The Plague of Misidentification

Biases, Fallacies, & Heuristics Part 8

In this installment of the Plague of Misidentification series, we will do a review. But this review is going to come with some components of further application that will better help you continue creating your thinking system. I will drive forward into slightly more detail and depth as we unveil some of what we can do with our new knowledge.

What We Have Covered

Since the start of this series, we have covered the following list of words, terms, and concepts:

• Intro to the mindset of one who achieves vs. that of a naysayer.

• Intro to inherent human value.

• Intro to human frailty and how to step into achievement even when it is present.

• The critical distinction was made concerning why one should work on their logic, reasoning, and thinking tool kit.

• Setting forth terms: exegesis, architecture, systems, tools, creation, re-creation, matrix, causal stream, simple, complex, critical action, critical distinctions, causal mechanisms, factual creation, essence, pure creation, authentic creation, sentience, consciousness, intelligence, differentiation, attributes, emotion, the four levels, outcropping, cognitive dissonance, diametric opposition, cognition, decision making, effort, sub-conscious, binary states, unary states, retroduction, cause and effect matrices, operational level, engendering, obfuscation, locus, causation, functionality, undulation, errant inception, heuristic, iteration, vector, problem space, subject of inquiry, illusory paradoxes, non-paradoxical, organically paradoxical, Venn diagram, territory of influence, unassailability, misidentification, context, problem set, forced compliance behavior, fractal iteration cycle, the real, logical consequence, dysfunction, semi-false reality, conflict generative, inhibitor, cognitive biases, fallacies, ubiquitousness, cycle of harm, intimation, conception, approach vector, pathology, inhibiting factor, pathology of inhibiting factor, fallacious, target population, systematic distortion, argument, logical argument, syllogism, is & does, functions, essences, true definition, depth of knowledge needs, non-time bound, localized environments, actualities, states of being, thought space, physical space, premise, entailment, follow, validity, soundness, conclusion, deductive reasoning, truth, dissection, dissent, mathematical sub-structures, obfuscative inducement, substantive, substantive existence, reify, linear flow, ideology, methodology, areas of assumption, significance, pattern of high significance, arrogance, cognitive blindness, grand problem set, flow of life, surface structure heuristic, deep structure heuristic, Newtonian Physics, Quantum Physics, trajectory, known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns, unknown unknowns, perception, perceptive capacities, the unreal, psychological influence, psychological underpinning, pain aversion, pain conversion, Linda problem, plausibility. 

• Cognitive biases: confounding bias, selection bias, recall bias, reporting bias, confirmation bias, hindsight bias, actor-observer bias, self-serving bias, and optimism bias.

• Logical fallacies: hasty generalization fallacy, ad metum or appeal to fear fallacy, ad nauseam or repetition fallacy, ecological fallacy, exception fallacy, straw man fallacy, hypostatization or reification fallacy, illicit major fallacy, misleading vividness fallacy, non sequitur fallacy, red herring fallacy, reductio ad absurdum fallacy, undistributed middles fallacy, style of substance fallacy.

• Heuristics: affect heuristic, availability heuristic, representativeness heuristic, attribute substitution heuristic, Occam's razor, fluency heuristic, social proof heuristic, peak-end rule heuristic, familiarity heuristic.

That's not bad, considering this is the tenth essay. Everything in the above list is critical. There is nothing in that list that is non-essential, provided one wants to think better and thereby gain a better understanding of reality. 

So what now? We have a long list of words, terms, and concepts. Now what? Why did you put all of this into that list since it was already in all of the essays anyway? Well, thank you for asking me such insightful questions. I am going to use this review list in a few ways.

1. to point out something humans do constantly

2. to address what it is 

3. to address why it is

4. to address how to change it

5. to drive one deeper into the material

A Question

Take a moment and answer the following question honestly. When reading the prior essays, do you think you grasped all of the words, terms, and concepts in the above list? Does having it all presented in a list help you to grasp how much was present? If your answer to the first question is no, then you would be in the majority. To be sure, you don't have to know everything mentioned to get the gist of something. That said, if you want to deepen your penetration into the subject of inquiry, it pays to develop rigor. 

The Need for Rigor

A rigorous approach will drive engagement with the text by asking critical questions, noting terms, keywords, and concepts, and ensuring that all components of the text are being accounted for systematically. Once all of these points are rigorously checked and factored in as one moves forward within the text, you will find that your understanding has deepened significantly unless the material is well-worn. 

Reading

Sometimes, it will take a while before we can find the terms defined within the text. That is ok; continue reading when you are doing your introductory or cursory reading. The primary read-through is to get the lay of the land and see if you think the material is worth your time. If you do, then you start the other types of reading. At this point, I want to recommend a book to you highly: How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler. In Mortimer's book, the types of reading will be covered along with invaluable insights that will most certainly help almost anyone to become a better reader and thinker. 

For now, it is enough to state that when reading the text, the initial read helps us to make the critical decision of whether or not we want to invest further in the material. Skimming also has its place in establishing whether or not we are even interested. That said, while making the initial read, we should undoubtedly be practicing our rigor as it applies to the text and for no other reason than it sharpens our thinking abilities. 

A Key Inhibitor

There is a key inhibitor that often goes unseen. This inhibitor baits one to step into studies with vigor, only to be left with dismay and the desire to quit. It helps to generate many errors of thought, and it steps in the place of diligent, thoughtful, considered work and study. It operates like a hot rod with no engine. It looks excellent, shiny, and fast, but it is going nowhere unless downhill. It says, "We can run this race faster and better than everyone else, and we will be seen for our abilities to do this so that we will be given favor, fame, and fortune." This inner dialog comes from a place often referred to as the ego. I am not going to address the ego at this time, but I am going to address one of the surface feature inhibitors that spawns tons of issues, and that would be the need to be fast or seen as learning quickly. In the U.S., currently, if you learn quickly, it is equated to talent, and everyone wants to be seen as talented. 

This desire to be seen in this light and to gain the many accolades one can receive for being a fast learner will drive a person to absolute intellectual ruin concerning any topic. It will cause the person to assume information and their understanding of that information, which will lead to errant outcroppings and many other profound issues that will eventually wreck the individual's intellectual progress. It is interesting to note that all of this can be done while making straight A's in school. 

The pressures associated with this thinking are very destructive. The types of encouragement given to students who can move fast will often push them past their maximum pace of optimized understanding. This results in severe issues and adverse psychological effects that further inhibit their ability to properly learn the material and, therefore, to correctly assess reality. 

Speed Vs. Depth

We must differentiate the speed of learning from the depth of learning. While one can learn quickly, that does not mean that one can learn deeply. Those who can learn deeply are not necessarily quick at the beginning of the learning process. To be sure, we can find all of the combinations of learning quickly and deeply that exist and when done, we will find that what is needed is an overhaul of the current educational process. We will discuss this at a later date, but for now, lets continue forward with the inhibitor. 

Pressures & Pressures Felt 

Because the individual feels pressure to be intelligent and to excel, they often gloss over the material in an attempt to make themselves feel better about the learning process. If this person is of sufficient ability, they can do this by learning how to take tests well, thus giving off the signals that they have a grasp of the materials at hand. In fact, they have a minimal understanding of the materials and are lacking in the humility needed to slow down and gain the depth of the material. The current system encourages this type of learning, and it does so to the detriment of our thinking abilities. A person operating from this place will eventually mature and gain the needed understanding, or they will continue down this destructive thought path and refuse to accept the reality that will most certainly be trying to get their attention. 

Let me make something exceedingly clear. It takes time to gain the depth of a subject and learn to think within its confines, which is not only ok; it is the only way it works. I know methods that will speed this process up once they are understood in depth. I know subjects to study that will endow one with the needed abilities to do this process more rapidly and with many subjects. This is all fine and good, but the one thing that will not happen in any statistically significant sense is those that who will not put in the required time to get to the deep levels will not, no matter what their delusions tell them will not, actually understand the information and be able to traject from the core concepts of that information outward with excellent outcomes. If one wants to learn something, one must take the time that it takes them to learn that thing. If one does anything other than this, it is a fool's errand, an operational error, planning to fail, and it will end in tragedy unless they allow reality and its data to help them course-correct. 

A Cost too Extreme

Why make a big deal out of this? The answer is that since I started teaching professionally at the age of fifteen, I have witnessed this behavior separate many highly talented, intelligent, and generally well-meaning individuals from succeeding in their chosen fields. They simply refused to take the time that was required and slow down, allowing them to deeply process the information in such a way as to ensure their true understanding of the subject. All of this is because they could not deal with the self-image change that would be required to gain that level of information. Instead, I have witnessed anger, defensiveness, scapegoating, blaming, sadness, frustration, errant comparisons, and general bad behavior across the board concerning these individuals. There is not only nothing wrong with slowing down and moving at your own pace precisely from where you are at within whatever moment; it is factually the only option one has whether or not one accepts it as fact. 

Faux Growth & Honesty

I teach my students that you cannot grow from where you are not. The best possible thing any one of us can do concerning learning anything is to start that process honestly. You cannot climb a mountain except by climbing it; any other process comes by another name and for a good reason. If you try to move from a place you are not, you will not move as you think you are moving. I noticed that false competency was rampant among my students with master's degrees. It was shocking to witness. This, to be clear, was across several fields of study that I saw the trend. They would be totally incapable of answering fundamental questions regarding their chosen subjects, and yet they graduated with honors? 

I want to be very clear with what I am writing at this moment; I do not think the inhibitor of learning rapidly is causative, but I do see it as a significant problem. The cause for this inhibitor will be addressed later in this series. What is essential to gain from this section is that this is a severe problem, and it stems from the individual's being divorced from reality at a fundamental level. 

The Solution

The problem, though complex, has a simple yet challenging to execute answer, which is to humble yourself and learn all of the needed information, take time to think from the core of the fundamentals of the subject, and traject outward, testing your thoughts with the feedback that reality and only reality can bring. This will cause one to reflect on those around them, and they will have to belay the desire to be seen as moving as fast as those who have bought into the current system. Suppose one can harness the discipline to accomplish this simple task. In that case, they will not only run the race but also win because false expertise will always be outed eventually and ultimately by necessity. The world needs individuals who are dedicated to learning the depth of whatever field they pursue. Please don't concern yourself with what X or Y is doing when the way they are doing it yields falseness. Do concern yourself with starting from where you are and learning everything you can along the way while continually testing yourself, ensuring that you are not suffering from false competency.  

I want to stress that what I am speaking about above is not the Dunning-Krueger Effect. This writing addresses those who have the capacity and are failing due to their arrogance and either inability or, more precisely, refusal to let reality inform them how to course-correct and gain the depth of understanding required for excellence in their fields of study. That said, the Dunning-Krueger Effect will be a topic we will discuss at length in upcoming essays. 

Rigor is Essential

If you read the introductory essays and missed some or most of the words, terms, and concepts listed above, you likely lack rigor regarding your reading toolset. That is ok and is a problem this series will help you correct. I do want to remind you of the introduction to the series and my caution regarding losing faith in yourself and other outcomes if you do not develop a solid understanding of the first twenty essays. 

I rarely meet anyone who cannot learn deeply. I rarely meet anyone who will learn deeply. The choice of how much you get out of this series is yours. I am dedicated to bringing you a lot of quality content concerning thinking tools, applications, and depth tools that will help you in every area of your life if you choose to apply them. That said, it takes a lot to do this, and the price of entry to effective long-term change is high, but the payoff is exceptional. 

Be Brave & Continue

I don't care if you are flawed; I know I certainly am. I don't care if you fail 100 times at this material; I know I certainly have failed often. I don't care if you grow fearful, as we all can. I do care that you never let fear cause you to quit. I do care that you never allow failure to cause you to quit. I do care that you never allow your flaws to be used as an excuse not to try. 

What This Is All About

Hey, I thought this was a review. What is this all about, Shane? Yes, it is a review. The list is to help you be aware of what you might have missed. The writing is to help you be aware of some ways that might have caused you to miss important concepts and data. It is also to give you a few tools to check yourself for competency. It is a review of how to review while presenting the review materials in one location. The first thing we must do is start awareness within the individual to bring to the forefront all of their prior knowledge and encourage the application of that knowledge to the concepts at hand. I bet if each of you do this, your understanding of the material, what you missed, and how it will help you in the future will be significantly enhanced. 

To build competency, we must have a few components present at all times:

1. We must believe that we can learn, or the learning process will be stifled significantly.

2. We must first state the subject and what it is about or what it regards. 

3. We need to read the material carefully, note all words, terms, and concepts, and ensure that we are fluent in their definitions and applications. 

4. We need to ask critical questions as we read. Ask who, what, when, where, why, and how continually. 

5. We need to test the material for truthfulness. Check the material for biases, fallacies, and heuristics, being careful to use them as indicators; only then continue checking for truthfulness. 

6. We need to apply thinking tools rigorously. See the concepts list and apply. 

7. We need to test for competency. See if you can explain what you have read to a friend or family member. Remember that constantly testing yourself is essential to gaining robust memory retrieval and mastery of the concepts. Putting the material into your own words or elaborating is critical as well.

8. We need to review the material continually using spaced practice or review for at least a month. See the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve for why. 

9. We need to hold old material in our awareness while adding new material and checking for continuity. This will be exceedingly and needlessly difficult without constant review and testing for continuity. Reanalyzing the material in light of new material is also critical.

10. In the projective sense concerning human infallibility, we need to understand that what we do not see, we cannot remember. What we cannot remember is not present in our thinking and reasoning; thus, to gain high functioning, we must have core scaffolding or key architectural components held within our memory. What is not present within our thinking and reasoning brings us into a state of loss concerning forward projections due to the types of components I am addressing that are going unseen, i.e., known knowns and known unknowns. If we project forward from a state of loss of known factual information, we do so from willful ignorance in this context. Therefore, we fail to project rigorously, intelligently, and ultimately accurately, thus generating another in the long line of heuristical processes. All of this to say, we must not add errancy to our processes and thinking regarding the chosen subject matter. 

11. We must not clutter the process by showing up. Know your footprint. We all have strengths and weaknesses, and if we know them, we can account for them in our learning process.

12. We must avoid rote practice (learning) in favor of interleaved practice (learning). The next installment will discuss this method in more detail. 

Coming Next

In the next essay, I will complete the review process while adding some little nuggets of information concerning future material. We will also learn all about the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve. 

We will continue.

B.S.R.