Law of Irrationality: Bringing Out the Rational Self

The article is a concise draft of takeaways of an extract from Robert Greene’s The Law of Human nature. We will be focusing on Chapter 1- The Law of Irrationality

Problem

Rationality is not a power we are born with but acquired through training & self-practice. We are perpetually infected by this worldly drama that others churn up by continuously reacting to people, experiencing waves of excitement, insecurity & anxiety. We are continually driven by our emotions resulting in irrational actions which we perceive as rational.

Understanding Emotions & Mental Biases

Our brain is composed of 3 parts: Reptilian, which controls all automatic responses. Limbic, governing feeling & emotion. Neocortex, controls cognition & language.

Emotions originate as physical arousal designed to capture our attention & cause us to take notice of something around us. They begin as chemical reactions & then translate into words. This processing is often slippery & inaccurate. For example, we feel anger at person X, whereas in fact, the true source may be envy. We do not have conscious access to the origins of our emotion, all we can do is try to interpret the emotion & translate it into language.

But, emotions are continually affecting our thought processes & decisions, below the level of our awareness. The most common emotion of them all is the desire for pleasure & the avoidance of pain. Our thoughts almost inevitably revolve around this desire recoiling ideas that are unpleasant or painful to us. This pleasure principle is the source of all our mental biases.

Confirmation Bias : We manage to find the evidence that confirms what we want to believe. For example, this can be seen at work in people’s plan which is designed to lead to a positive & desired objective. They veer towards

Conviction Bias : We hold an idea that is secretly pleasing to us, but deep inside we might have doubts as to its truth, and so we go an extra mile to convince ourselves to believe in it to loudly contradict anyone who challenge us.

Appearance Bias : We see people not as they are, but as they appear to us. First, People have trained themselves in social situations to present the front that is appropriate and that will be judged positively. Second we are prone to Halo effect i.e when we see certain positive qualities in a person (like intelligence), other positive qualities are implied that fit with this.

The Group Bias : My ideas are my own. I do not listen to the group. I am not a conformist.

The Blame Bias : We want to learn from our mistakes & not repeat the experience. But in truth, we do not like to look too closely at what we did. Our natural response is to blame others, circumstances, or momentary lapse of judgement.

Superiority Bias : The belief that i’m different. I’m more rational than others, more ethical as well.

The Inflaming Factors

Low-grade emotions are intrinsic and originate from our impulses like the desire for pleasure.

High-grade emotions come at certain moments and are generally sparked by something external like a person getting under your skin.

The more we think about the emotion, the stronger it gets which makes us focus even more on it & so on and so forth. Our minds tunnel into the emotion, and everything reminds us of our anger or excitement.

Trigger Point from Childhood

The vulnerabilities & wounds we develop in childhood remain buried deep in our minds. We try to repress the memory of these negative influences. Later in life, a person or event will trigger a memory of this positive or negative experience.

Recognition Pattern: The way to recognise this is by noticing behaviour that is suddenly childish in its intensity and seemingly out of character.

Solution: Must detach oneself & contemplate the possible source (the wound in early childhood) and patterns it has locked us into.

Sudden Gains & Losses

Sudden gains make us lose sight of the basic wisdom that true success must come through hard work. We acquire feelings of grandiosity. Because this cannot be sustained, we experience an inevitable fall which is more painful, leading to depression part of the cycle.

Unexpected losses or a string of losses breaks us apart and we don’t have a sight to the end of the tunnel. We become fearful & hesitant, which will often lead to more mistakes or failures.

Recognition Pattern: Holding onto an emotion because of recent success/failure

Solution: Whenever one experiences unusual gains or losses, that is precisely the time to step back & counterbalance them with some necessary pessimism or optimism.

Rising Pressure

People around generally appear sane and in control of their lives, but putting them in stressful circumstances will reveal a different reality. They suddenly lash out in anger, reveal a paranoid streak, and become hypersensitive and often petty.

Recognition Pattern: Watch yourself carefully during rising pressure & stress in your life. Monitor signs of unusual brittleness or sensitivity, sudden suspicions & fears.

Solution: Observe with as much detachment as possible, finding time & space to be alone. Through self-awareness & reflection bad decisions can be avoided.

Inflaming Individuals

These are people who tend to trigger powerful emotions ranging from love, hatred, confidence, etc in everyone they encounter. They have the ability to instill common emotions with others. But some of them can also be narcissistically projecting their drama & troubles outward, catching other people up in the turmoil they create. This leads to a profound feeling of attraction in some and repulsion in others.

Recognition Pattern: Recognise inflamers by how they affect others, not just yourself. They make you think of them continually when not in the presence. They have an obsessive quality, and can lead you to extreme actions as a devoted follower or as in inveterate enemy.

Solution: Try to recognise these human traits & demythologise them.

The Group Effect

We get caught in collective emotions when we are in a large enough group. Being in a group doesn’t stimulate independent reasoning but the intense desire to belong. This can easily happen in a work environment, leader plays on people’s emotions to spur competitive, aggressive desires.

Solution: It is often best to avoid the group setting if possible in order to maintain your reasoning powers, or to enter such moments with maximum skepticism.

Strategies toward bringing out the rational self

Know yourself thoroughly

The emotional self thrives on ignorance. The moment you are aware of how it operates and dominates is when it loses its hold on you & can be tamed.

• For this, you must reflect on how you operate under stress. What particular weakness come out in such moments, the desire to please, to bully or control, etc?
• Look at the decisions, especially ineffective ones, and try to identify a pattern, underlying security that impels them.
• Examine your strengths.

This will help you decide upon goals that mesh with one’s long-term interests and are aligned with your skillset.

Examine your emotions to their roots

Dig below any trigger point to find the origin. Your greatest danger is your ego & how it makes you maintain an illusion about yourself. These may be comforting at the moment, but in long run, they make you defensive & unable to learn to progress.

Find a neutral position from which you can observe your actions, with a bit of detachment & even humor.

Increase your reaction time

Remove yourself to a place where you can be alone & not feel any pressure to respond. Or it could mean writing an angry email but not sending it. You sleep on it for a day or two.

The longer you take the better because perspective comes with time.

Accept people as facts

We are continually judging people, wishing they were something that they are not. This often leaves us frustrated & upset.

Make understanding people a fun game. Make your acceptance of human nature as radical as possible.

Find the optional balance of thinking & emotion

Emotions & thinking are intertwined. Some people are governed more by emotions than others. The two can coexist. It is a balance that all geniuses possess.

Being able to tame the emotional self leads to overall calmness and clarity. In this state of mind, you are less consumed by petty conflicts and considerations.