Introducing the Cleverer Quantifier

How much do you learn?

Even on the rare days that we don't pick up a book, access the internet, or talk to someone, new information streams through our awareness, triggering constant catalysis of new insights and adjustments.

Try imagining this: all the knowledge and experience you’ve personally accumulated over the course of the past week is swept into thin air- all that rewiring and plasticity zapped from the neuronal circuitry- like the state of a computer hard drive after it crashes, and you’re left dismally piecing data together from the last backup.

How different a person were you then, from who you are now?

Does it bring you a delicious thrill, to come back to reality and revel in the knowledge that, after all, your brain’s still functional, and much of your recent (meaningful) mental activity is so tightly integrated with your biological wetware that it’d be a job to dislodge it?

Each piece of info makes you a slightly different person

One tends to think that a person’s personality doesn’t change or grow that much within a mere week, barring the occurrence of profoundly life-altering events. Yet, looking back at the volume of knowledge typically accumulated over the past several days alone, when I gauge the strength of my reluctance, theoretically speaking, to return to that state, it cements the realisation that almost every shred of acquired information is valuable and appreciated.

When do we notice changes?

Learning may advance in such small increments that progress is barely noticed or airly dismissed. However, those of us who keep diaries or logbooks to monitor development over time will notice that the effects are cumulative, and we sometimes underrate the value of individual steps. Conscious awareness of knowledge acquisition may occur during the process of learning. At other times, awareness only emerges after concepts have been subconsciously assimilated. Often, appreciation of certain types of information begins well before the actual facts have been learnt- for instance, when we identify a gap in our knowledge, assess its potential value, and then proceed to acquire it.

Thus, the time at which information is received may differ from that at which our appreciation for the information emerges. We notice this temporal disparity when, for example, we draw heavily on knowledge that has been acquired through unpleasant processes. We refer to certain books, movies, or other experiences as being the sort that’re valued for their accompanying insights and personal edification, rather than for the pleasure derived at the time of encounter. We can all recall periods of difficulty, for which we’re now grateful.

Extrapolating into the future

We often use hindsight to reflect on the process of learning, i.e., 'in the past I didn't know such and such, and now I do.' We can also use foresight to predict when learning will take place, to what degree, and how rapidly. Forecasts tend to be relatively abstract and vague- in fact, we often prefer to keep our projections undefined, to maintain flexibility and save ourselves from disappointment or embarassment. My argument here is that we tend to err on the conservative side unnecessarily often.

Many of us benefit greatly when we keep to-do lists and timetables, and write out proposals and schedules. Yet timetabling and planning are strategies that seem not to come very naturally or intuitively to human beings, at least not till one has practised and honed time- and resource-management skills. Planning for the future in definite, concrete terms tends to be more of an acquired skill. It takes diligence and discipline, and requires one to get over a 'fear' of the unknown. Lots of people refuse to visit the doctor, write wills, change jobs, or look at housing options for the elderly, for this very reason.

Actively making optimistic predictions

I like to propel myself into a state of happy anticipation by thinking in a complementary fashion about how much more I’ll have found out in, say, a week from now (though that’s usually tinged with impatience and some regret that I don't already know THAT yet).

Turning the potential for regret into productive introspection and strategic visualisation of the future is the main purpose of consulting the Cleverer Quantifier.

(By the way, which is larger: the volume of looming known unknowns within our awareness, or the conjectured and fearsome size of unknown unknowns? Ok ok, let’s not get overwhelmed already! Pressure I feel, I don’t deny..)

First things first: identify and categorise current sources of information

Let's start in the present: the first step is to consider your current state of information-acquisition. What's that mean?

We’re constantly exposed to various sources of information, and maintain at least some degree of control over them. Not only can we identify our predominant and preferred channels, with a little reflection, we can quite easily pinpoint and measure key attributes of received information.

You’re optimally equipped to evaluate your current situation- activities engaged in recently and pieces of information encountered are crisp and fresh in your mind (memory-impairing substance connoisseurs excluded).

Each assessment produces a series of numbers that quantify interesting aspects of your infovorous life. These include the number of facts to which you’re subliminally or consciously exposed within a given period of time, the proportion of facts that’re remembered and remain highly relevant, and the proportion that’re rapidly forgotten.

For example, we can list sources to which we’re frequently exposed. We can estimate the amount of information gleaned from each source, and categorise the knowledge based on how interesting it is, how esoteric, important, relevant, obvious, mind-boggling, or mundane. We gauge the proportion of information that our minds absorb, out of the total amount to which we’re exposed. Finally, we can estimate our levels of retention and work out approximately how much information evaporates or gets reinforced over time.
(For a short essay on the hierarchical value of different types of information, check out 'Hierarchies of knowledge' on my Ideas page.)

Why the need for numbers?

We go through the process of info categorisation and evaluation on a daily basis. However, we tend to think about these factors in abstract, indefinite terms. While this gives us a good sense of what we're learning and how fast, we could do better!

The Cleverer Quantifier’s purpose is to help you incorporate some elementary number-crunching into the method, so that you can quantify your current state. It nudges you to think about your typical sources of information, and their quality, with greater clarity and detail than you otherwise might. At the very least, you might enjoy playing with the sliders and clicking on ‘Calculate!’

Uncertainty in our estimates

Our subjective self-assessments necessarily vary with time, and fluctuate due to mood, attention state, and countless other factors- that’s fine! Most users would aim for a rough but decent estimate- feel free to be as detail-oriented or lackadaisical as you please.

Many of us are vaguely aware of how unreliable our sense of self-awareness can be; again, no reason to shy away- rough initial estimates provide a useful starting point and can always be refined with practise and revised.

If you want to detect overall patterns of behaviour and monitor your accomplishments, then ideally you should carry out this exercise periodically to generate a series of values to be compared over time. The process of reengagement will help smoothen out inevitable under- and over-estimates of your info-gathering situation.

Cleverer Quantification in a nutshell:

1. Tally sources of information that are accessed within a given period.
2. Assign values and categories to the information extracted, and calculate the degree to which various sources benefitted us, using guesstimation, critical thinking, and hindsight.
3. Categorise information by various parameters.
4. Evaluate their quality, trace our best insights to their sources, and even adjust our behaviour to indulge our information-gathering desires.

Next steps

Once you’ve gathered as much data as you deem necessary, you can start to extrapolate some way into the future (assuming that your rate of learning remains comparable and quantifiable, if not stable).

Be as resourceful and motivated as you wish. You can write out a list of opportunities for learning that are likely to emerge in the foreseeable future, and estimate their value both before and at the time they occur. You could look back at your notes and put a number to the staying power of various types of information, and thereby develop a fairly reliable strategy to analyse how much you’ve learnt and are likely to learn, based on experience.

For the self-monitoring aspects of this exercise, be as realistic about your expectations as possible. Try not to over- or under-inflate your achievements and abilities, so that you can obtain a comparable measure of your progress over time. Take your cue from athletes who monitor their fitness levels, or from scientists who keep a detailed record of experimental results.

When it comes to goal-setting, however, I definitely do encourage you to use this as a motivational tool- toggle the numbers up and down, play with the sliders, and observe how your exposure to information could potentially vary, depending on parameter settings.