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backus's profile
John Backus
John Backus
John Backus
@backus

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John Backus

@backus

Seeking alternative compression. Hopefully wrong on average. Shameless. Started @getcognito and @bloom

San Francisco, CA
Joined August 2012

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    John Backus‏ @backus May 13

    Deliberately trying to improve yourself traps you in a local maximumpic.twitter.com/piR6aCwgCK

    5:19 PM - 13 May 2018
    • 26 Retweets
    • 127 Likes
    • David Dohan Andrew Gourder Kostas Christidis Brian Zindler Tequehead Siva Emanuel Ferm Tina Zheng Oli
    9 replies 26 retweets 127 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Andrew Gourder‏ @covrter May 13
        Replying to @backus

        Love this. Source?

        1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      3. John Backus‏ @backus May 13
        Replying to @covrter

        "Be Slightly Evil" by @vgr I think it is only available via ebook: http://a.co/20PEB6n 

        0 replies 1 retweet 8 likes
      4. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. David Fallarme‏ @davelocity May 14
        Replying to @backus

        Great point. but hmm, I think I'd rather be on team "deliberate improvement" than team "fuck it and let's see what happens"... in aggregate, seems like the former approach will have higher expected value

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      3. John Backus‏ @backus May 14
        Replying to @davelocity

        Maybe! Here is the whole essay if you want more contextpic.twitter.com/egASUL7ITa

        0 replies 1 retweet 8 likes
      4. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Richard Burton‏ @ricburton May 13
        Replying to @backus

        Is that a polite way of saying: Burners never change their habits? Buidling and BJJ have forced me to face reality more than anything I have ever done.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      3. John Backus‏ @backus May 13
        Replying to @ricburton

        I don’t think so? No idea what a burner is or what BJJ is

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      4. Richard Burton‏ @ricburton May 13
        Replying to @backus

        Burning man evangelist :) Brazilian Jiu Jitsu :)

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      5. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. gr wt‏ @babarganesh May 14
        Replying to @backus

        This shows a misapprehension of zen, bigtime. Zen is not about self improvement.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. John Backus‏ @backus May 14
        Replying to @babarganesh

        Ah ok the zen stuff is just supposed to be a one off random example I think. Swap in someone going to India to learn yoga with the hope of becoming more enlightened, for example.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      4. gr wt‏ @babarganesh May 14
        Replying to @backus

        Yeah that would fit better. As someone who is mildly involved in zen I am both overly sensitive to the misuse of the word and also fully aware and non judgemental about its misuse :)

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      5. 1 more reply
      1. New conversation
      2. Jessica Watson Miller‏ @autotrnslucence May 14
        Replying to @backus

        Oh man, this is a nice face-slap to show me what I really meant by the idea that focusing on your goals ensures you'll only meet the ones you already know how to meet...https://autotranslucence.wordpress.com/2018/03/30/becoming-a-magician/ …

        3 replies 1 retweet 8 likes
      3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr May 14
        Replying to @autotrnslucence @backus

        You fell for a narrative version of Goodhart’s law basicallyhttps://www.ribbonfarm.com/2016/06/09/goodharts-law-and-why-measurement-is-hard/ …

        1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
      4. Khuyen Bui‏ @GKhuyen May 14
        Replying to @vgr @backus

        The "hack" is to stumble upon something beyond the self to care about so much that we ignore the risk. A mentor once joked at me "No need to do all those self improvement stuff. Just fall deeply in love with someone" which of course is harder than it sounds...

        0 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
      5. End of conversation
      1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr May 14
        Replying to @backus

        Man I gotta reread this book. Sounds very smart.

        0 replies 0 retweets 7 likes
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      1. Meng Weng Wong‏ @mengwong May 14
        Replying to @backus

        I like @vgr’s dichotomy. I see it as being between “I want to learn to program and call myself a coder” vs “I want to realize this idea I have in software” “I want to found a startup and call myself an entrepreneur” vs “I want to realize this idea I have in business”

        0 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
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      1. ugly bag of mostly water‏ @nyxzt May 15
        Replying to @backus

        v true but unfair assessment of zen ppl and their close neighbours

        0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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      1. New conversation
      2. Cryptoks‏ @Cryptokks May 14
        Replying to @backus

        Great post. The ultimate adversary to improvement is comfort. Abandoning comfort is incredibly difficult, hence the rarity of experiencing real change.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. 1 more reply

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