Developing an Evolutionary Mindset

When you have a question, end it with a "?".

When you have a dispute, quote the individual's text, and clearly explain how.

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This is a hypothetical story about an infant's belief structure development. At birth, the infant's world is unknown, with everything around it appearing as colors and sounds. It lacks knowledge about physical objects and spatial awareness. The infant's primary goal is to experience good emotions and avoid bad ones. However, it frequently cries in frustration, worry, and pain as it experiences the non-ideal reality surrounding it. The infant unconsciously realizes that the only way to suppress anxiety is to not be shocked or surprised by the world around it. Its brain recognizes that surprising or unexpected events cause shock and anxiety. The infant's primary goal is to minimize stressful anxiety from the world around it by understanding the world in such a way that it is no longer shocked or surprised. This anxiety function drives the brain to search for answers and solutions to the world, resulting in avoiding anxiety and confusion while also being rewarded for understanding through the thrill of achievement in understanding. For instance, when the infant learns to walk or eventually ride a bike, it experiences the sheer ecstasy of its new greatest achievement.

The child continues to learn how cause and effect work, using this knowledge to achieve desired outcomes and further avoiding anxiety. Its primary goal is to minimize emotional pain and bring happiness. At an early age, it learns deductive reasoning and incorporates multiple beliefs to form new beliefs without experiencing them firsthand. It enjoys admiring its own preconceptions by repeatedly testing cause and effect. Just as an infant pours out a cup of water knowing that the cup will spill and assuming it’s not trying to get your attention, it’s merely attempting to recreate what it believes will happen and admires the results and will do it repeatedly just out of the enjoyment of admiring its own successful prediction of the outcome. As it gains more understanding, it moves further away from anxiety and more towards achievement. However, the world is constantly changing, and new experiences bring new anxiety and challenges that must be overcome.

At this stage, the infant has constructed an intricate belief structure to comprehend the world. The structure resembles a pyramid, with each solid block representing a definitive idea. Through processing the abstract nature of the reality that surrounds it, the infant forms new concrete ideas. It's similar to constructing a pyramid out of bricks within an unknown forest that is an ever-changing and growing environment. Just as in life, we initially understand the world abstractly before we bring it into a concrete reality, just as we get the gist of a game before we learn the definitive rules. As an infant in the forest of reality, we build our own temple of wisdom by growing and developing our pyramid of beliefs. By contemplating and comprehending more, and discovering ideas that are supported by our existing foundational beliefs, we can add to the height of our pyramid. Similarly, by gaining more experience and foundational knowledge, we can expand the base of the pyramid and ensure it stands even taller than before.

At the top of an individual's value structure lies the pinnacle of the pyramid, representing their most treasured and significant idea or belief. This sacred concept remains of utmost importance and holds the person's greatest passion and conviction, no matter how many other beliefs they accumulate. When a person acquires a new idea or belief that becomes their most valued concept, everything else in their value structure will shift downwards to a lower position, and the top position will be taken by the new most valued idea. This pattern is applicable to everyone, regardless of age or circumstance, as exemplified by the way a child values their balloon and as adult values their wallet with the same level of importance in their respective value structures. The journey of life, from the first steps to milestones like buying a home, is accompanied by new challenges and anxiety, leading to a continuous pursuit of goals, and understanding. But the apex of the pyramid is unique because it represents the individual's ultimate understanding of the abstract world. It requires the most effort, time, and bricks to construct, making it an emotionally significant achievement. The individual is attached to it because it symbolizes all of their previous accomplishments and thinking, and to discover a false belief within their structure would cause immense emotional pain. The further down the pyramid, the less emotional attachment they possess, as these beliefs required less effort pondering to understand and support. However, if a person's most valued belief is proven to be false, it necessitates a complete reassessment of all their past accomplishments and ways of thinking. This process is important for learning and adapting to new information, as it motivates the brain to seek out a more accurate understanding of reality. Essentially, the discomfort caused by a false belief can be seen as a signal to the brain that it needs to reevaluate its assumptions and seek out more accurate information.

This is the brain's penalty function, the price of failing to understand the world correctly includes confusion, anxiety, and emotional pain. If one's cherished belief turns out to be false, there are two options, endure the pain of recognizing one’s errors, or avoid it. Both options have a price and reward. The first option requires bearing the pain and recognizing the errors, and taking the time to rethink one's life. The reward is that one learns from the failure and aligns their understanding with the world, creating a new, more accurate model. The second option is to avoid the pain and suffering by remaining ignorant of the failures, but simultaneously you remain ignorant of the solution, and you will repeat the mistake going forward. This leads to a false understanding of the world that does not match reality, which signals the failure to thrive by adapting. Infants thrive by properly modeling their beliefs to match the world around them, and failure to do so leads to a false structure that will ultimately fail at guiding one toward a better future.

In summary, the development of an infant's mind from birth to forming its belief structure is a continuous journey of minimizing emotional pain and maximizing joy of achievement. Deductive reasoning, with cause-and-effect, plays a significant role in constructing the belief structure. The belief structure resembles a pyramid, with the pinnacle representing the individual's most sacred and emotionally significant belief. False beliefs trigger a penalty function in the brain, causing emotional pain and motivating the brain to seek a more accurate understanding of reality. The options are either to recognize your error, along with its solution, or to remain ignorant of the error, along with the solution, leading to repetition of the same mistakes. Ultimately, the progression of the mind by adapting to the world is success, as you progress past each checkpoint towards understanding.

Continuing from the previous chapter, we discussed the tendency to avoid anxiety and stress by ignoring that one's model of the world is incorrect. But how can someone ignore something so obvious? Unfortunately, not only can people do this, but they often do so in a way that is masked as logical. When an idea is created and deemed to be true, it becomes a brick in a pyramid of beliefs. Each subsequent brick, built upon the foundation of the previous one, is considered more sacred than its predecessor. The construction of each brick not only involves founding itself but also incorporating every brick that supports it, making it a more arduous task than the one before it, and thus more sacred. When someone wants to avoid acknowledging that a sacred belief is incorrect, they use false logic by claiming the sacred belief is known to be true, and therefore all other ideas must conform to support it as true. They don’t realize if a sacred belief were true, its supports would naturally reinforce it, as a belief is a sacred belief because it is the result of many beliefs that are supporting it. But if it lacks support, then it’s an unsupported belief and shouldn’t be reinforced. Therefore, not only is the sacred belief false, but all the ideas conformed to support it are now corrupt with the false conclusion that the sacred belief is true. You should never use a concluded belief to prove its own supports, as this would just be a false cyclical support structure where the structure supports itself and nothing is supported with a foundation.

This happens often when people form ideas that they consider to be the concrete conclusion of reality, as they gain more life experience and knowledge, they create a clearer and more accurate model of the world. The supporters that once upheld a sacred belief may no longer do so because they now uphold a new, more accurate understanding of reality, which should become their new sacred belief. Regardless, many people remain attached to their original belief and continue to claim it as true because it was once their sacred belief, and they tried to conform all other ideas to support it. They fail to recognize that their understanding of the world was less accurate in the past, and that an idea no longer being supported by their understanding of reality means that their understanding has improved. This improved understanding is trying to guide them towards a more accurate answer, which they are failing to recognize as a result of their emotional attachment to their previous conclusion.

This is a person's final attempt to hold onto their sacred belief. Refusing to let go of a false belief and instead using false logic to support it leads to the addition of more false beliefs into one's mind, further distancing their understanding of the world from reality. These unsupported false beliefs are like bricks in a pyramid that are floating with nothing to hold them up. By hoping that false logic will work, one hopes that the sacred brick above will support the brick below. But when they try and use this model to understand the real world, gravity will show them how dreadfully mistaken they are, and it will be done in such a way that their model is not able to guide them to a better future, and instead they will be led to failure of making the best decisions for their wellbeing.

Many people use the excuse that the world is too complex to understand fully, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't work towards it. Although we will never understand everything about the world, that didn't stop us from learning to walk, ride a bike, or buy a home. People tend to stay in their pyramid of concrete beliefs and miss the bigger picture. However, just because we don't have a concrete understanding doesn't mean we can't have an abstract understanding and navigate through life. Art was not concretely understood for a long time, but that didn't stop people from creating masterpieces because they had an abstract sense of it. Nowadays, we have a concrete understanding of music with scientific measurements, this is a solid example of how concrete understanding always follows abstract understanding.

It’s important to know that having a concrete understanding of everything is not necessary for success, just as people were able to design and create new masterpieces even before people had a concrete understanding of music. While it is true that concrete understanding is better than abstract understanding, having an abstract sense is often good enough. For example, people successfully drive cars every day without knowing how they work in detail, and they use tools and objects every day without understanding the chemical composition of the materials or their atomic structures. You don't need to fully understand the world to live successfully, but you do need to adapt to the world and face new challenges. It's important to learn from your failures, by recognizing how you failed and striving to have a clearer understanding in the future, one can live a more successful life.

Although abstract understanding can be useful, it is still important to have a concrete belief structure as a sort of home base, a place of order amidst chaos, a place to retreat from the unknown. However, this does not mean that you need the entire world to be your home. If you have a concrete understanding of the entire world, you will have nothing left to learn or experience. You will no longer have any anxiety, worry, or sense of adventure. There will be no more ecstasy from achievement, no more thrills, no more emotional pain, no more fear, worry, excitement, or surprise. Converting the whole forest into your concrete belief system would signify the culmination of your mind's development and primary objective, ultimately resulting in the end of your progressive life. Beyond that moment, you would simply exist without any motivation or direction to pursue understanding. It is like a necessary evil intent for there to be good intent. You cannot have a hero without a villain. Similarly, without a problem to solve, you cannot become a victorious problem solver. A person who lacks the drive to pursue anything just exists, with no significance or direction, and worst of all they know it, with no meaning or direction. Rather than giving up because they realize they’ll never reach the end of understanding, they should be thrilled with joy that they will never be held back from being a victorious achiever, and that there will always be new problems to conquer.

People who believe that there's no point in trying to understand the world because they can never fully comprehend it don't realize that concrete understanding is built on top of abstract understanding, just as a concrete pyramid is built within a forest. The line between abstraction and concrete understanding is not clear-cut because some concrete beliefs are formed by combining both concrete and abstract ideas. It's like a jungle growing on the sides of a concrete pyramid, with vines at different heights, thicknesses, and levels, but none of them reaching the top. Every time you get a firmer grasp of an abstract idea you create a new concrete belief similarly pushing the vines back further and further from the top of your concrete beliefs.

The key to take away from this is to distinguish between true logic and false logic. Are you using a sacred idea to support itself with no structure, or are you truly supporting it with sound reasoning? You must also recognize the cost and benefit of acknowledging one’s failure along with its solution, or remaining ignorant of it along with its solution, therefore repeating the same mistakes. Adapting to an ever-changing environment requires letting go of old ideas that are no longer sufficient for navigating the always changing future.

In this chapter, we will summarize all the knowledge we have learned so far on how to think like a champion. We will discuss how to identify which beliefs need to be pruned, the process of pruning them, and how to effectively utilize our belief structure to navigate towards success in the world.

To begin, we must understand which beliefs are no longer relevant and need to be pruned from our belief structure, and to do this, we need to recognize what constitutes an outdated belief. We learn the most when we venture into the unknown, whether it's exploring a new place or navigating through uncharted territories in the forest of our minds. Staying within the confines of our familiar belief pyramid restricts our learning potential, this is because we are only venturing into places we have already mapped out and explored. Our pursuit of understanding and growth can only be done by learning new things and venturing into the unknown. This unknown frontier to explore is known as life experience, the accumulation of knowledge and skills gained by facing new situations and overcoming challenges. By doing so, we broaden our understanding of the world and create a more relevant belief structure.

As we go through life, our beliefs expand and become more complex with new experiences, forming a stronger foundation for personal growth. Learning introduces new variables, and because our beliefs are an imperfect reflection of reality, they are continuously reshaped to better align with the world around us. It's akin to a sailor exploring unknown waters, charting the seas as they sail. By doing so, they are better equipped to navigate previously traveled waters with fewer mistakes since they have already been charted, and they can use the skill of how to venture into the unknown and act confidently in uncharted seas. As we encounter new information that challenges or enriches our existing beliefs, we must remain adaptable and adjust our beliefs accordingly. For example, a child may believe their cereal won't spill if they don't spill it themselves, but after observing someone else can spill it, they learn that their cereal isn't necessarily safe. They must now update their belief structure to accompany this new variable, then in the future when they know they won’t spill the cereal, they won’t still hold the belief that their cereal is completely safe and make the same mistake. By remaining open to new experiences and information, we can continuously grow and evolve our understanding of the world.

When an idea needs to be pruned, you will recognize that it is insufficient or entirely incorrect in predicting the world even though it may have been sufficient in the past. This realization comes in the form of confusion, when you become confused, it shows that an idea or preconception you had is not true. It may have been sufficient before, but with the changing world around you, it is no longer accurate. At this point, you need to be ready to abandon the idea and think of a new conclusion that better fits all the new contributing factors combined with the old ones, even though it can be painful to confront your failures. You will know that an idea needs to be pruned when your new supporting beliefs added with your previous ones no longer support the sacred idea as it was the conclusion of all of them together. However, remember that the price of pain is rewarded with a better understanding of the world, and it will help you navigate life more successfully.

It's crucial to distinguish between the supporting beliefs and the sacred belief in your belief structure. The more effort it took to conclude, the more sacred the belief is, and we must support our ideas from the bottom up rather than from the top down. This means using the lower-level and less emotionally attached beliefs to work our way up the pyramid using proper logic, rather than using false logic and starting from the top down. It's vital not to become too attached to any idea and be willing to adapt since the world is always changing. Once you’ve decided not to adapt, you're already doomed to fail in navigating the changing seas of life. If you decide you’re not willing to negotiate the possibility your belief is false, you won't be able to update your belief structure in that area when new information arises, as it always does, since we never fully grasp the complexity of reality, but merely understand a low-resolution image of it. Refusing to adapt will lead to repeating the same mistakes due to the limited belief structure instead of adapting to new problems and preventing them from repeating. Individuals who are no longer willing to negotiate a topic and believe that it is an absolute certainty may find a sense of security in their beliefs. However, this security is merely a façade, it masks the reality that they are chained to their belief structure and unable to properly adapt to the world. As a result, they fail to thrive in adapting and creating a better model of the world for their own well-being and continue to repeat the same mistakes. You should avoid becoming too emotionally attached to an idea that you reject new information and fail to update your belief structure accordingly. It is crucial to adapt to new knowledge and life experience in order to navigate the world with a more accurate understanding.

Having an open mind is often associated with people who want others to agree with their absurd ideas, resulting in many believing that the term "keep an open mind" is synonymous with a mild insanity, it has been overused and devalued to the point where its crucial meaning and significance have been lost. This is a tragedy, as open-mindedness is a crucial factor in adapting and navigating life, never becoming too attached to an idea that you are not willing to rethink when you learn new things in your ongoing journey through life. The mindset of keeping an open mind, entails making the most plausible assumption and proceeding as if it were true, while being mindful that it could potentially be incorrect. It involves embracing the idea that one's best idea or most probable reason may not always be the right one and being receptive to new perspectives and evidence. Confusion is a sign that one of your contributing beliefs to your conclusion is a false belief, as it has failed to properly guide you through life. Sometimes, it may be due to the lack of all contributing factors, or the idea has changed as it always will over time, and one must learn to adapt to it. This is why having an open mind is so important to adapt to the world around you and to properly navigate through life's changing seas.

It is crucial to always maintain an open mind and avoid using a more sacred belief to support a less sacred one, but instead, work from the less sacred beliefs to create a more sacred belief. One should not have a preconceived outcome in mind when building their belief structure. This is equivalent to working from the top of the pyramid down, where supports are created to fit the top, rather than the other way around. Doing so leads to a corrupted belief structure that cannot navigate the future. A belief must be pruned if it no longer suffices in predicting the future or if it causes confusion. Pruning involves no longer holding the belief as true, and instead, using lesser sacred beliefs to build a new, more adequate replacement for the outdated, or no longer sufficient belief.

To best navigate the world to success, you need a deep understanding of your own beliefs and how they impact your thoughts and actions. It's important to recognize that beliefs are not static and can change over time based on new experiences and knowledge gained. By regularly examining your beliefs and challenging them, you can ensure that they are aligned with reality. Then, when faced with complex decisions or challenging situations, your belief structure can serve as a compass, guiding you towards the best course of action. It's important to consider all information to ensure that your beliefs are well-rounded and match reality the most accurately. By using your belief structure in a flexible and thoughtful manner, you can navigate the world with confidence and achieve success.

Part 4:

Let's discuss an example of how we can use our belief structure to solve a real-world problem. Say you attempted a math problem and the answer turned out to be incorrect. To use your belief structure in solving this problem, you must identify which of the contributing beliefs made you believe that the answer was correct. You held several beliefs, including that you had done the steps to the math problem correctly, that you had counted it in your head correctly, and that you hadn't forgotten anything. These contributing beliefs led to a sacred belief, that you had the correct answer. However, since the answer turned out to be false, you must acknowledge that your belief structure must have had a false support and identify which of the contributing beliefs was false.

What would someone do by using fake logic and holding on to their sacred belief? They would say well I know the answer has to be correct so maybe the test is wrong, they start creating supports to hold up their sacred conclusion so that they don’t have to acknowledge their failure while sadly remaining ignorant to the solution to prevent this from happening again. While the proper thing to do is let go of your sacred belief such as that you got the answer right and rethink, the answer would have been right if all my supporting beliefs were true. Therefore, one or more of the supporting beliefs must be false, and sure enough your supporting belief that you did the steps to the math problem correctly was false since you forgot to carry the one.

This is a clear illustration of how holding onto a sacred belief and using fake logic can lead to errors. To avoid this, it is important to let go of incorrect beliefs and examine what led you to hold them in the first place, identifying any false supporting beliefs. Once these have been identified, you can learn from your mistakes, figure out the cause, and then deduce how to prevent it from happening again. By adapting your mentality in this way, you can gain a better understanding of the world and become a more effective navigator through life's changing environment.

False beliefs are often created to support sacred beliefs, and this type of flawed thinking can have much more damaging consequences than making errors on a math exam. It can lead to naivety, mistrust, and an inability to live life fully. For example, a person may continue to believe that someone they love still cares for them, despite all evidence to the contrary. It can be difficult to accept that this cherished belief may be false, after having believed it for so long. Similarly, a person may cling to the idea that a particular sports player is still the best of all time, even though they have been surpassed by others. This is because they have become emotionally attached to the idea of this player's greatness and it can be hard to let go of this belief and accept a new reality.

Many people hold onto false beliefs that support their sacred beliefs in areas such as relationships, religion, success, and self-pride, or any other aspect of belief that is emotionally driven. They become emotionally attached to these beliefs and create sub-beliefs that fit them, rather than allowing their beliefs to fit their supports. This confusion between real and fake logic corrupts their belief structure, making it fail to match reality and guide them through it. Even as adults, people may resist adapting their beliefs to match the world around them because they prefer the security of certainty, even if it means holding onto incorrect beliefs.

To thrive and adapt in the world, we must recognize that our beliefs are not certain and that we must be ready to adapt when new information reveals itself. This does not mean we should do nothing or abandon our beliefs altogether, but rather we should do what we feel is the most probable or best option based on the knowledge we have, while also acknowledging the potential for error. By keeping an open mind and being ready to adapt, we can stay in sync with the world and avoid falling behind.

For instance, let's say someone believes that they can only be successful if they work 80 hours a week and sacrifice their personal life. They hold onto this belief tightly and create sub-beliefs to support it, such as "there's no such thing as work-life balance" or "successful people don't have time for hobbies or relationships." They ignore evidence that contradicts this belief, such as the fact that many successful people prioritize their personal lives and that working excessively can lead to burnout and decreased productivity. As a result, they continue to work excessively and neglect their personal life, which may lead to relationship problems, physical and mental health issues, and ultimately, a less successful future than they could have had if they had a more accurate belief structure that aligned with reality.

Another example of an improper belief structure that can lead to harm is in the realm of business and entrepreneurship. Someone may have a strong belief that their business idea is foolproof and will inevitably lead to success. They become attached to this belief and refuse to recognize any evidence that suggests otherwise. They may invest all of their time and money into this idea, without properly researching the market or adapting to changes in the industry. This belief structure can lead to a false sense of security and a lack of preparedness for potential failures. As a result, they may be blindsided when their business idea fails and may suffer significant financial losses. In this case, an improper belief structure can lead to a misguided sense of confidence that can result in negative consequences.

An example of how an improper belief structure can harm an individual's successful future is in the realm of career advancement. Let's say an individual holds a strong belief that hard work is the only key to success in their field. While hard work is undoubtedly essential, other factors such as networking, communication skills, and emotional intelligence can also play a significant role in career advancement. If this individual fails to acknowledge and work on these other important factors due to their misguided belief, they may not progress as far in their career as they could have. They may also experience frustration and disappointment as their hard work alone doesn't seem to be yielding the desired results. Therefore, having a more well-rounded and accurate belief structure about what it takes to succeed in their particular field can lead to better outcomes and greater job satisfaction.

As you can see, having a proper belief structure is essential to having a successful life. False beliefs can affect us in every aspect of our lives, leading us down the wrong path. Therefore, it is crucial to develop a proper belief system that guides us in making the right decisions in all areas of our lives, helping us achieve success and fulfillment. Gather your knowledge and create sacred beliefs from the non-sacred ones, not the other way around. Be aware that your beliefs may be incorrect but accept them for the time being as the most probable reason and proceed as if they are true. Meanwhile, being prepared to correct them if you learn new knowledge that when accompanied with your current knowledge reveals otherwise. This is the way that you can adapt with the world around you, so that your map is an accurate model of the world and can properly guide you to success and avoid failure. Do not fall into the trap of ignoring your failures while simultaneously remaining ignorant of the solutions, as this will only lead to repeated mistakes and self-inflicted failures in your life.

If anyone seeks additional insights on cultivating a mindset that enhances their ability to learn from debates, I am more than willing to provide further elaboration.