It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you aren’t thinking for yourself, you aren’t thinking. Independent thinkers are as rare as a very rare thing. The inconvenient truth is that we’re running out of blue pills. If you choose to let the thoughts and opinions of others be your guiding force, you relegate yourself to a life of bacterial proportions.
Social Conditioning
Social conditioning is the enemy of independent thought; even more powerful in that regard than religion. It’s like a hurricane strength headwind pushing back against individual progress. It’s a force so vast and overwhelming that it’s practically invisible. Even when you point it out to people, they usually just chuckle and return to surrender.
“What? Just walk up to some girl I don’t know and say ‘Hi’? Hah, you’re crazy!”
“Drop out of medical school now? Pfff, my parents would love that!”
“Quit my job and just move to Europe? Heh! If only, eh! Hey, youwannanotherbeer?”
If there’s any upside to social conditioning it’s that, like all evils, it requires the sanction of the victim. If you’re living a life of someone else’s choosing, that, ironically, is your choice.
The world is full of amateur philosophers, professional cynics, and blurry mystics. How do you figure out the truth for yourself? After all, you can’t just walk up to some random girl and say “Hi”! Won’t she slap you or something? And moving to Europe would cost a fortune, wouldn’t it?
How do you become the needle in a socially conditioned haystack?
Breaking Free
The motive power behind independent thought can be summed up in three words: Output is God. If you want to know whether you’re on the right path, you don’t need permission to hold your own views. Your results speak the truth.
Let’s consider the implications of an output-driven lifestyle.
First, what do I mean by “output”? I define output as the measurable result of a task that brings you closer to achieving your goal. Output may be the finished product or just a stepping stone to the end result. Even a failed attempt can be considered output, because figuring out what doesn’t work brings you that much closer to figuring out what does. For example, if you’re trying to overcome social anxiety, approaching five random strangers could be one measurable task that brings you closer to that goal. If you’re evaluating a programming language to use for developing a website, the output may be a specific feature you’ve implemented. The tangible effects of your efforts form the necessary building blocks of your intellectual sovereignty.
An important part of the above definition is having a clearly defined goal. Knowing exactly what you intend to accomplish is the foundation of drawing your own conclusions. Another key is that the data that forms your opinion should be measurable, i.e., visible to an outside observer.
For example, let’s say you’re a guy wanting to improve his skills with women. There are so many schools of pickup out there–how do you know where to start? A lot of guys will start by asking around about what stuff they should read, what the best method is and so on.
With “Output is God” as your mantra though, you’d form your own opinion by starting with defining your desired outcome. Do you want a girlfriend or something more casual? What kind of girl(s) are you looking for? What’s your time frame for achieving this goal? Do you prefer a more scientific, linear approach, or do you want the focus to be on becoming comfortably genuine?
Knowing what you want gives you the context in which to evaluate different approaches, or even develop a whole new school of thought. Even though you might still ask around about different methodologies, you could now ask more precise questions, based on your goals and constraints. It’s important to not get too lost in weighing different options before you just jump in and try things out.
Enlightened Skepticism
At this point, you might assume that forming a solid, sound, individualized evaluation of the information you consume means always being on guard about what you read, never believing anything until you’ve proven it through your own experience. That’s probably a sane approach for things like mainstream media, but I don’t think it’s ideal in the realm of personal growth.
Here’s why. First, doubt lowers intensity. An important ingredient of success is obsession, so when it comes to personal growth, you’ll need conviction to maximize your results. Second, making significant changes in your life often involves making an identity shift, and too much up front skepticism inhibits that process. And finally, when you aren’t fully committed to trying something new, you may give up at the first sign of failure, using that as an excuse to validate your uncertainty.
The most effective way to form your own judgement of something, particularly in the context of personal growth, involves exactly the opposite approach. In my opinion, the best way to know the truth is to assume that what you’re learning is true, and seek to verify it through your own experience. I’d call this enlightened skepticism.
Enlightened skepticism puts you in a receptive state of mind. It opens the throttle on your reticular activating system, that part of your brain that figures out what to pay attention to and what to ignore. Enlightened skepticism makes purposeful action the prerequisite of an informed opinion. While it’s tempting to spend countless hours in juicy debates about the good, the bad, and the ugly, the only way to truly know what’s the best fit for you is to do your research, experiment your brains out, measure your results, and evaluate them in the context of your goals.
If you’re used to always asking for other people’s advice, it can be pretty scary at first to take off your intellectual training wheels and learn to ride solo. The ideas behind this article are pretty easy to apply though. Every time you catch yourself mulling over questions like “What’s the best …?”, “What should I …?”, or participating in vapid flamewars, reel yourself in with those three simple words: Output is God.
