How I Do Research - Question

[electroBeam]

@Leo Gura 3 objections I have for this video are as follows:

1. you said that you should take everything as a hypothesis, and then test it with empirical data/life experiences BUT what if testing the idea is not feasible. For example, I might read somewhere that money wont fulfill me... I can't just randomly get 1000000 dollars and test it out, I need to just believe it or not. How do I tell if I should believe that though? Any epistemology techniques or something?

2. You said briefly in your video that you need to be willing to bet that everything is possible... but doesn't that mean you might get deluded + you didn't really say at the end of your video anything about how you can minimise that as much as possible. Is there a way? I don't trust my intuition lol.

3. You said that you don't have to research everything, but only have to research what is relevant to your model or your ship, but how can you even tell what that is? Isn't everything relevant?

Final question, do you use any philosophical/logical rules to make your research technique more efficient? Or do you consider them traps.

You should make a sort a life purpose course, but for how to be a researcher  there is waaaay too much in this topic to fully get a grip of what needs to be understood. 

[Leo Gura]

1) You need to be prudent with how you do your testing, because you have very limited time and energy. So test out the stuff evidence suggests is worth testing out. And the other stuff will remain uncertain. Over time, as you study 100s of sources and your big picture congeals, you'll be able to sort stuff out much faster and better. There is convergence that happens after years of doing this process. Your intuition will pick up on subtle clues and large-scale patterns. But even then, you still gotta always be vigilant that you could be mistaken.

This is not a fool-proof process AT ALL. It's fraught with landmines. That's just the nature of the situation.

2) You are even more deluded if you take the position that some things are fundamentally impossible. Notice that's a groundless assumption. Be very careful pre-judging what is and isn't possible for reality. That would a rather arrogant position, and reality will ultimately prove you wrong.

The way to minimize delusion is to devote lots of energy to test your deepest beliefs with direct experience.

For example, if you suspect that enlightenment might be true, you MUST go verify it with direct experience, because if it turns out to be true, it will flip your entire web of beliefs upside down. Whereas verifying something like PizzaGate probably isn't worth your time.

3) Everything is technically relevant when you start, but you can quickly cut through lots of crap. If you prioritize your research by 1) Truth and 2) Living a good life, your inquiry will become very focused and a lot of irrelevant nonsense will be easily avoided.

An inquiry needs to start with a deep question. Here are some quality questions to focus your research:

• What is ultimately true?
• How can I discover what's ultimately true?
• What is the biggest picture of life?
• How do I live the best life possible for a human being?
• What is the highest wisdom mankind has discovered?
• What is most meaningful or significant to know in life?

If you stick to those questions right there, you'll eliminate 99% of the dead-ends.

[Donald]

@Leo Gura   I read one of your replies when you said that  it's more like a circle, you keep coming back and you skip some information that is not relevant for the moment. And I found that to be true. I have read almost 30 books this year and I am aware that in order to internalize the wisdom I need time, plus, given the fact that sometimes I feel overwhelmed from the information. It's very contradictory and very challenging. I remember a time , I read Mastery by George Leonard and then the next book was, guess what... The 4 hour work week ( I know that they treat different topics ) but still... Man ... this work is overwhelming... and the mind is easily confused.

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool"

[Leo Gura]

@Donald Yes, the mind doesn't like confusion, which is why people rarely invest energy into this process. And why they end up playing for it for the rest of their lives.

You're gonna get what you give.

[LetTheNewDayBegin]

On 23/01/2017 at 8:12 AM, Leo Gura said:

• How do I live the best life possible for a human being?
• What is the highest wisdom mankind has discovered?
• What is most meaningful or significant to know in life?

Hi, Leo. Your questions prompt me to ask myself further questions:

• Do I conceptualize myself as a human being? What is a human being?
• What is the highest wisdom that I can discover?
• Why would meaning or significance mean anything?

Does it look like I am on the right track?