Brainstorming, Optimism, and Radical Steelmanning
› thoughts Brainstorming, Optimism, and Radical Steelmanning v0.2 · May 31, 2025 · 2 min read · metacognition/self-prompting brainstorming is a sacred word for huxley. for a long time I didn’t understand it, but now my understanding is there are two particular orientations you can have to new information: a closed one and an open one closed: jaded, suspicious, tunnel-visioned— “ugh another one of these” or “idk, X aspect may not work” open: excited, optimistic, curious— “ooh and with Y, you can do even more!”, essentially “yes! and you could” brainstorm mode is the second mode. you steelman ideas, suspending disbelief and imagining what could be (on marrige pact, we both put 7 on a scale of 1-7 for the world needs more (1) reality vs (7) imagination). the real world provides sufficient reality, imagination is our superpower. a vivid example: huxley’s friend was pitching him a project to give to the younger brother. it was an app to get your fav celebrity to read you any audio