This is a response to an article recommended to me. So Bruce, according to Rizzo, needs to fail. He will influence decisions so that the outcome is failure. But Rizzo also points to how people point outward for reasons. “I got mana screwed.” There seems to be two bits that...
I'm sure this idea exists somewhere else, but I haven't found it yet. (Probably my fault, I've only been on here for a few weeks and I'm still working through the core sequences.) The failure's try is a seemingly earnest attempt to overcome a challenge, but the challenger lacks the...
I spend a great deal of my time thinking about how to develop myself. I often wonder about what the most effective way to achieve a goal is, say, learning Mandarin Chinese, and often find the answer lies in a much more critical question. /Why/ am I trying to achieve...
This is an interesting article. I wrote out some thoughts on it.
I think Bruce is not the part of you that needs to lose, but rather the part of you that cares more about your place in society than your own goals.
This is helpful to me, because if I take Bruce to be an agent keeping me in line with my beliefs about society, then if Bruce is keeping me down it's because I believe I'm part of the losing class. I'm doing a good citizen's duty of being walked on so that others may stand taller.
This is a response to an article recommended to me.
So Bruce, according to Rizzo, needs to fail. He will influence decisions so that the outcome is failure. But Rizzo also points to how people point outward for reasons. “I got mana screwed.” There seems to be two bits that produce one idea. “I did nothing wrong.” + “I lost.” = “I deserve to lose.” I think this is the essence of Bruce.
Rizzo offers Bruce as a failure engine, an agent in direct opposition to whichever agent is acting on behalf of The Goal. The Goal is to win the game of magic, Bruce, therefore, is looking for the... (read 642 more words →)
So in my context, the belief that is the limiting belief may be a line of reasoning in which believing that I am successful and others will accept me even if I'm not is actually a bad thing?
I think there's something to that. I think I'm afraid of complacency, but if I have success and acceptance, then am I really being complacent?
This was helpful, thank you.
The question "is it true" is exactly what informs me when I say "I know this fear to be irrational". I've seen situations in which one person is little more than a burden on another, and is still accepted and even taken care of much like one would do with any given loved one regardless of their practical worth. The failure I'm pointing to is that I can completely understand that line of reason, but my intuitive belief seems to be unaffected by it. The update in information created by this test didn't cascade down into my intuition, which I think is because my intuition is holding a piece (or set) of... (read more)
I'm sure this idea exists somewhere else, but I haven't found it yet. (Probably my fault, I've only been on here for a few weeks and I'm still working through the core sequences.)
The failure's try is a seemingly earnest attempt to overcome a challenge, but the challenger lacks the fundamental belief that they can surmount the challenge, and accept the challenge inevitably as evidence to their failure. That is to say, you put in an honest effort without believing you can do it so you can turn around and say it was impossible all along.
I think this is a readily identifiable symptom of cognitive bias, of unevenness of evidence because... (read 323 more words →)
I can still function, most of this trouble lies in my free time, what I do when there is nothing obvious to do. It's perfectly natural to study, go to work and the like. But when I'm ahead in my studies and there's no work to be done, I usually end up feeling like garbage because I feel like I'm wasting time by not doing something important. I had a semester where my solution was simply to not have free time, I overloaded my classes, had 3 jobs, and participated in a bunch of clubs. I was so stressed out I developed shingles. I recognize that I need meaningful resting time, but "down-time" only feel like a problem. I don't feel like I'm doing myself an favor by not doing anything, and I don't perceptively feel refreshed. So when I have free time I try to figure out what I should do and I fall into this trap I outlined.
I find myself struggling with profit escalation and decision paralysis, that is, as I'm doing something Merely Okay I'll find something that is Slightly Better, and I'll change to that because it's better, then I'll find something Slightly Better than the first thing, and after a few rounds I look at how I've started lots and finished little and think, well, if I just picked something I'd probably finish it. But then what to pick? And I pick nothing because I have no criteria for what the best thing to pick is. But when I think, "okay, I'll just pick something Merely Okay and stick to it." I have an equally powerful thought that says "Aren't you wasting your potential? I mean, 'insert Merely Okay thing here', really? That's all you've got?" And I'll think, "well, no, I can do better." Rinse repeat.
Thanks for the recommendation!
I think you've pointed to something I'm aware of but having yet mustered a plan to unravel, which is the need to feel validated. I've long since been aware that simply telling myself "this is good enough" is a short recipe for complacency which is uncomfortable in the short and stifling in the long. I trust even less the judgement of other people. I think I was trying to get at something Hazard mentioned, this idea of universal values so that I could self-validate in accordance with objective criteria, thereby giving myself the power to direct myself and understand if my direction is correct.
I'm of the thinking that even the most... (read more)
I spend a great deal of my time thinking about how to develop myself. I often wonder about what the most effective way to achieve a goal is, say, learning Mandarin Chinese, and often find the answer lies in a much more critical question. /Why/ am I trying to achieve that goal. I struggled with this idea of a "root goal" the primary function of my life that would give order to all other subgoals and I eventually settled on "to be a good human being", as unsatisfactory as that is, because I found no meaningful or fulfilling progress in existential questions of this nature.
Moving on with the understanding that I... (read 788 more words →)
I had this idea too. I think Bruce is an agent of social order. He causes us to lose to keep us on good terms with those around us.
I think he applies on a level even shallower than "I'm afraid if I enter the top 1% of success, my competition will be far too strong.", rather Bruce is eyeballing the situation and thinking. "If I win I get positive X1 and negative Y1, if I give up I get positive X2 and negative Y2, if I lose while seemingly trying to win I get positive X3 and negative Y3." And deems the combination X3 and Y3 to be the most favorable of all of them.