Within tribes, communal structure was pervasive with little evidence of bartering. This makes much more sense to me based on my intuition of human evolution. Currency could possibly have emerged in chiefdoms where Dunbar's number would have been surpassed.

3, 4. The Origins of Political Order and Political Order and Political Decay by Francis Fukuyama: Within the same theme as Debt above touching on the emergence of social institutions and how they are subject to adaptive pressures.

5. The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker: I think this guy goes a bit too far at times with brain-equality, but I do get why he does it (to counter differential group selection narratives in favor of individualism). It is almost a requirement, if you are (or want to become) a popular scientist, to ignore personality, intelligence, sex differences, and so forth. For most people, believing that genetic variation is null relative to cultural variation is an okay narrative but it still leads to people being in over their heads.

Steven Pinker is at the forefront of psycho-linguistics. This is a very interesting area and explains a lot about why humans are different from other species. Languages seem diverse, but they all follow a set of very predicable rules (universal grammar). This book looks deeper into this. Pairs well with On Language by Chomsky.

6. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn: This is a classic that I have known about but never got around to reading it. Proposes a non-linear structure of scientific development and popularized the idea of a paradigm.

7. The Evolving Self by Robert Kegan: I skipped this a while back and read In Over Our Heads. This book adds a bit more substance and background to the latter. I see now a bit better Jacob's point on how his model is primarily aimed at social interaction which makes it a bit biased towards extroverts. I came up with a basic symmetrical model that mirrors into the introverted dimension.

inter-individual <- institutional <- interpersonal <- imperial <- impulsive <- incorporative -> intuitive -> independent -> imitative -> initiative -> inter-formal

So, they both start at incorporative with the extroverted progression on the left and the introverted progression to the right. Very much intended to fit square pegs in round holes by retaining the in-/im- pattern.

This book meshes well with Fukuyama's work above to help define a system of cultural evolution. I developed some rough analogies between genetic and cultural evolution (I am sure others have too): Gene -- Meme, Sex -- Communication, Organism -- Agent, Lineage -- Accent, Species -- Language, Ecosystem -- Institution, and Biome -- State.. or something like that.

8. Reread Angels Fear by Bateson: Very interesting book.

9. The Power of Babel by John McWhorter: Basically "a natural history of language" that explains the consequences of human aggregation on language diversity. Touches on various evolutionary trends such as erosion and grammaticalization. The few surviving languages co-evolved with writing which slows evolution and persists more reliably across generations.

10, 11. The Unfolding of Language and Through the Language Glass by Guy Deutscher: The first is along the same lines as above, but I find it slightly more annoying to read. The second book is at odds with Pinker's book above as it attempts to make the case that different languages alter your perception differently. There seems to be very little evidence of this. For one, it is hard to measure perception. Secondly, convincing people with argumentation is very difficult with an inference gap of one or greater (touched on in Map and Territory above). Speaking a language allows you to engage in tribal communication but the particular grammar of it has very little affect on your personality/perception/judgement in my estimate.

12. Please Understand Me 2 by David Keirsey: Reiterated the types and strengthened my intuition on the temperaments. The temperaments are a good place to start with personality noobs.

Looking forward to getting this book Wednesday: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089278TWR ..which just came out from Michael Pierce. He is a fairly smart INFJ who makes YouTube videos on the cognitive functions and types.

13, 14. American Nations and American Character by Colin Woodard: The first was interesting. I have not been hooked into the second one, yet. Looks a bit more ideological which can be good or bad.

15 - 25. Partially reading over a dozen textbooks primarily on biology. Driven to link genetics to the emergence of social institutions. This is a big leap!

26 - 35. Partially reading books, manuals, or websites on computer science and programming. Technical and dry stuff that I am looking to leverage into web development and graphics design.

So, how do I broaden the knowledge of as many fourth-order thinkers as possible by implanting a meme-complex into their minds using the internet while it still stands? By mixing art, history, and science into a irresistible collage that defies all preconceived boundaries of thought, I suppose.

EDIT: Fixed extroverted-introverted chain. Missed a step and the alignment was off.

[7Wannabe5]

Nice stack.

I’ve read Kuhn and other books by Pinker. I started Kegan, but put him aside. “Debt” is already on my list. I will add Yudkowsky and Fukuyama.

I also have some difficulty reading non-fiction that doesn’t speak to whatever big question is niggling me. For instance, I am trying to read about infectious diseases because it is important, but I am still more compelled towards reading about innovation.

Have you read “The Mathematical Theory of Communication” by Claude Shannon? I am attempting it again. I think it might be helpful to your quest, because related to cost of communication of the meme.

[daylen]

I have skimmed it, but I should probably read it for good measure and quotation purposes (same reasons I read "The Origin of Species"). For information theory, I have been referencing "The Elements of Information Theory" by Cover and Thomas which ties Shannon's work to several application areas including portfolio theory. Revisiting info theory now is an excellent idea, though. It could lead me to an estimate of the evolutionary cost associated with the development of a complex vocal system (may relate to elongated necks?). I could also evaluate the relationship between early tribal communication and robust coding processes.

Does your son nerd out on this kind of stuff due to his interest in linguistics?

[7Wannabe5]

Yes. I think my son read Pinker when he was 12. He also reads a lot of classical history.