Tuesday, October 10, 2006

why ignorance is bliss

again a lesson from minesweeper .. performance seems to at its best when you are completely unaware of either your current performance and the objective in mind .. if you know you are close to the target you may tend to speed up (this is common ive noticed this even in school days the temptation to cycle faster once you get near home is very high!) thereby increasing the risk of not reaching the objective.

5 comments:

dya said...

I cannot help thinking I have read this fairly often in your recent musings.
of course, that could be the illogical outcome of your frequent mine-sweeping expeditions..or is it constant reiteration to re-affirm your unsteady conviction, lest you be lead towards the guiding light:)

nice try said...

i think there is a subtle difference between things ive said earlier .. here the ignorance is regarding your current state -- previously ive argued that not having a global objective might not be necessary ive never argued is not a good idea

Point 5 said...

not always true though..u cannot generalise based on a fluky run on minesweeper...in most cases the extra push comes only when you know abt the objective

nice try said...

"know abt the objective" -- certainly pointy it helps to know what the objective is .. but knowing where you are relative to the objective especially when it may alter the course of your actions may be counterproductive

SVR said...

I dunno. I think I disagree. Maybe it's because I claim to be an optimist :) I can't move anywhere without a hope for the goal/a sight of the goal, and my performance sucks without it.