Using Counterintuitive Stepping Stones

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If the actual stepping stones that lead to where we want to go are counterintuitive, then the metrics are useless. Because they won't detect those stepping stones because they don't look like what the metrics are trying to detect. And if you think about it, of course, they're going to be counterintuitive. Like that's basically what makes a problem hard is you don't know what the stepping stones are. You don't even need to do the assessments. Just follow the stepping stones.

Artificial intelligence researcher and author Kenneth Stanley has argued that “as soon as you create an objective, you ruin your ability to reach it.” So what should you consider when thinking about your objectives, and what will set you up for success? On this episode Stanley discusses how to set the right objectives for your life, why we’re too tied to accomplishments, what role accountability plays in our education system, the value of peer review, why transformative innovations are always counter intuitive, and so much more. Stanley is the co–author of Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective, as well as the former Head of Core AI Research at Uber AI and the Open-Endedness Team Leader at OpenAI. He has also served as the Charles Millican Professor in Computer Science at University of Central Florida.

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