Your "Beliefs Vehicle" Of Choice -- A Combination Of "Brain
and Lane"
BELIEFS ARE BRAIN PLUS LANE
-In Eastern philosophy they say that all beliefs will be proven to be false. -While I personally believe that humans DO have the ability to see aspects of the world "objectively" so to speak, I also believe that the map is not the territory, and beliefs are a VEHICLE that can be upgraded at different phases of your life. -The best "beliefs vehicle" is "autodetected" by your unconscious mind by looking at "brain and lane". -Brain: willpower (PFC), emotional balance, the complexity of truth that your mind can process, level of uncertainty and ambiguity your mind can accept -Lane: status, abilities built over a lifetime of arbitrary experience, what you perceive will gain you social acceptance
ALDOUS HUXLEY RATIONALIZATION AND PAYOFF
-Aldous Huxley "A Brave New World" Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Episilon "I love being a beta, I get to take soma and don't have all the responsibilities of the alphas" -Seminar example... -I see a seminar that costs money, I believe I have the brainpower to understand it and willpower to use it, as well as a lane in which to apply the ideas. -Conversely someone who doesn't think they'd have the willpower to follow up with it, or a lane in which to use it, may believe it's not worthwhile. -Popularity example... -An example of this would be how some kids decide to become popular jocks, others become angry goths. The goth strategy is preemptively handling rejection by doing it for itself,so makes sense to someone in that situation. -Learning from success example... -I see successful people and want to learn from them. This has a payoff to me at this point in my life because I 1) have the brain power to implement their advice, and 2) see a lane in which to use it. -Conversely I used to see success and detect they wouldn't have the willpower to use the advice, or a lane in which to apply it. So I believed they'd gained it through unethical means. I'd say "I could do that, but I don't want to be unethical." It seems irrational, but there was a payoff for that as well. I got to retain confidence that my chosen path in life was the correct one, and not sink into self doubt about my intelligence or work ethic. -Sex example... -I see girls and think it's great that everyone enjoys sex, and that even high quality people enjoy sex. This has a payoff for me because I detect that I have the mental maturity to endure a few rejections to get laid, and I know how to do so. -I used to see girls and think any girl who enjoyed sex was a low quality slut, and that girls in bars were dumb whores and only daytime girls in cafes and libraries were good. This had a payoff because it allowed me rationalize avoiding environments like clubs where I didn't fit in and would've failed anyway, and to have only one woman since getting only one would've been hard. -Why is this important? -This is an important feature of human psychology that we've evolved in order to preserve our confidence, so that as the environment changes and a lane opens up, we aren't riddled with self doubt to take it. -Explain: "Human Confidence Presevation Mechanism"
THE CONFUSION OF CHANGING LANES
-People resent "false hope" because it disrupts this important aspect of the brain. If their brain is chugging along happily with a vehicle that maintains their confidence and prevents self doubt about their lifestyle, and you encourage them to change vehicles, they will feel upset if the new vehicle doesn't turn out to be suited to their environment. -You're saying "Look there's a lane right here" so they change vehicles, but it turns out that the new lane sucks and the old one worked better for them. -Imagine if you were a "goth kid" and thought you could become a "popular kid" and then it didn't work out? You'd be pissed that you were given false hope. -The process of changing lanes is confusing. -Perez Hilton example: A guy who gained success by being the epitome of the guy who looks down on other people to rationalize his own existence, but eventually gained success and had to question his behaviour.
EVOLUTION SEEKS OUT PAYOFFS
-There ultimately has to be a payoff. Derrick said to me that a hippy robbing my backpack is no different than me doing a Bootcamp. It's just a squirrel trying to get a nut. It's doing what it knows how. I'm just lucky that a lane opened up for me to get that nut while still being able to claim the moral higher ground. -Your vehicle evolves the same way the physical characteristics of animals evolve: in response to arbitrary environmental circumstances, and exploitation of niche based abilities. -Compare the stereotypes of the lion or wolf to a cochroach or vulture, or maggot. -Human beings can also adopt behaviours and characteristics that are similar in nature to animals. They can be the primary providers of value, parasites, etc. -The DNA just wants to survive and reproduce. It will go with ANY set of behaviours in order to do so, and then in humans simply rationalize them. -Going back to animals, if you go back far enough they're all related, but they broke off due to random characteristics they had merging into the environment. -The animal's physical and behavioural characteristics are simply "lanes" that it's utilizing, and can evolve differently. The same wolf can evolve into an even more powerful version of itself, or a chihuaua. -It can choose the "wolf lane" or "chihuahua" lane". -The difference between you and an animal is that your belief vehicle is that it's been evolved more recently, and doesn't require multiple generations to change.
CONCLUSION AND STEPS
-Realize that your beliefs vehicle may well have evolved based on factors that you're now smart enough to change. -Once you know better foods and meditation and exercise and absorbing higher quality materials and building on smaller challenges can help your brain, you can choose to gradually improve your PFC and emotional maturity, you can also proactively seek out lanes where you could apply this improved brain power. -Realize that many of your beliefs were taken on for good reason at the time, but you can now upgrade your beliefs by continually improving your brain and trying to create a more and more accurate model of the world. -You can choose to be continually building up your brainpower and becoming more at ease and self trusting to take on a complex and ambiguious model of the world. -In the end, you can then take on the qualities of a more admirable animal, and live a life that you're more proud of. -Because at the end of the day, while the improvement in lifestyle is amazing, being able to look in the mirror and feel proud of who you are, without trying to retain rationalizations about yourself, is one of the biggest payoffs in the world.