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So the inside view is "I succeeded at all of these remarkable achievements which lots of other people have failed at, but if they did what I did they'd be able

So the inside view is "I succeeded at all of these remarkable achievements which lots of other people have failed at, but if they did what I did they'd be able to solve all these problems" Maybe also think of your experience a little with the outside view which is "For 50 years society has been trying to figure out how to reproducibly cure depression, aggression and weight loss. Millions of people, and tens of thousands of scientists having failed at creating a reproducible way of solving these problems. Over those years several hundred people have achieved those goals and thought that their results were reproducible. None of them to this day have reproducibly solved any of these problems. One new person solves these problems for himself and believe his results are reproducible." Now there are two possibilities. That one guys stumbled across a reproducible solution to weightloss, depression, and aggression that once it is studied will lead to a new gold standard of therapy for each of these problems. Or that guy found a unique solution to his own problem that will probably not be reproducible or scale. If it's the second then maybe think that your very impressive experience with change is not universal.

RobertRoberts 9y ago
>Or that guy found a unique solution to his own problem that will probably not be reproducible or scale. Yes, I found my solution. And what I think it means is that others can find theirs. Is that impossible? Or to lower the bar, is it even unreasonable? I was at a point where I felt like nothing was going to change, and I simply had to believe other people saying "things can change" and "don't give up". And I want to pass this on to others, that they can. Anyone can run 10 minutes a day, anyone. And I truly believe that if you are overweight, but otherwise healthy, you will lose weight by exercising and improving your diet.
dasil003 9y ago
This is looking at the problem through the lens of science. Science has given us such remarkable advancements and debunked so many lies that it is natural—especially among engineering types—to hold it up to as the gold standard for solutions to broad problems. But when it comes to personal issues, especially behavioral or psychological ones, there's a good chance even the description of symptoms is not consistent between individuals. Whatever facts and metrics doctors and researchers have available are far removed from the subjective experience of patients. A more useful lens IMHO is the belief that one can change ones own thoughts and behaviors. I'm not claiming it's universally true, but I'm damn sure if one doesn't believe one can change then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is not an excuse to judge others for not always being the best person they can be, it's merely meant to give a little bit of self-empowerment. I acknowledge it doesn't work all the time, and it's all too easy to twist into self-flagellation, but claiming some agency in ones own life experience is something that can help a lot of different people in a lot of different ways.

RobertRoberts 9y ago

>Or that guy found a unique solution to his own problem that will probably not be reproducible or scale. Yes, I found my solution. And what I think it means is that others can find theirs. Is that impossible? Or to lower the bar, is it even unreasonable? I was at a point where I felt like nothing was going to change, and I simply had to believe other people saying "things can change" and "don't give up". And I want to pass this on to others, that they can. Anyone can run 10 minutes a day, anyone. And I truly believe that if you are overweight, but otherwise healthy, you will lose weight by exercising and improving your diet.

dasil003 9y ago

This is looking at the problem through the lens of science. Science has given us such remarkable advancements and debunked so many lies that it is natural—especially among engineering types—to hold it up to as the gold standard for solutions to broad problems. But when it comes to personal issues, especially behavioral or psychological ones, there's a good chance even the description of symptoms is not consistent between individuals. Whatever facts and metrics doctors and researchers have available are far removed from the subjective experience of patients. A more useful lens IMHO is the belief that one can change ones own thoughts and behaviors. I'm not claiming it's universally true, but I'm damn sure if one doesn't believe one can change then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is not an excuse to judge others for not always being the best person they can be, it's merely meant to give a little bit of self-empowerment. I acknowledge it doesn't work all the time, and it's all too easy to twist into self-flagellation, but claiming some agency in ones own life experience is something that can help a lot of different people in a lot of different ways.