"Yechezkel, you are living in a dream. Your opinions are in big part fallacious. The reliability of your 'scholarly' judgements are way inferior than what you feel"
Silence. Nobody listens. Nobody even reacts. Nobody home?
"This is serious stuff, Yechezkel. How come will all your pomposity, you cannot even take seriously this problem?"
No reaction.
I start getting alarmed. Am I so close to reality? Why I feel that these basic facts of life cannot reach my inner mind?
Euroka! I guess I got it.
For the mind, its beliefs are true by definition. This is what there is for it.
The map is the territory for the the Atlas book. This is the only thing he knows.
Saying "I do not know" is self-contradictory to the mind, whihc lives in the world of its own thoughts.
Let us remember this.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Run to stay in place. Red qeeun in life management
I am realizing that many spend most of their energy and attention just to stay in place. i.e. not to lose ground to whatever troubles and obstacles come to make our life worse.
It may explain why so many lives do not improve. How can one improve when he fights not to fall in trouble? (see, however, Enjoying life in the good and in the bad about that trying to enjoy life in times we do not like makes much sense)
Theoretically, one may want to invest less in fighting various small fights to have the resources and attention available to the most important issues in life. There are however, a bunch of caveats:
That "saving" effort does not make the person even weaker. Sleepingness of laziness (although I beleive we are so intoctrinated that working hard is useful, that we should beleive by default that laziness is good)
That we know the "more important things" and they are indeed more important. It is very common to have fallacious theories about what is important and what will make sus happier.
That we do not fall prey to other optimization problems. When acting powerfully, every mistake and miscalibrating is more harmful.
It may explain why so many lives do not improve. How can one improve when he fights not to fall in trouble? (see, however, Enjoying life in the good and in the bad about that trying to enjoy life in times we do not like makes much sense)
Theoretically, one may want to invest less in fighting various small fights to have the resources and attention available to the most important issues in life. There are however, a bunch of caveats:
That "saving" effort does not make the person even weaker. Sleepingness of laziness (although I beleive we are so intoctrinated that working hard is useful, that we should beleive by default that laziness is good)
That we know the "more important things" and they are indeed more important. It is very common to have fallacious theories about what is important and what will make sus happier.
That we do not fall prey to other optimization problems. When acting powerfully, every mistake and miscalibrating is more harmful.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
WWDNGH 5: Technical optimization and human beings
I am having these points in mind for a long time. I tried to clarify them for myself for no avail. So I am posting the thoughts as they are. If any reader can add an idea/explanation/thought it would be greatly valued.
I suspect that humans are not built for technically optimizing and managing the lives.
I used to ask people why not try to use Gottman method to predict relationship future (he was able to predict marital satisfaction and happiness with 90% accuracy)
Nobody was willing to think about the idea. But people surely discuss with freinds whether to get married, they do other things to decide and think.
Somehow, an optimal method is not being used. Is technical the term? Or because it does not arises to mind and action in a natural way? (quite plausible).
There may be more to that. And the whole idea of technical things is unclear to me.
That is why certain optimizations of life is not being used. You can get happier by doing meditation, but it involves donig something out of the ordinary, mechanical, and unnatural.
No convincing reason either. You got only the technically csounding claim that "practicing meditation is improving happiness significantly". This is a dry and unnatural reason.
Tell a male skeptic that there are pretty girls in the course and he will run on all four. *this* is a natural motivator.
I suspect that humans are not built for technically optimizing and managing the lives.
I used to ask people why not try to use Gottman method to predict relationship future (he was able to predict marital satisfaction and happiness with 90% accuracy)
Nobody was willing to think about the idea. But people surely discuss with freinds whether to get married, they do other things to decide and think.
Somehow, an optimal method is not being used. Is technical the term? Or because it does not arises to mind and action in a natural way? (quite plausible).
There may be more to that. And the whole idea of technical things is unclear to me.
That is why certain optimizations of life is not being used. You can get happier by doing meditation, but it involves donig something out of the ordinary, mechanical, and unnatural.
No convincing reason either. You got only the technically csounding claim that "practicing meditation is improving happiness significantly". This is a dry and unnatural reason.
Tell a male skeptic that there are pretty girls in the course and he will run on all four. *this* is a natural motivator.
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