Ask First

post by intellectronica · 2023-04-02T10:45:13.289Z · LW · GW · 1 comments

This is a link post for https://intellectronica.net/ask-first/

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This is somewhat abstract, but it's crucial to remember in the pursuit of knowledge. It's not about what we want to know, but rather about asking questions first and then determining what is truly interesting.

For most people, knowledge acquisition begins with being told what to learn, whether it's in school or college. This works for bootstrapping us with some basic facts, but most interesting and useful knowledge comes from exploring topics beyond a set curriculum.

Many people assume that the process of acquiring new knowledge follows these steps:

1. Determine what you want to know
2. Ask questions about the desired topic (searching the internet, reading books, consulting experts, etc.)
3. Receive answers, which leads to knowledge acquisition
4. Repeat the process with new areas of interest

However, this approach is completely wrong.

Our world contains an infinite number of unknowns, and it's impossible to know in advance what will be interesting or useful. If we adhere to this process, we risk spending our lives in ignorance, confined to a narrow scope of knowledge.

An effective method for acquiring interesting knowledge is:

1. Ask questions
2. Get answers
3. Determine which aspects are interesting
4. Repeat by finding new questions to ask

This has practical implications. We should actively seek out new and unexpected questions to ask. How to do that is somewhat of a mystery. If nothing else is available, rolling the dice is a good start.

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