Discussions and Repetitions

I was talking to a friend this weekend, and one observation that both of us madee in our way is how often we stop delving into a topic, teacher, etc., because we find that through little or no fault of their own, they are no longer worth the time.

Before you drag the knives out and look for places to bury the body; again, it's not their fault, it's me.

I spent over a decade in the Navy as a nuke operator. One of the biggest reasons I got out though had everything to do with this. After over ten years in, operating on three different plant designs, the job ceased to be interesting. In part I was not mature enough to take up the mantle of learning and developing leadership skills, but in a very real way, even as details of setpoints and valve numbers and specific procedures differed, there was nothing significantly, conceptually new to learn. If I'd gone to a new ship, I may have made different ports of call, but nothing would be fundamentally new, no new fields to learn - certainly not within my career path as once a nuke, you're stuck a nuke.

The observation we made was that, when you're actually smart, you'll run into people who have something new to show you. If you're smart, you'll get the point fairly quickly. You'll then see more and more examples provided by the guy. You'll wrap those in too.

Eventually you hit a point where things get repetitive enough that the time spent getting to something new is prohibitive.

There are damned few people that haven't bored me within a few years. I learned what they had to say, and more examples won't teach me more. Taleb is one that has kept my attention because, in part, even as he's addressed the same general field of decision-making, each book he's written has addressed massively different aspects of the problem. Also because the things he says seem simple until you start unpacking them. I've notices some aspects of the points he makes, but he's the one who formed a simple, relatable, and broadly applciable way to describe it.

Which brings me to why I haven't posted.

I don't want to be an "outrage of the day" blog. I also don't want to keep repeating myself by applying things I've already explained or considered to whatever catches my attention that day. The occasional reminder is still good, but I've found that within the context of the things I've considered, until I learn or do something new, or something particularly egregious comes up, you likely won't see a new post. With the additional reading I'm doing I may very well post more reviews. I may also, just to keep some new content in place, still point to articles and posts that catch my attention, with a comment or two if applicable.

Also, if I start exploring a new idea or topic - I'll still keep you updated on the Character Generator - you'll see more posts.