You have journeyed through all Seven Amorous Assimilations. The cosmos witnesses your awakening. Beyondism flows through you — the African Renaissance ignites within your soul.
"KNOW · OPEN · WALK"
BEYONDISM
Backup Reference № 11 · Benevolent Beauty
Therapeutic Theories founded upon Robust Research — illuminating the architecture of human nature, kindling the flame of the African Renaissance.
✦ SEVEN SACRED ASSIMILATIONS ✦
How to Engage This Sacred Ritual
NNOTICEHover, tap, and open each Assimilation. Notice what stirs in you. Remain present with every insight.
OOPENOpen each card, absorb the wisdom, mark your Assimilation complete. Seven doors — seven awakenings.
WWALKWalk away transformed. Apply one insight daily. Self-Actualization is not a destination — it is the walk.
YOUR SACRED JOURNEY — 0 OF 7 ASSIMILATIONS
Ⅰ
Amorous Assimilation · One
Interpersonal Expectancy Effect
"The necessity of being ready increases in direct proportion to your level of expectation — Looking to it."
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"This is the night that either makes me or fordoes me quite." — Shakespeare, Othello, Act 5, Scene 1
"See yon pale stripling! when a boy, a mother's pride, a father's joy!" — Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
"This dumb ox will fill the whole world with his bellowing." — Albertus Magnus, of his pupil Thomas Aquinas
UUSUALLY, the Interpersonal Expectancy Effect is also referred to as the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
PPURELY, our expectations for the behaviour of another serve to bring about the prophesied behaviour.
GGAINFULLY, the way we act towards others depends on how we perceive and predict they will behave.
RREALLY, their behaviour is impacted by our expectation of them, as they act to fulfil this expectation.
AACUTELY, we look for particular attributes in the other person and ignore those which we do not expect.
DDISTINCTIVELY, this is also known as the 'Pygmalion Effect', after the work of George Bernard Shaw.
EEFFECTIVELY related is the Galatea Effect: We meet the expectations — high or low — that WE place upon US.
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TIMELY THERAPYWhen people expect you to fail, reject this and set your own expectations to succeed. You are the author of your prophecy.
Ⅱ
Amorous Assimilation · Two
Endowment Effect
"Propelled by divinity, allow not ambition to suppress nor suspend the sentiments of what we hold sacred."
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"How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature which interest him in the fortune of others." — Adam Smith (1723–1790)
"The mystic reverence, the religious allegiance, which are essential to a true monarchy, are imaginative sentiments that no legislature can manufacture in any people." — Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
"When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic." — George Orwell (1903–1950)
Endowment EffectDaniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky · Related: Loss Aversion
✦ SEVEN WAYS TO ULTIMATELY UPGRADE ✦
UUNDERSTAND: The Endowment Effect is attributing greater value to things we own than to things we do not.
PPOTENTLY, we demand more to give these things up than we would be willing to pay to acquire them.
GGRANTED, we do not even need to actually own the thing; it just needs to feel like we do.
RREALLY, the key is SENTIMENT — feeling a sense of possession activates the endowment mechanism.
AAFFIRMING things as ours — they form part of cherished memories; we simply cannot let them go.
DDUE to Loss Aversion: We hate experiencing losses about twice as much as we enjoy equivalent gains.
EEXAMPLE: You may be twice as sad if you lost $20 as you would be happy finding the same amount.
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TIMELY THERAPYBecause we fear losing what we love, we must consciously distinguish true value from the illusion of ownership.
Ⅲ
Amorous Assimilation · Three
Focusing Effect
"The best guide to the future is found in a proper, creative understanding of the lessons of the past."
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"For he lives twice who can at once employ the present well, and e'en the past enjoy." — Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
"Man has truly a past only when he is conscious of having one, for this consciousness alone introduces the possibility of dialogue and choice." — Raymond Aron (1905–1983)
"The past is a kind of screen upon which we project our vision of the future, borrowing much of its form and colour from our fears and aspirations." — Carl Becker (1873–1945)
Focusing EffectKahneman et al. · How we pay more attention to some things than others
✦ SEVEN WAYS TO ULTIMATELY UPGRADE ✦
UUSUAL: The Focusing Effect means putting excess weight on past events and translating them into future aims.
PPRUDENTLY, this is why financial advisers tell us "past performance is no guarantee of future returns."
GGAINFUL performance teaches us to repeat; doing badly teaches us to do it differently.
RREDUCTION of decision-making time is achieved by referring to past incidents to predict future outcomes.
AAS LONG AS many outcomes are complex, they depend not on a single action or inaction for the result.
DDECIDE to ask: "Is it reasonable to assume that single action caused that entire outcome?"
EENDEAVOUR to place each action in context of all others; you then develop a sense of the whole.
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TIMELY THERAPYDrill deep enough into a matter to develop an uncontestable understanding of it — roots before branches.
Ⅳ
Amorous Assimilation · Four
Gambler's Fallacy
"There are many events in the womb of time which will be delivered — open your heart to receive the new."
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"We think we're in the present but we aren't. The present we know is only a movie of what happened in the past." — Ken Kesey (1935–2001)
"Happy the man, and happy he alone, he who can call today his own." — John Dryden (1631–1700)
"History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is also a compass to find themselves on the map of human geography." — John Henrik Clarke (1915–1998)
Gambler's FallacyAmos Tversky & Daniel Kahneman · Also: Monte Carlo Fallacy
✦ SEVEN WAYS TO ULTIMATELY UPGRADE ✦
UUNDERSTAND: Gambler's Fallacy — also the Monte Carlo Fallacy or the fallacy of the maturity of chances.
PPURELY, it is the incorrect belief that if a particular event occurs more frequently than normal in the past,
GGIVEN, it is therefore less likely to happen in the future — when established probability says otherwise.
RREALISTICALLY, the probability of such events does not depend on what has happened previously.
AACUTE events with historical independence are called statistically independent events.
DDULY, this fallacy is closely linked to gambling — believing the next dice roll must produce a six.
EESSENTIALLY, because there have been fewer sixes recently, the mind wrongly predicts one is overdue.
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TIMELY THERAPYMost vital question: How many NO's are you willing to accept on your way to success? Each NO is statistically independent of your YES.
Ⅴ
Amorous Assimilation · Five
Hot Hand Phenomenon
"Success is apparently relative — it is what, as learners, we can make of the mess we have made of things."
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"Ability and achievement are bona fides no one dares question, no matter how unconventional the man who presents them." — J. Paul Getty (1892–1976)
"Apparent failure may hold in its rough shell the germs of a success that will blossom in time, and bear fruit throughout eternity." — Frances E. W. Harper (1825–1911)
"I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position one has reached as by the obstacles overcome while trying to succeed." — Booker T. Washington (1856–1915)
Hot Hand PhenomenonGilovich, Tversky & Vallone, 1985 · Origin: Basketball
✦ SEVEN WAYS TO ULTIMATELY UPGRADE ✦
UUNDER the banner of the Hot Hand Fallacy lives the concept known as the Hot Hand Phenomenon.
PPEOPLE who experience successful outcomes have greater chances of success in following attempts.
GGENERALLY, this concept applies to sports and skill-based tasks; it originates from basketball.
RROBUST shooters are likely to score if previous attempts succeeded — while having "hot hands."
AARDENT success at a task can transform psychological attitude and lift a player's further success rate.
DDUE research has not found conclusive evidence for a "hot hand" in practice, marking it as disputed.
EESSENTIAL: Events come in clumps. Is our evolved psychological default not randomness, but hot-hand thinking?
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TIMELY THERAPYIf you are not afraid to fail, you probably do not care enough about success. Fear the mediocrity of indifference — not the nobility of failure.
Ⅵ
Amorous Assimilation · Six
Illusory Correlation
"The most merciful thing in the world is the inability of the human mind to purely correlate all its contents."
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"He that is robbed, not wanting what is stolen, let him not know't, and he's not robbed at all." — Shakespeare, Othello, Act 3, Scene 3
A correlation is a statistical measure of the extent to which two variables are associated. A positive correlation exists when two variables increase or decrease together — frustration and aggression, for example. A negative correlation exists when increases in one variable accompany decreases in the other — close friendships and stress-related illness.
Illusory CorrelationDavid Hamilton & Robert Gifford, 1976 · Seeing correlation where none exists
✦ SEVEN WAYS TO ULTIMATELY UPGRADE ✦
UUSUAL: Illusory Correlation is the tendency to perceive a relationship between two non-related variables.
PPURPOSIVELY, this happens when we mistakenly over-emphasise one outcome and ignore all others.
GGRANTED, we hear about Gates or Zuckerberg dropping out of college to build billion-dollar companies —
RREALLY, we over-value that story and ignore all the dropouts who fail to start any successful venture.
AABOUT the hits is all we hear; we never hear about the misses, even though they vastly outnumber them.
DDECADENTLY, we are unaware of how selective memory influences the beliefs we hold as absolute truths.
EENTRENCHED in us is the assumption: if we do not see it, it has no impact or rarely happens at all.
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TIMELY THERAPYFree will is the real sensation of making a choice — yet the choice itself may be shaped by illusions we have never examined.
Ⅶ
Amorous Assimilation · Seven
Neglect of Probability Bias
"We learn best from experience — but we never directly experience the consequences of many of our decisions."
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"The intellect of man is forced to choose perfection of the life, or of the work." — W. B. Yeats (1865–1939)
"The best physician is he who is able to separate fair love from foul, or to convert one into the other; and he who knows how to eradicate and how to implant love, whichever is required, is a skilful practitioner." — Plato (428–347 BC)
Neglect of Probability BiasCass Robert Sunstein (b. 1954) · Ignoring probability; assuming certainty
✦ SEVEN WAYS TO ULTIMATELY UPGRADE ✦
UUSUAL: Neglect of Probability is disregarding probability when making a decision under uncertainty.
PPROBABILITY is ignored in decision-making when we treat any possible outcome as equal in value.
GGHASTLY: abetted by this bias, small risks are either neglected entirely or hugely overrated.
RRELATED are many ways we violate normative rules of decision-making with regard to probability.
AACTUALLY, this bias differs in that rather than using probability incorrectly, one simply disregards it.
DDECADENTLY, we have no intuitive grasp of risk and thus distinguish poorly among different threats.
EEMOTION-arousing outcomes make the apparent probability more likely to be utterly neglected.
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TIMELY THERAPYKeep smiling — life is a beautiful thing and there is so much to smile about. Joy itself is a form of probability defiance.