How to do a thing

First off, this is a post about brute forcing my executive function issues through thinking. The question here is simple: “I want to do something but I can’t do it. How do I do it?”

Imagine the end: the What

The inability to act, in my experience, comes from not being able to imagine the end goal of the activity. Combined with a low tolerance for uncertainty, this is a recipe for a freeze.

One technique I learned from the book “How to do Things” by David at Raptitude. The action here is to pause, close my eyes, and imagine the desired end result. Admittedly, my imagination with regards to these are not great; one can only keep so much details in the mind. So the technique is limited to those of shorter tasks, maybe 30 minutes.

For big goals, I think writing down is very essential. You don’t know what you don’t know, and those can only be fleshed out in word. Doing things is hard because reality has a surprising amount of detail.

“Writing is nature’s way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is.” - Richard Guindon.

Even writing things down takes practice. So it’s important to note that you won’t get the vision down pat. Again, this comes back to stomaching uncertainty - with what you know at this very moment it’s unlikely that you will see a path lined up in full. It is the same for every other human being, unless they are blessed with the gift of clairvoyance.

What’s important is that the uncertainty that can be eased may be tended to appropriately and gradually, with time, new knowledge and reflection.

Two kinds of knowledge: know-how and know-what

This is something I learn from a brief obsession with research papers on philosophy. Essentially, there are two kinds of knowledge: the know-what knowledge, which is about the facts, and the know-how knowledge, which is about ability (also known as skills). The difference between those is a matter of ongoing debate, but I trust that the rough classification is feasible for most people.

Know-whats are pretty direct: you don’t know some facts, you go and get them, through people, the internet, or worst case, experiment and observe. About know-hows (aka, how to do something), here is my hypothesis on how to think about it:

• One know-how is made of many smaller know-hows and know-whats.
• A know-what about process turns into a know-how when you practice it.

Here is an example: Suppose I want to fry an egg. To cook something is a pretty vague thing. But, you know what cooking looks like - it involves some actions with a pan. So you go and get a pan. It’s heavy, and you can do some actions with it: hold it, heat it up, cover it, etc. So you go and cook an egg, but it turns out sticky. And here you learn that cooking needs oil to unstick (know-what), and you add that to your list of steps (know-how, add some oil.) This process continues along until you have a cooked egg, and over time you gain the skill of frying eggs without even thinking.

This gives us a way to navigate uncertainty through questions:

• I want to do this, what do I need to know?
• I want to do this, what do I have to know to do before I can do this?

The separation is important because only having know-whats is a recipe for never doing anything. Know-whats can turn into know-hows, but the conversion comes with practice (for example, knowing a tool and practicing using it). On the other hand, you can’t absorb some know-hows without the prerequisite know-whats (for example, learning that the power of a serve comes from the wrist, you pay attention to it and hence obtain a micro know-how: how to flick the wrist in the serve).

It explains why seeking out a mentor is beneficial, when possible - they provide you with the appropriate know-whats as you practice the know-hows. For those of us without mentors, or self-teaching, this observation allows us to ask better questions when we search, and hopefully, find a direction to continue on.

Choose your own adventures

Recently I’ve been into choose your own adventure (CYOA) games, in particular, Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! and Inkle’s Overboard The general premise in both is that you make choices along your journey, and some choices are open to you depends on your past actions.

I got hooked to both, and while playing, I noticed something nice about the games’ design:

• In Sorcery, the spells you can cast are based on the items you have gained. Your options in events are dependent on the knowledge (know-whats) you gained on the way.
• In Overboard, some actions help your character discover knowledge, which appears as a checklist of questions you can follow on your next game loop (for example, “What is this person hiding in their cabin?” - a know-what, “How can I get this person to open up?” - a know-how). It leads the player to a consistent track they can attend to. In fact, this nice game design got me thinking about writing this piece.

I highly recommend both games, because they have gotten me to think more struturally for open-ended goals in my real life. The premise is simple but not easy, but it is practicable; this post is a know-what, that I hope would aid in your know-hows to better executive functioning. Whether I apply them successfully or if this is just another episode of overthinking, we will have to see.