Self-doubt and Aphorisms on Ludic Fallacy
Monday Map
Hello reader, you are reading Monday Map. It is my sincere wish that you have a productive week. For today and this week, I want to share something from recent weeks and how I have been dealing with the issue.
The Issue of Self-doubt
My friend recently told me of how I am now less bold about my claims. Or to be more direct, how I am now timid and my tone being fearful. Well, there is a reason for that.
Since I went in the way of the philosopher- studying, reasoning, making claims, defending them, arriving at answers, I have faced cycles of self-doubt. While I always laud myself about my thirst for knowledge and answers on how the world works, I am usually silent about how heavily skeptical I am. It is that skepticism (even of myself) that bites me from time to time and keeps me quiet.
Paul the Apostle wrote in 1st Corinthians 8:1 that “knowledge puffs up…” and I would be lying if I say that I don't spot that puffing up in myself from time to time. Studying hard with the intention of understanding the world around you produces a haughty mind.
The haughty mind, stemming from a self-conception of being well-read, hence dignified, sneers at those: the peasants, the normies, the irrational, the animalistic, the snoozers, who do not either have the luxury or interest in understanding how the world they live in works. The haughty mind sneers at them because they don’t care about knowing, reasoning, arguing, or being articulate about the world. They just want to snooze through it and live. And I say that to live, they should.
I have conceded that knowledge is not everything. Being an “intellectual” is overrated. And those committed to knowing, arguing, and articulating, have been a small percentage from all men in history. They have been the minority. I think humanity has done well so far with that tiny percentage.
I love when my issues with self-doubt become loud again. Because when I am in my most skeptical condition, what I learn and leave when the condition ends or subsides is not knowledge (or quantitative knowledge) but rather values or virtues (or qualitative knowledge). Or better yet, wisdom.
I have a baseline. A set of principles I should never fall below, or at least always strive to live above. My principles at this stage in life are almost cast in stone. However, other forms of knowledge that are not essential to how I lead my life are written in sand, vulnerable to the wind, and always ready to be rewritten. This means that I can shift across notions-multiple notions without interrupting the operating system of my life. It allows me to be intellectually flexible, and principally solid. To me, this is a win at all levels.
Whether I am being fearful or careful, I don’t know, and I have not realized. But I know that per time, an evaluation is necessary. And necessary to every evaluation is quietness, serenity, time, and courage. I guess this is one of those evaluation periods. I should come out with guns blazing soon. Vale.
Five Aphorisms On The Ludic Fallacy And Domain Dependence
These aphorisms below are quick mind tips on how to capture information pertaining to the Ludic fallacy and Domain-dependence. They are culled from Nicholas Nassim Taleb’s book Bed of Procrustes.
“When you beat up someone physically, you get exercise and stress relief; when you assault him verbally on the Internet, you just harm yourself.”
“Just as eating cow meat doesn’t turn you into a cow, studying philosophy doesn’t make you wiser.”
“Just as smooth surfaces, competitive sports, and specialized work fossilize mind and body, competitive academia fossilizes the soul.”
“They agree that chess training only improves chess skills but disagree that classroom training (almost) only improves classroom skills.”
“Fragility: we have been progressively separating human courage from warfare, allowing wimps with computer skills to kill people without the slightest risk to their lives.”
A Story:I'm Losing The Cape
This was a story I wrote about two years ago. It was my way of communicating some crisis in my life. It was the best way to describe how I felt and how I chose to resolvee it. Check it out and tell me what you think.
Of course, hold this picture that describes how we interact with the media.
Till we chat again, enjoy the month of March as we say bye to February. Adios.
Yours,
Emmanuel.
This is amazing. Not just the words but the sincerity behind them. Getting knowledge in itself is great, but knowledge is not everything. I see intellectuals without experience who feel they would always live life better than the peasants irrespective of the situation- that haughtiness, that's what needs to be checked constantly.
> when you assault him verbally on the Internet, you just harm yourself
and yet the dishonest ideologues gets money and becomes strong while the irrational pitchforks congregate. Here is a cynical counter-aphorism: "Do You Want to Be Right or Do You Want to Make Money"
> allowing wimps with computer skills to kill people without the slightest risk to their lives
And yet it is the same technology that gives lives to the people they kill (yes drone agriculture tech is a thing). Innovation can always take what it gives out. Being a victim is no indication on how much will they have for surviving. Morality and ideals, no matter how sympathetic, are fragile in the face of changes in power.