I first came across the idea that reducing one’s identity aids decision making when reading the excellent Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson. Naval was saying that the beliefs you take on as part of a package, for example political affiliation, religious, or national identity, are suspect. At the very least they need re-evaluating from base principles (another excellent mental model to use).
Preformed identities, although often useful, are automatically limiting. There are no ideologies or packaged belief systems that have got it all correct. The world is dynamic, culture is evolving, knowledge is growing. Our identities should too.
When the ideas we hold true are challenged we often defend them. With ideas that are defined by group identity, we can find ourselves defending what we don’t fully understand. When taking a defensive position we are no longer open to the possibilities of new information, or even just a fresh perspective. We could easily be defending noise and ignoring signal.
When it comes to the pursuit of what is a meaningful fit to reality, defending someone else's bad ideas is pointless. If we are to separate signal from noise we need to be as objectively positioned as possible. We need to remain open to other perspectives, to participate in rational thinking, and to tune into our sensory organism.
Sacrifice your sacred cows
To really shed the shackles of group identity it is worth spending some time asking yourself the following question.
What is sacred to me? or What ideas do I need to be true?
For example, I needed the society I live in to be a meritocracy, a place where advancement was because of what you know, rather than who you know.
I needed academia to be an institution that pursued truth and provided unbiased information to society, so we can all find a better fit to reality.
These were some just of my sacred cows. I still hold these ideas as being valuable, but I no longer need them to be true. Which is good because they are largely not.
Since I sacrificed my sacred cows at the alter of signal detection my thinking is clearer, my biases less persistent, and my decision-making more effective. I learn faster, I make connections quicker, and I can predict outcomes with greater accuracy.
To quote Naval Ravikant, “To be honest, speak without identity.”
SAC — stand alone complex
Most people would rather be wrong and be part of the crowd than be right and stand alone. Or at least, they would prefer to not know they are wrong and remain accepted. In ancient cultures exile was a worse punishment than death, even now, many of us suffer when we feel lonely, disconnected, or disassociated.
This is a very basic encoded human behaviour. For most of human history survival has meant being part of a social group, we are inherently social beings.
To sacrifice our sacred cows, abandon our group identities, and stand alone against the crowd, are acts of courage. As more of us that take these steps, and find each other through social networks, a decentralised complex of signal detection may form.
The power and efficiency of a signal detecting SAC is unknown, the benefits of the network effect suggest exponential increases in both. But for it to work we also need to be able to work together. The rest of this series will be dedicated to learning how we can work together to improve signal detection in our noisy world.
Previous article in this series “Cognitive Cheat Sheets”
Next article in this series “4 Heads are better than 1”
