The Psychology of Being Right

[ryoko]

On 11/16/2025 at 8:24 PM, Daniel Balan said:

How do I know when I am right on a subject or topic? 

The fact that you're not sure of it points to undone work. 

Also, a lot of it is just maturity to see what's right for you need not be right for others, this is mostly systems thinking and understanding the mechanisms of various everyday things. You'll develop it over time if you make that a goal and work towards it. 

P.S - Just because you're so damn sure of something with no grounding for it doesn't necessarily mean it's right for anyone, even yourself. Most people had never gone through the work of questioning the status quo and arriving at the answers themselves. And sometimes they do end up back where they began, but this time with the realisation that some of the common views we so rejected were right all along. 

I find myself in a place where, I simply can't accept most things which are status quo, and I can only be at ease with some notion once I've thoroughly done the work of going through it myself and finding the answer. This doesn't make my life any easier, it just makes it more harder, but the reward is a more nuanced understanding.

Sometimes I feel like most people have it so easy, they can easily accept the general consensus with no problem and go along with it with such ease. It honestly makes me jealous sometimes, how easy life would be. But then again, I'd be pretty conflicted if I tried to force group think.

There's a purpose to fiction, it often facilities certain actions. In fact, I'd go as far as to say, all actions are rooted from a shared fictional consensus. The whole mechanism of believing in a fiction is, you're not self aware enough to see it's a fiction. Once you see the fiction, you can't go back to how you were even if you want to. You've broken the illusion. 

Edited Wednesday at 05:34 PM by ryoko

[Aaron p]

On 16/11/2025 at 8:47 PM, Daniel Balan said:

I have decided upon my contemplation that I am right and that they are wrong. 

However everytime I decide that I am right I have this quote from you that echoes in my mind " Isn't it odd that out of all the billions of worldviews and perspectives, only yours is right, valid and truthful? " 

And then I go back from square one in my contemplation and I assume everything I contemplated up until that moment was wrong.

Careful, assuming you are wrong is as much a trap as assuming your right. The objective is to avoid assumptions altogether. 

It's a paradox, most people think they're right. Most people would be deluded. We understand this so we anticipate our own delusion. However doing this makes us less susceptible to delusion, and more likely to be right. Knowing this, we can practically assess that if we possess this level of mental agility, it's only appropriate to admit that this makes us more likely to be right in the end. However then also remembering that thinking your right, even with this meta perspective, once again makes you susceptible to being wrong, as per the initial logic. This can be combatted again with a further layer of meta perception. You just keep attacking it with layer after layer of meta intelligence. 

2 supplementary insights:

- usually it's safe to assume that there's a lot that we don't know. I'd say the entirety of mankind still doesn't know how gnarly reality can get.

- don't fall into the trap of being right without being loving. Or perhaps this point could be better articulated by saying; there's a difference between theoretical/knowledgeable correctness and spiritual, energetic or loving correctness.

Edited yesterday at 12:20 AM by Aaron p

[Daniel Balan]

8 hours ago, Aaron p said:

Careful, assuming you are wrong is as much a trap as assuming your right. The objective is to avoid assumptions altogether. 

It's a paradox, most people think they're right. Most people would be deluded. We understand this so we anticipate our own delusion. However doing this makes us less susceptible to delusion, and more likely to be right. Knowing this, we can practically assess that if we possess this level of mental agility, it's only appropriate to admit that this makes us more likely to be right in the end. However then also remembering that thinking your right, even with this meta perspective, once again makes you susceptible to being wrong, as per the initial logic. This can be combatted again with a further layer of meta perception. You just keep attacking it with layer after layer of meta intelligence. 

2 supplementary insights:

- usually it's safe to assume that there's a lot that we don't know. I'd say the entirety of mankind still doesn't know how gnarly reality can get.

- don't fall into the trap of being right without being loving. Or perhaps this point could be better articulated by saying; there's a difference between theoretical/knowledgeable correctness and spiritual, energetic or loving correctness.

Thanks a lot for this!