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How To Think Like A Strategic Genius (5-Dimensional Thinking) — Transcript

by Dan Koe · 6,780 words · 1,005 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Some of the smartest people I know are
0:01incredibly stupid. And some of the
0:03dumbest people that I know are
0:05incredibly successful by today's
0:07standards. They're happy, they're
0:08healthy, they're wealthy. So, what's
0:10actually going on here? Why are smart,
0:12intelligent people who tend to
0:14overanalyze a lot of things not achieve
0:17the life they want? Because in this
0:19video, I'm trying to prove to you that
0:21thinking is one of the most important
0:23things that you can practice in today's
0:25world. Thinking is the one thing that
0:28determines the outcome of your life. And
0:30that's massive. The outcome of your
0:32life. That's literally everything. So,
0:34if you learn how to think, which is what
0:36we're going to learn here, but we're not
0:38going to do it in a way where we talk
0:40about first principles thinking or
0:41systems thinking or metacognition or
0:43anything else that you can ask ChatGPT
0:45about, because that's why you're here.
0:46You're here for a unique take. Now, I've
0:49spent multiple years studying different
0:52thinkers, and I've spent a lot of time
0:55dissecting how they think and trying to
0:57integrate that into my own way of
0:59thinking. So, what we're going to do in
1:01this video is we're going to start very
1:02shallow and build our way up. We're
1:04going to start at one-dimensional
1:06thinking, then two-dimensional, then
1:08three-dimensional, then
1:08four-dimensional, and finally, we're
1:10going to go We're going to tap into the
1:12fifth dimension. So, thinking tip number
1:14one, if you want to understand what
1:16something is, like thinking or genius
1:18thinking, it helps to understand the
1:21opposite, to understand what stupid
1:23thinking is. And when I say stupid
1:25thinking here, I'm not calling you
1:26stupid, I'm not calling you low IQ. I'm
1:29simply observing a pattern. Everyone
1:31thinks stupidly at times. Everyone
1:33thinks stupidly every single day. And
1:35that's what we're trying to avoid.
1:37That's what we're trying to move in the
1:39direction away from. I can't think right
1:41now. So, if we observe people who
1:43display this characteristic of stupid
1:46thinking, we come away with a few
1:47insights. First is that stupid thinking
1:50is one-dimensional. People try to jam
1:52everything into their own perspective
1:54and have difficulty seeing outside of
1:56it. Second, stupid thinking is
1:57reductionistic, so experts in one
1:59domain, like business, try to reduce
2:02everything to a strategy problem as one
2:04example. Third, stupid thinking is
2:06tribal, so you only trust your group,
2:08your political party, your tribe, your
2:10religious people who adopt your same
2:13religious beliefs, and you consider
2:15everyone else wrong because they don't
2:17conform. And fourth, stupid thinking
2:19does not question. Your justification
2:22for most things is that's just how it's
2:24done. So, as a whole, stupid thinking is
2:27about closing your mind off once you've
2:29reached the limits of what you know.
2:31Stupid thinking is when you stop
2:34thinking too early. You can still think
2:37within your own little bubble, but you
2:38never break out of that bubble. What
2:41tends to happen is you think for a bit,
2:44but then you reach a point where you're
2:46at your limits of how far you can think,
2:49and then you tend to collapse in on what
2:51you know. And then that's when you just
2:53become this person who just spews out
2:57pre-programmed thoughts or what they've
2:58been told or what other people believe
3:01is right. They don't push the boundaries
3:04of their own mind. So, with that as an
3:06explanation of stupid thinking, we can
3:08start to grasp at what genius thinking
3:11could be. In this case, genius thinking,
3:14as a definition, would be the ability to
3:16hold threatening ideas in the realm of
3:18possibility paired with the intention to
3:20understand rather than just know. The
3:23mark of genius thinking is illustrated
3:25by the width, depth, and height at which
3:28you can think without being cut off from
3:30venturing further, often due to holding
3:32an idea as absolute. It's your ability
3:35to traverse the full universal web of
3:37ideas, reality, or all potential
3:40knowledge, and pull them together into
3:41something coherent or useful, if not
3:44something entirely new. But, this also
3:46helps us see what this smart but dumb
3:48phenomenon is, where someone very smart
3:51in a domain like business will see
3:53someone who is depressed and just
3:54attribute that to being a productivity
3:56issue or dude you just need to sit down
3:59and do the work. You you see this
4:00everywhere on social media. If you're
4:02depressed, just do the work. If you're
4:03sad, just do the work. And in some cases
4:05that helps, but
4:07it doesn't help in every case. It's like
4:09you're a little kid and you're trying to
4:11take the circle shape and you're trying
4:13to like mash it into the square shape in
4:15the little board. And the same holds
4:17true for the other side, right? There's
4:19like business person who's very
4:21practical and then there's a spiritual
4:23person who's very abstract and the
4:26spiritual person would attribute
4:28business failure to just not having the
4:31right vibration. And the thing here is
4:33is that they're both not wrong. They're
4:35both correct in their own ways, but we
4:38have to understand how to apply those
4:40ways of thinking
4:42to different situations so that we can
4:44get the most out of it because wouldn't
4:45it help as a business person if you had
4:47a problem that you couldn't see because
4:50it's best solved through
4:52something spiritual to be able to tap
4:54into that lens so that you can actually
4:55solve the problem. So you've met these
4:57people. You've met these business people
4:59who just prescribe their way of doing
5:01things as the only way of doing things.
5:02You've met the hippies and the spiritual
5:04people who do the same thing and you
5:06probably do the same thing without
5:08noticing it. And that's what I'm trying
5:10to get at here is if if you just notice
5:12that, if you simply notice it and don't
5:15allow your thinking to stop there, then
5:17you unlock this new power. So how do we
5:20actually start navigating out of stupid
5:22thinking? The first thing that will help
5:24here is just knowing the difference
5:26between knowing and understanding. Now
5:29this isn't an explicit definition. I'm
5:30just trying to get you to understand
5:32here, which is kind of ironic, but
5:36knowing we can think of that as
5:38horizontal development. It's domain
5:40expertise. You're accumulating facts,
5:42you're memorizing insights, you're
5:43studying the textbook, you know things.
5:45And understanding is vertical. It's It
5:48has more to do with the sophistication
5:51of your cognitive operating system. So,
5:53you can know a lot and understand very
5:56little. You can also understand deeply
5:58and know relatively little. But, if you
6:01understand more than you know, you can
6:03still act more effectively than the
6:05person who thinks they know everything.
6:06And that's exactly why smart people are
6:08stuck is they read books, they collect
6:11knowledge, they develop themselves this
6:13way, but they can't see anything above
6:15that. They can't see into other domains.
6:17It's like they're installing new apps
6:20onto their operating system without
6:21upgrading the operating system itself,
6:24right? When you have an old iPhone and
6:26you download a new app, that app is
6:28probably going to be very slow. It's not
6:30going to work very well. A lot of the
6:32features are developed for the newer
6:34operating system. So, when it comes to
6:36your own mind, you have to do the same.
6:38So, a few more examples of the smart but
6:40dumb phenomenon is like think of a
6:41businessman, very successful in
6:43business, but he still finds himself
6:45unhappy, right? He makes a hundred
6:47million dollars, then he sells the
6:48company, and now he's depressed. And he
6:51doesn't know how to solve that problem
6:52because he's not in business anymore,
6:54and that's all he knows. Or, and I'm
6:56sure many of you can relate with this,
6:58is a creative who has very beautiful
7:01work. They dedicated their lives to
7:03their craft, but when it comes time to
7:05make an income,
7:06they can't because they don't understand
7:08anything in the business domain or even
7:10in the psychological domain and how
7:13humans perceive value because they're
7:14not creating something that other people
7:17want. And that's not inherently a
7:18problem, but it can create problems
7:20because if you want to do that thing
7:22full-time and you're working a job or
7:24you're trying to scrape by time to
7:26actually work on your creative craft,
7:28that's kind of a problem. You want to
7:30spend all of your time doing the
7:31creative thing, but you're not willing
7:33to learn what's going to allow you to do
7:36that because you think everything just
7:38boils down to all I just want to be able
7:40to create art all day. Why can't I
7:42create art all day? And then another
7:43example is like a meathead who is very
7:46fit or goes to the gym, but their
7:48relationship is in shambles because they
7:50don't understand social dynamics. They
7:51haven't studied masculine-feminine
7:53dynamics. They don't understand any of
7:55that. So, they got buff for the sake of
7:58attracting a girl, but then they can't
7:59keep it and they don't know how to solve
8:01it because all they understand is, "Oh,
8:02if I get buff, girls like me." So,
8:04that's why learning how to think is so
8:07important because your mind is how you
8:10interact with reality. You process
8:12information, you make sense of it, which
8:14is thinking, you make a choice, then you
8:16receive information as feedback, so you
8:18have to think again, and you respond to
8:20that feedback and repeat the cycle. So,
8:22you get information, you think, make a
8:24choice. You get information back from
8:26the choice, you think, you make another
8:28choice. You do the same thing. Think,
8:31information, choice, repeat, repeat,
8:33repeat. Thinking determines the outcome
8:36of your life. That's it. So, every
8:38moment where you engage in stupid
8:41thinking creates a compounding effect.
8:43You dig yourself into this rut so deep
8:46that it's it becomes impossible to even
8:49see the thing that will get you out. So,
8:51the more you double down on what you
8:53know as the one true way and you fail to
8:55learn, learning is kind of like an
8:57expansion pack for your thinking, right?
9:00So, if you continue to learn, and I'm
9:01not talking about studying or memorizing
9:03facts, I'm talking about how to actually
9:05learn, which is by building projects,
9:07failing, getting feedback, repeating,
9:09iterating, doing it in the real world,
9:11that's how you make your life better.
9:13So, let's break this down into an actual
9:15framework, and we're going to call this
9:18lines, levels, and altitudes, right? So,
9:20first dimension, second dimension, third
9:22dimension of thinking, and we'll just
9:24move up the ladder. So, we'll start with
9:26lines of thinking. So, here's a graphic
9:28of how this will start to look. You can
9:30think of uh the width of this, the
9:32novice to advanced as one line of
9:35thinking, right? You can think of this
9:36entire thing as you learning, let's say,
9:38marketing or astrophysics or politics or
9:41social dynamics or
9:43religion, literally learning anything.
9:45It's when you attempt to learn
9:46domain-specific knowledge. This graph
9:48applies to one domain, and you are
9:50increasing the width of that line of
9:53thinking. It's like you're gaining
9:54experience in a video game. Now, levels,
9:56on the other hand, how these are stacked
9:59is how you think about each line. And
10:01we've talked about how cognitive
10:03development evolves over time many times
10:05before. See Ken Wilber, see Susan
10:07Cook-Greuter, see Spiral Dynamics, so on
10:09and so forth. But, we can extract those
10:11patterns and apply them to thinking
10:13itself about specific domains and
10:15multiple domains. So, at level zero of
10:18thinking, it's instinctual. So, you're
10:20just born, right? When you're born, you
10:22just act out of pure survival. You react
10:24to stimulus without thinking at all. You
10:26don't even have the ability to think.
10:27And then level one is conformist. So,
10:29this is black and white thinking. You
10:31follow rules and obey authority without
10:33questioning. You adopt others'
10:34perspective. So, when you're born, you
10:37adopt your parents' perspective. You
10:39take on their religious beliefs. You
10:40take on what they think you should do
10:42for a career. And if they're born in the
10:44industrial age, that equals go to
10:46school, get a job, retire at 65. And
10:48then there's level two, which is the
10:50individualist stage, where critical
10:52thinking emerges and you construct your
10:53own model. So, you build your own
10:55perspective. And for a lot of people,
10:57this is often based on their parents'
10:59perspective. They don't fully break out
11:01yet. They They are still in this
11:03singular, one-dimensional way of
11:05thinking about the world. So, you may
11:07not do exactly what your parents want
11:08you to do, but you're still on the
11:10default path that society set for you.
11:12So, go to school, get a job, retire at
11:1465. And you may be choosing your own
11:16major. You may
11:18You may want to get an art degree when
11:21your parents disagree with that, but
11:22they're still happy that you're going to
11:23college to get a degree. And then
11:25there's level three, which I'm going to
11:27call synthesist. And this is where you
11:28see your model as one among many. You
11:31hold contradictions and use perspectives
11:33as tools rather than law or some
11:35unquestionable truth. Now, these aren't
11:37just things that I've made up. This is
11:39how minds evolve over time. This has
11:41been documented and a lot of people
11:44don't reach that level three. They
11:46either remain Bible thumpers, so to say,
11:49across multiple domains, not just
11:51religion, as level one thinkers, or they
11:53rebel against that and consider their
11:55own way of doing things as law. But,
11:57when you're a synthesis, you start to
11:59break out of the like single-minded
12:02perspective. You start to understand
12:03that, oh, there is actually some form of
12:06truth in how other people do things,
12:09which is a crazy thought to many people.
12:11Who knew that
12:13everyone is right in one way or another.
12:16And then level four, we're going to call
12:17this generative thinking. So, you create
12:19original perspectives that didn't exist
12:21before, or you come to ideas without
12:23outside influence. So, if we go back to
12:25the graph, you can see how like level
12:28one starts to unlock level two, and then
12:30level three, and then level four. It's
12:32not like you have to get 100% through
12:34level one in order to move up the
12:37ladder. Like, you can be at level one
12:39completely, but you can tap into level
12:42four occasionally. But, of course, we
12:44want to tap into that more. We want to
12:45maximize this so that we increase our
12:48surface area of thinking. Now, one
12:50important distinction here is that level
12:52one and level two can be considered
12:54first-tier thinking if we group those
12:56together. What that means is that it's
12:58overly dogmatic, right? I'm right,
13:01you're wrong, or my group is right, your
13:03group is wrong. And then they fight
13:05against each other a lot. Then levels
13:07three and levels four can be considered
13:09second-tier thinking. This is where you
13:11start to reject dogma, and you start to
13:14actually seek truth for once, because
13:16your truth isn't the only truth. You
13:17understand that the ultimate truth lies
13:20somewhere in the middle, and usually you
13:22don't come to absolute truth. You come
13:24to trade-offs, right? Solution like
13:26solutions don't really exist, but
13:28trade-offs do. That's Thomas Sowell.
13:30Now, one more thing here is that you can
13:32be at level four, but in a particularly
13:34stressful situation, you can regress
13:37back down into lower levels. So, you can
13:39regress down to level one and be very
13:41conformist in one domain of your life
13:43when you're stressed and you're going
13:45through it, or you're in an argument
13:46with someone and you're really not
13:47thinking. That's when you start to like
13:49tap into the lower levels. So, before we
13:52continue, I just want to make this
13:53exceedingly clear once again, is that
13:56genius-level thinking is your ability to
13:59continue thinking. Because at each level
14:02of thinking, your ability to navigate
14:03that space to both known and unknown
14:06ideas continues to expand. When you're
14:08born, you don't really think. When
14:10you're a conformist or level one, you
14:12think until you reach a point where you
14:14have the answer, then you start
14:16defending the answer. When you're an
14:17individualist or level two, you do the
14:19same thing, but with your answer. And
14:22when you reach synthesist, you can think
14:24far and wide, but your ability to create
14:26new lines of thought is not fully
14:28developed yet. So, reaching your highest
14:30ability to think and thus providing the
14:32runway for your highest potential in
14:34this life boils down to the simple
14:36practice of noticing when your mind
14:38feels threatened, being honest with
14:40yourself, and at minimum staying open to
14:43new perspectives. That's thinking in a
14:45nutshell. That's how you think. You
14:46don't need any fancy first principles
14:48thinking to do that, even though first
14:50principles thinking holds some truth.
14:52Now, after lines and levels of thinking,
14:54there is your altitude of thinking,
14:56which is the average of how you think
14:58about each line or level. So, if we look
15:00at a new graph, you can kind of see I've
15:02condensed the lines, I've added more
15:04domains, and now they're interconnected,
15:06and you're at various different levels.
15:08And you may see something that you've
15:10seen before here, right? To best
15:12understand how this works and to almost
15:14complete the thinking puzzle, it helps
15:15to visualize thinking as a skill tree.
15:18So, in a video game, you can put points
15:20into certain traits that allow you to do
15:22more inside the game. You can take on
15:24higher challenges, you can have more
15:26fun, and you can continue playing. The
15:28same holds true with the mind. But, the
15:30thing is here, higher-level traits can
15:32only be unlocked once you meet a
15:34specific requirement of lower-level
15:36traits. So, in a video game, you can't
15:38access something like level three
15:39dexterity when you haven't already put
15:42enough points into, let's say, level
15:44three strength. So, many of you are
15:46interested in business, which is why I
15:48keep bringing this up as an example, but
15:50imagine a business person who takes it
15:52pretty far. Right? You make a lot of
15:54money, but then you hit this plateau,
15:56and you're like, "Man, I don't know what
15:58to do here. Like, I I literally don't
16:00know. I've studied everything, and I
16:02can't overcome this plateau." And you
16:04can't see the problem because you
16:06haven't developed other domains of your
16:08life. The problem here could be your
16:10inability to lead a team. Right? Your
16:12emotional intelligence is so abysmally
16:14low that you don't even know that you're
16:16causing problems within the company
16:18that's causing it to stall. In order to
16:20be a true leader, you have to develop
16:22yourself in all domains of life. At
16:24least, that's my belief. And even if
16:26there are people who make it very high
16:29without doing that, other domains of
16:31their life suffer, as well. That's not
16:32something that I want, at least right
16:34now in my life. I want to
16:37You have one life. Maybe. I don't know.
16:40Maybe AI changes that, but I want to do
16:43cool things in this life. I don't want
16:45to let problems sit around and fester
16:48and just make my life worse. This is
16:50also why domains like politics or
16:52religion or even things like nutrition
16:55online are so like violent and
16:57polarizing. It's a bunch of smart but
17:00dumb people just calling each other
17:02idiots because they can't see from each
17:04other's perspective. Okay, so now we
17:06need to tap into the fourth dimension.
17:08We covered lines, levels, and altitude,
17:11but now there's something more. Now,
17:13this isn't the fourth dimension of time.
17:15That's actually the fifth dimension that
17:16we're going to talk about, but this
17:17fourth dimension does increase your
17:20ability to think by the power of four,
17:22because there are four dimensions of
17:25reality. And these dimensions are
17:27perspectives. They're ways of looking at
17:30the world in four different major ways.
17:32So, when you're thinking about a belief
17:34or an idea or a situation or problem,
17:37you can kind of adjust the lens on your
17:40camera to see it in four different ways.
17:43So, here's how this would look in
17:44graphic form, and you can see that it's
17:47divided into four quadrants, because
17:49there is an inner world, which is
17:50mental, and then there's an outer world,
17:53which is physical. So, by inner world,
17:55what I mean is psychological and
17:57cultural. There's your individual inner
17:59psychology, which contains your
18:01thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and
18:03consciousness. And then there's the
18:04collective inner world or culture, which
18:06contains group beliefs, value systems,
18:09and ideologies. Then in the outer or
18:11physical world, you have your individual
18:13outer world, which is your visible
18:15appearance, behaviors, and physical
18:16brain states, or other measurements. And
18:19then there's the collective outer world,
18:20which is composed of systems,
18:22structures, and social institutions.
18:24Now, why does this matter? It's because
18:26most people and most experts only look
18:29at one of them, only one quadrant. The
18:32neuroscientist only sees the brain
18:34states, while the mystic only sees the
18:37vibes, or the therapist who only sees
18:39the behavior, or the sociologist who
18:41only sees the social systems, or the
18:43philosopher who only sees the meaning,
18:46which is the culture. So, genius
18:48thinking in this context is enhanced by
18:50your ability to see all of them. So, as
18:53a little example and developmental
18:55progression here, let's say that I start
18:57learning about marketing. I get really
18:59good at marketing. And in order to do
19:00that, I have to study other people's
19:02methods, right? I'm in within one line,
19:04I'm at level one. I study Alex Hormozi
19:07or my own videos, and I think, "Oh, this
19:09is the one true way to do things." But
19:11then I grow. I become more mature. I am
19:14in the space longer and I advance to
19:16level two. And I have my own way of
19:18doing things because I've experimented
19:20so much, which has helped me learn more.
19:22I become more of an expert because I'm
19:24not just copying what another person
19:26does, I'm doing things my own way, which
19:28gives me a competitive edge. And then,
19:30if I have already pursued other
19:31interests in my life or I continue
19:33pursuing interests in my life like
19:35psychology and fitness and personal
19:37development, it gives me a deeper sense
19:38of pattern recognition. So, not only can
19:40I understand the people that I'm working
19:42with more or how the world works or how
19:44culture works and how I can apply my
19:47marketing to that thing, but it also
19:49further removes me from dogmatic
19:51thinking, which frees me up to think
19:52even more and become more creative. So,
19:54from there, that's where things start to
19:57get interesting. But one thing I forgot
19:59to mention is that when you are
20:00thinking, you're usually thinking to
20:02solve a problem. That's what humans do.
20:05That's how we grow. That's what we find
20:06enjoyment in. That's where we find
20:08growth. That's where we find
20:10development. That's progress. And the
20:12minute you stop growing and thus stop
20:14thinking, problems start to multiply and
20:17life just becomes considerably worse.
20:19So, if we identify a problem in today's
20:21world like the world is becoming corrupt
20:23and meaningless, that gives us a
20:25starting point to think, right? And it
20:27also gives us an aim for our thinking.
20:30So, to start thinking here, we can just
20:32question in the four perspectives or
20:34four dimensions like we talked about.
20:36So, how does society control attention
20:38and market their ideas to the masses?
20:40That's the collective inner world. How
20:41can your behavior change more than it
20:43already has during this process to have
20:45a positive impact on society? What would
20:47be the steps to reaching such a point of
20:49influence with your marketing or other
20:51things that you can leave your mark?
20:53This is the individual outer world. What
20:56does the job market look like right now?
20:57Is a job an actual path to achieving
20:59such a thing? What about AI? Can I
21:01utilize the technology available to me
21:03to create that impact? This is the
21:04collective outer world and it's all kind
21:07of merging together here. Am I thinking
21:09about this the right way or is there
21:11more? What am I missing and how does
21:12this make me feel? Does it make me feel
21:14motivated or inspired or hateful? That's
21:17the individual inner world. Now, we can
21:19go on with that, but I think you get the
21:21point. So now we get to talk about how
21:22to tap into the fifth dimension cuz that
21:24was the fourth dimension, but we're
21:26going to start with a quote by
21:28Krishnamurti. It is no measure of health
21:30to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick
21:32society. So think about that as we go
21:35through this section. In all previous
21:36examples, we never really tapped into
21:38the power of history. History is a very
21:41important thing and it increases your
21:43ability to think that much more because
21:45if you understand how things develop and
21:47evolve over time, you can predict, not
21:50entirely accurately, but in a more
21:52accurate way, how to go into the future,
21:55especially with your own actions so you
21:56can set yourself up for some kind of
21:58success. But we're not trying to know
22:00here, we're trying to understand. We're
22:02not trying to memorize facts about
22:05certain events in history. We're trying
22:06to understand the general patterns that
22:09unfold because that's going to allow us
22:11to understand anything that falls within
22:13those to some extent. So there are five
22:15things you can know here just to think
22:18about history better and we're going to
22:19just run through these because I want to
22:22leave you to thinking on your own. The
22:24first thing is that the master pattern
22:26is transcendent include. So if you take
22:28a materialist, he would say that reality
22:31is composed of atoms. If you take a
22:33mentalist, then he would say that
22:35reality is composed of qualia. But if we
22:37zoom out for the sake of understanding,
22:38we understand that they're both correct
22:40because they're in separate
22:41perspectives. So if we look at what's
22:43actually happening throughout history,
22:45we can understand that reality is
22:46composed on a very general metaphorical
22:48level of whole parts. What that means is
22:51that it's composed of wholes, but the
22:53those wholes are also parts. As some
22:56examples, matter evolves into life
22:58evolves into mind. Each of those are a
23:00whole and so like matter is a part of
23:03life, but it's also a whole in itself.
23:05Then you can think of word to sentence
23:07to paragraph to chapter to book to
23:10library to wherever you want to go. Then
23:12you have machine to computer to
23:14artificial intelligence to whatever
23:16comes after that. Or you have human to
23:18house to city to state to country to
23:20continent to planet to solar system to
23:22galaxy, so on and so forth. This is why
23:24everything is connected in the way that
23:26people talk about is because when you
23:27observe reality from a broad enough
23:30level, you see exactly this. So, with
23:33each evolution of something, when
23:35something new emerges, it transcends and
23:38includes the thing before it. What that
23:40means, the important thing there is that
23:42if you transcend and you don't include,
23:45then something's wrong. And if you
23:47remove one of the parts from the whole
23:49that allowed that thing to exist, then
23:51the whole self-destructs. So, this is
23:53why environmentalists are so concerned
23:55with climate change is because if the
23:57biosphere goes to crap, then humanity
24:02goes down with it. But then you look at
24:03it from a technologist point of view and
24:05they're like, well, we don't really care
24:07about the environment right now because
24:08we're eventually going to create the
24:10technology that allows us to make the
24:12biosphere better, and it will survive
24:14that way. So, they're thinking in terms
24:16of acceleration and progress, while the
24:19environmentalists are thinking of not
24:21necessarily regression, but doing things
24:23differently right now so that we can
24:25slow down the use of the resources that
24:28would make the biosphere
24:31bad. Now, this will make more sense with
24:33examples. So, the second thing you need
24:34to know is just how individuals evolve
24:36physically, right? So, we need to cover
24:38how individuals evolve physically and
24:40mentally, then how collectives evolve
24:42physically and mentally. Humans,
24:44specifically, tend to evolve or develop
24:46through an increasing circle of care or
24:49concern. So, it goes from egocentric to
24:51ethnocentric to worldcentric to
24:54cosmocentric or reality itself. What
24:56that means is that you're born and you
24:57kind of start out selfish and then you
24:59identify with your tribe or your group
25:01and then you identify with humanity as a
25:04whole or the world and then so on and so
25:06forth. But the thing here is that people
25:07try to skip levels. They don't
25:09understand transcend and include. They
25:12try to identify as this world-centric
25:14person who just cares about everyone's
25:16equality, but they don't understand that
25:18you also have to care about your group
25:21and yourself because those heavily
25:23impact how much you can care about the
25:26world. It's like you can't What's the
25:29freaking What's the quote where you
25:30can't fill someone's glass from if your
25:33own is empty. So, this has to be
25:34accounted for in your thinking because
25:36these people who identify as these
25:38world-centric virtuous people are smart
25:41but dumb. You do not sacrifice your own
25:43values or your group values for the sake
25:46of these world values that sound so
25:48noble when it doesn't work without the
25:51latter. I mean, the former. Sorry. Now,
25:54I can't remember I preface that as
25:55individuals evolving physically or
25:57mentally, but that was obviously
25:58mentally, right? Your circle of concern.
26:00Physically, it's pretty obvious. You go
26:01from atom to cell to molecule to
26:04organism and you can like see and feel
26:06and taste and touch the physical world.
26:08You understand how this happens. Now, in
26:09terms of how societies evolve physically
26:12and mentally, they're both deeply
26:14intertwined because the tools allow for
26:17the worldview or the value system to
26:19emerge. Now, physically in societies, we
26:21see that people evolved from tribes to
26:24villages to empires to nation-states.
26:27And the technology here was first
26:29hunting and gathering with simple tools
26:31and then digging sticks and hoes which
26:32enabled some food surplus and then we
26:34invented the horse-drawn plow which led
26:36to even more of a food surplus that
26:38allowed people to discover and explore
26:41and conquer. This is close to the
26:42enlightenment and why that happened. But
26:44then we invented machines and computers
26:46and we abstracted ourselves further away
26:48from both human labor and animal labor.
26:51So, the evolution of societies
26:53physically allowed for them to evolve
26:55mentally as well. And this happens in a
26:58similar way as it does in individuals
26:59where it's egocentric, ethnocentric,
27:01world-centric, but when we are talking
27:04about societies or collectives, it helps
27:06to use different terminology. So, we can
27:08use something like pre-modern, modern to
27:10post-modern or pre-rational to rational
27:13to post-rational and then
27:14trans-rational. But, what that means is
27:16that in earlier societies, we first
27:17conformed to authority, right? All we
27:20believed was that there were rain gods
27:22in the sky and if it rained, we made
27:23them happy. And then we discovered
27:25science and reason and we started to
27:27value progress. And now we're in this
27:29post-modern world where we kind of
27:31deconstruct everything and we think
27:33everything should be equal when it
27:34doesn't work that way. And so, we need
27:36to transcend and include the good parts.
27:38So, if we ground this and make this
27:39practical in how to actually think about
27:41it, think of where we are right now in
27:44the age of intelligence. If you are
27:46still operating on industrial age
27:48technology as a business or you think
27:52that the right path to go down is go to
27:54school, get a job, retire at 65 because
27:56that's
27:57what you would do in the industrial age,
27:59you're running on this outdated software
28:02and you need to change it. So, if we
28:03want to make this practical, we want to
28:05ground it. We can think of the situation
28:07we're currently in where AI is on our
28:09doorstep and no one knows what to do
28:11next, right? That's the biggest problem.
28:13But, if we look back at history, we can
28:15at least tell whether what we're doing
28:18is good or not or is going to be
28:20beneficial for the future. So, if you're
28:22still running on industrial technology
28:24as a business, then that's probably not
28:26a smart thing to do. If you are
28:27integrating AI in some way, transcending
28:30and including, then you're probably
28:31falling behind. And if you as an
28:33individual still have the default plan
28:36of the industrial age to go to school,
28:38get a job, retire at 65 when jobs are at
28:41threat of automation and you can't think
28:43creatively of as as what you can do or
28:45you can't predict at least somewhat
28:48accurately, what a good path to go down
28:50is, that's how this is practical. That's
28:52what I talk about in like all of my
28:54videos. Now, everything I say,
28:56obviously, isn't going to be correct,
28:58but I do think it's heading in the right
28:59direction. I'm open to being wrong, but
29:02I'm also putting out there I'm not I'm
29:03not just telling people to sit around
29:05and just be bulldozed over. Now, another
29:08practical way to think about this is
29:09when you're engaging in debate with
29:11another person or on social media, you
29:14can start to identify where they lie and
29:17what type of thinking they're using. So,
29:20if you're on social media and someone's
29:21just being super polarizing or dogmatic
29:24or whatever it may be, you can assume
29:26that they're thinking stupidly and
29:28they're just trying to defend their own
29:30beliefs. Or if they sound like a TV or
29:32social media itself or the news, you can
29:35assume that they're just regurgitating
29:37this pre-programmed line of thought.
29:39They're not thinking at all. Now, the
29:40most useful thing here is to just
29:42identify where you are at, where your
29:45own center of gravity is so that you can
29:47identify your own blind spots and see
29:48past them. You don't need to compete
29:50with someone else on how well you can
29:51think. You simply need to think better.
29:53So, we've covered a lot of frameworks.
29:55We've tapped into this fifth-dimensional
29:57thinking, but we missed something pretty
29:59important here. We missed the main thing
30:01because stupid thinking is just when you
30:03stop thinking. But, what makes a person
30:05stop thinking? What makes them turn in
30:07on themselves and to just start
30:08defending themselves endlessly? The
30:10answer here is identity and you latching
30:13on to beliefs, ideas, or constructs and
30:16just making them a part of who you are
30:18because that's inherently limiting,
30:19especially if those ideas, beliefs, or
30:21constructs are small, right? Your Your
30:24ability to think is determined by your
30:26world model. It's determined by your
30:28beliefs. So, you should, in my opinion,
30:31adopt the most encompassing world model
30:35that you can. If you willingly adopt
30:38something going into it knowing that
30:39it's dogmatic, that it's ideological,
30:41that it's very one-dimensional, then
30:43your going to your thinking is going to
30:44take the shape of that. Think of the
30:46die-hard Republicans or Democrats,
30:48right? If you become one of the
30:50die-hards, then you can't think out of
30:52that little bubble. Therefore, you will
30:54never be able to find the truth of the
30:56situation. You're just going to be
30:57arguing in circles and going nowhere. I
30:59don't know how more people don't see
31:01that or realize it. That doesn't mean
31:03that you can't adopt the values of
31:06either side or think that certain sides
31:08hold certain truths. That doesn't mean
31:10that you have to turn against both of
31:12them. That's not how this works, either.
31:13It simply means that you don't need to
31:15feel threatened when someone else
31:16disagrees with you, because that threat
31:18is signaling that you think you that's
31:22who you are. Now, this isn't only in
31:23politics. This is literally every single
31:26domain, even something as small as
31:27marketing, like we talked about earlier.
31:29You wouldn't know the amount of times
31:30that I've seen people on the internet
31:32talk about, let's say, Alex Hormozi's
31:34methods, and then someone disagrees with
31:36them and says that there can be a better
31:38way, and then they just argue endlessly.
31:40It's like, how can you not How can you
31:42not see that? It applies to religion. It
31:44applies to vocation. It It applies to
31:46everything. So, a helpful thing here,
31:48and another thing to think about, is how
31:50you came about getting these beliefs.
31:52Because most people in today's world
31:54haven't thought an original thought a
31:57single day in their life. You were born
31:59into a specific part of the world. That
32:02specific part of the world is called a
32:04culture. That culture is practically
32:07holds its own value system and belief
32:09system. If your parents were raised in
32:10that culture, and you were raised by
32:12your parents, those were probably
32:13imposed on you. And since you weren't
32:15able to think for yourself, you adopted
32:17them for the sake of survival, because
32:19you have to survive or else you'll be
32:20kicked out of the house or something
32:22worse. I mean, even in another part of
32:24the world with a different value system,
32:27you could literally get killed, and you
32:29don't want that. So, you conform. You
32:31start at level one. And so, those
32:32beliefs limit how far you can can from
32:35the get-go. And most people don't ever
32:38question that. They never break out of
32:40that bubble. That is the greatest trap
32:42you can fall into because you have to
32:44remember your mind is how you interact
32:46with reality. Remember, you see
32:48information, you interpret it or make
32:50sense of it at your current level line
32:52altitude of thinking, and then you make
32:54a choice, and then you do that again,
32:57and again, and again, and then it
32:58crystallizes. It becomes conditioned. It
33:00becomes repetitive, robotic, and then
33:02determines the outcome of your life.
33:04That's insane. So, you have to increase
33:06the space. You have to expand how many
33:08perspectives you can hold. You have to
33:09be able to navigate
33:11multiple different scenarios. If you
33:13only think within the confines set by
33:15your parents, teachers, employers, and
33:17peers on social media, the outcome of
33:19your life isn't going to be pretty. Just
33:21observe where the average person ends
33:23up, and it's not hard to see that. So,
33:25the next time you feel questioned, I beg
33:28of you, this is only thing you have to
33:29do, is just pause, look at it, observe
33:33how you feel, and do not collapse in on
33:35yourself. Just allow it to sit there,
33:37right? That's not even think. You don't
33:38even have to come to a solution. You
33:40don't have to come to any of that. You
33:41just stop the stopping of the thinking.
33:44Just don't respond. Just let it pass by,
33:48and see where that takes you. So, those
33:50who practice that will win. If you like
33:53this video, like the video, subscribe.
33:55And while you're here, feel free to sign
33:57up for the wait list of Eden, which is
33:59the drive that handles your busy work.
34:01It's a new kind of drive because
34:02frankly, Google Drive and Dropbox have
34:05been dropping the box, and they're
34:07really not that good. And it also has a
34:09projects feature and agent inside of it,
34:10so it can edit all your files. You can
34:12do your creative work in there if you're
34:14a creator who uploads videos. And this
34:16is a cloud drive. So, imagine having it
34:18in your finder on your computer, but
34:19those never actually download to your
34:21computer, so you can quite literally
34:22throw away your hard drive. But you can
34:24search for and drag the right thing into
34:26say Premiere, or whatever you're editing
34:28in, and then you can make edits there,
34:30and it's saved in the drive. You don't
34:32need an external hard drive anymore.
34:33That's how cool Eden is. Sign up for the
34:35wait list. It'll be released at some
34:37point. With that said, like, subscribe,
34:38glad to have you here. Subscribe to my
34:40Substack if you want more content like
34:42this and I'll see you in the next video.
34:44Bye.

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