#mental-model #hack #rationality # [[Epistemic status]] #godel-uncertain # Related [[Philosophy/Rationality/Models/Antifragility|Antifragility]] [[Seeking discomfort]] [[Hormesis]] [[Adding shocks]] # Flip a coin ![[DALL·E 2022-06-23 18.02.30 - A man flipping a coin, by Picasso.png]] - Should I go to this party or party with my books? **Flip a coin** - Should I take this path or this one? **Flip a coin** - Should I eat this or that? **Flip a coin** - Should I go to this country or that country? **Flip a coin** - Should I roll this gun (Russian roulette)? **Don't flip a coin** -> do not expose yourself to negative [[Philosophy/Rationality/Models/Black Swan|Black Swan]]s >Not every kind of hard is good. There is good pain and bad pain. **You want the kind of pain you get from going running, not the kind you get from stepping on a nail.** >~ [[Paul Graham]] https://flipsimu.com/ Flipping a coin allows you to [[Getting stuck in local minima|quit the local minima]] you're in. ## [[Philosophy/Rationality/Models/Exploration vs exploitation|Exploration vs exploitation]] If you only follow your decisions everyt time, you are only acting upon what you know and ignoring what you don't know. Flipping a coin allows you to explore and learn new things, get upsides from things you wouldn't have done in normal times. ## History ### Date or not date Once I had the choice to go to a date but really didn't want to because I'm quite often bored by dates, so I flipped the coin which forced me to go. It brought me a lot of joy