Life and Its Feedback Loops: Observing the Long and the Short, the Subtle and the Obvious
Our thoughts and actions — and lives, really — result from a series of feedback loops, some obvious and others less so.
As I type this, I’m drinking coffee. It makes me more alert. A relatively quick feedback loop with obvious and positive results.
However, all caffeine does is push back the tiredness. Over time, my coffee-drinking is collecting the debt in small, imperceptible installment plans. A long feedback loop with subtle, negative effects.
Loops do not exist in isolation; they are intertwined with other loops. Example: I stayed up later than I should’ve last night in hopes the Pittsburgh Steelers would lose. The lack of sleep probably won’t hit me today (thanks to my coffee loop.) Instead, the lack of sleep will combine with those other nights of poor sleep and slowly, over time, it will make me less effective.
What makes long, subtle feedback loops particularly dangerous is that you can easily ignore the feedback when it finally arrives, or attribute it to some other cause. When I’m tired next week, I probably won’t blame the Steelers. Instead, I’ll blame the coffee for being weak or my daughter for waking me up in the middle of the night.
Long, subtle feedback loops also make it difficult to start or keep a habit. I journaled this morning, and I’m confident that journaling ultimately improves my life… but there’s no pudding in which to find the proof. The benefits are not immediate and are more drip than deluge.
Later I’ll exercise and meditate. Both are practices with long feedback loops and dispersed benefits. No one exercise or meditation session will make me for physically or mentally fit, but if I’m fit, it’s because of them.
So… what to do? How can we stop succumbing to the illusions of feedback loops?
I have no great answer. I doubt there’s a silver bullet. There’s simply too many feedback loops going on at any given time, each intractably knotted with others, causes disguised as effects and effects disguised as causes. And besides — I don’t want to give up coffee and I want to stay up again tonight to watch the Patriots.
Here’s my not-great, non-silver answer: Look for the loops. You won’t find all of them, or even many of them. And those you do find might be ignored. But still, by looking for loops (and maybe journaling about them), you’re creating another feedback loop. It’s not quite One Loop to Rule Them All, but there’s much to be said for self-awareness.
I just made more coffee.
