Shun the belief system.

Not much credit has been given to Mr. Charlie Munger on his talk on ‘PSYCHOLOGY OFHUMAN MISJUDGMENT’. While he was talking about basic biases we suffer from due to our cognitive dissonance, I was somehow able to drive a deeper meaning out of the whole lecture.

What are biases and how are they formed.  

Without getting into philosophical details, biases in general are our responses based on our conditioning which may include our education (or lack of it), our social status, monetary status, our genes, heredity, circumstances, situations and stuff we have been subjected to either in this life or earlier (if you believe in that).

In simpler words, it is the lens through which we see the world. The spectacles that not only tell us what is, but also frame our responses to them. Biases are the belief system of an individual.

I was able to use Charlie Munger’s ‘Invert Analyses’ to come up with this powerful statement and if you invert it, it takes a whole new meaning.  

Biases are the belief system of an individual becomes

An Individual’s belief systems are biased.

A friend’s wife showed amazement yesterday after coming to terms with the fact that I eat non-vegetarian food on Tuesdays and that I also eat beef.  Look at the beauty of human mind. This is a typical way biases work. Not only did she ass-u-me that not eating non veg on a given day of the month is a great spiritual endeavor, she also labeled me (albeit in her mind) of being a sinner for not doing that.

  

Eating beef, not eating non-veg, a thousand do’s and a million don’ts are our upbringing defects, biases in different shapes and sizes and has nothing to do with the reality.

    

What that essentially means that whatever we think about the given subject is our version, (our upbringing defect) and it may have nothing to do with the truth.  And when you invert that you come to a conclusion, that ‘In order to find reality/Truth, you need shun your existing belief system.

This statement like any other spiritual axiom holds true in any sphere of life.

To do well, you need to unlearn and flush out the existing turd doing rounds in your mind.   You got to be an empty vessel for god to play through you.  

Life is short and it is impossible to gain the required expertise in so many subjects if you rely on your own experiences alone. Charlie Munger talks about vicarious experiences in his own life and in other people’s life as valuable learning lessons for people interested in improving themselves and avoid the regular misjudgments of a human mind.

Take examples from history, be it Jesus or Buddha, kabir or Rumi, Osho or Jiddu. They all shunned the existing religions and sects to find truth. Average joe and idiots go to mandirs and gurudwaras, of course that is the easy way out isn’t it. However that is like fooling yourself. Easy way out to what, you cannot find TRUTH if you are following a system A BIAS, A BELIEF SYSTEM.

 I ran this small exercise to list number of people who I think are more liberal than me, who have reached a stage where they do not abide by preconceived notions, who are not biased and who are free from the crap of their own minds. I am happy to report that there weren’t many and that tells me that I am on a right track.

See I am not boasting off or anything, it is so easy to fall in the confidence bias and suffer from ‘I am better than the world’ syndrome. 

All I am suggesting is that doing simple invert analyses on axioms tells you that  Biases are the belief system of an individual and so an Individual’s belief systems are biased and so in order to find reality/Truth, you need shun your existing belief system.

That is just the first step. The beginning. Unfortunately Pareto rule applies here too, majority of us die before taking this first step.