A Case for Mapping the Texture of Your Thoughts

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This post is inspired by a discussion I heard on The Cognitive Revolution podcast, and particularly this quote:

“Establishing your own chain of thought and teaching the model to do the chain of thought in the way that you want it to be done is one of the biggest unlocks for AI automation, application development, you name it.” — Nathan Labenz, talking about GPT-4

Upon hearing this, I paused the audio to process a chain of thought that is bolded below. My future self wrote responses to each chain.

1. How many of us can really articulate the texture of our own thoughts?

Many. But few with a high degree of precision — such as being able to pinpoint personal triggers between different modes of thought. So what if meta-cognition isn’t a well-rounded enough opinion? (This question deserves its own post).

2. I’d love to be able to articulate the way I think…

I’m a fast associative thinker who jumps freely between ideas. I lock into analytical thinking in key bursts, especially when resolving complex or abstract ideas into something testable. Self-analysis (reflective thinking) is a huge part of my process, and I often slow down to do it in the moment rather than…