Most recent insight

[Coolydudey]

What was the most recent time when you were working on a hardish problem, and then a flash of insight either gave you the answer or led you along the right path to the answer? Such things are rare, and it would be interesting (and hopefully useful) to build a small reference of such happenings. If you do want to post, give a brief outline of the situation in which it happened, as in how long you were working for, what time it was etc. (don't bother with heavy detailing, but without some this thread will serve to no avail). For example, I was thinking about a philosophical/existential issue that at the time, was causing me a lot of grief (I am waiting till exams finish to post about it). In the bath, while pondering about it, I suddenly realised a huge assumption I had made in my logic (namely that the world is what we observe it to be). In total, I had devoted quite a few hours of thought to it (over several weeks)...

 

[A22]

I was in bed trying to sleep yesterday while trying to picture why linear approximation results in an approximation and not an exact result. Then I started testing some in my head:

for f(x)=x², f'(x)=2x
f(2+1)≈f(2)+1f'(2)
≈ 4 + 1 * 2 * 2
≈ 8
f(3) = 9, error of +1

f(2+2)≈f(2)+2f'(2)
≈ 4 + 2 * 2 * 2
≈ 12
f(4) = 16, error of +4

f(2+3)≈f(2)+3f'(2)
≈ 4 + 3 * 2 * 2
≈ 16
f(5) = 25, error of +9

So I realized I could get an exact result by using f(a+b)=f(a)+bf'(a)+b²
And that's (a+b)² = a² + b*2*a² + b² that is (a+b)²=a²+2ab+b² which we all know since high school.

Not an insight, but I thought it was pretty interesting. Tried with f(x)=x³ but couldn't do in my head and felt asleep.

*edit*

huh, just realized why solubility rules are used to foresee the result of a reaction between two salts dissolved in water - because if the ionic bond formed between each atom of each salt is strong enough so that water doesn't break it apart it will precipitate. the bond is stronger in the products, there is a lowering in the energy, thus the reaction occurs.

 

[cerebedlam]

I have insights all the time...They seem to be dependent on the cumulative/comprehensive database of knowledge that I've accumulated over the years, along with the natural-born INTP ability to draw parallels between seemingly unrelated variables...Extrapolation.

Many of these insights are truly profound, concerning the nature of man and existence...Some of them are only of the "Wow, cool" variety...This most recent one I'm about to reference is of the latter kind...The reality of some societal fact just dawned on me yesterday...I realized that in the overwhelming majority cases of people that I know personally, that person has married either their first or second boyfriend/girlfriend after high school...

In almost every single instance, from aquaintance to friend to neighbor, if the person I know is married, then he or she has married either their first or second SERIOUS boyfriend/girlfriend after high school...With 'SERIOUS' meaning a relationship that has exceed one year of time, and is conventional/normal in most-to-all ways that a male-female relationship can be...

Think about it...From your parents to your friends and neighbors, to the folks you know from the gym and the local bar, this is TRUE almost across the board...Not a extremely profound insight...But, one that has much significance to me, personally...I have been fortunate enough to have had those requisite 2 SERIOUS relationships after H.S....PLUS, around another half dozen...And, I still find myself unmarried...

This first or second serious relationship thing appears to be some type of WINDOW of TIME and opportunity for those in the population who are inclined to be 'married' in the first place...Those who gravitate towards marriage seem to grab that first or second person who enter their lives after H.S. and make a spouse out of them...Those personality types who are fickle and never satisfied with whom they meet seem to bounce between partners, as well as endure periods of time without any...

The insight really has to do with the fact that there seems to be some type of WINDOW of TIME where MOST people go and grab some person and make them a spouse ...For those of us who have expended those two opportunities, it seems less and less likely that marriage, let alone 'a successful relationship' will accrue from male-female encounters.

 

[hablahdoo]

I was trying to figure out why I was such an idiot when I realized most of everything I and other people do is defined by meaningless reward seeking. Video games, capitalism, staying up all night learning about something. It's all led by a set of bastardized derivatives of primitive needs. That as much as I'd like to defend my actions it's all nonsense.

 

[Suraj]

Life is absurd.

Not that that's my own original insight, obviously. But we all have our own ways of reaching and accepting this fact.

Tonight may have done that for me.

 

[Etheri]

Happiness. It's something we're all, in our own way, looking for.
The way you feel is mostly dependant on how you see things. Some things are more important and closer to you than others. Often, one bad thing is enough to bring you down, despite all the good. What you feel is a reflection of what you expected, what reality turned out to be and how you feel regarding that.

By this I mean that the way you feel is not an objective sum of everything going on, rather a subjective one (with additional limits and bypasses, which i'll simply just ignore. Ask me to elaborate if this bothers you). It is as if you weigh every factor (and often weigh the negative ones extra, even tho I'm still not sure why). Since this is entirely subjective (the smile of your crush might make up for this huge fight you've having with your best friend, or it might be the total opposite!), in a way, it can be rethought and re-evaluated. I also found that it often depends greatly on your expectations. If you expected things to go terrible, and they go 'okay', you'll be glad. If you expected an awesome day, and things go 'okey', you'll be sad. Did things go diffrent, or did you simply put up a diffrent standard to measure by?

While you often cannot control what goes on, you can control both your expectations and how you weigh reality. This leads me to conclude that ultimately, happiness is more of a choice than of a result of events in your environment. It doesn't matter how good or bad things are going on an absolute scale. Put any hungry little african kid in your place when you're feeling absolutely depressed, and they might just have the time of their life, just because from their perspective, your worries wouldn't matter.

It seems silly, happiness being a choice. Wouldn't we just choose to always be happy, then? Unfortunately, when you think about it, this is both psychologically and philosophically impossible (one cannot be happy 100% of the time, for happiness would lose it's meaning.) To me, this implies that no matter how good you get at controlling your emotions and happiness, you'll never fully overcome them (those who don't feel any emotions are not accounted for, they don't control, they simply don't have. Tho I guess that could be argued about). It does however help you control things, be happy more often and for less silly reasons, and whenever you're sad, in a way, it helps me cope.

So while we cannot maintain control over our emotions at all times, and choose and decide them to our likings, I do think we have a great deal of control over how we feel by simply manipulating and rethinking the things that bother us and focussing on 'the bright side'. As cliché as this sounds, I find that this works for me, which is why I guess i'll share it as an insight. (Not the most recent, but I bend and break rules to my own likings! )

PS : When and as long as we're happy, it doesn't matter what is actually making us happy, we just are.

 

[Proletar]

There is no meaning in life. We live in an anarchy, and it just happens to be ordered as a society at the time.

When I first realized this, I found it very sad, and I was lower down in my depression than ever. A normal person would just write this off as ramblings of self-pity, but I stayed with the insight and kept reflecting on it. There is no value... And therefore, I am completely free to do whatever I want. To see beauty in whatever I want. There is no reason to be afraid, ever.


The most profound about my process at the time is that I can return to my mood of depression everytime I want to. The only thing I have to do is to not eat, not drink coffee and stay off nicotine for a couple of hours. Then maybe, I can discover something else.

 

[hablahdoo]

While you often cannot control what goes on, you can control both your expectations and how you weigh reality. This leads me to conclude that ultimately, happiness is more of a choice than of a result of events in your environment.

I reach the same conclusion.

I am given two fundamental choices. To live or die. This means the choice to experience thought or to not. If I choose life the only thing worth doing is pursuing a more desirable state of mind to make it more worthwhile. A good state of mind is dependent on release of certain chemicals. By understanding that fact, I can deliberately choose when triggers are set off for these chemicals.

There are for example manipulable arbitrary triggers for reward throughout my mind. What makes me like money? It's just a trigger for reward. It probably derives from some primitive need to hoard things. Anyway I find that by simply being conscious of it it's possible to prevent the trigger.

It's worth noting in addition to the directly manipulable triggers, there seem to be hard coded or static ones. Take for example being around people, or exercise, each seems to cause a chemical response that can not be reasoned out of existence. It's also not a feeling of reward, they each provide different chemicals. These static triggers seems to have a profound impact on me.

Different triggers, different ways to play with them.

 

[Etheri]

I reach the same conclusion.


Different triggers, different ways to play with them.

While I agree, and I too devide things into two subsets (by which I adress the extra limits and bypasses I mentioned), I use diffrent subsets. This being, what I described is what happens most of the time, it's an emotional state. Sometimes, strong and rather uncontrolable feelings overwrite that emotional state into a more physical state : It's hard to be happy while in constant pain. Goodluck being sad during an orgasm, etc. These are purely physical responses in emotion to what is happening with your body, and are much harder, if not impossible to control.

While I agree and can find myself in both your static and hardcoded triggers, and agree that the one is much easier than the other, I think that both are in a way still controlable. I do however agree that this may not be possible at all times. Perhaps we can achieve full control over our statics, but not over our hardcoded? I don't know (yet!), but i'll think about it.

 

[hablahdoo]

While I agree...
...but i'll think about it.

I think I mixed you up a little by using both the word static and hardcoded as the same thing. You still got what I meant but let me clarify, along with some examples

Dynamic triggers (changing): Manipulable and arbitrary
....Most (if not all?) reward. Things like money and video games
....Stress from your boss calling you
Static triggers (unchanging): Hardcoded/Unchangeable or at least not clearly
....Being around people
....Getting exercise (endorphins)
....Stress from being mauled by a bear

Not that the way I see things really matters. You're completely right that some things considered static may end up dynamic since the classification is only an invention to begin with. No more valid than the way you see it as emotional and physical, just for a different purpose.

 

[Scott33]

What was the most recent time when you were working on a hardish problem, and then a flash of insight either gave you the answer or led you along the right path to the answer? Such things are rare, and it would be interesting (and hopefully useful) to build a small reference of such happenings. If you do want to post, give a brief outline of the situation in which it happened, as in how long you were working for, what time it was etc. (don't bother with heavy detailing, but without some this thread will serve to no avail). For example, I was thinking about a philosophical/existential issue that at the time, was causing me a lot of grief (I am waiting till exams finish to post about it). In the bath, while pondering about it, I suddenly realised a huge assumption I had made in my logic (namely that the world is what we observe it to be). In total, I had devoted quite a few hours of thought to it (over several weeks)...

I recently relaxed on the couch and while smoking some weed I realized that reality is relative to the observer for everything we interact with in this world is just that a perception made by the individual. I mean I've always kind of knew that seeing has my father who is most likely also an INTP believes the same. But I truly began to understand the gravity of this statement recently. But anyway I spent nearly two hours until I needed to smoke more weed contemplating the subject. More importantly I though about this.

If all reality is relative then the person who decides what is relative also decides if reality is relative. So the question becomes is all reality truly relative? Oh how the INTP in me loves and hates a paradox.

 

[Etheri]

Spoiler

I think I mixed you up a little by using both the word static and hardcoded as the same thing. You still got what I meant but let me clarify, along with some examples

Dynamic triggers (changing): Manipulable and arbitrary
....Most (if not all?) reward. Things like money and video games
....Stress from your boss calling you
Static triggers (unchanging): Hardcoded/Unchangeable or at least not clearly
....Being around people
....Getting exercise (endorphins)
....Stress from being mauled by a bear

Not that the way I see things really matters. You're completely right that some things considered static may end up dynamic since the classification is only an invention to begin with. No more valid than the way you see it as emotional and physical, just for a different purpose.

I've taken up your addition to the way I think about happiness, for accuracy and because I cannot argue with it, nor would want to. You're right, i've been thinking and considering things over, but it only shaped everything in my head without actually having much relevant to add. I just wanted to say thanks <: