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What if you did the exact opposite, like rogue bees do (2020)

mrdbourke.com

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Re: What if you did the exact opposite, like rogue bees do (2020)

#51

Post by Abimelex »

neilk wrote: post #8

I couldn't find any other reference to this rogue bee thing (except other inspirational essays). Wikipedia's entry on the waggle dance seems to suggest that bees often don't make use of the information in the dance. It's not some rare maverick bees per se. It's more that the information may not be important given the season or climate or presence of competition for the food. So it can be adaptive to ignore it. https:…

It's interesting, that even in a community like HN, almost nobody seems to ask for the scientific reference here. Might have something to do with confirmation bias? Or is there such a thing like sounds-interesting-AF-bias?

Re: What if you did the exact opposite, like rogue bees do (2020)

#52

Post by mcny »

kurthr wrote: post #34
aeturnum wrote: post #17

I think there's a trap people fall into where they want to talk about stochastic processes that are facilitated by group dynamics using individualist language: > Knowing this, it might be worth ignoring the waggle dance of those around you every so often. Some bees being predisposed through biology or chemical messaging to ignore information is fundamentally different from an individual deciding to ignore messaging.…

This is an important point. I also see it when people talk about drones vs workers vs Queen in a hive. All of the other bees really are effectively arms of the Queen. The Queen lives 1-3years before another queen takes over, while the rest of the bees live 7 weeks. She mates once, but her drones are just a bunch of flying sexual organs than can mate with multiple outside queens several seasons each year. She can stin…

> Some fraction may not go through the normal cycle, but it can't be many.

Maybe it is because I just saw an animated video on cancer (I’ll find the link when I get home) on YouTube but then so are we thinking of a bee hive as one individual? Like in the video, they talk about how cancer cells refuse to die when something bad happens like they are supposed to…

So this is going to sound cheesy but now I have to wonder, could you zoom out on humans as well? On earth? Are what we call “living beings” what we would call “malignant cells” or at best mutations?

Now that’s a scary thought.

Edit: I think it is this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmpuerlbJu0

Re: What if you did the exact opposite, like rogue bees do (2020)

#53

Post by jimmySixDOF »

shaburn wrote: post #19

Look up Charlie Munger on Bee Say Something Syndrome with the waggle dance.

Yes, and as I recall he was firmly in the camp that disruptive counter establishment voices get in the way of scalable Six Sigma type business and don't belong at the table. I must defer to his seniority but think it's getting progressively harder to tell a rabbit hole to nowhere from a portal to the next dimension.

Re: What if you did the exact opposite, like rogue bees do (2020)

#57

Post by kloch »

This is why I prefer "loosely scripted vacations". I might have one or two destinations/activities planned in advance but always try to leave some days/times open if possible to explore the unknown. Sometimes this means not even booking a hotel for some nights and deciding where to go/stay the same day.

Re: What if you did the exact opposite, like rogue bees do (2020)

#58

Post by LesZedCB »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #43

The whole "opt out of expected group-think behavior" reminds me of a paper regarding the tunneling and movement behavior of ants: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/science/ants-worker-idlen... The gist of it is that 30% of studied ants do 70% of the work in digging tunnels. Other ants come in, see that it is too crowded, and don't try to force their way in in an effort to prove they're working hard to the other ants…

some ants love to work, it brings them meaning.

some ants love to mountain bike, and who can blame them?

Re: What if you did the exact opposite, like rogue bees do (2020)

#59

Post by codetrotter »

aeturnum wrote: post #17

I think there's a trap people fall into where they want to talk about stochastic processes that are facilitated by group dynamics using individualist language: > Knowing this, it might be worth ignoring the waggle dance of those around you every so often. Some bees being predisposed through biology or chemical messaging to ignore information is fundamentally different from an individual deciding to ignore messaging.…

> Some bees being predisposed through biology or chemical messaging to ignore information is fundamentally different from an individual deciding to ignore messaging

Why can’t it be that people who are prone to ignore messaging also do so because of biological predisposition? Brain chemistry!

Re: What if you did the exact opposite, like rogue bees do (2020)

#60

Post by watwut »

Zetice wrote: post #38

Okay heh, bees may not actually do this the way described in the essay, but that doesn't invalidate the point, does it? When there's safety in failure, take risks, and favor risks that have asymptotic upside. Seems like good advice to me!

If there is safety in the failure, should it be called a risk?
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