This is a difficult problem. I have come to realize there is no one solution. The general strategy I think is to have consistency checks on what you are doing. Your subconscious can only trick you into seeking status and away from optimizing your goals by hiding the contradictions from you. But as ‘willpower’ is not the answer, eternal vigilance isn’t either. But rather you pick up via a mass of observation the myriad ways in which you are led astray, and you fix these individually. Pay attention to something different you regularly do every day and check if this comports with your goals. If you are lucky, your subconscious cannot trick you the same way twice. Though it is quite ingenious.
How many such communities can you be part of (because surely you don’t only have one goal) and still not have them a diluted effect on yourself? How many such communities don’t fall prey to lost purposes? How many can monitor your life with enough fidelity that they can tell if you go astray?
This is a difficult problem. I have come to realize there is no one solution. The general strategy I think is to have consistency checks on what you are doing. Your subconscious can only trick you into seeking status and away from optimizing your goals by hiding the contradictions from you. But as ‘willpower’ is not the answer, eternal vigilance isn’t either. But rather you pick up via a mass of observation the myriad ways in which you are led astray, and you fix these individually. Pay attention to something different you regularly do every day and check if this comports with your goals. If you are lucky, your subconscious cannot trick you the same way twice. Though it is quite ingenious.
Isn’t the general strategy to join or create communities where status is awarded for actually doing the right thing?
How many such communities can you be part of (because surely you don’t only have one goal) and still not have them a diluted effect on yourself? How many such communities don’t fall prey to lost purposes? How many can monitor your life with enough fidelity that they can tell if you go astray?