A common way of manipulating others and ourselves is “the 10% bias”
I made up that name. I’m not familiar with similar bias, therefore I shall describe it here myself
The 10% bias is when you let yourself be seduced by an extraordinary promise — under the excuse that “even if it’s only 10% true — it’s still worth it”
“Keep it simple and stupid” exploits this bias
The promise may sound utterly unrealistic and therefore stupid,
But man are greedy
And intelligence is slave to emotions
Therefore they will rationalise it
And it’s a great rationalisation: “even if only 10% of those 100k a month are true — that’s still 10k a month EXTRA”
It’s logical
Of course logical doesn’t mean true
Politicians and journalists and public figures exploit this bias
Why not contrive the most EXTRAORDINARY LIES?
Someone will be tempted to ask:
“what if even 10% of this is true ?”
“What if the elites don’t rule entire world — but maybe they rule 10% of the world?”
They will follow you for more ARCANE KNOWLEDGE and SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE
“What if that MIRACULOUS HEALING METHOD works EVEN ONLY 10% OF IT’S PROMISED EFFECTIVENESS?”
Maybe that’s still enough to cure you
Misinformation spreads this way
We allow those voices to exist
We took freedom of speech too literally. We think NOT PUTTING THOSE LIARS IN PRISON is equal to actually GIVING THEM TIME A DAY. No
The world is confusing enough. If you try to give credence to even 10% of any given absurd conspiracy theory — you’ll end up mad and utterly deluded
Having said all that — I actually am not one to consider everything a scam or a lie or believe no one can be trusted
There’s one person who can (hopefully) be trusted — OURSELVES
And there’s one thing which can be trusted — ACTIONS WE TOOK TODAY AND RESULTS WE REAPED
That’s why I say “you are only what you did today”
Because ONLY THAT IS REAL
And with that principle as a foundation — I actually recommend NAIVETY, over scepticism
I DO believe you should be a LITTLE BIT TOO OPTIMISTIC
Because unknown is not only unknown pitfalls and mistakes and failures — it’s also unknown discoveries and improvements and treasures.
As long as you are ALREADY grounded in REALITY of TANGIBLY IMPROVING THINGS EVERY DAY — then you’re well poised to actually DO explore those “fantastic opportunities that need only be 1% true to be worth it”
Indeed the mentality of IMPROVING SOMETHING TANGIBLE EVERY DAY — it precludes falling for the “fantastical” lies
Because DOER is not interested in theories, to begin with.
So conspiracy theories won’t interest him anyway. It’s nothing he’s going to fall for because there’s nothing to gain from those theories anyway.
And after that — he won’t fall for any of the SCAMS either— simply because those scams BARELY OFFER ANY ACTIONABLE STEPS
And the REAL DOER is all action
The fool is all talk and all ideas and all concepts and all pipe-dreams and all fantasies
Real doer will literally execute all the steps within a day
And the next day they will already know that this doesn’t really work
Real DOER wants tangible, MEASURABLE, REAL results TODAY
Even if the promised “big pay day” is 30 years from now — he understands that the steps towards it CAN, and must, be grounded in REALITY today
Such man can not fall for any scam, because there’s nothing which grounds the scam to reality.
Don’t fall for the 10% bias
Not unless you immediately get something tangible to work with
If it’s tangible — then it doesn’t matter if it’s 10% or 50% or 0.5%. If it’s real — you can BUILD UP FROM IT
But if it’s a lie — then 10% of lie is still a lie. 100% of a lie is a lie. 50% of a lie is a lie. A lie is a lie.
Commit to that which is real — THEN think big.
The real is FAR MORE FANTASTICAL, FAR MORE PROMISING than you think. “Real” does not mean pessimistic or sceptical. Real is actually profoundly optimistic.
But it’s real nevertheless. More real than a lie.
As real as something you can actually try right now, actually improve right now, actually feel right now.
A lie is always some day, always tomorrow. And it doesn’t matter if it’s only 50% a lie or 10% a lie or 90% a lie — a lie is a lie.