I like the difference between single points and frontlines of influence. It comes up in vegetation science, where there is the Eternal Question of the Continuity of Communities; and some events and environments in my life felt like approaching lines, like the marriage, and some like points, like the wedding.
And, also from veg.sc., the notion of (scaled) phytosociological relevés. When you do that, you have to "edit" the picture of "grass and shrubbery" you see so that you can estimate the % of soil covered by different species, and not be distracted by flowers & dead plants, and probably recognize levels within the "grass", etc., and look for patchiness, etc., and find a way to express it all. I have known people compiling relevés in ten minutes flat; a colleague wave a hand at a spot of Erythronium caucasicum, half-screened by the rain, and remark "Huh, no clones here"... It just becomes a way of seeing stuff, with practice. Wiki
And lastly, the Image of the Species, which is the image of something you have encountered many times and recognize "directly", which might differ from such shaped by a different set of observations.
All this sounds interesting, but without more resources (or biology background) I'm not sure I'm getting this.
I like the difference between single points and frontlines of influence.
Is the frontline (as you mean it) only considered in time (not e.g. physical space)? I.e. it's just a different way of saying "something exerts influence for a period of time" vs "something changes suddenly"?
And, also from veg.sc., the notion of (scaled) phytosociological relevés.
I think I get what the process looks like, but does it mean as a conce...
Background:
I'm recently doing a big project to increase my scholarship and modeling power for both rationality and traditional "serious" topics. One thing I found very useful is taking notes with a clear structure.
The structure I'm using currently is as follows:
- write down useful concepts,
- write down (as a separate category) useful heuristics & things to do in various situations,
- do not write facts, opinions or anything else (I rely on unaided memory to get more filtering).
Heuristic: learn concepts before facts!
Note that you can be mistaken about facts, but you can't harm your epistemology by learning concepts. Even if a concept turns out to be useless or misleading, you are better off knowing about it, understanding how it's misleading, and being able to avoid the trap when you see it.
Let's share concepts!
Please give (at a minimum) a name and a reference (link). A short description in plain language is also welcome.