How to Test Yourself for Uncertainty

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I'm adapting this from business literature critical path analysis where the idea of this is that you lay out as best you can tell the different steps that you could do. And then you structure them so that you're doing the ones first that most quickly reduce your uncertainty. This is anything that might fail and say, okay, I shouldn't go down this path, you try and test that. Anything that would say, here's what you should do next or change the other actions you'll take, you try to do that. So started with a small experiment of just posting on Facebook each day and I explicitly limited this to what I could write in 15 minutes. It gave me some feedback on did

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What are "forward-chaining" and "backward-chaining", and how do they connect with theory of change? What sorts of mental habits and heuristics prevent you from brainstorming ideas effectively? How can you harness feedback effectively to sharpen your ideas? From whom should you solicit feedback? How can you view your own products with fresh eyes? What are some common struggles people encounter when starting or changing careers, and how can they be overcome? Why are small experiments so under-used? How can we construct a sustainable work life? What are the best ways to rest and recover from overwork and burnout?

Lynette Bye is a productivity coach who works with effective altruists. Before that, she studied the psychology of self-control at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. You can find out more and read her blog at lynettebye.com.

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