Gurwinder Bhogal, a programmer and insightful Twitter writer, dives deep into the complexities of human psychology. He discusses how comfort can lead to complacency and the need for artificial struggles to feel alive. Bhogal highlights the fading affect bias, revealing why bad memories fade faster than good ones, and critiques how social media shapes uninformed opinions. He also touches on the paradox of happiness and the psychological fallout of deferring joy, all while offering strategies for personal growth and emotional resilience.
People defend poorly thought out opinions on social media to avoid inconsistency, hindering personal growth and rational discourse.
Intelligent individuals often use their intelligence to support false arguments and clever justifications for their flawed ideologies.
The fading affect bias allows individuals to process and cope with negative emotions, leading to personal growth and resilience.
Labeling outcomes as inherently good or bad can be misleading as events often unfold in complex and unexpected ways.
Deep dives
Gwynda Bogle discusses the rise of opinion culture on social media
Gwynda Bogle explores the phenomenon of people forming opinions on topics despite limited knowledge or research. The need for opinions on social media leads to people making up viewpoints without proper understanding. This pollutes the conversation and creates a false sense of expertise. People defend these poorly thought out opinions to avoid inconsistency, hindering personal growth and rational discourse.
The danger of intelligence and ideology
Intelligent individuals who affiliate themselves with ideology often allow their intelligence to fortify their own delusions and reinforce irrational beliefs. This is a common psychological phenomenon where intelligent people can rationalize their own flawed ideologies, leading to stubbornness and intellectual dishonesty. Their intelligence is used to support false arguments and clever justifications for their beliefs, often to the detriment of rationality and critical thinking.
The fading affect bias and the perception of memories
The goodness and badness of memories fade over time, with bad memories fading faster. This bias allows people to move on from negative experiences and find humor or positivity in past events, while good memories tend to retain their positive qualities. The fading affect bias helps individuals process and cope with negative emotions, allowing for personal growth and resilience.
The role of discomfort and fortune in shaping life's outcomes
Fortune can often be unpredictable, and what one may perceive as a bad outcome can turn out to be fortuitous in the long run. The concept of the nover effect suggests that labeling an outcome as inherently good or bad can be misleading, as events and circumstances often unfold in complex and unexpected ways. It is important not to hastily judge outcomes, as fortune can lead to misfortune and vice versa.
The power of tribal behavior and culture war
Tribal behavior, reminiscent of ancient times, can be seen in contemporary culture wars and online battles. People seek struggle and validation, creating an illusion of being heroes of humanity. The brain conjures this illusion to justify its own existence.
The impact of emotions in the digital age
Emotions are manipulated and stimulated in the digital age for various purposes, such as seeking social approval and generating fear for increased engagement. Understanding and controlling emotions is crucial in order not to fall prey to online manipulation and control.
The danger of deferring happiness
Many people believe that their lives haven't truly begun and that they will be happy once they achieve certain goals or reach a certain future state. However, this mindset leads to constant chasing of future happiness, disregarding the present moment and the potential for true fulfillment now.
The futility of engaging in debates without empirical evidence
Engaging in debates that cannot be settled with experiment or observation is often a futile exercise. Debates, especially online, tend to be power struggles rather than truth-seeking endeavors. It is important to prioritize peace of mind and avoid wasting time and energy on debates that cannot be resolved.
Gurwinder is one of my favourite Twitter follows. He’s written yet another megathread exploring human nature, cognitive biases, mental models, status games, crowd behaviour and social media. It's one of the best things I've read this year, so I just had to bring him on.
Expect to learn how bad things can sometimes feel better than good things, why people die on the hill of opinions they've only just begun believing, why intelligence plus ideology is a nightmare, how comedy can be a troll's last line of defence, the biggest lesson I learned from Joe Rogan, why regret minimisation should be a priority, why authoritarians lose sight of rationality and much more...
