Misconcepts

Misconcepts are explanations / mental models we have of the world, with an emphasis on fallibility and error correction.

The definition has its foundation based on Critical Rationalism – the best explanation we have of knowledge and how it grows.

Reason 1: Misconcepts determine our internal experience and external results.

Reason 2: The only TWO things we can do in life are update or implement misconcepts.

Misconcepts determine both our conscious experience of the world internally and the compounding results we obtain in the world externally.

Reason 1A: Internal experience

Although we do not have a good enough theory of consciousness to program it yet, we do know some facts about our internal experience. 

Our brain is in an enclosed box (i.e., our skull)

Inputs are received as electrical impulses from our peripheral and cranial nerves.

The impulses are integrated and interpreted via our misconcepts.

The misconcepts shape our internal experience of the self and the world.

NB: Anil Seth’s theory conjectures consciousness as “controlled hallucinations”. Under this theory, hallucinations are based on the misconcepts we have, controlled and reigned in by the electrical impulses we receive.

All external results can be traced back to misconcepts.

Our brain is in an enclosed box (i.e., our skull)

We can only interact with the external world via actions that compound towards results. 

Actions come from decisions.

Decisions come from misconcepts. 

Therefore, all interactions with the world start with our misconcepts – our fallible explanations / mental models of the world. Over an average lifetime we will make about a billion decisions. Every single one originates from the misconcepts we have available to us at that point in time. 

If our internal experience and external results all originate from Misconcepts, the fundamental actions we can take in life can be distilled down to either:

1. Updating Misconcepts
2. Implementing Current Misconcepts

The implication of this is the ability to utilize a first principles approach to life in any situation. We can analyse any complex situation by deciding first whether to update misconcepts or implement existing ones. This first principles approach is the basis of how we operationalise misconcepts.

Misconcepts are fallible explanations. Therefore, they can be improved via error correction.

A good explanation or high quality explanation reflects reality closely, is hard to vary, testable, and has reach. It has more explanatory power and ability to solve problems.

A good misconcept or high quality misconcept reflects reality closely, is hard to vary, testable, and has reach. It has more explanatory power and ability to solve problems. 

Practically we care about high quality misconcepts as high quality misconcepts improve our internal experience and external results.

High quality misconcepts reflect reality closer as they are explanations of the world with less errors. Therefore, our expectations align closely with what happens in reality, leading to an internal experience of calm, peace, and equanimity.

Low quality misconcepts contain more errors and do not reflect reality well. Therefore, our expectations do not align well with reality, resulting in cognitive dissonance and an internal experience of confusion, frustration, and suffering.

If life is a billion Misconcepts-Decision-Action-Compounding processes then higher quality misconcepts, which reflect reality more closely due to less errors within the explanation, will lead to decisions and actions that compound towards our intended results. Said another way, high quality misconcepts helps us compound in our intended trajectory and rate.

Low quality misconcepts contain more errors and do not reflect reality well. This leads to decisions and actions that compound differently from what we intended. This difference could be slow compounding, haphazard compounding, or rapid compounding in the wrong trajectory.

Misconcepts are the most important thing in our lives. Our experience of the world and external achievements all depend on the set of misconcepts we hold and their quality. Furthermore, the only TWO things we can ever do to change our internal experience or external results are also dictated by whether we update or implement existing misconcepts.