The r/nship between "talking about thing" and "doing thing" can be counter-intuitive or misleading. There's a sort of systematic illusion
Consider the idea that politicians aren't allowed to be honest about doubts, uncertainty & weakness because electorates don't reward it
You might say "that's politics", but really, "that's people". People are systematically biased, everything around us caters to those biases
I've spent a few years trying on this idea in diff contexts. I'm still fumbling, regressing beginner here. "WYSIWYG" assumption is powerful
It hit me hard when I (marketer) was reading marketers talking about marketing. The entire discourse is discolored, contaminated.
It's not all BS; but it IS possible to "tell the truth" while containing it in a context that tells a comforting but inaccurate story
It is possible to tell the truth in a dishonest way. In a sense that's a lot of what politics and PR and is. And human relations, really.
Fictional eg: "She hit me, so I hit her back." – suppose this is true. But what if there were years of psychological abuse prior? Gets murky
It is possible to tell the truth in a dishonest way. And we pretty much all do it, because narrative bias and imperfect information.
There's a TED talk by an Airbnb cofounder (<3 the company&product) about how they 'Designed For Trust', nudging people to reviews. V cool
And he says "luck and timing aside, this is what counts". But what if luck and timing is 80-90% of the story? The focus is on the 10-20%
Repeat this across every single story that you read, every single piece of information that you encounter, & you get massive systemic bias
It's v trippy to meditate on this. Every book on your shelf. Every person that you meet. Even your own internal dialogue. Probably 90% "BS"
Not exactly "BS" either– it's context-dependent truth that subtly reinforces&maintains the initial frame/context, disincentivizing alt POVs.
This provides an interesting lens to think abt the Great Teachers: Heartbreak, Scarcity & Failure. Reality forcefully changes your context.
You have some assumptions that seem true within yr given context, but become invalid when the context changes. That's the pain of growing up
The more you've had changing contexts wipe out your "truths", the more resilient&wise you're forced to become. (Or you cling harder... sad.)
