[extropy-chat] Mature rationality

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Giu1i0 Pri5c0 <pgptag at gmail.com> wrote:
> Often you know that you do X
> better (X = sport,
> business meeting, sex, ...) if you work yourself in
> a dreamy state of mind
> where it is the only thing that matter so you give
> it total concentration
> (they call this "flow" these days). But the belief
> that winning the dart
> game at the pub is the most important thing in the
> world is irrational,
> isn't it?

I have been able to work myself into that state of
mind without the irrationality.  Believing that you
will win and that this is important has a good chance
of inducing the state - although, taken literally,
it's also an excuse to be lazy.  (Why put out extra
effort if success is in the bag anyway?  Even if it
is important...)

A better way might be to simply focus completely on
the task, without any judgement as to how important it
is.  (Aside from all other considerations, it is what
you're doing *at that moment*; more long term
important considerations can wait.)  This especially
includes trying to dream up ways that you could win:
visualizing victory, but not only the actual victory
itself - visualizing the *path to* victory as well.
Once you know a way you could win, if you follow that
path, you could win.  (Of course, you should also try
to see ways the path could go wrong, how you could
tell that's happening or will soon, and what you can
do to correct it.)

> Sometimes you are just happier if you let yourself
> believe, for a little
> while, things that you know are probably not
> correct. Being happier
> energizes you and makes you perform better in other
> things.

Being happier can be achieved in a number of ways.
You can even divorce it from (most) rationality: "The
world's going to end in five minutes?  Great!  Why am
I so happy?  Why not be happy?"

Granted, this does not always work, and there are
evolutionary reasons for sorrow and the like.  But
sometime when one has no extreme emotion either way,
one can try meditating and making oneself happy - not
for any reason, but just being happy in and of itself.
(Smiling - again, for no reason beyond just plain
becoming happy - can act as a physical aid to this.
So can certain drugs, though I would not reccomend
that path: medical problems aside, the point is to be
able to become happy at any time, and one will not
have instant access to drugs at all times.  The main
driver for this happiness, though, must be one's own
mind, or sheer force of will.)  Once one is
sufficiently comfortable with the results of this, one
can then call upon this forced yet genuine happiness
in times of need - to battle grief, or to psych
oneself up for tasks.

It is a technique and a tool, nothing more.  But we
are human, so we might as well make the best use of
everything that means - including the ability to be
irrationally happy.