And for those goals, the belief “I can’t control my behavior in this way without hacks” is not a “presupposition”. (It might none the less be a mistake, of course.)
It’s a presupposition if you’re assuming it’s true, without having tested it.
And it’s a dangerous presupposition because it rules out options that lead to an increased sense of control—and sense of control over one’s life is consistently shown to be a VERY important psychological variable for happiness, peace of mind, and motivation.
Self-fulfilling prophecies, again: presupposing lack of control leads to reduced sense of control leads to less actual control, and down the spiral goes. Presupposing greater control—or the ability to learn control—leads to increased sense of control leads to more actual control, and up the spiral goes.
This isn’t about facts, IOW, it’s about frames. I used to make the sort of arguments gworley is making, about nearly everything in my life. My wife and I would talk about trying to arrange the furniture in such a way as to thwart our tendencies to pile stuff up in high-traffic areas… instead of learning to just pick shit up.
I’ve spent most of my life trying to make things work more easily, instead of cultivating the ability to do difficult things. The problem is that it’s effectively sending a subliminal message to yourself that you can’t handle anything difficult. I was making myself weaker and weaker, when I could’ve been getting stronger.
That is my point: that the specific arguments gworley is using, even if “true”, are not useful. I was trying to point out that there are other true things that are more useful to put into your brain, if you want it to produce good results.
This is one of those glass half empty/half full things; from a purely logical perspective there’s no difference, but emotionally—and therefore behaviorally—there is.
My wife and I would talk about trying to arrange the furniture in such a way as to thwart our tendencies to pile stuff up in high-traffic areas… instead of learning to just pick shit up.
Cool! OOC—what strategies/heuristics did you implement to learn this ability?
It’s a presupposition if you’re assuming it’s true, without having tested it.
And it’s a dangerous presupposition because it rules out options that lead to an increased sense of control—and sense of control over one’s life is consistently shown to be a VERY important psychological variable for happiness, peace of mind, and motivation.
Self-fulfilling prophecies, again: presupposing lack of control leads to reduced sense of control leads to less actual control, and down the spiral goes. Presupposing greater control—or the ability to learn control—leads to increased sense of control leads to more actual control, and up the spiral goes.
This isn’t about facts, IOW, it’s about frames. I used to make the sort of arguments gworley is making, about nearly everything in my life. My wife and I would talk about trying to arrange the furniture in such a way as to thwart our tendencies to pile stuff up in high-traffic areas… instead of learning to just pick shit up.
I’ve spent most of my life trying to make things work more easily, instead of cultivating the ability to do difficult things. The problem is that it’s effectively sending a subliminal message to yourself that you can’t handle anything difficult. I was making myself weaker and weaker, when I could’ve been getting stronger.
That is my point: that the specific arguments gworley is using, even if “true”, are not useful. I was trying to point out that there are other true things that are more useful to put into your brain, if you want it to produce good results.
This is one of those glass half empty/half full things; from a purely logical perspective there’s no difference, but emotionally—and therefore behaviorally—there is.
Cool! OOC—what strategies/heuristics did you implement to learn this ability?