Simple Rules, Complex Results
Listening to Lex Fridman’s podcast with guest Stephen Wolfram, I really liked a particle surprise that Stephen had — that simple rules can lead to complex outcomes. Life, physics, and even large language models are predicated on simple rules. However, the results can be extremely complex and diverse.
It might be helpful for us to find the analog for simple rules in living life that can of course have profound, generational outcomes. Only eat this food, only marry like this, go on a daily walk, etc. While each step in implementing the rule will seem simple and inconsequential, the results compound to create diverse and large outcomes.
Likewise, even when we are not consciously following some rules, we are acting out some unspoken ones. It might be worthwhile to stop and assess what rules we are living by even by doing a “rule inventory”. We then look back and whether this rule or rules have served us in getting to a desired outcome or whether we might want to adopt replacement rules. The replacements, of course, should be simple.
