Many people have wondered why I have so much enthusiasm and time to engage in so many complex hobby projects and delve deeply into them.
I usually joke that it's because I'm not good at anything else but am the best at slacking off. I use the time others spend working to make coffee, and naturally, if you make coffee all the time, it turns out great.
But actually, when I think about it carefully, this is a question worth exploring in depth.
I believe the most important reason here is my level of comfort with complex systems.
So-called complex systems are different from the ones we usually encounter, like "because I did A, I got B." They have many possible inputs that influence the final result—in other words, there are many keys to unlock many locks. It's hard for us to sum it up as "as long as I do ABC, I can achieve XYZ." There are many paths to success, and even more paths to failure.
For example, getting promoted and receiving a raise is a very typical complex system. You might perform very well and get promoted and a raise quickly, or you might not do as well. However, it's hard to deduce exactly what factors can help you get promoted and a raise faster. People might have some inklings or vague ideas and might conduct simple experiments, but it's tough to truly attribute it to specific factors. Even if you know some reasons, it's hard to replicate them. Or, when you broaden your observations, you might get completely opposite results.
Another example is cooking. The final dish might be delicious, but along the way, so many factors are involved. For instance, whether the ingredients are fresh, the quality of your seasonings, how you combine them, the control of heat—all these lead to variations in the dish's flavor. But how to improve your cooking skills is a systematic and complex matter. It's not just about following steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 to make the dish taste good. Instead, you need to look at it the other way around: if my dish doesn't taste good this way, it's because of that reason, and I should improve in this manner. Only through such complex attribution, improvement, and exploration can you enhance your cooking skills.
Why emphasize complex systems? Because the vast majority of interesting or challenging hobbies belong to such complex systems. For example, photography—why do you think the photos you take look good? Or coffee—why do you think this cup of coffee tastes good? Or headphones—why does this song sound better when listened to with this equipment? They all involve many aspects and require complex attribution and improvement.
One of my characteristics is that I have a very high tolerance for such complex systems. This may be related to my PhD and professional training. Throughout my academic and working career, I've been exposed to similar complex systems every day, continuously attributing and improving upon various complex reasons. After leaving school, I gradually realized that this is actually a kind of superpower.
The things we usually encounter are mostly highly deterministic—for example, stepping on the gas pedal makes the car move, opening an umbrella shields you from the rain. So when faced with a complex system, people's natural reaction is frustration: "Why did I make so much effort, and it still hasn't improved? What exactly should I do?" But if you have the superpower to remain comfortable and think effectively when facing complex systems, naturally you can accomplish many complex things.
Specifically, this helps with these hobby projects in both "knowledge" and "action." On one hand, these fields are areas that humanity has researched for many years, so only by building upon existing foundations can we move forward. But because these are very complex systems, the theories surrounding them are themselves vast and intricate. So from a knowledge perspective, being able to quickly find the main threads within a vast and complex knowledge system, grasp the intuitions, and apply them flexibly is a core advantage.
From the action perspective, to succeed with a complex system, the most critical aspect is how to debug. When you see that the final outcome isn't as desired, instead of making wild guesses about possible reasons and randomly tweaking various variables, you design a series of experiments to quickly narrow down the causes to a small range. Then, by making various trade-offs, you can improve the final result.
So you can see that someone very familiar with complex systems will have significant advantages in both mindset and execution efficiency. After all, we engage in hobbies mainly for enjoyment, not to torture ourselves. If you're stubbornly wrestling with complex systems and not enjoying the process, you might as well not bother.
In summary, I think that one's comfort level and proficiency with complex systems may be the key to determining how complex a project one can undertake, whether it's a project at work or in life. Once you have this ability, when you encounter various seemingly impressive and complex hobby projects, they'll actually feel quite simple and manageable. Naturally, you'll develop all sorts of interesting hobbies and achieve accomplishments in each field.
Comments