A Dose of Introspection

I recently spoke with a friend about an idea I heard from popular entrepreneur and investor Naval Ravikant. What I share will not sound like an interesting conversation, but what I later extracted from it is what I think will be helpful for you in your quest for accurate thought. What I noticed opened my eyes to the power of suggestion which I believe will become a recurring topic on this blog. We'll find that although an inadvertent process, we undertake suggestions constantly whether done in the conscious or the subconscious mind, and I'll prove to you today how mischievous the subconscious mind can be if allowed to toil on its own for too long. I hope you'll excuse the crass anecdote, as very little context and almost no substance will be required to get the point across.

We were discussing the fear of poverty and the conversation had simmered down to the point where it was reduced to the abundance of misfortune in the world. I decided to offer the idea that some people believe everyone can be rich. I left out Naval's name to see what they thought of the theory on its own. To no surprise, it was met with immediate disbelief. There's no need to paraphrase, but my friend had a good reason to believe the such a thing was impossible, just no good reason why. I poked at their doubts by confessing that I was completely ignorant to whether the theory held water or not, as I'd never considered what it would take for such a situation to be realized. I'm admittedly still only a messenger having no original thoughts on the subject. At that point we both knew we wouldn't be taking to the debate stage on this on this one, and our conversation's quiet engine could no longer be revved up by the topic. I was met with affirmation, as my friend realized they hadn't sufficiently entertained it either, and neither of us expressed willingness to do so that night. We passively deserted.

The reason this friend of mine was so confident in the theory being false was because of the power of suggestion. Anyone else who had been raised in the past two decades would also consider the scarcity of riches to be common knowledge. Our environment causes us to iterate over this idea so extensively that by now it's become reality to us. This is because thoughts, although extremely powerful, are not very picky as to their inputs. Each suggestion made to the mind is treated the same way whether based in fact or fallacy. We all know what we believe to be true because that's the reality we've allowed our minds to create from our dominating thoughts. Therefore, how could we even consider the merits of an idea we're hearing for the first time when it directly contradicts our subjective reality? This would be equivalent to a toddlers arm attempting to arm wrestle with that of a blacksmith. In other words, thoughts become fixed in proportion to the extent that you think them, just as muscles become strong in proportion to the extent they are used.

This is not to say that what you believe to be true is nonsense. We each see the world through a colored glass that is tinted based on the clarity of our thoughts. It is therefore our duty to control those thoughts, and to be critical of their validity. This process should be thought of as a routine audit. Consider your mind the company that employs thoughts for the mutual goal of your success. Acting as an independent third party in this meta-cognitive exercise will allow you to effectively thin the herd. Play the role of many members of the third party committee and never let a vote be unanimous. By this I mean always leave a place for further speculation to be resumed in future audits. Being honest about what you're presently unable to prove will bring clarity.

This post references the following interview at 1:41:30

If this made you think, please share with a friend.