Ensuring Accomplishment, No Matter the Task

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

Clarifying, Verifying, Instilling, and Reinforcing

Attempting
When one wishes to go from point A to point B, to accomplish anything, regardless of how large or small the task, there is a simple mental attitude and process to ensure accomplishment.

Clarity of thought
Clarity of feelings
Clarity of communication
Clarity of resources
Clarity of tools
Clarity of path

It takes practice at each of those in order to make them automatic and remove old habits. Once they are automatic, the person’s intelligence (ability to solve problems) will already be higher than before.

That list is not merely an arbitrary list of usual concerns. The first three are expressions of the mental portion of accomplishment involving cognitive thought, subconscious thought (emotions), and social thought (language exchange; teaching and learning).

The last three are expressions of the physical portions of accomplishment involving being prepared to accomplish by seeing that everything involved in the task is ready to be brought together.

Together those comprise the Awareness function of living while using whatever senses and faculties are available. The awareness is at least supposed to be what is done before one actually attempts to accomplish. After that has been done (and actually in small ways a part of getting it done) comes the actuality, the Influence of getting it done.

Instill the thoughts involved (memorize and document)
Instill the feelings involved (encourage the feelings involved in accomplishing the task)
Document the communication (remember and write down whatever is said or heard)
Gather the resources for readiness (including friends)
Gather the tools for readiness (including assistants)
Clear away any possible interference or distraction that might get in the way.

By the time the person has done that last item, realizing that any additional hesitation on his part is “interference or distraction”, the task will begin to be accomplished. And if he did that list properly, the task will be completely accomplished exactly when expected, if not sooner.

Again like the first list, it takes intentional practice, a degree of discipline, to instill those processes into your mind. And once instilled, the person will not merely be more intelligent, but more obviously reliable, certain, and justifiably confident. So the first task to accomplish really should be the task of instilling those habits.

Ensuring
If by accident the person manages to do all of that exactly properly, he will accomplish his task every time. But the one thing that people seem to just hate to do is to ensure that each effort they make actually does what was intended. And that involves a degree of cross checking and verifying each step.

Verify each relevant thought (the design, reasoning, and intention)
Verify the proper feelings (ensure the confidence required, “clear conscious”)
Verify the communication (ask for acknowledgement)
Verify resources (are they truly sufficient)
Verify tools (are they truly up to the task and available)
Verify the path (is there any reasonable chance at all of anything getting in the way).

More intelligent sentient beings ensure that those are a part of their preparation process before doing even the smallest of tasks. Androids are already being programmed to do those things very quickly.

But verifying the preparation isn’t enough. Interference or distractions that were beyond sight can still upset the effort. So for the influence portion of the task, a type of verification should also be included.

Reinforce the thoughts involved (find alternative reasons for their permanence)
Reinforce the feelings involved (get extra reasons for wanting to do what is needed)
Reinforce the communication (duplicate what was communicated)
Reinforce the resources for readiness (duplicate, multiple resources, alternative means)
Reinforce the tools for readiness (duplicate and/or make them stronger than required)
Reinforce the clarity of the path (put up a fence if necessary)

For those who are not experience with it, no doubt all of that seems like a lot of work. But if practiced, especially from youth, all of those happen “without effort of trying”, like riding a bicycle. And interestingly, even the simple efforts of picking up a teacup or going to the restroom become tasks that are ensured even beyond the normal certainty, and without even making any further special effort to make it so. People become even more undefeatable in everything they do (if the animals were not nervous enough…). Fortunately, wisdom very soon follows.

Anyone (and anything) who does those things will become more intelligent, reliable, and confident. When done properly the person will never attempt anything that doesn’t get accomplished. Of course in a competitive, Nietzsche type of world, everyone wants to be the Ubermensch in place of you or your children and thus will be making sure that you are not their “interference and distraction”. The political world and especially the medical world doesn’t want you being certain of anything and thus will be actively trying to “interfere and distract” you. That is just what they do (and have been doing so for a long time). And due to the current medical and political environment, it will take extra effort of practice and patience to learn those as habits.

If you want your children to become more accomplished in any field of endeavor, make those habits as automatic in them as reading and writing. Others will be doing so.

In the long run, so as to defeat the insane effort of everyone trying to dominate everyone else, the only important task to ever consider attempting is the task of providing incentive (the Perception of Hopes and Threats, PHT) toward anentropic harmony (stable harmony surrounding and within). In that way, all competitors are quickly forced into becoming altruistic. And then nothing can stop Man from accomplishing every conceivable need, even his machines. In the long run, not a single person has need to suffer or be confused.

The alternative is to simply pass away and become extinct in your waking-sleep of distractions and musings.

2

Good and useful post, James.
I hope people take it seriously.

But, then what will happen to that so called liberty of children, which is almost the universal mantra nowdays?

with love,
sanjay

3

Well if you’re the typically oppressed American and not allowed to have any influence over your own children, just get good at it yourself so as to regain the ability and right to have a say in their potential.

4

Agreed. That is certainly in one’s reach.

With love,
Sanjay

5

Could you explain what exactly you mean by “duplicating” resources and tools for readiness?
Resources (including friends, but can be also material things like money) and tools (including assistants) are mostly limited and difficult enough to obtain. Duplication might be impossible, but couldn’t the striving for it be an additional hesitation then?

6

There are two thoughts involved in that question. First realize that every single thing that you do is not with the intent of any accomplishment other than the joy of doing it. When you are doing something for entertainment, there is no need to go through a long serious preparation and reinforcement process. That would tend to take a lot of the fun out of it and would make for a really shallow romantic moment. Although once practiced enough, such things happen automatically and thus don’t distract from the moment.

As far as reinforcing things, much of it is simple duplication or redundancy, although having a backup method of a different type, a “plan B”, is usually better. Simple examples could be:

  1. make everything twice as clear/clean as you think it needs to be (explain things in different ways).
  2. have twice as much material (of whatever) than you expected to need (especially $ in business).
  3. use two nails instead of one.
  4. use one nail and a screw.
  5. use a screw and a clamp.
  6. brace from 4 directions, not merely two.
  7. have enough food in the house to feed twice as many as expected.
  8. have multiple means for preparing or cooking the food with the idea that one might fail (back-up stove, “hot-plate”).
  9. have multiple recipes for the same basic meal (chicken chef-salad and tuna chef salad).
  10. have replacements for which ever spicing your recipe calls for (honey instead of sugar).
  11. backup generator for your house.
  12. have more friends than you expect to need.
  13. be more of a friend than you expect to be sufficient.
  14. have others verify you reasoning, regardless of how confident.
  15. verify rumors and judgements, preferably by checking with the subject.
  16. include more details than expected to be sufficient.

Things like those are what allows you to be confident that things are going to go your way even if they weren’t. It is an issue of securing your future, your future accomplishments, future happiness, future trustability, future business, future family. At first they seem like such a waste, but after you discover how often they save your plans, they begin to feel more like comfortable security than annoying burden. IBM Corp used such “conservative” planning to build a huge and extremely reliable business, “blue-chip stock”.

Of course, the best plan for life involves intimate friends who work and play together such as to make such practices easier to habitualize. It is generally easier for people to ensure that a backup plan is available for an intimate friend than it is to do the same for themselves. Such practice actually creates a true double reward that is often felt. And by having two people trying to ensure a reinforcement, the effort to ensure it is also reinforced, thus the enforcement is far more likely to be accomplished.

Remember the acronym, MTBF - “Mean Time Between Failures”. Try to reduce it as low as possible without destroying the joy factor in life, MIJOT - “Maximum Integral of Joy Over Time”.

As far as the “hesitation” and extra time, remember that saying, “a stitch in time saves nine”. The turtle wasn’t as fast as the rabbit, but much more reliable. And actually at times, you end up faster by ensure each step than if you had rushed - “measure twice, cut once”. A person can generally survive either way. That is why people don’t think to reinforce things. And that is also why they end up surviving in a different place and condition than they intended to be in.

Also due to contemporary social politics and manipulations, it is a really good idea to have friends who do the same reinforcing and thus not only are more reliable as friends, but also understand why you take a little longer at times.

For a while just try it in fun, dropping the concern now and then. But realize that at some point, it is going to be an actual really serious concern.

7

Don’t worry, the government will sterilize the populace and force everyone to become robots soon enough. Then everyone will ensure accomplishment, 100T%, at any task.

8

A very good post again, James.

With love,
Sanjay

9

A very good post again, James.

With love,
Sanjay

10

A very good post again, James.

With love,
Sanjay

11

Yes indeed Snjay, you recognize pure genius, as I do.

This plan of James is sheer brilliance, as are the plans of James in Team Rocket.

Want a business to succeed? Simply buy twice as many screws.
Have twice as much food in your fridge, and have twice as much money as you normally do.
Buy twice as many upgrades. Take twice as long to build.
Have twice as many friends, have twice as many lovers. Have twice as much material.

It’s that simple.

Pure genius.

12

It doesn’t seem to be possible that a thread (on a philosophy-forum) stays without insults, most often from people who don’t know the difference between „having something to say“ and „always having to say something“.

Thanks for the answer James. I understand the importance of having a Plan B. Of course it depends on the task, but still I think that the most difficult thing is to find other people, not to speak of friends, to support and reinforce it, especially when they can’t expect any (financial) profit. It seems to be difficult enough to find people who speak the same language as oneself.
But of course, having those friends would be the optimum.

13

Tixie,

Read that post again, slowly and carefully. Perhaps, that will help.

With love,
Sanjay

14

Thank you all. And continuing…

This subject directly involves your real life (what iambiguous refers to as “Dasien”) and thus there is an endless list of real life examples. This is where the abstract theory hits the road running.

Stable anentropy is established by constantly repairing or replacing whatever is broken or lost, hopefully more quickly than it gets broken or lost. Anentropy is not only having a spare tire, but also the tools, know how, and enthusiasm to use and replace it more quickly than it needs to be used. Literally sub-atomic particles exist as stable particles for atoms and materials to form solely due to that natural mechanism of constantly replacing the affectance that makes up the particles.

Once back in the 70’s I replaced the head gasket on my engine while 100 miles out on the highway crossing Texas. How many people carry extra head gaskets and tools required to replace one in their trunk? Actually I didn’t have a head gasket. I had a material from which a head gasket could be made and the steel sheers with which to cut it into a head gasket along with all of the tools necessary to remove the head. A couple of hours later, I was happily zipping down the road again.

Another time riding with a friend, his fuel pump went out in the middle of the night a long way from home or any open business. I didn’t want to spend the night out there so I disconnected his windshield washer pump and used a rubber hose to connect it between the small spare gas can and the carburetor’s fuel reservoir. Every few miles, he had to press the windshield washer pump, but it got us home. Sometimes the replacement is by alternative method rather than proper repair. And sometimes it by having a friend who knows how to do such things (that traditional handy husband concept).

Of course these days hardly anyone works on cars anymore. These days if anything goes wrong, one merely presses a button (assuming that it didn’t automatically go off) and a network of surveillance systems locate the car and send out a socialist team of rescuers … at a substantially high price. Insurance and surveillance companies are the back-up system today whether you like it or not. Laws are used to ensure that you support the system through taxation and thus forced participation of the economic system of forced labor. The system reinforces the anentropy of its own awareness and influence, not yours. The system is designed to be the only important living entity, much like a person trying to maintain his consciousness while disregarding his body as irrelevant. You are merely a replaceable body part of a higher order self supporting, self-aware mechanism designed to be anti-entropic, aimlessly growing and consuming everything in its path. The system is designed with the idea that the stronger the individual, the more threatened the governance (the result of Nietzschean mindsets).

Thus in actual practice, every person’s adversary in trying to maintain his own certainty in life is the very system that insists on being the only true stability, a huge global particle constantly replacing its affectance – the people. Such a system requires that all people remain relatively weak and easily dispensable. And counter that concurrent condition of Mankind, one should take the “Harpy Challenge”.

The Harpy Challenge[size=150]…[/size]

15

? :-k
Dictionaries don’t help here…
You refer with it to that process of ensuring accomplishment, which you described above or do you mean something else by “challenging the Harpy”?

16

All of this may well be applicable if the task is something that can be accomplished. You either do this or you do that. If you do the wrong things, you don’t accomplish the task.

But none of this really helps you if the task that you wish to accomplish involves behaviors that others insist are irrational, or immoral, or not politically correct.

You may succeed in accomplishing the task, but others attack you precisely for accomplishing it.

In other words, how would these tools – this methodology – be applicable in a context in which folks have conflicting narratives regarding that which is said to be the “right thing to do”?

After all, had someone like Hitler used these tools he may well have succeeded in accomplishing his task.

17

First realize that you are an example of the exact opposite of the method being discussed. You, in your pessimism, inherently seek to ensure the lack of certainty, the most doubt, and fatalist impotence. So don’t expect to suddenly become the opposite of what you are over night. This subject would take considerable practice by you in order for you to attain what you currently preach to be impossible.

The Harpy Challenge
The mythical creatures; harpy, gremlin, and leprechaun are all of the same breed – mischievous trouble makers sent by the gods to keep people down and dominated. They represent unexpected harassment and troubles that spring from the unseen. They keep the heart insecure, requiring the aid of a Hercules to thwart their interference of more common men.

The Harpy Challenge is a mental exercise that is a bit like a video game with multiple levels of increasing difficulty and a final reward of actually becoming secure, courageous, influential, and legitimately confident in the real world (what a real harpy would be trying to prevent).

The challenge begins merely by imagining that there is an invisible (to you) entity who is going to cleverly steal, damage, or confound one item involved in any given task that you intend. If you are going to cook a meal, the harpy is going to steal one ingredient, damage the stove in some way, or perhaps even confound the recipe itself. Your challenge is to mentally consider the real possibility that something unexpected will happen such that your intention is in jeopardy if you don’t have everything clearly reinforced … and then actually reinforce it. Parents with young children are probably already experienced with the reality of such issues.

No matter what your job or endeavor in life might be, the challenge is to mentally make each little task more secure. If you are a nurse, imagine that you are assisting that surgeon performing open heart surgery and there is a harpy in the room. If you fail, the patient is likely to die as well as everyone getting sued for malpractice or incompetence. If you are an investor, imagine that someone is going to illegally manipulate your reports or possibly steal your notes, clients, or resources funds. Whatever your job or endeavor, merely imagine each day that one random thing is going to go wrong if you don’t have it clarified, verified, instilled, and/or reinforced.

After several days of practicing that and if you feel certain that you are beyond such bedevilment, up the challenge to imagining that two random things are going to go bad each time you attempt any task rather than merely one. Even the timing of the task becomes in jeopardy as you would have to shift your normal routine. That timing could be an issue (getting to job on time or handing the doctor the tool before the patient expires). Try to make you reinforcement thoughts realistic and actual, not merely theoretical.

Realize that even with 90% confidence in each of 10 small efforts involved in a task, you should have only a 31% confidence that you are going to succeed. You should expect to fail 2 out of 3 times you attempt such a task. Thus the degree of earned confident for each tiny item must be substantially high, else the total task will not be as probable as one might think.

With each level of comfort and confidence that you accomplish, increase the challenge a little more finally up to the point where the entire endeavor is going to be completely forbidden by the powers that be. Now what are you going to do? Perhaps you got laid off. Did you already have a “plan B” in mind?

Real confidence is gained through real practice of real forethought and preparation. The feeling of confidence is a very pleasant thing, but only a feeling, sometimes obtained by very illegitimate means (getting faked out or even faking yourself out). The Harpy Challenge will help you ensure that your confidence is genuine and to be highly valued.

When exercised really well, one finds him/herself in positions where he becomes enlightened to the fact that there is no possibility at all that things are not going to go as he/she intends. Right now, you probably think that such is an exaggeration, but it isn’t.

What is the possibility that the pen or pencil on your table/desk is going to become a fully grown elephant within the next 3 seconds? How confident are you that it won’t? That is the degree of legitimate confidence that people can gain concerning very many of the real tasks in their lives. And with more, comes more.

And with that earned confidence, comes more skill, intelligence, wisdom, health, and peace of mind.

This is one of those things they are talking about when they say, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”. Keeping such things as merely mental games, or at worst strongly controlled altruistic practices, would be good. The unfortunate truth is that in the real world, the use of a type of real harpy had been found to be devilishly useful to less than altruistic people so as to keep people insecure, unwise, worried, and pleading (or “praying”) for security to be granted by those who arranged the bedeviling in the first place.

18

K: all this is simply a variation off of Buddha’s noble truths and paths and as an exercise, it
has some value, but the reality is no matter how prepared and organized we are, sometimes
we fail and sometimes we fail big time. It is often to our surprise that it is from failing, we
learn the most. the human condition is really about learning to fail. As a long time former
athlete, almost the first thing you learn is how to deal with failure. It is not from success that
defines us, but failure and the ability to learn from failure that defines us. An example is Abraham
Lincoln. His political career is one of failure until he won the presidency in 1860.
Harry Truman failed at everything until he went into politics. Every “great” person I know of
had failure to deal with and the real question was, how did they deal with the failure.
We learn more from failure than success and so we must embrace not only success but failure.

As for me, I too have failed and sometime spectacularly, but I used it as a learning experience
as we should, this too Nietzsche taught us. Do I care about success or failure anymore, no,
I am just here to learn now. Success and failure are just two sides of the same coin, just
as good and evil are the same two sides of the coin and something to rise above.

Kropotkin

19

.
Speaking of the bedeviling harpy:

Well yes and no. The “first thing” one usually learns is how to fail … IF he wants to become great. But then if he never gets past learning how to fail, failing is the only thing he knows how to do (much like if the first love in your life is yourself … it will also be the last).

This isn’t about teaching people how to fail more in their lives. I suspect most people reading this have failed enough and are quite familiar with how to do it.

Well that is certainly true in many cases (such as your own).

Yes, I am well aware that your stance is that typical excessive liberal preaching to be small, hope for government to save you, expect to lose, realize how insignificant and worthless you are, know that you might get eaten by a stray lion at any moment, and never, never, never stop worrying about it all … oh and consider suicide now and then.

This thread is for those other people who prefer to not live that life of weakness, fear, and insecure dependance hoping for hand outs from the great more worthy above, suckling from the Mother Queen’s tit all their lives. Surely you wouldn’t oppress them into behaving only in the way that you want for them, right?

Why not let them discover their potential rather than you trying to ensure that they don’t even try?

20

My point as always is to make that crucial distinction between those tasks that can be accomplished because, well, they can be accomplished, and those tasks that can be accomplished but when they are accomplished the manner in which I construe the meaning of dasein, conflicting goods and political economy then comes into play.

You will either go there or you won’t. My own point here is less pessimistic than realistic given the manner in which I connect the dots in delving into these relationships out in the world existentially.

There are things that in fact we can be certain about objectively and things that would seem to be far more reflective [subjectively] of personal opinions and/or political prejudices.

My own “impotence” is derived from this:

If I am always of the opinion that 1] my own values are rooted in dasein and 2] that there are no objective values “I” can reach, then every time I make one particular moral/political leap, I am admitting that I might have gone in the other direction…or that I might just as well have gone in the other direction. Then “I” begins to fracture and fragment to the point there is nothing able to actually keep it all together. At least not with respect to choosing sides morally and politically.

And thus my own task here is to come up with a way in which to extricate myself from these admittedly grim assumptions.

Still, assumptions that seem quite reasonable to me. And you are either able [or willing] to explain how your own argument might allow me to accomplish this or not.

But: what all of this…

…has to do with that is quite beyond me.