If you apply 5 Whys heuristic to your work, what root cause do you get? Trivial example:
Why do I work
To make $
Why do I want $?
To pay for lifestyle
Why do I want my lifestyle?
It is comfortable
Why do I want comfort?
To avoid pain
Why do I want to avoid pain?
I dislike pain
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For all the people jumping in with advice, this example is not mine. It’s just an illustration of how the heuristic works
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I got stuck trying to understand why boredom is unpleasant
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Hmm. YOLO? Fear of mortality and time running out without every minute packed with interestingness?
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Really makes it seem trivial.
Maybe more so - other people dislike pain and are willing to agree that work should help us avoid it. We’re all caught in the tide.
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Why do I work on developer tools?
Because it’s high leverage + interesting tech.
Why is it high leverage?
Capitalism demands more productive devs.
Why?
Software is eating the world.
Why?
It creates greater economic efficiency.
Why?
Computers are better at boring work than humans.
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Any sufficiently deep root cause analysis ends in one of two states
- the ultimate cause of all problems: human nature,
- a causal cycle, the root of the problem is the problem.
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It's helpful to modify it by asking how else can I achieve this.
Why do I work?
To earn money.
How else can I earn money?
..investing etc..
Why do I want my lifestyle?
Its comfortable.
How else can I be comfortable?
....meditating, monk lifestyle...
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Aporia, fast.
Quote Tweet
Most things in life don't survive the withering power of a single person asking "Why?"
So The Five Whys is some kind of Marvel level overkill.
GIF
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My fourth Why ends up as “because that’s how I define myself” so by the time I get to the fifth, I think I end up with something like “Ego Vanity”
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