Belly Button Lint

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Tag: gain-and-loss

  • Theme:

    winning at losing

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    1–2 minutes

    The problem with winning by identifying with the underdog is the position reversal: once you win, you have moved from identification as the oppressed into a position of oppressor. To maintain your revolt against power you must set yourself up for defeat so that you once again have a bully to fight: put yourself back into the role of oppressed.

    You maintain the moral high ground by deferring the actual responsibility (realpolitik) of retaining the high ground.

    That is to say, the confusion through identification fails in its role to support, focussed more on the optics of maintaining morality and revolution.

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    survival requires delusion

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    1–2 minutes

    We are excellent at deluding ourselves, a trait evolved for survival.

    To survive difficult or desperate situations, we manipulate our state of mind: we create hope in the future to offset present misery.

    On the other hand, clear-eyed assessment (i.e., grim realism) is pessimistic and/or cynical, disincentivizing survival by presenting a sober, truthful accounting that the odds are miserable. Our instinct, the survival imperative, encourages us to be irrational and to believe in our exceptionalism, which encourages perseverance against reality.

  • Theme:

    happiness: backfilling our ideology

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    1–2 minutes

    We prioritize quality-of-life advancements, yet often conceal them behind veils of profundity like religion, ideology, or political affiliations, deeming our well-being shallow in comparison to national or human rights issues.

    Whether based on social or economic factors, the divide between right and left involves an interplay of literal and heuristic cost-benefit analyses. Accordingly, tribal (political) allegiance does not necessarily imply ideological alignment. Furthermore, a party’s ability to ensure security may overshadow the absurdity of its ideas, until declining quality of life prompts a shift towards opposing camps: my move to well-being and happiness, backfilling our ideology.

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  • Theme:

    Necessity of Fault

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    1–2 minutes

    What if everything considered human in us derives from our faults? Instead of privileging the pure or authentic, we can more consistently rely on balancing a multitude of negatives to create the positive self.

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    the paradox of self-loss in flow

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    1–2 minutes

    Identity begins to dissolve when in deep engagement with a task, marked by a diminished awareness of the ego’s voice (the small self).

    This detachment from self-conscious thoughts and existential contemplations simplifies the engaged task at hand. Absent personal ruminations, no conundrum exists to unravel; the work becomes the focal point of resolution. This immersion births tranquility through self-loss.

    More intriguingly, task mastery heightens as one relinquishes control. In this “flow state,” guidance becomes redundant; the process itself becomes the mentor.

    Ironically, the task commands an absent self, directing a “you” that has transcended self-identification.

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    Progress versus progressivism

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    1–2 minutes

    Who can be against progress? Don’t you want "change" so that everyone is treated well and fairly? Yes, of course.

    However, progress is merely the process of moving towards a goal, not the goal itself.

    The confusion is that progressivism co-opts the term "progress" to mean a singular vision: a neo-liberal techno-rationalist future of egalitarian leveling that will be beneficial for human enlightenment, comfort, and peace.
    Yet, to many citizens palatable progress is a retroactive return to traditional micro-social communities, which carry the negative connotations of religious fundamentalism and Luddites.

  • Theme:

    the urge to restore

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    1–2 minutes

    Recognize the overwhelming compulsion to get back to the way things were.

    This is not only “loss aversion” in a behavioral economic sense but a desire for orderliness: as a vase shatters, we are already cleaning it up.

    We not only restore order but brush the sin away from sight.

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    Replacing Lost Things

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    1–2 minutes

    Humans have loss aversion, where instead of considering wins and losses as equivalent, a loss feels more devastating than a corresponding gain.
    It is not strictly rational. However, if you extend your body to apply to your psychology, losing a limb can be the end of you, while not getting an extra meal (gain) will merely be a little bit painful.

    Daniel Kahneman has pointed this out: typically, our mammalian survival behaviors underlie our materialism and economic decisions.

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  • Theme:

    Pruning: Self-growth from self-disgust

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    1–2 minutes

    Self-growth is unlikely to happen without self-disgust, which requires you to recognize your flaws.

    The world does not inherently love you for who you are, but for how you respond to its challenges.

    You must fight to be unique while simultaneously adhering to the game’s rules (society/family). This is a painfully tricky skill to develop. You must first recognize the worst aspects of yourself, gauge how they affect others, and convert that self-awareness into growth without losing your positive traits.

    Although pride and self-worth are also excellent growth motivators, we tend to abundantly fertilize them while avoiding pruning.

  • Theme:

    identification double-down

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    1–2 minutes

    We all have certain traits that we identify with, such as intelligence or kindness. However, we may feel the need to exaggerate and elevate these traits to appear more special and deserving than we actually are.

    This may involve engaging in gray morality (hedging) to gain an advantage. For instance, we may believe that we deserve more time off, special consideration, or forgiveness when in thee wrong.

    Ultimately, this behavior is driven by our insecurities, which in turn creates situations that are not secure.