Funny Logic

Funny Logic by Ryan Dickherber

Project Asymmetry

Most people live symmetric lives. They are born, have a heroic rise to their peak, then begin a long slow decline until they shrivel up and die. But some people are exceptions—they never decline. They are asymmetric. Members of Project Asymmetry aim to be like that.

We will train everything that can be trained. For instance, to gain strength we might lift weights. Lifting weights has the distinct advantage of being quantitatively measurable. Every time we lift more than before, we’re stronger than before. So our progress is assured.

But we don’t just want stronger muscles. We want better endurance, too. Unfortunately these may conflict to some extent. Acquiring 10/10 strength may limit endurance to 9/10. But that’s hardly a problem in practice—having 10/10 strength and 9/10 endurance is far better than 10/10 strength and 1/10 endurance.

We also want flexibility. And coordination. And intelligence. And creativity. And memory. And knowledge.

If it can be trained, then it is in our program. We dub such programs “Comprehensive Training Programs” because they leave nothing out.

Previously, we collected an (unfortunately incomplete) list of systems that can (potentially) be trained:

An example comprehensive training program might be like this:

This program might not (and in fact probably does not) literally train every component of the human body. Only with further research will we be able to catalog which activities train which body parts, and only then can we construct a program that literally trains everything. But this program is a good place to start. It can be expanded to include more components as we learn more.

Here is another example program that might be better suited to other people:

Whatever program you choose, the program should be executed for a set amount of time each week, and progress should be measured. 1 hour per week is probably not enough to make any progress, and 100 hours a week would not leave any time to do anything else. After some investigation, it appears 20 or so hours per week is enough to ensure that that there is enough time to train everything, as well as leaving time left over to enjoy life. (Although it might be psychologically valuable to treat every experience in your life as potential training, and thus the training never stops.)

For example:

All skills should be measured quantitatively if possible. The value of this is psychological—if you can see your numbers getting better, then you know you are making progress. Here is how these things can be measured:

“Talking to strangers” is hard to quantify, but you can see it can be done. It might seem cheesy to count how many strangers you can make laugh, but it ensures you are making progress. Another way to quantify this would be to develop a checklist, and run one more step through the list every day. For instance: 1) Talk to a stranger. 2) Make the stranger laugh. 3) Introduce the gizmos you make. 4) Sell a gizmo for 1 dollar. 5) Sell a gizmo for 5 dollars. 6) Profit.

This works for clubbing too: 1) Go to a club. 2) Dance for a song. 3) Dance all night long. 4) Dance with a girl/guy. 5) Talk to girl/guy. 6) Kiss girl/guy. 7) Show girl/guy your apartment. 8) Use your imagination.

Music is also hard to quantify, but it can be done. Making steady progress through a book is a good way. But it can also be done in a qualitative manner by composing an entire song each day. Although it is hard to quantify how “good” a song is, you will probably be able to tell that your quality is going up each time. It would merely be necessary to record every song, and then after several weeks, compare and contrast them and see if you have improved. If not, what can you work on next time?

Members of Project Asymmetry are not satisfied having 3/10, 1/10, and 5/10 on our attributes. We want 10/10 on everything. Or, if that’s not possible, then 10/10, 9/10 and 9/10. But actually, if you measure the right attributes, I bet it is possible to be 10/10 on everything. For instance, training for strength might stagnate your overall endurance. But it can still increase your endurance per unit mass, which is the more important quantity.

We measure our skills relative to our genetic potential, not relative to others. You are not necessarily going to be a Gold Medal Olympian Nobel Prize Winning Chess Grandmaster, because those sorts of prizes are for comparing yourself to others. But forget about others. This is about reaching your maximum genetic potential. So what if your legs are too short to be a champion runner? If being 10/10 of your genetic potential at running means you are condemned to second place, then so be it. Being second place at your maximum potential is still better than 5/10 and having never even started the race.

Further, it is awfully silly to stop training at any point. Since it is unlikely that you will ever actually reach your true genetic potential, every bit of training gets you closer to the asymptotic limit. Besides, are you anywhere near your genetic potential right now on every attribute of yourself? Probably not. Even if you are near your maximum genetic potential at strength, for instance, you are probably not near your genetic potential at coordination, or intelligence, or knowledge. The training should never end, because you can always get better at everything. This is why it is called Project Asymmetry.