Subject Matter 6: Thought-Action Loops
I returned from post-lecture drinks to my apartment on Thursday and immediately saw the pair of pants I had draped over a chair to dry (Thursday was laundry day). I tested the fabric; it was still quite damp. Then the following words issued from my mouth, surprising even myself:
"Would you dry? Would you just think about drying?"
I'm not one to speak to myself. This anthropomorphization of my sweatpants could only be due to my admitted tipsiness. But I was curious about my words, which came automatically, unquestioningly. In the moments following, I peered into my mental model, and broke down my expression into its assumptions. Doing so, I recognized a familiar part of my understanding of the world. In this Subject Matter I will flesh out exactly why I asked my pants to think about drying.
..
Assumption 1: Given Natural State
The first question I posed to my pants can be interpreted as both serious and rhetorical. It came from a place of surprise that the pants were not already dry, and assumed that after several hours of hanging, they should have been. In other words, my inquiry started with an observable baseline fact about the natural way of things. And, importantly, it observed that the current state of the pants conflicted with this assumed natural state.
Assumption 2: Thought Creates Change
In the subsequent phrase, I requested that my pants consider drying. Here I assume that thinking about drying will ultimately exposing that natural course for the pants would indeed be to dry, thus enabling the pants to complete the drying process. To put it in reverse, a lack of contemplation inhibits subjects from knowing their essential characteristics, making it difficult to achieve an intended course of action.
..
Thought-Action Loops
"Sensing" "feeling" Myers-Briggs type people will naturally be suspicious of this very INTJ idea of thought creating change. However, the lived experience and emotional understanding is equally important to something we might call a Thought-Action Loop. I propose that individuals who are highly self-aware and highly agentive (possessing the agency to do something) follow this pattern of behavior: a constant cycle or fluctuation between embodied action and detached contemplation. To explain this, I'll take an example from another sphere of my life.
I attend group psychotherapy on a weekly basis. There are no rules to the group per se; the only directive is to put one's thoughts and feelings into words. Of course, it's very difficult to speak candidly about one's feelings instead of speaking from them; that's kind of the point. The group creates a dialectical environment that prompts constant movement between experiential embodied speech and and impersonal description and analysis of feelings in the moment. Group therapy requires you to cycle through thought-action loops, serving as a sort of training ground for developing this way of thinking.
Unlike in my pants story, where drying is the desired outcome, there is no particular goal in group. Thought-action loops can be used in both ways, but in either case, the pattern is embodied action → interpretation → subsequent new action based on discovered realities. In this sense, it's probably more accurate to describe these as open loops, or even spirals.
..
Fast and Slow Loops
Group therapy also speeds up thought-action loops, forcing members through them several times per session. This makes group a significantly different space. Thought-action loops are actually a common part of life, but most people's cycles are very long. Typical macro-loops occur over jobs, relationships, and other scripted life events. Without regular incorporation of the thought part of the loop, emotions and experiences build up over time, making them much harder to interpret and find the underlying natural reasons. In extreme cases, trying to work through large amounts of built-up experiential kludge leads to what Venkat Rao calls crashes. The classic "mid-life crisis" is a classic example of this trope. After a particularly slow loop, working through the thought part of the cycle can be a strenuous and difficult task, especially if one isn't well-practiced. Despite the negative implications, crashes are unavoidable and ultimately positive events that complete thought-action loops. When people feel dissonance in their life—the sign of an upcoming crash—the most common reaction is to suppress and avoid the emotions involved. However, the natural and inevitable conclusion is to get back in touch with reality.
Although we've come to these ideas from different directions, Venkat and I reached the same conclusion. When faced with confusion, we both advocate accelerating into the crash instead of avoiding it. Often, I recommend that friends quit their jobs. Leaving a job or a relationship forces us into a thought-action loop in which we must learn from our experiences and realign our lives toward a desired direction as fast as possible. Luckily, one can practice this "crash early, crash often" doctrine. There are even options for busy people who don't have access to a dedicated practice environment like group psychotherapy. Journaling and mindfulness meditation are two common ways to reflect on experiences. They are loop-closing activities. For men and "thinking" "judging" types, developing a robust understanding of one's own emotions and learning to express them is key to speeding up loops.
..
As I hinted above, I think thought-action loops (or crash-only thinking, or whatever you want to call it) is key to developing self-awareness and agency. In future messages I will draw the connection between self-awareness and agency, and expand this idea by looking at some 20th century phenomenology that supports it. I'll also suggest some methods for gaining self-awareness and accelerating growth toward agency.
..
Until next time.
..
"Would you dry? Would you just think about drying?"
I'm not one to speak to myself. This anthropomorphization of my sweatpants could only be due to my admitted tipsiness. But I was curious about my words, which came automatically, unquestioningly. In the moments following, I peered into my mental model, and broke down my expression into its assumptions. Doing so, I recognized a familiar part of my understanding of the world. In this Subject Matter I will flesh out exactly why I asked my pants to think about drying.
..
Assumption 1: Given Natural State
The first question I posed to my pants can be interpreted as both serious and rhetorical. It came from a place of surprise that the pants were not already dry, and assumed that after several hours of hanging, they should have been. In other words, my inquiry started with an observable baseline fact about the natural way of things. And, importantly, it observed that the current state of the pants conflicted with this assumed natural state.
Assumption 2: Thought Creates Change
In the subsequent phrase, I requested that my pants consider drying. Here I assume that thinking about drying will ultimately exposing that natural course for the pants would indeed be to dry, thus enabling the pants to complete the drying process. To put it in reverse, a lack of contemplation inhibits subjects from knowing their essential characteristics, making it difficult to achieve an intended course of action.
..
Thought-Action Loops
"Sensing" "feeling" Myers-Briggs type people will naturally be suspicious of this very INTJ idea of thought creating change. However, the lived experience and emotional understanding is equally important to something we might call a Thought-Action Loop. I propose that individuals who are highly self-aware and highly agentive (possessing the agency to do something) follow this pattern of behavior: a constant cycle or fluctuation between embodied action and detached contemplation. To explain this, I'll take an example from another sphere of my life.
I attend group psychotherapy on a weekly basis. There are no rules to the group per se; the only directive is to put one's thoughts and feelings into words. Of course, it's very difficult to speak candidly about one's feelings instead of speaking from them; that's kind of the point. The group creates a dialectical environment that prompts constant movement between experiential embodied speech and and impersonal description and analysis of feelings in the moment. Group therapy requires you to cycle through thought-action loops, serving as a sort of training ground for developing this way of thinking.
Unlike in my pants story, where drying is the desired outcome, there is no particular goal in group. Thought-action loops can be used in both ways, but in either case, the pattern is embodied action → interpretation → subsequent new action based on discovered realities. In this sense, it's probably more accurate to describe these as open loops, or even spirals.
..
Fast and Slow Loops
Group therapy also speeds up thought-action loops, forcing members through them several times per session. This makes group a significantly different space. Thought-action loops are actually a common part of life, but most people's cycles are very long. Typical macro-loops occur over jobs, relationships, and other scripted life events. Without regular incorporation of the thought part of the loop, emotions and experiences build up over time, making them much harder to interpret and find the underlying natural reasons. In extreme cases, trying to work through large amounts of built-up experiential kludge leads to what Venkat Rao calls crashes. The classic "mid-life crisis" is a classic example of this trope. After a particularly slow loop, working through the thought part of the cycle can be a strenuous and difficult task, especially if one isn't well-practiced. Despite the negative implications, crashes are unavoidable and ultimately positive events that complete thought-action loops. When people feel dissonance in their life—the sign of an upcoming crash—the most common reaction is to suppress and avoid the emotions involved. However, the natural and inevitable conclusion is to get back in touch with reality.
Although we've come to these ideas from different directions, Venkat and I reached the same conclusion. When faced with confusion, we both advocate accelerating into the crash instead of avoiding it. Often, I recommend that friends quit their jobs. Leaving a job or a relationship forces us into a thought-action loop in which we must learn from our experiences and realign our lives toward a desired direction as fast as possible. Luckily, one can practice this "crash early, crash often" doctrine. There are even options for busy people who don't have access to a dedicated practice environment like group psychotherapy. Journaling and mindfulness meditation are two common ways to reflect on experiences. They are loop-closing activities. For men and "thinking" "judging" types, developing a robust understanding of one's own emotions and learning to express them is key to speeding up loops.
..
As I hinted above, I think thought-action loops (or crash-only thinking, or whatever you want to call it) is key to developing self-awareness and agency. In future messages I will draw the connection between self-awareness and agency, and expand this idea by looking at some 20th century phenomenology that supports it. I'll also suggest some methods for gaining self-awareness and accelerating growth toward agency.
..
Until next time.
..
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