Information processing has to be one of my all time favourite subjects. Sadly there's not much online about it.
The way in which humans process information.
It can tell you a lot about people in general.
I once came across this idea in a book I was reading many years ago; it only touched on the subject, and I can't for the life of me remember what the book was called.
Did you know that humans process information in very different ways?
How I interpret the outside data given to me is going to be completely separate to the way you extrapolate yours.
It all stems from our journey in life and what has worked for us in the past.
Humans tend to operate in patterns, or "clusters" of behaviours, and it's one of the first things you are taught about when working with people on a primary level.
Look for the patterns -- you can tell a lot about people by the way in which they operate.
Everyone has a routine, even if you think life is one big chaotic mess I'm sure someone watching can whittle it down to your daily clusters of behaviour.
We all go to work and leave regularly and on time, don't we? Most of us do. Well, there's one pattern you can start with.
We form our basic life patterns in our very early years, years 1-5, and the rest of our life we spend validating those same patterns we began with.
We call these paradigms.
A lot of people destroy themselves on the paradigms they've created.
Me for example. I had a one way ticket to face down in the gutter with one hand on a bottle of vodka and the other on my last rolled up cigarette burned up in my hands. Drowned in my own puddle of sickness.
By now, I have no doubt I would have been dead. Killed by my own inability to see a life past alcohol, partying, drugs, and depending on other people.
Without going too much into it, the paradigms I had created didn't work. They worked for me as a child, but as an adult they needed a serious upgrade; a refit.
I started drinking heavily at the age of 15. I struggled to sleep beforehand, I was paralyzed by anxiety and sometimes I wouldn't get to bed until 5am.
Alcohol solved that.
Of course that worked, but my grades slipped, my friendships slipped, and my attention to life slipped.
I stopped my hobbies, and ultimately stopped questioning things -- underage drinking was like my gateway to drugs and other underground stuff.
It worked for a while of course, I was not sleeping and at nights when I was drinking I no longer suffered from anxiety, but because of that I lost the ability to educate myself and get on the ladder of life for a good career.
That's why my Paradigms needed a reshift.
So how do we reshift the information we process? Or more aptly, how do we change our Paradigms?
Well, firstly you have to understand and look at how we process information.
A very basic way in which I process information myself would be like in the figure above.
Imagine someone suggests that we rob a bank?
Then the raw information would be fed into my brain and it would go through a process of "filtration"
In my mind it would go through the "Moral" part first. Because of my previous life and my lack of morals at the time, morals is one of my most important priorities.
So I would discard it at first point of filtration. It's not moral to rob a bank, the answer would be no. End of. I probably wouldn't think any further than that.
Imagine though, if someone told me they had a friend that needed help with buying a new PC but they were unsure what is a good buy, and since I work in this arena, can I help them?
Well, like in the figure above, the raw information would be fed to my brain. It's a moral thing to do, something I would agree with, I have good experience in that arena, and it is probably going to make a positive impact in the friend's life.
That question would likely get accepted.
There are obviously further filters here of course, like time, availability and so on but I didn't want to delve too much into this, this is a surface level idea for the masses.
This is also where bias comes into play as well.
If say the friend I offered to help is actually not very liked by a group of my friends, however I've only had good experiences with them, then I'm more likely to accept the offer than my friends are.
I am biased towards the outcome.
We see this in instances of Political factions from since when I was a kid and probably much longer.
People are biased towards the outcomes that their favoured Political party gives them.
This is something I never understood at first, when I was younger; why would someone quite uncaringly vote for a warmonger when clearly it's about saving the children like the other candidate?
Obviously that group of voters are inhumane.
But actually what we are missing is the clear bias of the other party and our very own bias.
It's hard to think of who we are going to be at war with next when it won't affect us, and all we want is cheap food and a hot meal in our bellies.
That specific candidate might be promising war, but they also might be promising better wages, less tax, and more affordability.
Similar to our candidate. We might not necessarily care too much about affordability because we have everything we need -- a little bit more tax won't do much, but god damn, the children, you know?
And that's how we are divided by the ways in which we process information and are put to war against each other via our biases.
And don't get me wrong here, bias is not a bad thing. Bias is how people work in charities and help thousands of people in their communities. If those people weren't lopsided to the struggle of life then no-one would receive help.
It's the same with teachers, nurses, doctors, and so on.
We need bias. Our society depends on it.
But then how does one reshift their biases? Like I said earlier, sometimes our social and cultural bias's can lead us down some really dark paths like mine did with my drinking.
The Third Reich and The Nazi Empire as a clear example. This is what can happen when information and the way you process it is hacked.
When truth becomes fable, distorted and bent to support the egotistical maniacs of dictatorships. Some might say it sort of feels like we are living in one now.
Although thanks to Elon it is being slowly dismantled.
It's actually very hard to do and why I am sort of worried about the future of Political bias, and I fear the damage has already been done.
Although, if what I think is going to happen in the next year or two -- abundant finance, then that will more than likely solve everything.
With that said though, Alcoholics anonymous and charities that deal with addictions report a 2% success rate.
That's only getting people to stop, not transforming their lives.
It's not that way by design either, it's actually incredibly hard to hack your brain -- and the older you are, the tougher it gets.
There will be people that will think the same no matter what, and it's because it has always served them good -- even if in the future it does not. They will just get more angry at the world.
It's hard finally understanding that everything you've lived for in the last 8-10 years is a complete lie; An oppressive culture of authority masked as caring and kindness and helping people.
But if you peel back the layers, you will find it.
I guess, out of everything I have seen and done in the last thirty years of my life, the most life changing part for me was attaching myself to positive and caring people.
People that give love abundantly; people that care.
This is the biggest life hack ever. Be around wholesome people. Try to emulate them.
You can spot those people because those are the ones that put blankets on homeless people and ask for nothing in return.
Those are the people that take you to work in the morning because your car has gone on the fritz and never once ask you for anything in return.
People like that changed my life; they made me see things from a different perspective. They didn't care if I was white or brown, male or female, or came from an oppressed land; all they cared about was that I was happy and that I was doing well in my life.
They wanted me to succeed.
And because of that I completely transformed my life.
If you ask me, being around people that think differently to you, give willingly, and don't hate, are probably the ones that truly change lives and shift Paradigms.
Authenticity is definitely the new Meta.
Those are your people. They will change your world for you.
And you will see the light.
As I did.
And you will too!
