The Importance of Varying Perspectives (Problematization)
The idea of changing perspectives to find a better way is so vital that I find it strange that there is not more writing on this idea (I’m sure there is, just not where I’ve looked). I think it’s partially because it’s often somewhat implied from the common platitude “keep an open mind,” which is good but a bit vague in my opinion. The idea to change perspectives is even a version of doing it itself, with the alternative being stuck in one’s rabbit hole of thinking. It also doesn’t require too much research from myself to talk about, which is neat, and when applied can bring some extra happiness! (edit: it’s called problematization in Philosophy)
So first I’m going to talk a bit how this applies to poker without going into too many technical details before going onto other topics because, guess what, I’m a poker player. Now I think this is pretty useful thinking towards actually improving at poker, and, yes, I know that sharing information like this may hurt my bottom line in the long run (it makes my competition better making it harder to take money from them). Why would I do this, you might ask? If it’s not obvious — I’m sick in the head and want more of a challenge! Hahaha! That’s something money can’t buy!
Seriously, I think there is some importance here and it’s not just related to poker. In poker a big example is that, before all the programs came out to tell people solutions, the consensus was that there wasn’t much room for improvement in general play. Turns out that everyone was WRONG, and poker programs radically influenced how people play today. The poker world was simply too caught up in it’s own paradigms to see the truth, including myself…
(POKER)
On a more individual level , the dynamic between competitive games or bets boils down to one player thinking they are more right than the other. While this is necessary for there to be a game, if you actually hear and understand people’s rationalizations from both sides it can be pretty comical, especially if you keep hearing them. Player A would point out “player B gives away information from his expressions and does ABC badly” while Player B would say “Player A loses control and does XYZ badly,” often focusing so hard on the potential veracity of their view and ignoring their personal potential ABC’s and XYZ’s. In some examples one player’s perspective very clearly invalidates another’s. Player A would point out some detail from the perspective of an isolated situation “player B always bets in these situations and I never call with worse.” Meanwhile, player B would view things in the context of the whole game, which meant giving money in that isolated situation but getting it back in some other situation. Often many bad opinions can be rectified by the most simple way of changing perspectives: asking around, preferably unbiased people. To be clear, all these players’ perspectives did have validity — nearly every perspective does — but “making sense” is not enough. Typically the real truth emerges pretty fast when getting multiple opinions from educated people, and necessarily lies somewhere between all the different points of view. Now, considering the perspective of looking at common elements of all these mistakes it’s easy to see a common denominator: being too locked in one’s way of thinking. People wanted to be right too much. (For sure I’m still guilty of this, but I like to think I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum. I think my problem is more along the lines of obsessing over the 5% chance I’m wrong chasing perfectionism and driving myself crazy in the process :) )
(/POKER)
Of course, there are many relevant real-world parallels to what happens continually in poker. In poker, the result between competitors in terms of money is what is known as a zero sum game in which there is a winner and a loser (not including fees or whatever), but the total of their gains/losses is equal to zero. In the real world, sadly, there are many situations in which getting caught up in one’s own ways of thinking results in BOTH parties losing. Many gangster scenes from movies come to mind as obvious examples, such as one from Martin Scorsese’s recent production “Irishman” in which both gangsters end up destroying each other. (Non sequitur for the reader — What about the reverse of this situation, where all parties benefit?) There are other relevant themes around changing perspectives, such as the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, the meaning of life, communication in general, our limitations, men and women, and more! This blog is already pretty damn long, however, so I’ll leave it with just one more application…
With the situation of lock down from COVID-19, it can be tempting to fall into despair from the endless tedium and lack of freedom to do what we want. You’ve heard the cheesy platitude before, “look on the bright side.” Unfortunately we can’t view and act on things from the highest perspective because of our limited capacity, but we can choose one that is more beneficial for ourselves. I try to choose the one where I keep in mind the bounds of reality, while otherwise trying my best to be focusing on what I can do to change my reality for the better. It’s easy to feel helpless, to even judge oneself because of it, and to generally fall into a pattern of negativity ultimately causing excess pain during these times. I know that I am fortunate because of what life has given me so it’s much easier for me to have a proactive mindset, and I’d like to point out that I still fail plenty along with judging myself despite this. At least when things return to normal we will hopefully now have the insight to appreciate what we have. I hope these words serve as some inspiration to whoever reads them, or at least that you get some entertainment from judging me!