Ivan Bogachev

Our programs fail all the time. Even if it's not our fault, the system discards them automatically. We give up. We bury our dreams. At best, we find a few programs that seem to work and stick with them, forming a "comfort zone" to live in. How can you even design a stable goal-oriented behavior?

Stepping outside, becoming a pathfinder, is already scary on its own, but it often requires us to fight against our own reality checkers on top of that. And it's not just stubbornness. We need to make our programs "work" even if they obviously don't do that. It's a real mind game.

Before we start playing, make sure that your long-term goals are clear and don't violate the natural order. It may sound stupid, but mistakes happen. It's better to double-check that.

The most important rule of the game is that expectations for day-to-day routines have to be fulfilled every single time to keep the momentum. You can't afford any disappointments.

It's tricky. We live in a chaotic world. Every step on the way to your dreams is a lottery, and the house always wins in the long run. You will lose and get off the track eventually.

One of the most versatile techniques for avoiding that statistical trap is a temporal shift from expecting specific achievements for every single step towards general curiosity.

If you expect that your present actions and little experiments will lead to new data entering your system, that's likely to come true just because you're a conscious being, and regardless of any distant goals, current progress, patterns of behavior, global economy, or somebody's opinions.

Even when everything explodes, you still learn something. It works! It's not about feeling good, but about consistently meeting your own expectations to keep the program running. The longer it works, the more results you'll collect at the end.

Also, once expectations are taken care of, you need to make sure that your current program actually leads to your long-term goals.

Things change, and even if they don't, you may not have enough information to aim properly at the beginning of your journey. It's fine to adjust your plans. As long as your standardized "reliable" expectations are fulfilled, you will keep moving.

Consistent alignment of expectations for your programs with live feedback is the only way to stay on track. If the outside world falls into the darkness, don't give up. Make your own fire.

Most things "work" or "don't work" only in your own head.