🌵 TREE 101: Reality is unknowable
Here’s a fun reason: Your consciousness lags between 80 milliseconds and a second behind reality. Everything you are aware of has already happened. You live inescapably in the past.
Here’s a consequential reason: Your only way to observe the world is with yourself at the centre. Your only way to process your observations is through the filters of your knowledge, experience and biases. You are, in one way or another, objectively wrong about virtually everything.
For most of daily living, the things you’re wrong about are minor and don’t matter. For things like relationships, values and big life choices, being wrong can really screw thing up.
Fortunately, we humans have tools for getting closer to understanding reality. Here are three big ones:
Own your beliefs with humility. Be ready to change them when you learn you are wrong.
Develop your empathy and imagination so you can better understand others’ view of the world.
Learn about and work around your cognitive biases.
Hello new subscribers and beta testers,
A couple things so we’re all on the same page:
Most of your fellow TREE subscribers are still receiving this email via Mailchimp. They will be joining you this Substack mailing list next week.
I keep these emails short and linkless, so you can focus on your morning routine. In the comments on the website I sometimes post additional thoughts and links to sources. I would love for you to do the same. The FOREST website is worth looking at later in the day.
This week is reality week.
What tools do you use for getting closer to understanding reality? Let us know in the comments.
Grow slowly
Jeff
Floating into Monday like…
Every song from every past email:
On our consciousness lagging behind reality: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/time-on-the-brain-how-you-are-always-living-in-the-past-and-other-quirks-of-perception/
On cognitive biases: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/cognitive-bias/565775/
'Psychologist and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman reveals the actions we can take to overcome the biases that cripple our decision-making, damper our thinking, and limit our effectiveness. Listen and Learn from the master.’ https://fs.blog/knowledge-project/daniel-kahneman/
This has reminded me about deja vu as a thing.... in some circumstances our brain has enough information before an event to accurately predict what will happened next based on what has happened before. And we think that we have some magical predication powers or something...But deja vu doesn't seem to allow you the opportunity to change the thing that happens....??