I was inspired by some recent responses by BizyDad to another forum member about their self-limiting beliefs, and it reminded me of an old philosophy idea I came across from David Deutsch called "anti-rational memes". Note that memes are being used in the evolutionary Richard Dawkins' sense of "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture"
The crucial distinction is between 3 types of ideas:
Rational - These are ideas grounded in reality, which makes them useful for certain results.
Irrational - These are ideas not grounded in reality, but they aren't necessary harmful either. They just might not be useful. These can be relatively easy to identify and root out.
Anti-rational - These are ideas that are not grounded in reality, but they also harm progress because their way of surviving is by suppressing criticism. An example is an idea from religion such as, "My religion is the only true religion." This idea may lead to guilt or shame if you question the religion or consider learning about other religions.
Another distinction worth making is between static and dynamic memes. Static memes try to remain the same and propagate themselves through emotions such as shame, guilt, fear, worry etc. They ossify society, and for a very long time, human beings had the physical capabilities to create new ideas just like we do today, but our culture kept us static. Innovation was suppressed. The scientific enlightenment around the 1700s changed this because for the first time we questioned the church's authority and we decided that the source of an idea had no bearing on whether it was true or not. This led to experiments and progress via evidence. Before that, the church held a vice grip over ideas and progress.
A dynamic meme changes over time, and propagates primarily by being useful. It doesn't make you feel bad for questioning it.
Self-limiting beliefs tend to be anti-rational and static. They resist change and they make it harder for you to learn other, useful ideas. Other examples include, but are not limited to:
A simple saying I love from David Deutsch is something like: Having untrue ideas is perfectly fine. They can be fixed by the truth. That's just being ignorant. But being stupid is having bad ideas that actively make learning more difficult until they are examined and dismantled.
What are some self-limiting beliefs you used to have that you've since left behind?
The crucial distinction is between 3 types of ideas:
Rational - These are ideas grounded in reality, which makes them useful for certain results.
Irrational - These are ideas not grounded in reality, but they aren't necessary harmful either. They just might not be useful. These can be relatively easy to identify and root out.
Anti-rational - These are ideas that are not grounded in reality, but they also harm progress because their way of surviving is by suppressing criticism. An example is an idea from religion such as, "My religion is the only true religion." This idea may lead to guilt or shame if you question the religion or consider learning about other religions.
Another distinction worth making is between static and dynamic memes. Static memes try to remain the same and propagate themselves through emotions such as shame, guilt, fear, worry etc. They ossify society, and for a very long time, human beings had the physical capabilities to create new ideas just like we do today, but our culture kept us static. Innovation was suppressed. The scientific enlightenment around the 1700s changed this because for the first time we questioned the church's authority and we decided that the source of an idea had no bearing on whether it was true or not. This led to experiments and progress via evidence. Before that, the church held a vice grip over ideas and progress.
A dynamic meme changes over time, and propagates primarily by being useful. It doesn't make you feel bad for questioning it.
Self-limiting beliefs tend to be anti-rational and static. They resist change and they make it harder for you to learn other, useful ideas. Other examples include, but are not limited to:
- "No matter how much I work/learn, I'll never be as good/rich/famous as X (insert role model)." - See Carol Dweck's research on fixed mindset vs. growth mindset. The fixed mindset is an example of a limiting belief. It's not true, but it resists change and makes it hard to learn any new idea that conflicts with it.
- "Getting rich is about being lucky." - This is a great excuse to resist action and resist change.
- "For me to win in business, somebody else has to lose."
A simple saying I love from David Deutsch is something like: Having untrue ideas is perfectly fine. They can be fixed by the truth. That's just being ignorant. But being stupid is having bad ideas that actively make learning more difficult until they are examined and dismantled.
What are some self-limiting beliefs you used to have that you've since left behind?
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