Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Meetups, joint projects, classifieds, dating, exchanges, buying, selling, etc.
AxelHeyst
Posts: 2117
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by AxelHeyst »

Thanks @johnsmith! :)

Episode Four: The Lifeboat Flotilla is up.
Here's the yt.

Stories help us make sense of our place in the world, and can help us think about our purpose, our mission. I think industrial civilization is a large ship on the ocean that has just struck an iceberg. Most people are scrambling about, trying to figure out how to save the ship. I no longer think the ship can be saved. I am trying to find and help the other passengers who are also diligently attempting to build a lifeboat flotilla that we can move to. The lifeboat flotilla will not have a fully stocked bar and nightly extravagant entertainments, but it will have the distinct advantage of not being at the bottom of the ocean soon.

The flotilla is why I bother rolling out of bed in the morning.

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2117
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by AxelHeyst »

Episode 005: The Wandering Engineer is up. Full text transcript at that link as well, for the readers. :D
The youtube.

How I applied the principles and strategies of episodes 1-4 to my own life, and transformed what was an idea for a webcomic into an exercise in authoring my own life. By pursuing frugality, skills, autonomy, and nonconsumer praxis, I was able to gracefully navigate a layoff and embark on a multiyear (?) hyper-lowcost round the world trip based on helping out and building skills on various ecoprojects across the world.

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2117
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by AxelHeyst »

And now for something a bit different, episode 6:
http://tylerjdisney.com/blog/2022/5/3/a-conversation-with-a-belarusian-bazookaman

YouTube link is pending... It'll either be tomorrow morning or in a month.

Arti heard I had a podcast and went "Great! I have some stuff to say. Let's record Tuesday, yeah?"

At first I thought it'd be totally off topic and not relevant... But then we had it and it's not totally off topic after all. At any rate, he's got some interesting stories.

And, good God, I say 'like' a lot when I'm not scripted. Gonna work on that.

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2117
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by AxelHeyst »

Back to the main theme: Episode 7, The Hypercompetence Loop.
The youtube.

In this episode I talk about how skill acquisition and anti-consumerism can lead to increasing levels of personal freedom in your life. But what if you don't stop once you've got your freedom? What if you just... kept developing skills? What if you use an ability to drop into stoke-fueled flow to spin up a positive feedback loop, spiraling your personal system into an advanced stage of hypercompetence? What could this mean for your life, your community, the lifeboat flotilla?

Some annoying pops because for some reason I thought it was fine to not use my popfilter. :roll:

Bicycle7
Posts: 97
Joined: Tue Jun 22, 2021 1:37 pm

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by Bicycle7 »

I really enjoyed listening to your latest episode! I'm now listening to the older ones.

I have been struggling with intrinsic and extrinsic motivation with respect to skill development. I hadn't realized how even small external drivers like praise on projects or a written goal can decrease motivation. I love being at a place where the only reward I need is doing the activity itself and this is probably the way one can be most consistent with making progress leveling up with a skill.

I am still working on rewiring myself in regards to external/internal motivation after 16 years of education and 6 plus years at a corporate job. At both I excelled at maximizing for the external rewards that were set for me- grades and pay respectively.

I certainly have intrinsic drive for some activities, some of the time- athletics, mechanics, art. I want to see how far I can go maximizing for intrinsic motivation, I see this as perhaps the low-effort way to creating the positive feedback loop you refer to.

User avatar
Slevin
Posts: 626
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2015 7:44 pm
Location: Sonoma County

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by Slevin »

I particularly liked the end of the episode, where we get in to motivation. My add-in is that the theories of motor-learning have been going in different directions recently. These theories make sure to point out they are about learning complex movements and not complex decisioning, optimal theory in particular highlights the creation of virtuous cycles using autonomy, external cueing factors, and positive feedback to increase learning potential, in case you are interested in looking into it. Quick summary from the paper:
Predictions of the OPTIMAL Theory
1. When temporally associated with skill practice, conditions that
enhance expectancies for positive outcomes trigger dopaminergic
responses and thereby benefit motor performance
2. Enhanced expectancies and autonomy support contribute to efficient
goal-action coupling by readying the motor system for task execution
3. Autonomy support facilitates performance by enhancing expectancies
4. An external focus of attention directs attention to the task goal,
enhancing goal-action coupling
5. An internal focus of attention impedes performance by directing
attention to the self
6. Movement success resulting from an external focus enhances
expectancies for future success
7. Enhanced expectancies and autonomy support facilitate motor learning
by making dopamine available for memory consolidation and neural
pathway development
8. Challenge, in the context of prevailing success, elicits a potentiating
dopaminergic response that contributes to learning beyond success or
challenge alone.
9. Higher expectancies facilitate efficient switching from the default mode
network to motor networks associated with the movement skill
10. An external attentional focus facilitates efficient switching from the
default mode network to relevant motor networks
11. An internal attentional focus impedes efficient switching from the
default mode network to motor networks associated with the
movement skill
12. Generally, conditions that optimize performance facilitate learning
Graph of OPTIMAL learning cycle
Image

Link to paper:
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/1 ... 0999-9.pdf

User avatar
Slevin
Posts: 626
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2015 7:44 pm
Location: Sonoma County

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by Slevin »

Getting into the smaller minutiae of the skill ratchet and skill acquisition, a second thing to talk about is idea the building of work capacity for a skill (the ability to do an amount of work of a certain type). When you are a complete newbie at something, you are swimming in this big sea of uncertainty. To start, you might be only able to do 1 repetition of the thing, and it won't be necessarily "good". It will feel awful and weird and not great. But if you keep practicing, you can do 1 repetition 3 times a day or something like that, then eventually 2 repetitions at one time, and so on. And so this is how you have to build your skills. It starts out with you just being able to do a little at a time, then will slowly grow with repeated practice (best way, at least with physical skills, is multiple smaller sessions per day with breaks in between).

The work capacity will then generalize a bit, and the more work capacity you have, the easier it will be to start working on other skills, and even easier if those new skills have commonalities to skills you have already been practicing. It is something like a "spillover effect".

So I would argue there is a bunch of scopes to this "hypercompetence loop". I'll try to describe from highest to lowest, where improving one of the smaller scopes will improve everything up the chain. Though really, all you can do is practice, and everything else I've written here is just bucketing for understanding meta/systemic impacts.

General Competence: -- Measure of how many skills you have developed, and to what level, and your Overall work capacity + Specific Work Capacity

Overall work capacity: -- ability to perform work of any sort, and keep at it longer with new work types

Specific Skills: -- These will all exist at a certain level, and with each comes something like "Specific Work Capacity", which is the amount of work you are able to accomplish at this one task without burning out your body and/or brain, and also a "Skill level", which is the measure of the ability to perform the work.

Skill Practice: -- This is the day to day method(s) which you use to train skills further. Notice I didn't call it "studying" because studying is generally an inactive practice like reading a book or watching a video, which may help you understand aspects of a skill (and is often necessary to help), but you progress skills by practicing them, engaging in the specific skills, and using certain learning methods to help you do this "efficiently" or "actively".

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2117
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by AxelHeyst »

Slevin - really interesting stuff, thanks for posting it. For some reason the 'thinking about skill acquisition theory' portion of my brain has been full since I posted that episode... but I'll eventually loop back on the next pass of the #skillz conversation. I think I've been taking my current framework or understanding of 'skills' and taking it for a test drive, seeing how it works with the real world and how I'm trying to arrange the rest of my WoG. Once I've got some more realworld experience I'll be ready to intake more.

...

Episode 8 is up. Here's the yt. It's a conversation with Ludwig, the host/founder of the permaculture community I was at in Scotland.

Episode 9 is in the works, back to more of the core theme/development of AR theory.

7Wannabe5
Posts: 9369
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:03 am

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Great episode! A lot of wisdom shared. Helped me clarify some of my very muddled thoughts about making scavenger walking kind of the new core of my permaculture practice, as opposed to (once again) buying some property.

His comments about self-aware self-care within the context of active community being like caring for tools was also spot on and on some level consistent with what Hanzi suggests in terms of importance of providing individuals with opportunities for therapy at higher level of organization.

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2117
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by AxelHeyst »

Episode 009 is finally up... and it's a chat with our very own @theanimal! You all don't need a blurb from me on this one.

Here's the yt link.

I'm so incredibly honored that Jack took time out of his family road trip to chat with me. I was overwhelmed trying to figure out how to even approach the last nine years of his story. I very much want to do another in the future, as I feel like we mostly touched briefly on a lot of things.


--
The audio is pretty good except in a couple spots. I did what I could to clean it up, but the short version is that I learned some lessons about getting clean audio from two people who are in two different places.

Another lesson is that it is worth it for me to fully compose and script questions. Not that all of my questions need to be scripted - following the natural flow of conversation is ideal - but my brain and my mouth have a... complicated relationship with each other. I have to translate thoughts into words, and in a 'live' situation my words can come out rambly and weird. Scripting clear and concise questions will help me ask more clear and direction questions, even if I don't refer to the script during the actual conversation. The work has been done to clarify the concepts into words.

Thanks again @theanimal. It was so cool to have an 'excuse' to do a deep dive on your story, read your entire journal, etc. I'm even more psyched now to follow your path from here.
Last edited by AxelHeyst on Thu Dec 08, 2022 8:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

You mentioned the audio - it seems noticeably quiet compared to other media played through my phone speaker. I can play other podcasts loud enough to be heard in a room w a reasonable amount of other noises but not this one. Hopefully this is helpful feedback.

jacob
Site Admin
Posts: 15906
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:38 pm
Location: USA, Zone 5b, Koppen Dfa, Elev. 620ft, Walkscore 77
Contact:

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by jacob »

AxelHeyst wrote:
Tue Dec 06, 2022 11:54 am
Episode 009 is finally up... and it's a chat with our very own @theanimal! You all don't need a blurb from me on this one.
Not on the youtubes though?

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2117
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by AxelHeyst »

Gilberto de Piento wrote:
Thu Dec 08, 2022 12:07 pm
Hopefully this is helpful feedback.
Yes, thank you! I'll figure out what I did wrong there.

@jacob incoming today. Rendering the movie file for youtube takes about 600Wh, which due to cloudy weather and some ailing batteries I had to wait to do during the day.

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

AxelHeyst wrote:
Thu Dec 08, 2022 1:46 pm
Rendering the movie file for youtube takes about 600Wh, which due to cloudy weather and some ailing batteries I had to wait to do during the day.
I'm sure it's frustrating for you but I think it's somehow really interesting that you have to wait for good conditions for your computer to be able to do the work.

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2117
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by AxelHeyst »

Heh. The other day I bought Frostpunk, a dystopian resource-management computer game. (I haven't gamed in years). My laptop runs at 150w when rendering or gaming. I lost track of time and played it into the evening... until I noticed the lights in my studio went off because my inverter low-voltage tripped. In order to play my resource-management simulation game I need to.... manage my IRL resources. :lol:

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2117
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by AxelHeyst »

jacob wrote:
Thu Dec 08, 2022 12:19 pm
Not on the youtubes though?
Here it is.

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2117
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by AxelHeyst »

Trying a new thing: monthly episodes (in addition to conversation episodes), with video. Youtube, the post with audio links.

After telling guitarplayer that video was hard and I don't do it... I decided to try to suck less at video. I'm thinking that an at-minimum once a month short video will be a basis for getting in practice, with a goal of a noticeable improvement in video quality and a decrease in effort required to produce one by next year.

Some things I see, to improve for next video:
  • Frame face on a rule of thirds intersection
  • Figure out how to DoF the background a bit
  • Shift over so the wall immediately behind me isn't the temporary junk plywood
  • Try a more contrasting background - maybe, record at night and simply have it be much darker than my face.
  • Trim my effing beard
Any other ideas?
Last edited by AxelHeyst on Fri Jan 13, 2023 2:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

mathiverse
Posts: 788
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2019 8:40 pm

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by mathiverse »

AxelHeyst wrote:
Fri Jan 13, 2023 11:41 am
Trying a new thing: monthly episodes (in addition to conversation episodes), with video. Youtube, the post with audio links.
Awesome to see another episode out, AxelHeyst! FYI, the links I quoted (EDIT:)were broken.

Here are the links.

YouTube: Done with Frugality, and my New FU Stash Rules | Podcast Episode 10

Blog post with audio links: January Monthly Post
Last edited by mathiverse on Fri Jan 13, 2023 2:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

sodatrain
Posts: 133
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2022 5:43 pm

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by sodatrain »

AxelHeyst wrote:
Tue Dec 06, 2022 11:54 am
Episode 009 is finally up... and it's a chat with our very own @theanimal! You all don't need a blurb from me on this one.
Awesome episode! I really love the content you create (blog posts and podcast) - I eagerly anticipate each new post/episode!

I'm also happy and excited that you lead me to Nate Hagans and this forum. Currently reading the ERE book for the first time and it's amazing so far. Thank you!

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2117
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Advanced Retroadaptics Podcast

Post by AxelHeyst »

@mathiverse - thanks for the catch! Links fixed.

@soda - great! One of my initiatives for this year is to operationalize a steadier tempo of episodes and posts, it's been a bit feast or famine (mostly famine) in the last few months.

Post Reply