I think you’ve written a great and rational post, but if it in any way confuses or bothers you that most people aren’t living by the advice you’re giving here, it’s probably *because* you’re assuming that people are as rational as you. I think the main reason that a lot of people lack agency stems from low confidence and a fear of sticking out. Logically, original thinking has a lot of potential, but subconsciously, all that most people are going to feel when their thoughts drift outside of the norm is a fear of judgement which quickly pulls them back again. Simply put, the balance between making oneself an individual and of identifying (and sort of merging oneself) with something larger than oneself is determined by ones confidence.
My internal monitoring of abundance vs scarcity is automatic and instinctual, it drives my exploration vs exploitation ratio, my short vs long-term thinking ratio, my estimation of risk and of consequences, and so on.
The trait of being self-fulfilling is very common in everything human, and akin to “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. Again, it’s mostly about confidence (internally and externally, also in forms like faith, fame, reputation, etc), and the evidence need not be logical. If you hesitate in answering your phone, your brain might see it as “evidence” that phone calls are dangerous, and protect you by reinforcing your phobia of phone calls.
In conclusion, I believe that the psychological viewpoint shouldn’t be overlooked. Personally, I find rational thinking to be the easy part, and the conflict between it and my irrational/conditioned self to be the challenging part. So rather than trying to change how my brain works, I exploit how it currently works.
You might already be aware of this perspective on the problem? In which case we simply just assign different values to these perspectives according to what works for us personally (i.e. I’m just projecting an internal personal conflict between system 1 and system 2 thinking)
PS: First time posting on LW, enjoy my deviation as an instance of agency :)
I think you’ve written a great and rational post, but if it in any way confuses or bothers you that most people aren’t living by the advice you’re giving here, it’s probably *because* you’re assuming that people are as rational as you.
I think the main reason that a lot of people lack agency stems from low confidence and a fear of sticking out. Logically, original thinking has a lot of potential, but subconsciously, all that most people are going to feel when their thoughts drift outside of the norm is a fear of judgement which quickly pulls them back again.
Simply put, the balance between making oneself an individual and of identifying (and sort of merging oneself) with something larger than oneself is determined by ones confidence.
My internal monitoring of abundance vs scarcity is automatic and instinctual, it drives my exploration vs exploitation ratio, my short vs long-term thinking ratio, my estimation of risk and of consequences, and so on.
The trait of being self-fulfilling is very common in everything human, and akin to “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. Again, it’s mostly about confidence (internally and externally, also in forms like faith, fame, reputation, etc), and the evidence need not be logical. If you hesitate in answering your phone, your brain might see it as “evidence” that phone calls are dangerous, and protect you by reinforcing your phobia of phone calls.
In conclusion, I believe that the psychological viewpoint shouldn’t be overlooked.
Personally, I find rational thinking to be the easy part, and the conflict between it and my irrational/conditioned self to be the challenging part. So rather than trying to change how my brain works, I exploit how it currently works.
You might already be aware of this perspective on the problem? In which case we simply just assign different values to these perspectives according to what works for us personally (i.e. I’m just projecting an internal personal conflict between system 1 and system 2 thinking)
PS: First time posting on LW, enjoy my deviation as an instance of agency :)