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there’s a learning failure i’ll term “micro/macro confusion” where the micro is constantly mined for information when it’s actually the macro level that contains the real “secret”

it’s the equivalent of watching individual hands of poker to try and figure out how to bet or bluff. the information doesn’t accumulate into anything more than noise without a coherent model to hang the information off of

e.g. when watching a professional sports athlete, it’s very difficult to point at why someone is better. fame is basically used as a proxy. any specific movement likely has someone else who is just as good or better

vacations are also a good example. someone who travel credit card hacks and collects photos in front of every famous landmark over optimizes the micro and misses the point of travel

but b/c the micro is measurable and that measurement can be improved, it creates a sensation of progress. “i started only being able to meditate 10 minutes but now i can do it for 25 hours a day!”

hyper micro optimization allows you to display a signal that only elites can display but is bottlenecked by everything else that isn’t upgraded e.g. if your car has professional level acceleration and velocity but low level of braking power it’s not safe outside drag strips

if you have a fancy 8k camera but no knowledge of lighting or audio, the only domain where you can “fake it” is outdoors background music travel video or w/e