Hey guys, I’m fairly new to the rationality community (only at page 350 of the book), but I think I might have experienced a belief in belief in belief. I’m trying not to spend too much time online and this story is a bit embarrassing, but I remember that Eliezer wondered about it so I figured I might as well share.
I have a pretty bad relationship with my father, and I don’t think very highly of him. But one thing I notice is that whenever he does something that hurt me/I consider selfish, I’m always scandalized. I tried to figure out why I keep reacting that way, because if you asked me to predict my father’s behavior I’ll probably come up with something pretty negative. So even if a part of me still hope for a better relationship, It makes no sense for me to be surprised by his behavior.
Then I thought, what if I keep that surprise and anger because a thought of me not being surprised by it, of me being so indifferent to my own father, is monstrous to me? Thinking that I might not be sad at his funeral (not that it’s close or anything like that) actually scares me. I don’t know how I could live with myself if I truly one hundred percent gave up on my father.
So, it’s not that I believe he’s a good father, It’s not that I believe I should believe he’s a good father, It’s that I believe I should believe I should believe he’s a good father.
To explain:
First level of belief – I expect my father to be a good parent.
Second level of belief – Believing that my father is a good parent has some benefit, so I’ll “believe” it to get the benefit, or the placebo effect of the benefit.
Third level of belief – TRYING to believe that my father is a good parent have the benefit of me not having to think about myself as cold hearted. It’s making the effort that count, not the result, so it never needed to go as far as changing what I think about my father, or changing what I think I should think. It’s not that I think I should think he’s a good parent, is that I think I should try to think that.
Or maybe I just haven’t truly accepted that that’s the way he is. Can you accurately predict a situation and still not accept it? I usually think about the world in terms of “believing in your heart” and “believing in your mind”, but shouldn’t a complete understanding in your mind also change your heart?
Congratulations; what you wrote here makes a lot of sense! It is probably very frequent that people cling to a belief because of what having this belief means about them. “Am I a good person or a bad person for believing X?”
A word of warning though: we cannot easily revert this stupidity, because it can work both ways. For example, both “I believe in X, because I am a good person” and “I don’t believe in X, because I am a sophisticated person” are ultimately about your image. At the end, the only thing relevant to making correct beliefs about X is, well, the evidence about X. Not what it means about us.
Also, words like “bad” are probably too general. Your father can be doing a good thing A, and a bad thing B (and a morally neutral thing C) -- these facts are not mutually exclusive. It might make more sense to be more specific about the ways he disappoints you, and the ways he doesn’t.
Hey you, I was browsing this thread to see if new people maybe post here first if they want to keep low key. But since you’re also new I decided to read your comment and get my bearings, I think I might have some insight into what you’re experiencing and I’ll reply below, but first:
full disclosure/disclaimers
English is not my first language; My memory is shit and I’m new to all this so the jargon is beyond me at this point; I’m admittedly ignorant about most things, specially when they feel like I should really really really have known about it before I felt so lonely thinking in this weird way that most people don’t get; I’m also slightly inebriated so I might miss the point entirely. I guess what I’m trying to do is warn you is that I don’t know enough of anything so this might not be worth your time and I’m sorry about it.
That said, while I think that not wanting to become a monster is a good reason to don’t/do almost anything I also think that the first apparently valid conclusion might not be the important one. For example I think you should consider the possibility that you are having a hard time letting go of the hope that your father is a decent human. I think you should possibly think about why would it be bad to expect a shit person to be shit, IMO you should be entitled to pick who gets to affect you emotionally if at all.
Were I in your position I’d open a mind map and brainstorm with myself for a while so I could try and figure it out. Best lucks whatever you decide to do :)
Hey guys, I’m fairly new to the rationality community (only at page 350 of the book), but I think I might have experienced a belief in belief in belief. I’m trying not to spend too much time online and this story is a bit embarrassing, but I remember that Eliezer wondered about it so I figured I might as well share.
I have a pretty bad relationship with my father, and I don’t think very highly of him. But one thing I notice is that whenever he does something that hurt me/I consider selfish, I’m always scandalized. I tried to figure out why I keep reacting that way, because if you asked me to predict my father’s behavior I’ll probably come up with something pretty negative. So even if a part of me still hope for a better relationship, It makes no sense for me to be surprised by his behavior.
Then I thought, what if I keep that surprise and anger because a thought of me not being surprised by it, of me being so indifferent to my own father, is monstrous to me? Thinking that I might not be sad at his funeral (not that it’s close or anything like that) actually scares me. I don’t know how I could live with myself if I truly one hundred percent gave up on my father.
So, it’s not that I believe he’s a good father, It’s not that I believe I should believe he’s a good father, It’s that I believe I should believe I should believe he’s a good father.
To explain: First level of belief – I expect my father to be a good parent. Second level of belief – Believing that my father is a good parent has some benefit, so I’ll “believe” it to get the benefit, or the placebo effect of the benefit. Third level of belief – TRYING to believe that my father is a good parent have the benefit of me not having to think about myself as cold hearted. It’s making the effort that count, not the result, so it never needed to go as far as changing what I think about my father, or changing what I think I should think. It’s not that I think I should think he’s a good parent, is that I think I should try to think that.
Or maybe I just haven’t truly accepted that that’s the way he is. Can you accurately predict a situation and still not accept it? I usually think about the world in terms of “believing in your heart” and “believing in your mind”, but shouldn’t a complete understanding in your mind also change your heart?
Congratulations; what you wrote here makes a lot of sense! It is probably very frequent that people cling to a belief because of what having this belief means about them. “Am I a good person or a bad person for believing X?”
A word of warning though: we cannot easily revert this stupidity, because it can work both ways. For example, both “I believe in X, because I am a good person” and “I don’t believe in X, because I am a sophisticated person” are ultimately about your image. At the end, the only thing relevant to making correct beliefs about X is, well, the evidence about X. Not what it means about us.
Also, words like “bad” are probably too general. Your father can be doing a good thing A, and a bad thing B (and a morally neutral thing C) -- these facts are not mutually exclusive. It might make more sense to be more specific about the ways he disappoints you, and the ways he doesn’t.
Everything I wanted to say you said better and before, so have a karma (the original post too).
It’s almost like we read the same Sequences. :D
OMG, it’s a brainwashing cult, run for your lives!!!
Hey you, I was browsing this thread to see if new people maybe post here first if they want to keep low key. But since you’re also new I decided to read your comment and get my bearings, I think I might have some insight into what you’re experiencing and I’ll reply below, but first:
full disclosure/disclaimers English is not my first language; My memory is shit and I’m new to all this so the jargon is beyond me at this point; I’m admittedly ignorant about most things, specially when they feel like I should really really really have known about it before I felt so lonely thinking in this weird way that most people don’t get; I’m also slightly inebriated so I might miss the point entirely. I guess what I’m trying to do is warn you is that I don’t know enough of anything so this might not be worth your time and I’m sorry about it.
That said, while I think that not wanting to become a monster is a good reason to don’t/do almost anything I also think that the first apparently valid conclusion might not be the important one. For example I think you should consider the possibility that you are having a hard time letting go of the hope that your father is a decent human. I think you should possibly think about why would it be bad to expect a shit person to be shit, IMO you should be entitled to pick who gets to affect you emotionally if at all.
Were I in your position I’d open a mind map and brainstorm with myself for a while so I could try and figure it out. Best lucks whatever you decide to do :)