January 2020

When I was young, I thought old people had everything figured out.

Now that I'm old, I know this isn't true.

When I was young, I thought old people had everything figured out. Now that I'm old, I know this isn't true.

When I was young I thought old people had everything figured out; now that I'm old I know that isn't true.

I constantly feel like a noob.

It seems like I'm always talking to some startup working in a new field I know nothing about, or reading a book about a topic I don't understand well enough, or visiting some new country where I don't know how things work.

It's not pleasant to feel like a noob.

And the word "noob" is certainly not a compliment.

I constantly feel like a noob — in some new field, book, or country. It's not pleasant, and "noob" is no compliment.

I constantly feel like a noob — in a new field, a book, a foreign country — and it isn't pleasant; the word is no compliment.

And yet today I realized something encouraging about being a noob: the more of a noob you are locally, the less of a noob you are globally.

For example, if you stay in your home country, you'll feel less of a noob than if you move to Farawavia, where everything works differently.

And yet you'll know more if you move.

So the feeling of being a noob is inversely correlated with actual ignorance.

Yet today I realized something encouraging: the more of a noob you are locally, the less globally. Move to Farawavia and you'll feel more of a noob but know more. The feeling is inversely correlated with actual ignorance.

The more of a noob you are locally, the less of a noob you are globally — so the feeling is inversely correlated with actual ignorance.

But if the feeling of being a noob is good for us, why do we dislike it?

What evolutionary purpose could such an aversion serve?

I think the answer is that there are two sources of feeling like a noob: being stupid, and doing something novel.

Our dislike of feeling like a noob is our brain telling us "Come on, come on, figure this out."

Which was the right thing to be thinking for most of human history.

The life of hunter-gatherers was complex, but it didn't change as much as life does now.

They didn't suddenly have to figure out what to do about cryptocurrency.

So it made sense to be biased toward competence at existing problems over the discovery of new ones.

It made sense for humans to dislike the feeling of being a noob, just as, in a world where food was scarce, it made sense for them to dislike the feeling of being hungry.

But if it's good for us, why do we dislike it? Our brain is saying "figure this out" — the right instinct for most of human history.

Life then was complex but didn't change much; nobody had to figure out cryptocurrency. So we favored competence at old problems over discovering new ones, just as, when food was scarce, we learned to dislike being hungry.

We dislike feeling like a noob because for most of human history it paid to favor competence at existing problems over discovering new ones.

Now that too much food is more of a problem than too little, our dislike of feeling hungry leads us astray.

And I think our dislike of feeling like a noob does too.

Though it feels unpleasant, and people will sometimes ridicule you for it, the more you feel like a noob, the better.

Now that too much food is the problem, disliking hunger leads us astray. I think disliking the noob feeling does too.

Though it feels unpleasant, and people will sometimes ridicule you for it, the more you feel like a noob, the better.

Now that too much food is the problem, disliking hunger leads us astray — and so does disliking the feeling of being a noob.