How to save yourself by thinking backwards and upside down.
Probably ninety percent of the trouble that comes in any field in which
you try to improve yourself comes from the "sure thing", the system
that can't be wrong, and logic which is all too perfect. If you find
yourself saying "How can it be any other way", you're already in big
trouble.
I'm talking about the "non-falsifiable proposition". In weightlifting
or bodybuilding there are lots of them, in religion there are lots more
and the world of business and finance takes the cake. This happens
mainly when your mind plays a trick on you. It starts with a certain
type of closed logic, and ends with mentally converting any feedback to
the contrary into 'proof' of the logical setup you began with. If
you're right you're right and if you're wrong, it's still proof that
you're right.
The easiest example is from the "positive attitude" culture, where any
failure is proof that you need a better attitude. From my own
experience, people with lousy attitudes win just as often as people
with attitudes that make the birds sing. If you score more points or
lift more weight than the other guy, you win. All the positivity in the
world isn't going to save you from getting trounced by a stronger guy
with a lousy attitude who still manages to haul him or herself onto the
platform. Who knows? He just might have been paranoid and insecure
enough to cover one more base than you. If you get beat, you need to
work on your sport, a good attitude follows good performance more often
I've seen, than the other way around.
Another example is what I call the "closed system". It's a system where
if every solution is a hammer, every problem is a nail. If you are
stuck or going backwards all you need to do is fiddle with one factor
and miraculously it will help you. If you are in yet more trouble, then
do less or more of that thing and so on it continues till you get hurt,
or quit.
I'm sure all of you know about this and can come up with more examples
from a variety of places. The reason I think understanding these traps
can help you is contained in the phrase "non-falsifiable proposition"
itself. The way to solid ground is to falsify it. Imagine where can it
not work. If it is true under one set of circumstances it will be false
under others, the pill that saves you from one disease will kill you if
taken under the wrong circumstances if it is effective under any. Eat
your desert first, start by falsifying it then work in.
This is where it works for you. Instead of putting endless layers of
shiny paint on what you want to be true, imagine where it is not true.
Work as hard on this and your idea will round out allot better. It
isn't a matter of "attacking" your notion, it's a matter of defining or
learning the limits of it. Any set is defined by what's outside of it
just as much as what is in, you can work either side of that line.
All that it true or useful has limits. Know the limits, see the truth-at least much more clearly.
Bryce Lane 9.19.07