## Fractal Inquiry
### Fractal Inquiry
#### Metadata
* Author: [[Ryan Muller]]
* Full Title: Fractal Inquiry
* Category: #books
#### Highlights
* We'll revisit questions over time to enhance their answers with newfound information and understanding. (Location 46)
* In this case, the system worked its magic: I'd recently read the "Rethinking transfer" paper, which shed a tiny bit of light on this question about ability to learn. By making that connection and writing the insight in my own words, I've incrementally built my knowledge in a way that I'll likely be able to remember and apply to future questions. If not, I'll have several avenues to find it again, by looking at the page for the "Rethinking transfer" paper, or the pages for "ability to learn" or "transfer". (Location 276)
* Although writing good questions is the most critical part of this system, I have a hard time telling you what kind of questions may be interesting to you. You will always know best. Here are some categories that might spark something for you: WTF questions. If you see something you don't have an answer to or don't understand, make it a question. You may end up being able to satisfy that question with one web search, or it may take a long time to grow your understanding to something robust and intricate. HTF questions. If you want to do something new but don't know how yet. In other words, this may be a goal of yours but not one that you know how to achieve if you just started right now. Some starters for HTF: How long would it take to do X? What's the next step to do X? What's the best possible outcome for X? The worst possible outcome? Who can I ask about X? Why am I resisting X? Challenging your assumptions. If you encounter an uncomfortable idea, turn it into a question: "What's good about X? What's bad about X?" "What is the best argument for X?" (also known as Steelmanning) Predictions. Is your knowledge helping you better anticipate the future? You can't be sure unless you test it by making predictions. Scott Alexander's annual predictions [20] are a shining example of this. A (Location 290)
* Challenging your assumptions. If you encounter an uncomfortable idea, turn it into a question: "What's good about X? What's bad about X?" "What is the best argument for X?" (also known as Steelmanning) (Location 305)
* I was listening to a podcast with psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett where she discussed emotions. At the moment I'm not particularly interested in the psychology of emotions. However, her explanation for how emotions are made (also the name of her excellent book) is an example of conceptual learning, which is something I'm very much interested in. So rather than entering a question that doesn't excite me like "what do psychologists believe about emotions?", I found an existing question, "how does conceptual learning work?" and added this as an example. More questions is not the goal. The goal is giving rich answers to questions that build your knowledge. (Location 314)
* The labor of a bit of organizing gives the reward of backlinks. Below you can see the results on the page for [[The Cult of Smart]] (left) as well as one of the questions (right). (Location 495)
* I'm a recovering completionist: my previous system was to read every interesting article, listen to every podcast that came up on my feed, and scan every YouTube subscription for new content. This took very much time and produced very little value. With Fractal Inquiry I know that my main goal with content is to help me build knowledge. The questions that I've added will point me toward which things are worth consuming. Beyond that, I let my intuition guide me toward the content that I hope will let me ask and answer interesting new questions. I still use apps to queue up content but no longer feel the need to get through all of it. (Location 508)
* How can you fit something linear like a course (whether real life or online) into this very nonlinear system? Well these are just collections of resources and skills to learn, what we covered in the last two sections. If you're enrolled in a course where the schedule is important to your grade, treat it like Managing a project as well. If you have a textbook with exercises, and the material is somewhat familiar, then you can treat it more purely like a skill. Skim or skip the lectures and chapters and get straight to the exercises, then go back to the instructional material as needed. If there are exercises that you miss, you can add the exercise itself to Roam with an interval block. Or, if the exercise itself isn't particularly important or interesting to you, try to think about what underlying concepts you would like to know that would allow you to solve the exercise correctly. (Location 568)
# Fractal Inquiry
## Metadata
- Author: [[Ryan Muller]]
- Full Title: Fractal Inquiry
- Category: #books
## Highlights
- We'll revisit questions over time to enhance their answers with newfound information and understanding. (Location 46)
- In this case, the system worked its magic: I’d recently read the “Rethinking transfer” paper, which shed a tiny bit of light on this question about ability to learn. By making that connection and writing the insight in my own words, I’ve incrementally built my knowledge in a way that I’ll likely be able to remember and apply to future questions. If not, I’ll have several avenues to find it again, by looking at the page for the ”Rethinking transfer” paper, or the pages for “ability to learn” or “transfer”. (Location 276)
- Although writing good questions is the most critical part of this system, I have a hard time telling you what kind of questions may be interesting to you. You will always know best. Here are some categories that might spark something for you: WTF questions. If you see something you don’t have an answer to or don’t understand, make it a question. You may end up being able to satisfy that question with one web search, or it may take a long time to grow your understanding to something robust and intricate. HTF questions. If you want to do something new but don’t know how yet. In other words, this may be a goal of yours but not one that you know how to achieve if you just started right now. Some starters for HTF: How long would it take to do X? What’s the next step to do X? What’s the best possible outcome for X? The worst possible outcome? Who can I ask about X? Why am I resisting X? Challenging your assumptions. If you encounter an uncomfortable idea, turn it into a question: “What’s good about X? What’s bad about X?” “What is the best argument for X?” (also known as Steelmanning) Predictions. Is your knowledge helping you better anticipate the future? You can’t be sure unless you test it by making predictions. Scott Alexander’s annual predictions [20] are a shining example of this. A (Location 290)
- Challenging your assumptions. If you encounter an uncomfortable idea, turn it into a question: “What’s good about X? What’s bad about X?” “What is the best argument for X?” (also known as Steelmanning) (Location 305)
- I was listening to a podcast with psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett where she discussed emotions. At the moment I’m not particularly interested in the psychology of emotions. However, her explanation for how emotions are made (also the name of her excellent book) is an example of conceptual learning, which is something I’m very much interested in. So rather than entering a question that doesn’t excite me like “what do psychologists believe about emotions?”, I found an existing question, “how does conceptual learning work?” and added this as an example. More questions is not the goal. The goal is giving rich answers to questions that build your knowledge. (Location 314)
- The labor of a bit of organizing gives the reward of backlinks. Below you can see the results on the page for [[The Cult of Smart]] (left) as well as one of the questions (right). (Location 495)
- I’m a recovering completionist: my previous system was to read every interesting article, listen to every podcast that came up on my feed, and scan every YouTube subscription for new content. This took very much time and produced very little value. With Fractal Inquiry I know that my main goal with content is to help me build knowledge. The questions that I’ve added will point me toward which things are worth consuming. Beyond that, I let my intuition guide me toward the content that I hope will let me ask and answer interesting new questions. I still use apps to queue up content but no longer feel the need to get through all of it. (Location 508)
- How can you fit something linear like a course (whether real life or online) into this very nonlinear system? Well these are just collections of resources and skills to learn, what we covered in the last two sections. If you’re enrolled in a course where the schedule is important to your grade, treat it like Managing a project as well. If you have a textbook with exercises, and the material is somewhat familiar, then you can treat it more purely like a skill. Skim or skip the lectures and chapters and get straight to the exercises, then go back to the instructional material as needed. If there are exercises that you miss, you can add the exercise itself to Roam with an interval block. Or, if the exercise itself isn’t particularly important or interesting to you, try to think about what underlying concepts you would like to know that would allow you to solve the exercise correctly. (Location 568)