
Paul Buchheit: Whose reality are you living in? Whose reality would you rather live in? - paul
http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2007/04/whose-reality-are-you-living-in-whose.html
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nostrademons
It _is_ possible to live in multiple frames at once. Difficult, and very
stressful, but possible.

When I was first asked to co-found my startup, I immediately became very
unhappy at work. It was just too much cognitive dissonance. Once I had a
startup (which had been my life's goal all along), why waste 8 hours a day
working for somebody else, where I'm so much less productive?

Over time, I adjusted. I just saw work as having one set of rules and
expectations, and startup as having another set of rules and expectations. So
I gave up trying to introduce more productive technologies at work, because it
wasn't going to happen anyway. And I adjusted my expectations for productivity
downwards, because hey, my boss doesn't know that you can do better than
JavaEE levels anyway.

End result: I'm much happier at work, which is _perceived_ as being more
productive because most people judge based on attitude instead of results. And
then I go home and do everything my boss tells me not to on my startup. Only
downside is that my startup may launch before my project at work does, which
renders moot one of my main reasons for keeping the day job.

It's similar to switching keyboard layouts. When you first learn Dvorak, you
_will_ forget how to touch-type on Qwerty. But if you keep typing on Qwerty,
eventually they'll start separating in your mind. For a long time, I would
automatically type Qwerty whenever I saw a Gnome desktop and Dvorak when I saw
Windows. Then it further refined itself into typing Qwerty whenever I saw
Netbeans and Dvorak whenever I saw AIM. Now I'm basically fluent in both
layouts, and can consciously switch between the two of them.

Also, I suspect every startup founder will have to undergo another frame shift
eventually: shifting from the general startup culture to _YOUR_ startup
culture. Right now, most of us are internalizing the values of Startupping,
News.YC, Ruby on Rails or Python, and various entrepreneurial blogs.
Eventually that'll have to shift to the cultural values of the particular
startup that you found. Any past or present YCombinator founders around to
comment on this?

~~~
paul
Frames are, of course, just an abstraction, not actual discrete entities.
Another way of understanding it is to think of your frame as a linear
combination of other frames. If two or more heavily weighted frames are in
conflict, as they were in your case, then there's going to be some stress.

From your description, it sounds as though you actually switched frames at
work from that of an idealist trying to do the best possible job, to that of a
cynic who just plays along with a system you don't respect. This new frame is
more compatible with your startup frame, since it understands that stupidity
of large organizations creates opportunities for startups to succeed.

------
gibsonf1
A very interesting article, but I think your model of a mental frame which you
define as _the biased and limited way in which information is perceived or
understood._ is a bit malformed as information isn't really perceived, it is
processed at a higher level than perception. Integrated sensation or
Perception is the lowest level of awareness humans have with the least amount
of variability among members of the species. There is not often much debate
about perception, such as the building on a certain block is brown vs. green.
Or the shape that something you see is a bicycle vs. a car. etc. Perception is
in fact the most objective faculty we have - our direct connection to the real
world.

Now to say that our prior thinking can change our perception, I disagree. I
think that people can actively evade perceptions they have by trying hard to
ignore them, especially those perceptions that indicate that an idea held by
the perceiver is incorrect in spite of the emotional need of the perceiver to
continue to hold the incorrect idea.

You say that _As far as you can tell, that frame is reality._ Clearly, a
mental model is not reality, it is a model of reality. If your theory were
true, we probably couldn't even participate on this forum as our differently
modeled realities wouldn't allow a common language that so relies on
commonalities of perception and concept formation.

But I agree with your actual point that it is important to associate with
people who share similar views about the world, people who have a similar
sense of life. It can be very destructive to a person's view of what is
possible in the world if everyone they spend time with is pessimistic and
skeptical.

When I was in Architecture school, all of my professors tried to convince us
students that there were no new ideas, everything had been done. That nothing
great was created/designed/invented by individuals, it was all thanks to
groups. That the heroic in architecture was impossible and undesirable. That
Wright's Falling water was banal, just a bunch of concrete plates stacked up
above each other. All of this foolishness was washed away when I worked for
Paul Rudolph in NYC who single handedly was designing some of the most
beautiful and heroic buildings I had ever seen. The experience saved my world
view of what is possible.

So my advice is to find the very best in whatever your field, and learn from
it. If you aren't able to do a startup on your own yet, find a startup that is
the most innovative with the best ideas, and learn from them. Don't let the
pessimists get you down, but stay grounded and realistic about the
possibilities. Too much optimism can be a bad thing as well, but keep in mind
that great things are achievable.

~~~
ryan
"When I was in Architecture school, all of my professors tried to convince us
students that there were no new ideas, everything had been done. That nothing
great was created/designed/invented by individuals, it was all thanks to
groups. That the heroic in architecture was impossible and undesirable. That
Wright's Falling water was banal, just a bunch of concrete plates stacked up
above each other. All of this foolishness was washed away when I worked for
Paul Rudolph in NYC who single handedly was designing some of the most
beautiful and heroic buildings I had ever seen. The experience saved my world
view of what is possible."

Have you read The Fountainhead by any chance? :)

~~~
gibsonf1
Yes I did - a great book. I liked Atlas Shrugged much better though. :)

~~~
nonrecursive
I wonder how many people here like Ayn Rand's work?

~~~
Cthulhu
Hopefully not to many.

