No More “Insight Porn”

Jonathan Haidt speaks about something similar in The Happiness Hypothesis. Epiphanies can only take you so far, before their novelty wears off and they lose the power to change your behaviour. This is why self-help book readers tend to keep reading self-help books. 4 weeks after finishing one they need another hit of epiphanies.

Even the lamest examples listed in the OP article can probably give someone a boost in productivity for a while, as long as that epiphanic rush lasts.

I've felt this in myself over the years. I'd hit a low point and try to hoist myself out of it, with some sombre new ethical code for creating a work ethic; some new note taking system; or epiphany gleaned from Shakespeare or Nietzsche.

You can see it in the Jordan Peterson clips that haunt my YouTube shorts.

Out of the 3 "Insight Porn" examples linked in the article, I think the Paul Graham essay seems out of place. I know I know, this is hacker news. Yet another person sticking up for pg. But I just don't think this essay (or others) is really trying to boil some dream/goal into steps. In fact, in the "How to get startup ideas" referenced in this post, pg says:

"So if you can't predict whether there's a path out of an idea, how do you choose between ideas? The truth is disappointing but interesting: if you're the right sort of person, you have the right sort of hunches. If you're at the leading edge of a field that's changing fast, when you have a hunch that something is worth doing, you're more likely to be right."

To me, he is doing the opposite of insight porn. Basically saying this might not even be for you. He doesn't even suggest that you go become an expert in something. Rather, he just throws his hands up. He tries to spare you from the disappointment of hearing this by calling it "interesting". That contrasts _a lot_ with what most of the insight porn is trying to convince you of. They rarely try to disappoint you and mostly just hype/pump you up.

Life is always changing. What advice you read about today may not stick nor apply to you right now, but it may in the future. Things don’t change, we do.

> Many people that truly accomplished amazing things, when asked for the key to their success come up with some framework or playbook that they, in fact, never used themselves.

This comment feels like a rant with no justification. I know many highly accomplished people who will tell you what they did to achieve the promotion, land the deal, or deliver the project. Are they fleeting generalizations in a self-help book? Not usually. But there are visions, systems, and frameworks they have developed over the years, simply summed up as their personal philosophy.

Insights can be profound to one and dumb to another. Does it make insights a bad thing? Absolutely not. Some people are ready for them, some people are not. Some people 10x their life with a simple idea like a vision board. Some never try it because they think it’s dumb. I’m of the opinion that unless you try everything at least twice, you can’t know if it works for you or not.

My guess is that a big chunk of the "insight porn" and self-help landscape would fade away if it was subject to a data driven evaluation. Given a piece of advice or a self-help book, how many people did actually change their behaviour after reading it? And did the change persist long-term? Unfortunately, such data is not available.

Damn. Now I need to read that book next…