I literally clicked this video because I procrastinated instead of going to bed. Now I want to avoid forgetting this concept, and I predict that writing this comment will help me remember. My current options are to go to sleep, continue to watch youtube, anime, game, program, draw, or go for a walk. I predict that I will have a better day tomorrow if I go to bed now. So I will do that and reflect on this decision in the morning. Good night
1. Give yourself time to transition between activities. 2. Harness your avoidance "in the right direction": get draining tasks done ASAP/when you have energy to take them on. 3. Live life and form connections between actions and outcomes (superstitions). I. "Action selection mechanism" (select an action) Ii. "Motor output mechanism" (execute the action) Iii. "Monitoring mechanism to prove the goal has been achieved" (observe the desired outcome being reached) 4. As with 3 Iii above, retrospect (post-mortem) after doing an activity (especially when you've "screwed up"). Try to do this without involving emotion and using logic for the best results. 5. Make intentional choices; do not avoid making choices (helps increase intentional binding). 6. Choose an option from a large list of options (increases intentional binding). 7. Make a prediction. It doesn't need to be accurate (increases intentional binding).
Thank you! I guess this is what Dr. K had been researching before his talk with Thor as he mentioned some of it there 😀 As for point 4. Could do a retrospective be a better word? Post mortems has a specific meaning to me, focusing on just what went wrong. A retrospective will focus on what went well, what did not go well and what to change for next time. Asking as to see how others understand it here. Also for people who would like to look up examples of these activities 😊
He is using post mortem as the example. With a retro you get to bring what you did right with you as well. It is in general fascinating how close the healthy habits and the debilitating habits are. I guess trying to remove emotions and view the situations outside yourself is key
@@dagfrodesolberg9962 Keep in mind that emotions, be it positive, negative or neutral, are always present. Observe the situation from a logical perspective, but don't pretend that emotions weren't a factor in your and others' behavior.
@dagfrofesolberg9962 Thanks! Yes, it was fun drawing the similarities of this video with Dr K. & Thor's last conversation. Some of these steps are easier said than done, but that could be a reason to work on the ego. My examples are doing 2 and realizing that I'd assigned all the housework to myself so I couldn't get to the activities I'd actually wanted to do. If you have a partner, there comes a time when you have to split the housework or risk/already be burnout! If you don't have a partner yet there is too much, give yourself permission to say "this is enough" and emotional check-ins. And with 4, not giving myself enough time to emotionally digest not getting a promotion and making toxic conclusions about the candidate who got it. In the end, I needed to better identify how important that promotion was to me and the intentional choice to only do a retrospective on what I did and could do better. Company politics and other external factors aren't something you can control, and will only lead you down a nasty spiral.
@@tirecs04 Hey first of all thank you for the summary but I didn't quite understand the 7th point. The thing is when I try to make predictions, I am overwhelmed with negative ones, which leads me to avoid the task because in my mind I have predicted that how "it's not going to work" sometimes I tend to ask logical question but I answer the logical questions with reasons on how "it's not going to work". can you please help with it.
This shows a clear link between perfectionism and procrastination. Not wanting to choose because you don't trust yourself to make the right choice means you won't act.
Dr K, if you keep dropping bangers like this, I'm going to end up applying for med schools to study psychiatry/neurology and all that debt will be your fault
For the ones who want to go to the gym: 1. Transition Mindfully: Spend a few minutes mentally preparing before heading to the gym, rather than rushing. This builds a readiness potential that makes the action more likely. 2. Utilize Avoidance: Frame your workout as avoiding future regret. Think, "I don't want to feel bad tomorrow for skipping the gym." 3. Do a Postmortem: After your workout, reflect on what went well and what didn’t. This strengthens the habit. 4. Make Choices and Predictions: Before each gym session, consider your options and predict outcomes. This increases intentional binding, reinforcing the behavior.
Oh man, the main thing is just making it a habit. I have been working out consistently for 5 years and didn’t go for 2-3 months from being busy moving etc. getting back into the habit is SO much harder than I anticipated. I used to go 2-3 times a week at least pretty consistently, now I’m lucky if I go once. And it doesn’t matter if I feel good afterward like I always do and I’m glad I pushed myself. I still dread it because I’m not used to it anymore. They say it takes a month to create a new habit..I just need to push past the mental barriers I’ve created again (like, I’ll go tomorrow, I have so much to do, I need to clean, I’m tired, blah blah blah….)
@@mariahspapayaI feel this so hard. Lost my gym consistency a few weeks ago due to starting a new job with long hours. Getting back in my routine is sooo hard, but I know I can do it because I've done it before. Good luck to you and keep working on it! You can do it!
@@Gomesu_ what about getting there with low energy and aching joints and half assing it and going home after half an hour? How do we use this to overcome this second part?
I've noticed all of these things ever since I started doing my take on the pomodoro technique. I've been doing 25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of meditation. During my 5-minute breaks, I think about the work I've done and what I'm going to work on during the next 25 minutes. It feels like my mind slows down and clears up, and I start taking meaningful actions instead of mindlessly going through motions. Ever since I started doing this, I feel much more relaxed, rested, and productive at the same time. I've even started doing pomodoros for gaming. That way I don't fall into a gaming trance and lose all track of time.
Very interesting method, might try this. I have the problem of getting distracted while working, not by other things like social media mind you, but by things related to work but that are not directly contributing to the goal of getting the things done I've set out to do when I've sat down to work. Like I want to finish a write up about some topic but getting distracted by some scientific discoveries related to the topic, and then getting distracted again by something else until the next thing I know is that I'm reading the autobiography of some guy from something completely unrelated. I think the pomodoro technique might help keep me on track.
That’s not meditation nor is it a break, you are just hopping from one activity to another then hopping back, I’m afraid. The “pomodoro” technique as you understand it doesn’t even work and goes against research. The flow state takes time to enter and breaking your concentration every 30 minutes just disrupts the flow state so you are never in deep work. Now, 2 hours of focused work and 1 hour of a true break is more like it.
My personal notes 1. Give time to contemplate choices during transition periods between activities. Dont make hastey decisions. 2. Harness avoidance by avoiding the 'wait'. Dont wait until tomorrow to practice, dont wait till tomorrow to clean your place or get exercise 3. Track the results of your actions to optimize efficiency of decision making for more positive results that align with your desired result.
@@burneraccount2024 he is living. technology is a miracle that all of the kings of History before us would have waged wars to get their hands on and we hate ourselves for using it?
Being super intentional, reflective and conscious of outcomes of actions and future consequences is how I live by default. It’s why I did well in school, never got into trouble (because I wanted to avoid getting bad grades, and teachers and my parents getting mad at me). I’ve always been baffled by people who just jump head first into everything, blurt out whatever is on their mind or flit from one thing to another, they may not always be the most successful but they seem more “free” in a sense. They aren’t held prisoner by their worries about future outcomes on a second by second basis. I think that being super intentional beyond a certain point can make you feel trapped and anxious because you’re paralysed by wanting to avoid bad outcomes.
Well being intentional, reflective and conscious should kinda make you less afraid of bad outcomes because you are more able to reflect on mistakes and bounce back and be better than one who doesn’t learn
Notes for myself: 1) Give yourself time in transitions 2) Harness avoidance instead of concurring it. Avoid the weight and burden of dealing with it tomorrow. Save yourself trouble of dealing with this crap 3) Monitoring our actions, do a post mortem 4) Consider choices and make predictions Doing this for myself every time I need to take an action: My current options are: 1) Finish my Computer Science Letter of Recommendation Document: - Prediction if I don't do it and avoid it: From my class everyone except me and my friend have done the assignment. If I don't do it right now it will loom over and the more the leave it I might not get a recommendation letter that is essential for me to go to college. 2) Open youtube and watch shorts on and on. - Prediction: If I keep on watch youtube on and on again not only will I leave the assignment that was already due like 3 weeks ago but I will also loose my chances of having enough time later on in the day to meditate and get all other summer assignments out of the way. 3) I could clean my room: - Prediction: If I clean my room right now although that is productive and I have been asked to do that its going to be a form of fake productivity because cleaning my room isn't as important as my LOR document that literally determines whether I go to uni or not. 4) I could watch more dr.K videos on procrastination - Prediction: I could avoid work by again using fake productivity by watching more videos but at the end of it all I will be overwhelmed with the countless amounts of advice that are all useful but I want to take one step at a time and change one thing at a time and it starts with this. I finished my LOR: My current options are: 1) Meditate - Prediction: If I don't meditate I will feel guilty and disconnected and I will probably fall back into the old habits. If I don't meditate I will forgot about the purpose of my existence and fall into the trap of the pleasures of this dunya. 2) I scroll on youtube forever and ever. - Prediction: I will probably end up feeling sick and as if I don't even have my life in control. I will feel like that version of myself that seems to be like a puppet held by strings of my ego and superego. I will probably feel useless after consuming filthy content that goes against the divine and lowers my own dignity. I meditated last night and it was like a message from god because I had been frustrated at the image of myself criticizing my friend's attitude and attention when I literally have put my attention into such filth that I have so much work to clear that filth off my attention so why should I criticize others. However, the speech talked about the rigid mental projections that we create as human beings if humans put effort or do a work I believe we make a mental projection of the outcome or what our future should look like because we put effort in. I relate to this because even while meditating for like 2 days I have this mental projection of how I should not criticize others and be compassionate to everyone, which are qualities that are important and I am not saying that I shouldn't aim to be like that but I have realized that every time I have started this meditation journey again I end up creating this perfect mental projection of how I should be and how I should act now. But the truth is we are far from even being good there is so much filth that needs to be cleaned out and obviously I will slip up and act unlike how a sahaja yogi should be but I should look at myself objectively like a case that needs to be solved. Instead of being rigid I need to be more flexible into what comes to my life and even with the actions and behaviour I show outside. The transformation is not going to be in a day, we have amounted the filth for so long it will take even longer for us to clear it so strive to not have those behaviours but if you do then you should be honored that there is something new that needs to be fixed. There are two roads lets say you planned to go on the right side one but somehow you end up on the left side where you discover a landfill, atleast you found something new even if that was wrong road you found something else. You need to believe that no matter what happens the joy of the spirit will remain because it is eternal. My current options are: 1) Meditating - Prediction: If I don't meditate I will loose the vibe and wise teachings that I was able to get from Bhutan and loose the sense of belonging and feeling in control that I felt back in Bhutan. I will loose connection with shree ganesh, which will probably affect my life a lot 2) Scroll more: - Prediction: If I scroll and neglect all the 8 million things that I need to do I might end up become more stressed. Like I genuinely believe that the best step for me now is to not let my mind get stressed and overwhelmed. Basically like it said in the comments of one of dr.k's video; "instead of feeling overwhelmed, be overwhelmed" the key idea is to shift from a passive experience of overwhelm to an active engagement with it where Instead of letting the feeling of being overwhelmed paralyze you, use that energy to fuel your actions. So I think that is the mindset I want to have like be busy so that my mind doesn't get the time to feel anxious or have these negative thoughts.
So, for future me: The play is: Take time between activities to just think, Think about what future I want to avoid tomorrow Post-mortem after an action or event Analyse my available options Transition thonk, Avoid tomorrow, Post-mortem, Choose choices - The mind can build up a readiness potential if given time, that makes it more likely for a particular decision (or action) to be made - How do I use? When switching to a new activity give myself a few minutes to think - Example: Getting up to go the bathroom or kitchen, instead remain sitting for a few minutes just thinking, not looking at screen - Avoidance exists in everyone, but successful people choose what they avoid and use it to avoid *not* doing important tasks - How do I use? Think about the consequences of not doing something that I would like to avoid (whether it be tomorrow, or next week or so) - Example: If I have an assignment due, think about how much I would like to avoid having to scram at the last minute (or even possibly forget about it), or even avoid getting a terrible mark and having to repeat a course - Dwelling on things helps us re-engage in the behaviour again - Doing a post-morten (after the fact analysis) helps us incorporate the right feedback correctly for our feedback based brain - So analysis after an action will help us understand whether it is an action we should do or not - A key problem can occur when post-mortems are not done, we often think only negative thoughts about actions, and without analysis we have no opportunity of disproving the negativity - Consciously choosing a choice helps us choose that choice again in the future - The process of analysing available options and trying to choose the best one reinforces making the choice again, regardless of the outcome
Best TH-camr by far. In the middle of an epidemic of brainrot thru media Dr. K gives you all the tools you need to master your mind and your life for FREE! Truly a modern day saint 🙏 THANK YOU!
This is exactly why professional baseball players are so superstitious. They're at the absolute top of their craft, having spent countless hours doing these arduous drills, and since the sport is so inconsistent, with the best hitters still failing over two thirds of the time, they latch onto arbitrary things because it worked once or twice.
It's hard to build confidence where you miss even hitting the ball most of the time and you're the only person driving the offense. There's no other sport with that much pressure.
@@mrloqqe1610 I play football (soccer) and some people have strict superstitions/ routines but other people don’t as if you miss a step in your routine it’ll throw you off your game
For me, I think this is my need for Autonomy and Choice. I feel like I have so little choice in my current life, I end up procrastinating on everything.
You have no idea how much I needed to see this today. Haven't even watched past the intro yet, but here I sit, mindlessly scrolling, unable to stop for days on end. This is the first ray of hope I've had in a while. Thank you from a formerly productive person.
1. Give myself time in transitions Readiness Potential: pause sit with yourself inbetween actions to give yourself time to work up into the next activity. Focus on the transitions between actions, not just the actions themselves. 2. Harness avoidance instead of conquering. Utilize Avoidance by doing things now so that you can avoid having to do it in the future 3. More Spend time doing a post mortem on the actions after the fact. Increases chance of re-engaging 4. Intentional Binding. Consider choices and make a prediction, seems to increase intentional binding. Pause, reflect and selecting something, increases the likelihood of the behavior. Summary Low performers don't think about the consequences of their actions. If I do this what will happen tomorrow increases intentional binding. Successful people utilize intentional binding, make intentional predictions, stop and think about the consequences of their actions. Unsuccessful people avoid thinking about the consequences of their actions Predictions matter more than outcomes when it comes to getting the brain to do things. Not thinking about consequences reduces likelihood to do the thing. Successful people keep trying. TLDR: Avoid doing the task tomorrow by doing it today. Pause between tasks and give yourself time to build up to it. Take time to consider all of your options for the next task, choose and make a prediction on outcomes of your choice. Reflect on the actions and analyze the outcome and why it happened.
1. RP determines whether we act or not. So we have to increase the RP 2. Give themselves time between actions (before one activity and other) 3. Avoidance ( avoiding task) 4. Utlising avoidance in right direction 5. Avoiding the task in future 6. Superstitious - if I do A, then B happens. Post moterm - spend lot of time after an event is complete Intentional binding - what causes repeat behaviour. Making a choice reinforces the behaviour. Simply pausing, reflecting and chosing causes repeated behaviour. Making a prediction - make predictions of the outcome
intentional binding(ie: thinking about available choices and choosing one intentionally) , leveraging superstition circuitry to create a drive into doing certain illogical rituals/actions, using the mechanism of avoidance to avoid putting off work for the future, working yourself up before a particular action by giving yourself time to prepare .
I am choosing to write down this comment so that I can remember this stuff for longer... So basically I should slow things down and sit there for sometime rather than jumping from one thing to another ( this makes a lot of sense... I didn't even know how I wasted so many days not studying.... and today I studied just bcz I sat down and thought about studying rather than watching youtube... ) 2nd point is post mortem... I was thinking of what I studied and how much of it I had retained... and it made me want to study more... and sleep on time today so that I have the energy study tommorow... I was subconciously doing these things but now I understand the science behind it... Now I have a choice between sleeping insrantly and completing this video and then sleeping... or scrolling aimlessly after watching this video... and I consider sleeping after completing the video.... Thank you Dr K Will update whether I go to bed after completing the video or not Something else I learned at the end... to consider *the consequences* Now I am going to sleep. Also I missed the part of using avoidance as a tool. There is a recommended video now... and I choose not to watch it... I am gonna sleep... bcz the consequence of watching this video will be me not sleeping till 4 AM. Good night Dr. K
•Give yourself time in transitions •Harness avoidance instead of conquering it •Logical monitoring mechanism after an action •If you consider your options and make predictions it reinforces the chance to do the action in the future
Been implementing this process the past three weeks since I watched the video. I started writing again and posting my work online after months of avoiding it. If there were ever a real life hack, this would be it.
Has really no German pointed out yet Dr Ks adorable pronunciation of Bereitschaftspotential? It sounded as if there was at least one syllable too much x) I think for English Natives, it could be transcribed like this: be-RIGHT-shafts-poh-ten-see-all Thank you for the high quality content, HG Team! These videos and the membership content have finally given me real access to the information I already learned in med school and CBT. This means a lot to me because it has helped me make noticeable progress on my journey of self-discovery, coping with childhood trauma/neglect, and building some self-esteem.
This is something I've been thinking about a lot recently. Nothing I do is my decision, something in me does the decision for me. Everything I do is based on what I want or don't want, but I do not decide what I want. What affects my wants are my lived experiences. What affects my way of thinking and behavior is new information. When I get new information, my body decides to either use it in someway or not use it. What affects that decision is the knowledge and experience that my mind already has. I can't change my life to a certain direction if my mind doesn't have the necessary tools/knowledge. Only way for my mind to get that knowledge is either by hearing from other people, or by experiencing something itself, sometimes the experience isn't enough if my mind doesn't know how to process/use it. That's why I think that sharing information is the best way to change the world. We shouldn't always wait for people to figure things out for themselves, we should share the information if we know that it is important information. This video might create a light bulb moment for many, and for many it will just be another video, depends a lot on the person.
Love the video, I’m only about halfway done, but I’m struck by how much the advice given in this video aligns with the advice given in 12 step recovery programs. You’re often encouraged to act as if you do not have free will, using your will only to search for a higher powers will for you. Meditating and deliberately acting according to that will, not being avoidant of anything your higher power wills for you and act as soon as you can, etc. I’m excited to finish the video!
- Increase the transition time between desired actions - Post Mortem previous actions - Intentional Binding - Decide your intention - Think about possible action toward this intention - Make predictions - Select an action - Choose what to avoid - if you feel like avoiding something in the present, predict what it would lead to in the future - shift your focus from what you want to avoid in the present to what you want to avoid in the future
Is following scenario a good summary? 1. i watched the video and wait 30 secs before doing anything else 2. I wonder whether i should go to sleep and want to avoid being tired tomorrow morning. 3. I set a reminder for tomorrow evening and look back how good it felt to go to sleep early and not being tired. 4. i consider the choices I have now: sleeping, keep on watching, playing games. and predict the outcomes for each decision?
#3 works. I've had to do that to break my habit of being negative about everything regardless of what actually happened. If you sit with yourself for even a moment and think about all the positive emotions you felt about "doing the thing", you eventually do train yourself to think positively about a formerly irritating task!
1:Think between actions 2:Channel Avoidance 3:Think about why something went poorly or well 4:Intentional binding, consider choices and make predictions
The conclusion from those studies that free will doesn't exist is a wild leap. Those same researchers have no idea how consciousness works, but Dr K has some idea and he knows that the brain is not the sole organ of consciousness. He showed he knows that in his interview with Dr Mike. The conclusion that you derive from that study is that thought is not the primary driver of action, not that free will doesn't exist. Determinism is just avoiding responsibility for your actions by claiming you had to have done that no matter what. In reality consciousness operates at several levels of awareness simultaneously, thought is the one we are most cognizant of but it is also the most superficial in its relevance to how we feel.
@@vyvianalcott1681Would you please elaborate more on what conscience is in your view? So, like other than your inner thoughts, or your brain, what else could be considered conscious in a human? I’m genuinely interested in learning more about this topic and would appreciate any papers/books/videos you might share on the subject of consciousness. Thanks :)
@@nadin3000bieber It's WAY too much for a youtube comment, I'm working on videos to describe my understanding of it but who knows if I'll ever finish them. In the meantime, I would recommend learning about Buddhist philosophy, I don't know much about it but a lot of the things Dr K says map onto my understanding of consciousness nearly 1:1 and I think that is humanity's best description of it so far.
Nobody has any clue what consciousness is. If free will doesn’t exist, what purpose does memory serve? Also, if you don’t know what’s going to happen, how is it predetermined? Wouldn’t predetermination make more sense if we knew everything that was going to happen?
I'm encuraged to see people resisting having conclusions pushed on them. There is scientific evidence that disbelief in free will correlates with antisocial behavior and increased negative emotion. I found at least 8 papers with a cursory search. Furthermore, even though the subconscious mind and brain show evidence of a decision before conscious awareness, all that shows is that a naive assumption that the conscious mind is always the source of choice is too simplistic. Part of the world is "mechanical", and part of the self, too. At least. Predictable. The universe has to be this way for knowledge to be possible, and without knowledge, the idea of choice is meaningless. But without choice, without at least a "semi-free" will, nothing means anything, because you are just part of the machine and your actions come from outside you or from meaningless random fluctuations. These are terrible assumptions to base an ethic on, and crushing to the human spirit. Possibilities: 1. The "self" that has free will, that can choose, is actually pre-conscious, sub-conscious, super-conscious, transcendent, something. In this case, the fact that the conscious mind becomes aware "late" is not a problem. Why is it that so many eastern traditions are so focused on meditation, accessing or affecting the subconscious mind, disidentifying with emotions, thoughts, ego, and so forth? Maybe because that's where the mystery and opportunity to develop greater freedom of will lies? 2. What if freedom and influence of "will", true self, varies, from person to person and based on nature, conditions, states, personal development, and so on? What if free will depends on meeting certain requirements, and most of us are barely exercising it? What if it's just a seed of potential in us, or what if much of the brain and body _are_ deterministic and the will can only intervene in certain ways and at certain times? Remember that the will itself could be pre-conscious. 3. What if it takes time for the activities of our "self", combined with all the activities and perceptions of our body and brain, to be organized and revealed consciously? 4. What if our "conscious experience" is actually a report of sorts being presented for the sake of our "self" by the brain? Thus it is delayed, and furthermore has inaccuracies (research the adaptive unconscious, psychological narratives, and studies about confabulation about why we do things). There is plenty of evidence that some or much of human behavior is deterministic. That is different from claiming that no form of free will can or does exist at all. Furthermore, it's possible that free will is so.ething that starys out weak in us, almost embryonic, but can be developed. Dr. K inadvertently hints in that direction in this video. He starts by accepting the premise "there is no free will", but then he proceeds to use the words "choose" and "decide" a lot, and talk about "learning to pull the levers" of our deterministic body/mind. The sounds a lot like a transcendent self learning to interact more and more with a (semi-?)deterministic body to increase the influence of their... free will. I can't help but suspect he is aware of the contradiction and is engaging in a bit of buddhist humor, or perhaps trying to help the part of his audience that are conditioned to only accept strict deterministic views as "scientific". If not, given how balanced and open he usually is to looking at things from multiple perspectives, I have to wonder if this video was rushed, or why he didn't think about his topic more deeply? Especially given that convincing people free will doesn't exist is philosophically unsound and may remove a barrier to depression, loss of meaning, and antisocial behavior. Have some faith in life! Your choices matter! Just, not everything you think is a choice necessarily is one, and your ability to make true choices may take work to develop. I believe this is consistent with Dr. K's teachings from both east and west perspectives, multiple spiritual traditions, and neuroscience, when viewed carefully. But wishes! May our wills become more free with knowledge and practice.
I never thought about avoidance in this way, I thought it was inherently bad outside of survival situations. Really makes you wonder how many other "bad" things are actually bad vs improperly taken advantage of. This is definitely a video I want to rewatch a few more times.
But the question is why didn’t you skip it? You’ll probably have a few reasons none of which were your decision to think about either. If you look at your thoughts closely enough you’ll see they just ‘pop’ into existence.
I feel that I have more free will after watching the video. Commenting to play the algorithm and share the video with more people, as I think it contains very important knoledge.
Dr. K, you are definitely onto something. Let's say some brains are the exception, and some brains are the target margin for this... obviously i can't speak for many when I only have my observations about what ive seen and experienced myself. But, this video hit 🎯 dead center, for me, for my current situation. I had a hard upbringing with children of traumatized parents having children and being their child I also experienced trauma in various forms. That aside, I also had ADHD that my Hispanic parents didn't want to believe existed. There's no choice you do what you're supposed to do and they "beat" it out of you. So I eventually became a super student and tried to do everything i was told without question, but could not keep my room clean as my parents would say. I only focused on making it to college and looking good on paper. Right before I graduated my parents said I wasn't ready for the world and convinced me to stay home and do community college and take care of my younger brother while they left out of the state for their jobs. I spent the next 10 years flailing, but avoided "addictions" because my best friend was addicted to pills at 12 and her mom was an alcoholic. My brain stayed immature until I had a child and was left trapped at home while father "worked". I became a single mom (for the better) at 30 and went on a mission to rewire my brain after realizing disturbing patterns. And I did great. Until I got in another relationship 😮💨. In a matter of 5 years I had highs and lows that landed me in a similar place I didn't want to be and didn't understand what happened when I made so much progress. In trying to avoid I fell into different mindless behaviors and decisions that became addictions and I tried to over correct... big ass circle 🤦. I completely understand the high functioning and i really understand the low... except I had unhealthy high standards and expectations so I never allowed myself to certain things. I chose to avoid completely...stayed up later and later watching stuff. Followed by "getting my shit together" for 2x or 3x more. But got stuck in the cycle because I ran out of gas and when back to "factory" settings. But everything you said is the best way to break it down and I know its really something solid because it resonates with the part of me that keeps trying to break free of all this. I get lost in my head and wonder if I need a road map to get back to my "high functioning" but this might be the way to start it. Tonight and maybe tomorrow i need to catch up on sleep. But after that I'm going to try and implement this.
"Is it possible that simply watching this video has planted a seed in your mind and your Beritschaftpotential has started to move in the right way" that's funny Dr K, because your video made me want to do my daily push-ups 😂
I really wanted a video of Dr K talking about this ever since he mentioned the eastern idea that we have no ability to influence results of things (in the Williamson interview). I’d love more content on the idea of removing ourselves from the decision and/or understanding we don’t have control over outcome from both the eastern and western perspective. I’d really love that! Thank you for all the hard work team!!
I’m actually the opposite of the target audience for this video, but I’m glad I stayed anyway because your explanation uncovered behaviors I do on a regular basis. I spend a nice chunk of time planning and reflecting, weighing options, and being super intentional. It’s nice to know the scientific background! I do struggle with anxiety because I think about the future TOO MUCH though 😆.
Must be amazing, I've been using Dr Ks advice here for only 2 days and its helped me so much!! I worry about the future too, just remember there are things we can control and things we cant. Focus on what you can. The question "what is the best thing I can do right now?" really helps with the future anxiety
Dr. K! At the top level, where all our internal connections are integrated, that "integration" is where our "consciousness" and "free will" come from! It's a metaphysical (phenomenal) "output" of a dialectical (step by step) process! It's not an "event," except in how we interpret and talk about ("interact with") it!
6:43 The Libet experiment just shows that it takes a while for the subject to tell the experiment supervisor that they made a decision. They made the decision way before that. Forming words or giving feedback has a delay. It doesn’t show that they made the decision before they were aware of making the decision.
Thanks as ever, Dr K. I finally did a task I'd been putting off for ages after spending some time imagining how much worse it would be if I left it longer. Also been trying out giving myself lots of little choices (whether with the same outcome or different outcomes). Thank you!
Wow this is insane, i have been making a theory on my head that every desision i make is not conscious and later gets inputted to ur conscious. this theory is bassed of many things i have noticed about my brain over the years and here i am seeing you map my entire theory out!
i paused after watching about 80% of it because i had to do timely obligations but afterwards i was motivated and pushed by understanding why im feeling the way i am about the tasks im putting off and did some and came back to hear your mention of "if this video planted a seed", i definitely think the info you provide plants a seed each time it resonates and as my mind becomes a proper garden, its starting to make me hopeful
I find it funny that this is considered determinism, yet it's also simultaneously not the lack of free will or choice, but an advanced application of it. Essentially saying, you do not have a choice in the individual things you do, but the system with which you automatically do things.
The system itself also chooses what you choose though, why wouldn't it just be gradually changing itself to accommodate the varying complexity and needs of the ever changing environment and human biology?
@@Mico-Xiyeas trauma or negative formative events early in life shape such a large proportion of this system. So if mal-adaptive “circuitry” is learned early in life, it will take very intentional re-wiring later in life to undo. The system is getting passive exp but it could be leveling the wrong things without seeing it.
Dr K! I think this could help a ton with stuff like doom scrolling. This video truly made sense to me and I believe using this will be extremely helpful.
1) Stop, a little bit peace your mind (1-2 min) 2) put choices 3) Take one choice and tell why you want to do it now rather than others. (Give predictions what benefits will give that action after being completed) 4) After the finishing analyze benefits and compare with your prediction.
no way, I have been investigating about free will and swinging about getting depressed and finding meaning beyond it and god and so many things... and just when I made peace with it, Dr. K releases this video... well Im gonna watch it I hope i dont get more depressed😂😂
I think he is trying to engage with a new audience that has this sort of mindset through following the logical flow of the search he read and show us what we can take from it, even if it comes from a line of thinking that we know isnt completely true, there is something to be learned from it So dont feel low because of this specific video
technically one could argue that the brain auto requests action, and free will is the verification system of that action, it is like making someone flinch or jump scaring someone, there is in fact instinct that is happening, that doesn't mean free will is not a thing or is not important, but the instinct or an auto confirmed action is without free will Brain Requests movement, Brain has to think about movement, Movement happens, where muscle memory is actually getting to the point where you don't need to confirm the movement request
That's not really an argument for free will, more like a description of what free will is. You're essentially saying the brain wants to do something, but "you" get to freely choose whether that thing gets done or not. Everyone knows the brain wants to do things we don't want it to do, e.g. if you have withdrawal symptoms from drinking, your brain wants to drink but you don't. The idea of free will is that you can freely step outside of the neurons in your brain and somehow choose every time to not drink. Except free will as a concept doesn't even make sense because it requires you to be able to break the laws of physics and swerve the electrons one way or another to activate the neurons you want. Besides the obvious irrefutable point on not being able to break the laws of physics, it creates an infinite regress. If you "want" to swerve the electrons in your nerve signals one way, you haven't created that "want". You can't choose what you choose.
Free will makes no sense. If youre choosing what to do, whats making you choose to do those things? Why do you like the things you like, and why do you choose them? Is it random? Or did you choose them just to choose them? If so, why is it that what you choose so perfectly aligns with who you are to? You can say because that's just who you are. But did you decide to be that way? What decided you will be that way? You've been a certain way long before choosing to be how you are. Doesn't make sense that most people are somehow so hardwired to be pretty static in their personality rather than ever changing, in a non gradual manner. Shouldn't it be easy to choose? If not why? Could it not be that there's things that influence and decide what makes it harder for you? Or are you deciding to make it hard for yourself to? @@seekingfinding6204
I think he is trying to engage with a new audience that has this sort of mindset through following the logical flow of the search he read and show us what we can take from it, even if it comes from a line of thinking that we know isnt completely true, there is something to be learned from it
An observation. Those moments in my life where I do not engage in intentional minding tend to be periods of my life that are high stress, when I'm psychologically hunkered down to weather whatever comes my way. I'm in a "get what I can" Mentality for pleasure and relaxation.
Readiness Potential is nothing but the Ahamkara that comes before your Intellect and already decides if it's for me or not. This knowledge is deep rooted in rich Indian Scriptures those were written thousands and thousands of years ago :)
I wanted to report back on the methods proposed here, my goal was to go to the gym: Week 1: I began applying the recommended methods, which made the process of getting ready and leaving the house for the gym a bit easier. But still required willpower Week 2: I started using positive predictions proactively, such as "After my workout, I will be more focused and productive at work." This led to a slight increase in my productivity following gym sessions. Week 3: Despite feeling daunted the night before a gym session, I found that by the next day, I could go to the gym with minimal effort. Week 4: I no longer need the method to motivate myself to go to the gym, it feels as if my brain is "programmed" and "just knows" that I have to go. (Perhaps it became a habit?). I will continue to use the method for science. Will edit and continue to update if I notice anything new
I find it really really important, I can’t confirm it’s working on me, but I definitely can confirm successful people really have this in one or another level
Hey Dr. K, my path is very similar to the one you were on during your ashram days. Not that I went to India, but I flunked so many classes during my first Uni go around that I decided to drop out. I did a lot of soul searching, through yoga and meditation actually and had a resolve to go back to become a DPT. Now that I am on the verge of applying it has occurred to me that I am 2 classes and an MCAT away from med school. I have totally turned my life around from where I was 3 years ago but am currently plagued with the same indecision that had me flunking out initially (what do I WANT to become?). I know the odds that you read this are slim to none - but I wanted to shoot my shot to see if I could have a conversation with you about where I’m at. I know you’re a busy guy, so if this comment gets zero response I would not be surprised.
Hey, philosophy student here! For anyone concerned about the whole "no free will" thing, I can maybe give a more optimistic take. tl;dr - I think you can have free will, and that it's compatible with determinism. I find that a lot of conversations about free will are skewed by pretty limited definitions of what free will is. People tend to define free will as "being able to choose from a range of possible futures". This seems intuitive but I think it's accepted too readily. The issue is, if determinism is real, then there's only actually ever one possible future. What I don't see brought up enough is that you can still make a choice even if there's only one possible future/option. Imagine you're going to order pizza. You order a margarita and then later find out that they only had margarita pizza left anyway. Your freedom wasn't actually impeded by there only being one option, because it's the option you would want anyway. Your brain subconsciously choosing an option before you consciously choose an option is just like margarita being the only option on the menu. The choice may have been made before you were aware of it, but so long as you're okay with that, it doesn't have to be a problem. Because of this, I prefer to say that we have free will if "our actions are taken willingly". Now, some people might say that it's not really "you" making the choice, because your choice is just the culmination of the environment you grew up in, etc. But I still don't think this is a problem for free will. Environmental impacts/experiences are a natural part of choice-making. Maybe I ate pineapple on pizza before and didn't like it, and that's why I chose margarita. The culmination of my environment is just what I consider to be the reasons for making my choice. On the other hand, if they only had pineapple pizza left, that's where I no longer have free will, because it's not the outcome I want. If free will meant making choices independently of whatever previous input or experience we had, all our choices would just be random. So long as you're happy with the outcome, it doesn't actually matter why you're happy with it, that's enough for you to have "free will". The reason I think all this is important is because sometimes we make choices we're not truly happy with, that aren't in line with our higher values. If we do this, that's when we're sacrificing some of our freedom. Think about it. When you doomscroll for five hours straight, does it feel like you're doing it freely? No, because deep down it's not something you really want to be doing - you're doing it against your will in a way. However, those who tell people that free will isn't real at all, or is some kind of illusion, are sometimes misleading and unnecessarily depressing/nihilistic. I'm here to tell you not to give up! It might be difficult, it might take time to form the habits you really want to form, but if you want to be free, live a life you're truly happy with.
@@vaniluchy8947 Kind of. I’m more trying to say that free will does exist, because free will never required more than one possible choice in the first place.
@@coffeelixlibertarian free will doesn’t exist. But free agency does. Holding people morally accountable for their decisions is nonsensical though considering the influences that led them to make that choice were either deterministic, or indeterministic (completely random and nothing to do with the agent)
Im sending this to my friend. Didnt even read the title but we had long debates about it turned into a whole free will vs determinism and chaos thing. Didnt even watch the video, i just know dr k will deliver here i know what it about.
Turns out I have unintentionally (or i suppose intentionally) defaulted to this behaviour over time... and my life indeed has gone to the upside in correlation with it. Great to see a confirmation and explanation as to why, though.
Everything in life occupies a real but currently unmeasurable meta physical space in the "cloud" of our minds. To allow your own body and mind to help you unbind the worst things you dislike about life. Reduce the amount of binds at any given time, start with one less binding. If the usual is 1late-night, video games, anime and porn and masturbating; then remove your choices of binds but remove fewer at first. I would suggest one that overpowers you in ways tailor made to hook you in. If possible do all of those first but stretched out over days instead of appeasing all desires at once, especially those that are more hyper activating to sensory receptors like porn, drugs, avoidable late night sleeping. Good luck.
Recognize and give yourself all the choices. More choices than I assume. Predict the outcomes of making those choices. This will help build repeated action
That’s why meditation is powerful for better decision making. The process of breathing in and out intentionally and recognizing when your focus and thoughts drift away and redirecting it to focus has been pivotal to my recent success of sticking to an exercise routine. The more you practice it, the more “control” muscles you’ll have in your brain and the more agency you’ll have over your thoughts and impulses.
Take your time to process your misktakes. Avoid the burden of having to deal with the problem (lerning, training, doing stuff) tomorrow / in the future, instead of avoiding the problem itself. Think of lots of choices (for your Day for example) and make a prediction for the future / outcome of the action.
My takeaway: I should ask myself "what do I want to do right now?" more often. Similar to Urge Surfing, but instead of watching urges fade, I actively think about which urge to follow. I'm also considering this comment my own post-mortem to the experience of watching this video.
This makes perfect sense when you consider how the brain works. Other animals are clearly able to take actions, despite their lack conscious decision-making. They just do a certain thing, feel some way about the outcome and that feeling reinforces the behavior. No conscious decision-making is involved there. What conscious decision-making is for is to things: 1. it lets you reflect on past actions, which creates more accurate feelings about the actions => increases likelihood that actually useful behavior gets reinforced, and decreases likelihood that useless superstitions get reinforced 2. it lets you simulate possible futures and judge how you will feel about them => reinforces the best behavior without actually having to waste energy (and risk bad outcomes) trying many possible behaviors. Conscious mind has zero effect on what you will do in the immediate future - older more basic circuits of our brain are responsible for that. Conscious mind affects on what you will do in more distant future by shaping what behaviors get reinforced in the long term. The volition or immediate free will is just a weird illusion that facilitates the emotional connection between reflection, prediction and behavior. ie. you wouldn't really have feelings about what you did if you didn't believe you did it.
There are many different ways to conceptualize free will. In fact, the majority of philosophers hold to a position called compatibleism. Compatabolism is the notion that free will is compatable with determinism. Rather than saying that indeterminism is required for one to have free will, compatabolists assert that we can consider our independent volition and intellect from other people as free will. They also assert that determinism is required for a system to control itself. For example most people would say that a rocketship controls itself and yet it is completely deterministic. I would recommend looking into Daniel Dennet and Sean Carol's work on the subject. 😊
Intentional binding. The gym, I had app that had regimented working out routine. No choices. I tend to not work out as much as should. My work out was always no choice, start exercise A to B to C to D and finish E for push day. The app would change A, B, C, D and E talking the choice from me. So working out becomes a chore that is easy to get superseded by other activities. Learning the guitar is not structured and I have a choice to on what I want practice. I end practicing at least once a day or more. What more is end up doing all the things I need practice by choosing the one thing I was start of practicing. Choosing where to start, do practice scales, chords, strumming, rythm, slide, or song first. I think about it and choose one then end up doing all that time permitting. My prediction is I'll get better at strumming if choose strumming. This I if I got time with out being practice the urge to practice grow a lot and end up practice the next time I can do it. This very interesting.
People remain ignorant out of fear. The topic around free will is a trigger for people as they don't really want the implications of not having free will to be true even if they don't understand what it really means. The realization made me doubt my faith and ultimately made me leave my religion. It was really hard to process it but in the end it's worth more for me to not to live a lie than living in 'blissful' ignorance
It's more that people don't want to think about the consequences for how we treat """bad""" people if they didn't have if any choice in where they wound up, whether it's free will not existing or being squashed by the choices of previous generations
Going to agree and disagree with this. I think free will is a topic worth thinking about critically. But determinism is just cause and effect. "Society" generally accepts that as real, in fact it's a fundamental reason for scientific enquiry. Even more so, if determinism wasn't real, then any "choices" we make wouldn't have a cause, they would just be random. But does the simple fact that our choices have causes mean that we don't make choices at all? I'm not sure the answer to that is obvious.
We all knew that being prepared makes things easier, so first you have to make a comitment and don't stay low on what to do, second if you don't give your brain a reason (prediction, regardless of how good it is) then your brain will give up on you.
So Aesop was right all along with the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper, the guy who thinks in advance so he can relax in the future is the one who gets the work done
If determinism is true, your belief if it’s true or false is not up to you. If determinism is false, if you believe it’s true you are wrong because of your decision, if you believe it’s false you are right because of your decision. You should thus believe in free will, because either you’re determined to be wrong if determinism is true, or free and chose to be right, if free will is true.
Deterministic brain behavior The first experiment was not about decision but "awareness of action or intention". They weren't asked for "tell us when you decide to move" but "tell us when you feel you want to". That's why the graphic says "judgement of awareness of Intention". That article had critiques mostly on the conclusion you share specifically bc of the methodology they used to mesure it. Sadly you don't share the name of the article, so we can read it on first hand 😭 However, this was a very interesting topic, thanks you! I thing it is so helpful!!
feeling like you have free will is a part of not having free will, so feeling, or not, feeling like you're making choices is not a choice you can make.
This is the most inane squabble in neuroscience. If you define free will as free from causality, then no, you dont make decisions. But if you define it as making choices based on what you can do, then yes, we do. The idea that all choices we made arent really our own is something that is just intuitively wrong.
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I literally clicked this video because I procrastinated instead of going to bed. Now I want to avoid forgetting this concept, and I predict that writing this comment will help me remember.
My current options are to go to sleep, continue to watch youtube, anime, game, program, draw, or go for a walk. I predict that I will have a better day tomorrow if I go to bed now. So I will do that and reflect on this decision in the morning. Good night
helpful example, thanks
Was this a good idea? Or do you wish you did something else now?
@@TimeHandlerbro still sleeping
@@uwu.-.5873hahah
How ya doing, OP
1. Give yourself time to transition between activities.
2. Harness your avoidance "in the right direction": get draining tasks done ASAP/when you have energy to take them on.
3. Live life and form connections between actions and outcomes (superstitions).
I. "Action selection mechanism" (select an action)
Ii. "Motor output mechanism" (execute the action)
Iii. "Monitoring mechanism to prove the goal has been achieved" (observe the desired outcome being reached)
4. As with 3 Iii above, retrospect (post-mortem) after doing an activity (especially when you've "screwed up"). Try to do this without involving emotion and using logic for the best results.
5. Make intentional choices; do not avoid making choices (helps increase intentional binding).
6. Choose an option from a large list of options (increases intentional binding).
7. Make a prediction. It doesn't need to be accurate (increases intentional binding).
Thank you!
I guess this is what Dr. K had been researching before his talk with Thor as he mentioned some of it there 😀
As for point 4. Could do a retrospective be a better word? Post mortems has a specific meaning to me, focusing on just what went wrong. A retrospective will focus on what went well, what did not go well and what to change for next time. Asking as to see how others understand it here. Also for people who would like to look up examples of these activities 😊
He is using post mortem as the example. With a retro you get to bring what you did right with you as well.
It is in general fascinating how close the healthy habits and the debilitating habits are. I guess trying to remove emotions and view the situations outside yourself is key
@@dagfrodesolberg9962 Keep in mind that emotions, be it positive, negative or neutral, are always present. Observe the situation from a logical perspective, but don't pretend that emotions weren't a factor in your and others' behavior.
@dagfrofesolberg9962 Thanks! Yes, it was fun drawing the similarities of this video with Dr K. & Thor's last conversation.
Some of these steps are easier said than done, but that could be a reason to work on the ego. My examples are doing 2 and realizing that I'd assigned all the housework to myself so I couldn't get to the activities I'd actually wanted to do. If you have a partner, there comes a time when you have to split the housework or risk/already be burnout! If you don't have a partner yet there is too much, give yourself permission to say "this is enough" and emotional check-ins.
And with 4, not giving myself enough time to emotionally digest not getting a promotion and making toxic conclusions about the candidate who got it. In the end, I needed to better identify how important that promotion was to me and the intentional choice to only do a retrospective on what I did and could do better. Company politics and other external factors aren't something you can control, and will only lead you down a nasty spiral.
@@tirecs04 Hey first of all thank you for the summary but I didn't quite understand the 7th point. The thing is when I try to make predictions, I am overwhelmed with negative ones, which leads me to avoid the task because in my mind I have predicted that how "it's not going to work" sometimes I tend to ask logical question but I answer the logical questions with reasons on how "it's not going to work".
can you please help with it.
This shows a clear link between perfectionism and procrastination. Not wanting to choose because you don't trust yourself to make the right choice means you won't act.
Dr K, if you keep dropping bangers like this, I'm going to end up applying for med schools to study psychiatry/neurology and all that debt will be your fault
Well it's not your fault no matter what because apparently free will doesn't exist lmao
Hmmm. Maybe there needs to be a HGGG scholarship.
It's not his fault, he had no free will in making this video. :/
bro this is so me and im also jake
@@Jake-qf8jj if we get more jakes in here, we might become a demographic that Dr K makes a video about
For the ones who want to go to the gym:
1. Transition Mindfully: Spend a few minutes mentally preparing before heading to the gym, rather than rushing. This builds a readiness potential that makes the action more likely.
2. Utilize Avoidance: Frame your workout as avoiding future regret. Think, "I don't want to feel bad tomorrow for skipping the gym."
3. Do a Postmortem: After your workout, reflect on what went well and what didn’t. This strengthens the habit.
4. Make Choices and Predictions: Before each gym session, consider your options and predict outcomes. This increases intentional binding, reinforcing the behavior.
This almost seems like a type of journaling framework. And something ben Franklin would do.
Thank you so much for this concise summary
Oh man, the main thing is just making it a habit. I have been working out consistently for 5 years and didn’t go for 2-3 months from being busy moving etc. getting back into the habit is SO much harder than I anticipated. I used to go 2-3 times a week at least pretty consistently, now I’m lucky if I go once. And it doesn’t matter if I feel good afterward like I always do and I’m glad I pushed myself. I still dread it because I’m not used to it anymore. They say it takes a month to create a new habit..I just need to push past the mental barriers I’ve created again (like, I’ll go tomorrow, I have so much to do, I need to clean, I’m tired, blah blah blah….)
@@mariahspapayaI feel this so hard. Lost my gym consistency a few weeks ago due to starting a new job with long hours. Getting back in my routine is sooo hard, but I know I can do it because I've done it before. Good luck to you and keep working on it! You can do it!
@@Gomesu_ what about getting there with low energy and aching joints and half assing it and going home after half an hour? How do we use this to overcome this second part?
I've noticed all of these things ever since I started doing my take on the pomodoro technique. I've been doing 25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of meditation. During my 5-minute breaks, I think about the work I've done and what I'm going to work on during the next 25 minutes. It feels like my mind slows down and clears up, and I start taking meaningful actions instead of mindlessly going through motions. Ever since I started doing this, I feel much more relaxed, rested, and productive at the same time. I've even started doing pomodoros for gaming. That way I don't fall into a gaming trance and lose all track of time.
Very interesting method, might try this. I have the problem of getting distracted while working, not by other things like social media mind you, but by things related to work but that are not directly contributing to the goal of getting the things done I've set out to do when I've sat down to work. Like I want to finish a write up about some topic but getting distracted by some scientific discoveries related to the topic, and then getting distracted again by something else until the next thing I know is that I'm reading the autobiography of some guy from something completely unrelated. I think the pomodoro technique might help keep me on track.
@@wpelfeta thanks for the anecdote..
Though it's not meditation that you are doing in those 5 mins .. it's relaxation, reflection, planning .
That’s not meditation nor is it a break, you are just hopping from one activity to another then hopping back, I’m afraid.
The “pomodoro” technique as you understand it doesn’t even work and goes against research. The flow state takes time to enter and breaking your concentration every 30 minutes just disrupts the flow state so you are never in deep work.
Now, 2 hours of focused work and 1 hour of a true break is more like it.
My personal notes
1. Give time to contemplate choices during transition periods between activities. Dont make hastey decisions.
2. Harness avoidance by avoiding the 'wait'. Dont wait until tomorrow to practice, dont wait till tomorrow to clean your place or get exercise
3. Track the results of your actions to optimize efficiency of decision making for more positive results that align with your desired result.
Bro this video is HUGE. My patch notes are already saying I'm gonna have improved life
Bro stop watching TH-cam and start living.
Go get em big bro
@@burneraccount2024 he is living. technology is a miracle that all of the kings of History before us would have waged wars to get their hands on and we hate ourselves for using it?
Being super intentional, reflective and conscious of outcomes of actions and future consequences is how I live by default.
It’s why I did well in school, never got into trouble (because I wanted to avoid getting bad grades, and teachers and my parents getting mad at me). I’ve always been baffled by people who just jump head first into everything, blurt out whatever is on their mind or flit from one thing to another, they may not always be the most successful but they seem more “free” in a sense. They aren’t held prisoner by their worries about future outcomes on a second by second basis.
I think that being super intentional beyond a certain point can make you feel trapped and anxious because you’re paralysed by wanting to avoid bad outcomes.
Well being intentional, reflective and conscious should kinda make you less afraid of bad outcomes because you are more able to reflect on mistakes and bounce back and be better than one who doesn’t learn
This might be one of those "hit the nail in the head" kind of video - such an important topic treated with approachable and engaging complexity.
Notes for myself:
1) Give yourself time in transitions
2) Harness avoidance instead of concurring it. Avoid the weight and burden of dealing with it tomorrow. Save yourself trouble of dealing with this crap
3) Monitoring our actions, do a post mortem
4) Consider choices and make predictions
Doing this for myself every time I need to take an action:
My current options are:
1) Finish my Computer Science Letter of Recommendation Document:
- Prediction if I don't do it and avoid it: From my class everyone except me and my friend have done the assignment. If I don't do it right now it will loom over and the more the leave it I might not get a recommendation letter that is essential for me to go to college.
2) Open youtube and watch shorts on and on.
- Prediction: If I keep on watch youtube on and on again not only will I leave the assignment that was already due like 3 weeks ago but I will also loose my chances of having enough time later on in the day to meditate and get all other summer assignments out of the way.
3) I could clean my room:
- Prediction: If I clean my room right now although that is productive and I have been asked to do that its going to be a form of fake productivity because cleaning my room isn't as important as my LOR document that literally determines whether I go to uni or not.
4) I could watch more dr.K videos on procrastination
- Prediction: I could avoid work by again using fake productivity by watching more videos but at the end of it all I will be overwhelmed with the countless amounts of advice that are all useful but I want to take one step at a time and change one thing at a time and it starts with this.
I finished my LOR:
My current options are:
1) Meditate
- Prediction: If I don't meditate I will feel guilty and disconnected and I will probably fall back into the old habits. If I don't meditate I will forgot about the purpose of my existence and fall into the trap of the pleasures of this dunya.
2) I scroll on youtube forever and ever.
- Prediction: I will probably end up feeling sick and as if I don't even have my life in control. I will feel like that version of myself that seems to be like a puppet held by strings of my ego and superego. I will probably feel useless after consuming filthy content that goes against the divine and lowers my own dignity.
I meditated last night and it was like a message from god because I had been frustrated at the image of myself criticizing my friend's attitude and attention when I literally have put my attention into such filth that I have so much work to clear that filth off my attention so why should I criticize others. However, the speech talked about the rigid mental projections that we create as human beings if humans put effort or do a work I believe we make a mental projection of the outcome or what our future should look like because we put effort in. I relate to this because even while meditating for like 2 days I have this mental projection of how I should not criticize others and be compassionate to everyone, which are qualities that are important and I am not saying that I shouldn't aim to be like that but I have realized that every time I have started this meditation journey again I end up creating this perfect mental projection of how I should be and how I should act now. But the truth is we are far from even being good there is so much filth that needs to be cleaned out and obviously I will slip up and act unlike how a sahaja yogi should be but I should look at myself objectively like a case that needs to be solved. Instead of being rigid I need to be more flexible into what comes to my life and even with the actions and behaviour I show outside. The transformation is not going to be in a day, we have amounted the filth for so long it will take even longer for us to clear it so strive to not have those behaviours but if you do then you should be honored that there is something new that needs to be fixed. There are two roads lets say you planned to go on the right side one but somehow you end up on the left side where you discover a landfill, atleast you found something new even if that was wrong road you found something else. You need to believe that no matter what happens the joy of the spirit will remain because it is eternal.
My current options are:
1) Meditating
- Prediction: If I don't meditate I will loose the vibe and wise teachings that I was able to get from Bhutan and loose the sense of belonging and feeling in control that I felt back in Bhutan. I will loose connection with shree ganesh, which will probably affect my life a lot
2) Scroll more:
- Prediction: If I scroll and neglect all the 8 million things that I need to do I might end up become more stressed.
Like I genuinely believe that the best step for me now is to not let my mind get stressed and overwhelmed. Basically like it said in the comments of one of dr.k's video; "instead of feeling overwhelmed, be overwhelmed" the key idea is to shift from a passive experience of overwhelm to an active engagement with it where Instead of letting the feeling of being overwhelmed paralyze you, use that energy to fuel your actions. So I think that is the mindset I want to have like be busy so that my mind doesn't get the time to feel anxious or have these negative thoughts.
Geeze I need a note pad while listening to this man. Great content. I am a therapist and you have helped me help myself and clients!
So, for future me:
The play is:
Take time between activities to just think,
Think about what future I want to avoid tomorrow
Post-mortem after an action or event
Analyse my available options
Transition thonk,
Avoid tomorrow,
Post-mortem,
Choose choices
- The mind can build up a readiness potential if given time, that makes it more likely for a particular decision (or action) to be made
- How do I use? When switching to a new activity give myself a few minutes to think
- Example: Getting up to go the bathroom or kitchen, instead remain sitting for a few minutes just thinking, not looking at screen
- Avoidance exists in everyone, but successful people choose what they avoid and use it to avoid *not* doing important tasks
- How do I use? Think about the consequences of not doing something that I would like to avoid (whether it be tomorrow, or next week or so)
- Example: If I have an assignment due, think about how much I would like to avoid having to scram at the last minute (or even possibly forget about it), or even avoid getting a terrible mark and having to repeat a course
- Dwelling on things helps us re-engage in the behaviour again
- Doing a post-morten (after the fact analysis) helps us incorporate the right feedback correctly for our feedback based brain
- So analysis after an action will help us understand whether it is an action we should do or not
- A key problem can occur when post-mortems are not done, we often think only negative thoughts about actions, and without analysis we have no opportunity of disproving the negativity
- Consciously choosing a choice helps us choose that choice again in the future
- The process of analysing available options and trying to choose the best one reinforces making the choice again, regardless of the outcome
Best TH-camr by far. In the middle of an epidemic of brainrot thru media Dr. K gives you all the tools you need to master your mind and your life for FREE! Truly a modern day saint 🙏 THANK YOU!
This is exactly why professional baseball players are so superstitious. They're at the absolute top of their craft, having spent countless hours doing these arduous drills, and since the sport is so inconsistent, with the best hitters still failing over two thirds of the time, they latch onto arbitrary things because it worked once or twice.
It's hard to build confidence where you miss even hitting the ball most of the time and you're the only person driving the offense. There's no other sport with that much pressure.
But that’s also why athletes don’t do it because if they miss something it’ll throw them off
Nice analogy ☕️👌
@@Do27gg dont do what?
@@mrloqqe1610 I play football (soccer) and some people have strict superstitions/ routines but other people don’t as if you miss a step in your routine it’ll throw you off your game
For me, I think this is my need for Autonomy and Choice. I feel like I have so little choice in my current life, I end up procrastinating on everything.
This is genuinely one of the best self help videos I've ever seen
This was mind blowing. THANK YOU DR. K
this is the best channel on this website rn imo
You have no idea how much I needed to see this today. Haven't even watched past the intro yet, but here I sit, mindlessly scrolling, unable to stop for days on end. This is the first ray of hope I've had in a while. Thank you from a formerly productive person.
God bless you ❤
Hope things get better for you ❤
Hearing Dr K butcher „Bereitschaftspotential“ was beautiful 😅
:D :D
He really did butcher it, my goodness. That was something very far from German that pronounciation 😅
I literally had to look at the newspaper on the screen to realize what he even said 😂
If only he would've pronounciated the ei in Bereitschaftspotential similar to the english word I...
The first time he said it, it did not register as german for me XD.
"choose to avoid different things" I love this because it highlights a kind of compatiblism between the conceps of free will and determinism
1. Give myself time in transitions Readiness Potential: pause sit with yourself inbetween actions to give yourself time to work up into the next activity. Focus on the transitions between actions, not just the actions themselves.
2. Harness avoidance instead of conquering. Utilize Avoidance by doing things now so that you can avoid having to do it in the future
3. More Spend time doing a post mortem on the actions after the fact. Increases chance of re-engaging
4. Intentional Binding. Consider choices and make a prediction, seems to increase intentional binding. Pause, reflect and selecting something, increases the likelihood of the behavior.
Summary
Low performers don't think about the consequences of their actions. If I do this what will happen tomorrow increases intentional binding.
Successful people utilize intentional binding, make intentional predictions, stop and think about the consequences of their actions. Unsuccessful people avoid thinking about the consequences of their actions
Predictions matter more than outcomes when it comes to getting the brain to do things. Not thinking about consequences reduces likelihood to do the thing. Successful people keep trying.
TLDR:
Avoid doing the task tomorrow by doing it today.
Pause between tasks and give yourself time to build up to it.
Take time to consider all of your options for the next task, choose and make a prediction on outcomes of your choice.
Reflect on the actions and analyze the outcome and why it happened.
1. RP determines whether we act or not. So we have to increase the RP
2. Give themselves time between actions (before one activity and other)
3. Avoidance ( avoiding task)
4. Utlising avoidance in right direction
5. Avoiding the task in future
6. Superstitious - if I do A, then B happens.
Post moterm - spend lot of time after an event is complete
Intentional binding - what causes repeat behaviour. Making a choice reinforces the behaviour.
Simply pausing, reflecting and chosing causes repeated behaviour.
Making a prediction - make predictions of the outcome
Was du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf morgen. One of the favorite quotes of my grandma
Dieses Zitat kenne ich aus Ninjago haha.
Directly after the variation: Was du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe stets auf morgen.
@@hummingbird1375SAME LOL. “Never put off till tmrw, what can be done today”
Google translate says: "Whatever you can do today, don't put it off until tomorrow."
It sounds better in German than English.
intentional binding(ie: thinking about available choices and choosing one intentionally) ,
leveraging superstition circuitry to create a drive into doing certain illogical rituals/actions,
using the mechanism of avoidance to avoid putting off work for the future,
working yourself up before a particular action by giving yourself time to prepare .
Please I beg you to make a video about "when i got it, i don't want it" or "when i get what i want, i don't want it or have desire for it anymore"
I am choosing to write down this comment so that I can remember this stuff for longer...
So basically I should slow things down and sit there for sometime rather than jumping from one thing to another ( this makes a lot of sense... I didn't even know how I wasted so many days not studying.... and today I studied just bcz I sat down and thought about studying rather than watching youtube... )
2nd point is post mortem... I was thinking of what I studied and how much of it I had retained... and it made me want to study more... and sleep on time today so that I have the energy study tommorow...
I was subconciously doing these things but now I understand the science behind it...
Now I have a choice between sleeping insrantly and completing this video and then sleeping... or scrolling aimlessly after watching this video... and I consider sleeping after completing the video....
Thank you Dr K
Will update whether I go to bed after completing the video or not
Something else I learned at the end... to consider *the consequences*
Now I am going to sleep. Also I missed the part of using avoidance as a tool.
There is a recommended video now... and I choose not to watch it... I am gonna sleep... bcz the consequence of watching this video will be me not sleeping till 4 AM.
Good night Dr. K
•Give yourself time in transitions
•Harness avoidance instead of conquering it
•Logical monitoring mechanism after an action
•If you consider your options and make predictions it reinforces the chance to do the action in the future
Been implementing this process the past three weeks since I watched the video. I started writing again and posting my work online after months of avoiding it. If there were ever a real life hack, this would be it.
Has really no German pointed out yet Dr Ks adorable pronunciation of Bereitschaftspotential? It sounded as if there was at least one syllable too much x)
I think for English Natives, it could be transcribed like this: be-RIGHT-shafts-poh-ten-see-all
Thank you for the high quality content, HG Team! These videos and the membership content have finally given me real access to the information I already learned in med school and CBT. This means a lot to me because it has helped me make noticeable progress on my journey of self-discovery, coping with childhood trauma/neglect, and building some self-esteem.
I got a chuckle out of it, for sure 😅
I just did before seeing this comment. To bad there are no voice-messages.
ohhhh! THATS what he said! 😂 Alles klar, danke!
I love how he says "maybe" at the end
I feels like a way to motivate both audiences
You literally have the best content
This is something I've been thinking about a lot recently. Nothing I do is my decision, something in me does the decision for me. Everything I do is based on what I want or don't want, but I do not decide what I want. What affects my wants are my lived experiences. What affects my way of thinking and behavior is new information. When I get new information, my body decides to either use it in someway or not use it. What affects that decision is the knowledge and experience that my mind already has. I can't change my life to a certain direction if my mind doesn't have the necessary tools/knowledge. Only way for my mind to get that knowledge is either by hearing from other people, or by experiencing something itself, sometimes the experience isn't enough if my mind doesn't know how to process/use it. That's why I think that sharing information is the best way to change the world. We shouldn't always wait for people to figure things out for themselves, we should share the information if we know that it is important information. This video might create a light bulb moment for many, and for many it will just be another video, depends a lot on the person.
Love the video, I’m only about halfway done, but I’m struck by how much the advice given in this video aligns with the advice given in 12 step recovery programs. You’re often encouraged to act as if you do not have free will, using your will only to search for a higher powers will for you. Meditating and deliberately acting according to that will, not being avoidant of anything your higher power wills for you and act as soon as you can, etc. I’m excited to finish the video!
- Increase the transition time between desired actions
- Post Mortem previous actions
- Intentional Binding
- Decide your intention
- Think about possible action toward this intention
- Make predictions
- Select an action
- Choose what to avoid
- if you feel like avoiding something in the present, predict what it would lead to in the future
- shift your focus from what you want to avoid in the present to what you want to avoid in the future
Is following scenario a good summary?
1. i watched the video and wait 30 secs before doing anything else
2. I wonder whether i should go to sleep and want to avoid being tired tomorrow morning.
3. I set a reminder for tomorrow evening and look back how good it felt to go to sleep early and not being tired.
4. i consider the choices I have now: sleeping, keep on watching, playing games. and predict the outcomes for each decision?
#3 works. I've had to do that to break my habit of being negative about everything regardless of what actually happened. If you sit with yourself for even a moment and think about all the positive emotions you felt about "doing the thing", you eventually do train yourself to think positively about a formerly irritating task!
1:Think between actions
2:Channel Avoidance
3:Think about why something went poorly or well
4:Intentional binding, consider choices and make predictions
I had been asking for discussions from Dr. K about Free Will for a while now! Thanks for looking at the subject!
The conclusion from those studies that free will doesn't exist is a wild leap. Those same researchers have no idea how consciousness works, but Dr K has some idea and he knows that the brain is not the sole organ of consciousness. He showed he knows that in his interview with Dr Mike. The conclusion that you derive from that study is that thought is not the primary driver of action, not that free will doesn't exist. Determinism is just avoiding responsibility for your actions by claiming you had to have done that no matter what. In reality consciousness operates at several levels of awareness simultaneously, thought is the one we are most cognizant of but it is also the most superficial in its relevance to how we feel.
@@vyvianalcott1681Would you please elaborate more on what conscience is in your view? So, like other than your inner thoughts, or your brain, what else could be considered conscious in a human? I’m genuinely interested in learning more about this topic and would appreciate any papers/books/videos you might share on the subject of consciousness. Thanks :)
@@nadin3000bieber It's WAY too much for a youtube comment, I'm working on videos to describe my understanding of it but who knows if I'll ever finish them. In the meantime, I would recommend learning about Buddhist philosophy, I don't know much about it but a lot of the things Dr K says map onto my understanding of consciousness nearly 1:1 and I think that is humanity's best description of it so far.
Nobody has any clue what consciousness is. If free will doesn’t exist, what purpose does memory serve? Also, if you don’t know what’s going to happen, how is it predetermined? Wouldn’t predetermination make more sense if we knew everything that was going to happen?
I'm encuraged to see people resisting having conclusions pushed on them. There is scientific evidence that disbelief in free will correlates with antisocial behavior and increased negative emotion. I found at least 8 papers with a cursory search.
Furthermore, even though the subconscious mind and brain show evidence of a decision before conscious awareness, all that shows is that a naive assumption that the conscious mind is always the source of choice is too simplistic.
Part of the world is "mechanical", and part of the self, too. At least. Predictable. The universe has to be this way for knowledge to be possible, and without knowledge, the idea of choice is meaningless. But without choice, without at least a "semi-free" will, nothing means anything, because you are just part of the machine and your actions come from outside you or from meaningless random fluctuations. These are terrible assumptions to base an ethic on, and crushing to the human spirit.
Possibilities:
1. The "self" that has free will, that can choose, is actually pre-conscious, sub-conscious, super-conscious, transcendent, something. In this case, the fact that the conscious mind becomes aware "late" is not a problem. Why is it that so many eastern traditions are so focused on meditation, accessing or affecting the subconscious mind, disidentifying with emotions, thoughts, ego, and so forth? Maybe because that's where the mystery and opportunity to develop greater freedom of will lies?
2. What if freedom and influence of "will", true self, varies, from person to person and based on nature, conditions, states, personal development, and so on? What if free will depends on meeting certain requirements, and most of us are barely exercising it? What if it's just a seed of potential in us, or what if much of the brain and body _are_ deterministic and the will can only intervene in certain ways and at certain times? Remember that the will itself could be pre-conscious.
3. What if it takes time for the activities of our "self", combined with all the activities and perceptions of our body and brain, to be organized and revealed consciously?
4. What if our "conscious experience" is actually a report of sorts being presented for the sake of our "self" by the brain? Thus it is delayed, and furthermore has inaccuracies (research the adaptive unconscious, psychological narratives, and studies about confabulation about why we do things).
There is plenty of evidence that some or much of human behavior is deterministic. That is different from claiming that no form of free will can or does exist at all. Furthermore, it's possible that free will is so.ething that starys out weak in us, almost embryonic, but can be developed.
Dr. K inadvertently hints in that direction in this video. He starts by accepting the premise "there is no free will", but then he proceeds to use the words "choose" and "decide" a lot, and talk about "learning to pull the levers" of our deterministic body/mind. The sounds a lot like a transcendent self learning to interact more and more with a (semi-?)deterministic body to increase the influence of their... free will.
I can't help but suspect he is aware of the contradiction and is engaging in a bit of buddhist humor, or perhaps trying to help the part of his audience that are conditioned to only accept strict deterministic views as "scientific". If not, given how balanced and open he usually is to looking at things from multiple perspectives, I have to wonder if this video was rushed, or why he didn't think about his topic more deeply? Especially given that convincing people free will doesn't exist is philosophically unsound and may remove a barrier to depression, loss of meaning, and antisocial behavior.
Have some faith in life! Your choices matter! Just, not everything you think is a choice necessarily is one, and your ability to make true choices may take work to develop. I believe this is consistent with Dr. K's teachings from both east and west perspectives, multiple spiritual traditions, and neuroscience, when viewed carefully.
But wishes! May our wills become more free with knowledge and practice.
I never thought about avoidance in this way, I thought it was inherently bad outside of survival situations. Really makes you wonder how many other "bad" things are actually bad vs improperly taken advantage of. This is definitely a video I want to rewatch a few more times.
Great stuff! Make a video on using the belief in no free will as an antidote for internalized shame and guilt
Dude, this is genius, this is life changing advice, the millions of lives that this video will improve is insane
I chose to click on this video
Did you?
@@YeahSon81 *VSAUCE THEME INTENSIFIES*
But the question is why didn’t you skip it? You’ll probably have a few reasons none of which were your decision to think about either. If you look at your thoughts closely enough you’ll see they just ‘pop’ into existence.
@@cosmo8771To prove the title wrong
No you didn't. That's the point
I feel that I have more free will after watching the video.
Commenting to play the algorithm and share the video with more people, as I think it contains very important knoledge.
1) Stop and think!
2) Outcome of choice?
3) Prediction.
4) "Choose" and act.
Dr. K, you are definitely onto something. Let's say some brains are the exception, and some brains are the target margin for this... obviously i can't speak for many when I only have my observations about what ive seen and experienced myself.
But, this video hit 🎯 dead center, for me, for my current situation. I had a hard upbringing with children of traumatized parents having children and being their child I also experienced trauma in various forms. That aside, I also had ADHD that my Hispanic parents didn't want to believe existed. There's no choice you do what you're supposed to do and they "beat" it out of you. So I eventually became a super student and tried to do everything i was told without question, but could not keep my room clean as my parents would say. I only focused on making it to college and looking good on paper. Right before I graduated my parents said I wasn't ready for the world and convinced me to stay home and do community college and take care of my younger brother while they left out of the state for their jobs.
I spent the next 10 years flailing, but avoided "addictions" because my best friend was addicted to pills at 12 and her mom was an alcoholic. My brain stayed immature until I had a child and was left trapped at home while father "worked". I became a single mom (for the better) at 30 and went on a mission to rewire my brain after realizing disturbing patterns. And I did great. Until I got in another relationship 😮💨. In a matter of 5 years I had highs and lows that landed me in a similar place I didn't want to be and didn't understand what happened when I made so much progress.
In trying to avoid I fell into different mindless behaviors and decisions that became addictions and I tried to over correct... big ass circle 🤦. I completely understand the high functioning and i really understand the low... except I had unhealthy high standards and expectations so I never allowed myself to certain things. I chose to avoid completely...stayed up later and later watching stuff. Followed by "getting my shit together" for 2x or 3x more. But got stuck in the cycle because I ran out of gas and when back to "factory" settings. But everything you said is the best way to break it down and I know its really something solid because it resonates with the part of me that keeps trying to break free of all this. I get lost in my head and wonder if I need a road map to get back to my "high functioning" but this might be the way to start it.
Tonight and maybe tomorrow i need to catch up on sleep. But after that I'm going to try and implement this.
"Is it possible that simply watching this video has planted a seed in your mind and your Beritschaftpotential has started to move in the right way"
that's funny Dr K, because your video made me want to do my daily push-ups 😂
I really wanted a video of Dr K talking about this ever since he mentioned the eastern idea that we have no ability to influence results of things (in the Williamson interview). I’d love more content on the idea of removing ourselves from the decision and/or understanding we don’t have control over outcome from both the eastern and western perspective. I’d really love that! Thank you for all the hard work team!!
I’m actually the opposite of the target audience for this video, but I’m glad I stayed anyway because your explanation uncovered behaviors I do on a regular basis. I spend a nice chunk of time planning and reflecting, weighing options, and being super intentional. It’s nice to know the scientific background! I do struggle with anxiety because I think about the future TOO MUCH though 😆.
Must be amazing, I've been using Dr Ks advice here for only 2 days and its helped me so much!! I worry about the future too, just remember there are things we can control and things we cant. Focus on what you can. The question "what is the best thing I can do right now?" really helps with the future anxiety
Dr. K! At the top level, where all our internal connections are integrated, that "integration" is where our "consciousness" and "free will" come from! It's a metaphysical (phenomenal) "output" of a dialectical (step by step) process! It's not an "event," except in how we interpret and talk about ("interact with") it!
6:43 The Libet experiment just shows that it takes a while for the subject to tell the experiment supervisor that they made a decision. They made the decision way before that. Forming words or giving feedback has a delay. It doesn’t show that they made the decision before they were aware of making the decision.
Thanks as ever, Dr K. I finally did a task I'd been putting off for ages after spending some time imagining how much worse it would be if I left it longer. Also been trying out giving myself lots of little choices (whether with the same outcome or different outcomes). Thank you!
Wow this is insane, i have been making a theory on my head that every desision i make is not conscious and later gets inputted to ur conscious. this theory is bassed of many things i have noticed about my brain over the years and here i am seeing you map my entire theory out!
i paused after watching about 80% of it because i had to do timely obligations but afterwards i was motivated and pushed by understanding why im feeling the way i am about the tasks im putting off and did some and came back to hear your mention of "if this video planted a seed", i definitely think the info you provide plants a seed each time it resonates and as my mind becomes a proper garden, its starting to make me hopeful
I find it funny that this is considered determinism, yet it's also simultaneously not the lack of free will or choice, but an advanced application of it.
Essentially saying, you do not have a choice in the individual things you do, but the system with which you automatically do things.
You put it perfectly down,damn.
I always feel bad somehow grasping something but not being able to put it Into words and you did it perfect.
The system itself also chooses what you choose though, why wouldn't it just be gradually changing itself to accommodate the varying complexity and needs of the ever changing environment and human biology?
excellent summary
@@Mico-Xiyeas trauma or negative formative events early in life shape such a large proportion of this system. So if mal-adaptive “circuitry” is learned early in life, it will take very intentional re-wiring later in life to undo.
The system is getting passive exp but it could be leveling the wrong things without seeing it.
Today I saw this video and I plan to make a report at the end of the month.
I would appreciate the reminders.
Dr K! I think this could help a ton with stuff like doom scrolling. This video truly made sense to me and I believe using this will be extremely helpful.
1) Stop, a little bit peace your mind (1-2 min)
2) put choices
3) Take one choice and tell why you want to do it now rather than others. (Give predictions what benefits will give that action after being completed)
4) After the finishing analyze benefits and compare with your prediction.
no way, I have been investigating about free will and swinging about getting depressed and finding meaning beyond it and god and so many things... and just when I made peace with it, Dr. K releases this video... well Im gonna watch it I hope i dont get more depressed😂😂
Hop out of being jacked into the machine VR is designed to squeeze life out of peoples bodies
Bro same here, how are you doing?
I think he is trying to engage with a new audience that has this sort of mindset through following the logical flow of the search he read and show us what we can take from it, even if it comes from a line of thinking that we know isnt completely true, there is something to be learned from it
So dont feel low because of this specific video
Dr. K helped me more than 6 years of (different types of) therapy. Thank you, Dr. K 🙏🏻
This video was too complicated for me to understand. I got lost somewhere around readiness potential. That’s a first
hey man. watch it again!
I like how he is able to incorporate his own life stories into the principles, which makes them more relatable and easy to understand
technically one could argue that the brain auto requests action, and free will is the verification system of that action, it is like making someone flinch or jump scaring someone, there is in fact instinct that is happening, that doesn't mean free will is not a thing or is not important, but the instinct or an auto confirmed action is without free will
Brain Requests movement, Brain has to think about movement, Movement happens, where muscle memory is actually getting to the point where you don't need to confirm the movement request
Everything he's ever said shows that we do have free will. He just likes to make his titles provocative to engage viewership.
That's not really an argument for free will, more like a description of what free will is. You're essentially saying the brain wants to do something, but "you" get to freely choose whether that thing gets done or not. Everyone knows the brain wants to do things we don't want it to do, e.g. if you have withdrawal symptoms from drinking, your brain wants to drink but you don't. The idea of free will is that you can freely step outside of the neurons in your brain and somehow choose every time to not drink.
Except free will as a concept doesn't even make sense because it requires you to be able to break the laws of physics and swerve the electrons one way or another to activate the neurons you want. Besides the obvious irrefutable point on not being able to break the laws of physics, it creates an infinite regress. If you "want" to swerve the electrons in your nerve signals one way, you haven't created that "want". You can't choose what you choose.
Free will makes no sense. If youre choosing what to do, whats making you choose to do those things? Why do you like the things you like, and why do you choose them? Is it random? Or did you choose them just to choose them? If so, why is it that what you choose so perfectly aligns with who you are to? You can say because that's just who you are. But did you decide to be that way? What decided you will be that way? You've been a certain way long before choosing to be how you are.
Doesn't make sense that most people are somehow so hardwired to be pretty static in their personality rather than ever changing, in a non gradual manner. Shouldn't it be easy to choose? If not why? Could it not be that there's things that influence and decide what makes it harder for you? Or are you deciding to make it hard for yourself to?
@@seekingfinding6204
@@seekingfinding6204that’s just free agency, not free will. Libertarian free will requires the laws of physics to be broken in order to exist
I think he is trying to engage with a new audience that has this sort of mindset through following the logical flow of the search he read and show us what we can take from it, even if it comes from a line of thinking that we know isnt completely true, there is something to be learned from it
An observation. Those moments in my life where I do not engage in intentional minding tend to be periods of my life that are high stress, when I'm psychologically hunkered down to weather whatever comes my way. I'm in a "get what I can" Mentality for pleasure and relaxation.
I think this will help me greatly, thanks!
Readiness Potential is nothing but the Ahamkara that comes before your Intellect and already decides if it's for me or not. This knowledge is deep rooted in rich Indian Scriptures those were written thousands and thousands of years ago :)
I wanted to report back on the methods proposed here, my goal was to go to the gym:
Week 1: I began applying the recommended methods, which made the process of getting ready and leaving the house for the gym a bit easier. But still required willpower
Week 2: I started using positive predictions proactively, such as "After my workout, I will be more focused and productive at work." This led to a slight increase in my productivity following gym sessions.
Week 3: Despite feeling daunted the night before a gym session, I found that by the next day, I could go to the gym with minimal effort.
Week 4: I no longer need the method to motivate myself to go to the gym, it feels as if my brain is "programmed" and "just knows" that I have to go. (Perhaps it became a habit?). I will continue to use the method for science.
Will edit and continue to update if I notice anything new
I find it really really important, I can’t confirm it’s working on me, but I definitely can confirm successful people really have this in one or another level
Hey Dr. K, my path is very similar to the one you were on during your ashram days. Not that I went to India, but I flunked so many classes during my first Uni go around that I decided to drop out. I did a lot of soul searching, through yoga and meditation actually and had a resolve to go back to become a DPT. Now that I am on the verge of applying it has occurred to me that I am 2 classes and an MCAT away from med school. I have totally turned my life around from where I was 3 years ago but am currently plagued with the same indecision that had me flunking out initially (what do I WANT to become?). I know the odds that you read this are slim to none - but I wanted to shoot my shot to see if I could have a conversation with you about where I’m at. I know you’re a busy guy, so if this comment gets zero response I would not be surprised.
Hey, philosophy student here! For anyone concerned about the whole "no free will" thing, I can maybe give a more optimistic take. tl;dr - I think you can have free will, and that it's compatible with determinism. I find that a lot of conversations about free will are skewed by pretty limited definitions of what free will is. People tend to define free will as "being able to choose from a range of possible futures". This seems intuitive but I think it's accepted too readily. The issue is, if determinism is real, then there's only actually ever one possible future.
What I don't see brought up enough is that you can still make a choice even if there's only one possible future/option. Imagine you're going to order pizza. You order a margarita and then later find out that they only had margarita pizza left anyway. Your freedom wasn't actually impeded by there only being one option, because it's the option you would want anyway. Your brain subconsciously choosing an option before you consciously choose an option is just like margarita being the only option on the menu. The choice may have been made before you were aware of it, but so long as you're okay with that, it doesn't have to be a problem. Because of this, I prefer to say that we have free will if "our actions are taken willingly".
Now, some people might say that it's not really "you" making the choice, because your choice is just the culmination of the environment you grew up in, etc. But I still don't think this is a problem for free will. Environmental impacts/experiences are a natural part of choice-making. Maybe I ate pineapple on pizza before and didn't like it, and that's why I chose margarita. The culmination of my environment is just what I consider to be the reasons for making my choice. On the other hand, if they only had pineapple pizza left, that's where I no longer have free will, because it's not the outcome I want. If free will meant making choices independently of whatever previous input or experience we had, all our choices would just be random. So long as you're happy with the outcome, it doesn't actually matter why you're happy with it, that's enough for you to have "free will".
The reason I think all this is important is because sometimes we make choices we're not truly happy with, that aren't in line with our higher values. If we do this, that's when we're sacrificing some of our freedom. Think about it. When you doomscroll for five hours straight, does it feel like you're doing it freely? No, because deep down it's not something you really want to be doing - you're doing it against your will in a way. However, those who tell people that free will isn't real at all, or is some kind of illusion, are sometimes misleading and unnecessarily depressing/nihilistic. I'm here to tell you not to give up! It might be difficult, it might take time to form the habits you really want to form, but if you want to be free, live a life you're truly happy with.
Your version of free will is like ice cream, minus the ice and the cream.
@@trashman1605 mm delicious imaginary ice cream
So basically you're saying that free will does not exist, but you don't need to worry about it, since it still feels like we have a choice
@@vaniluchy8947 Kind of. I’m more trying to say that free will does exist, because free will never required more than one possible choice in the first place.
@@coffeelixlibertarian free will doesn’t exist. But free agency does. Holding people morally accountable for their decisions is nonsensical though considering the influences that led them to make that choice were either deterministic, or indeterministic (completely random and nothing to do with the agent)
I love this channel it’s given me so much help in my daily life I honestly hope everyone I know would watch this
So essentially everything is just avoiding boredom
Im sending this to my friend. Didnt even read the title but we had long debates about it turned into a whole free will vs determinism and chaos thing. Didnt even watch the video, i just know dr k will deliver here i know what it about.
Turns out I have unintentionally (or i suppose intentionally) defaulted to this behaviour over time... and my life indeed has gone to the upside in correlation with it.
Great to see a confirmation and explanation as to why, though.
One minutes and I’m already glad Dr. K explaining determinism
Everything in life occupies a real but currently unmeasurable meta physical space in the "cloud" of our minds. To allow your own body and mind to help you unbind the worst things you dislike about life. Reduce the amount of binds at any given time, start with one less binding. If the usual is 1late-night, video games, anime and porn and masturbating; then remove your choices of binds but remove fewer at first. I would suggest one that overpowers you in ways tailor made to hook you in. If possible do all of those first but stretched out over days instead of appeasing all desires at once, especially those that are more hyper activating to sensory receptors like porn, drugs, avoidable late night sleeping. Good luck.
Recognize and give yourself all the choices. More choices than I assume. Predict the outcomes of making those choices. This will help build repeated action
It's not even 40 seconds and Dr. K is making me have PTSD from thinking about how to remove myself from my choices, yo wtf 😭😂
That’s why meditation is powerful for better decision making. The process of breathing in and out intentionally and recognizing when your focus and thoughts drift away and redirecting it to focus has been pivotal to my recent success of sticking to an exercise routine. The more you practice it, the more “control” muscles you’ll have in your brain and the more agency you’ll have over your thoughts and impulses.
GOOD MORNING!
Take your time to process your misktakes.
Avoid the burden of having to deal with the problem (lerning, training, doing stuff) tomorrow / in the future, instead of avoiding the problem itself.
Think of lots of choices (for your Day for example) and make a prediction for the future / outcome of the action.
Scientists can predict a coin flip choice 60% of the time? Congratulations you're still within variance.
50% of the time, it works 100% of the time
My takeaway: I should ask myself "what do I want to do right now?" more often. Similar to Urge Surfing, but instead of watching urges fade, I actively think about which urge to follow.
I'm also considering this comment my own post-mortem to the experience of watching this video.
"no free will"
"addiction exists"
who would've thought
Lmfao 😂
Animals can get addicted to, so they’re not mutually exclusive statements.
can you elaborate im dumb not joking
If there is no free will at all. What's the point?
@@feartheghusthink about what you said for a second... also fix your spelling
This makes perfect sense when you consider how the brain works. Other animals are clearly able to take actions, despite their lack conscious decision-making. They just do a certain thing, feel some way about the outcome and that feeling reinforces the behavior. No conscious decision-making is involved there.
What conscious decision-making is for is to things:
1. it lets you reflect on past actions, which creates more accurate feelings about the actions => increases likelihood that actually useful behavior gets reinforced, and decreases likelihood that useless superstitions get reinforced
2. it lets you simulate possible futures and judge how you will feel about them => reinforces the best behavior without actually having to waste energy (and risk bad outcomes) trying many possible behaviors.
Conscious mind has zero effect on what you will do in the immediate future - older more basic circuits of our brain are responsible for that. Conscious mind affects on what you will do in more distant future by shaping what behaviors get reinforced in the long term. The volition or immediate free will is just a weird illusion that facilitates the emotional connection between reflection, prediction and behavior. ie. you wouldn't really have feelings about what you did if you didn't believe you did it.
sounds like overthinking is a good thing YEP
Don't overthink, just think.
Think when its practical. And no, thinking all day is not practical.
I chose to watch this video, while choosing to take my break now at work. I also chose to work this specific job. Thank you, come again.
There are many different ways to conceptualize free will. In fact, the majority of philosophers hold to a position called compatibleism. Compatabolism is the notion that free will is compatable with determinism. Rather than saying that indeterminism is required for one to have free will, compatabolists assert that we can consider our independent volition and intellect from other people as free will. They also assert that determinism is required for a system to control itself. For example most people would say that a rocketship controls itself and yet it is completely deterministic. I would recommend looking into Daniel Dennet and Sean Carol's work on the subject. 😊
Intentional binding.
The gym, I had app that had regimented working out routine. No choices. I tend to not work out as much as should. My work out was always no choice, start exercise A to B to C to D and finish E for push day. The app would change A, B, C, D and E talking the choice from me. So working out becomes a chore that is easy to get superseded by other activities.
Learning the guitar is not structured and I have a choice to on what I want practice. I end practicing at least once a day or more. What more is end up doing all the things I need practice by choosing the one thing I was start of practicing. Choosing where to start, do practice scales, chords, strumming, rythm, slide, or song first. I think about it and choose one then end up doing all that time permitting. My prediction is I'll get better at strumming if choose strumming. This I if I got time with out being practice the urge to practice grow a lot and end up practice the next time I can do it.
This very interesting.
Determinism is a philosophy that society dismisses and ignores often without critically engaging with the ideas and theories around it
People remain ignorant out of fear. The topic around free will is a trigger for people as they don't really want the implications of not having free will to be true even if they don't understand what it really means. The realization made me doubt my faith and ultimately made me leave my religion. It was really hard to process it but in the end it's worth more for me to not to live a lie than living in 'blissful' ignorance
It's more that people don't want to think about the consequences for how we treat """bad""" people if they didn't have if any choice in where they wound up, whether it's free will not existing or being squashed by the choices of previous generations
really think about what you’re saying here lmao
@@DenseEpiphanywhat implications come to you during your life now that you’ve thought and about determinism
Going to agree and disagree with this. I think free will is a topic worth thinking about critically. But determinism is just cause and effect. "Society" generally accepts that as real, in fact it's a fundamental reason for scientific enquiry. Even more so, if determinism wasn't real, then any "choices" we make wouldn't have a cause, they would just be random. But does the simple fact that our choices have causes mean that we don't make choices at all? I'm not sure the answer to that is obvious.
We all knew that being prepared makes things easier, so first you have to make a comitment and don't stay low on what to do, second if you don't give your brain a reason (prediction, regardless of how good it is) then your brain will give up on you.
So Aesop was right all along with the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper, the guy who thinks in advance so he can relax in the future is the one who gets the work done
If determinism is true, your belief if it’s true or false is not up to you. If determinism is false, if you believe it’s true you are wrong because of your decision, if you believe it’s false you are right because of your decision. You should thus believe in free will, because either you’re determined to be wrong if determinism is true, or free and chose to be right, if free will is true.
Finally someone who doesn't just state that there is no free will, but also explains what to do with this info!
PepeLaugh he still thinks the universe is purely deterministic
Channeling avoidance makes so much sense in my head
you help me get out of creative ruts
Deterministic brain behavior
The first experiment was not about decision but "awareness of action or intention". They weren't asked for "tell us when you decide to move" but "tell us when you feel you want to". That's why the graphic says "judgement of awareness of Intention". That article had critiques mostly on the conclusion you share specifically bc of the methodology they used to mesure it.
Sadly you don't share the name of the article, so we can read it on first hand 😭
However, this was a very interesting topic, thanks you! I thing it is so helpful!!
You've already made the decision Neo. Now you have to realise it.
feeling like you have free will is a part of not having free will, so feeling, or not, feeling like you're making choices is not a choice you can make.
This is the most inane squabble in neuroscience. If you define free will as free from causality, then no, you dont make decisions. But if you define it as making choices based on what you can do, then yes, we do. The idea that all choices we made arent really our own is something that is just intuitively wrong.
Arguing that something is true because it is intuitive is dumb. Intuition is an imprecise tool that is wrong about a lot of things.
@xzan88 It's not just my intuition. There is also competing data that supports some kind of free will.
"stupid"... That idea was the foundation of psychoanalysis
@@fluoro4502 what idea? that intuition is always right? pretty dumb foundation then. isn't psychoanalysis pseudoscientific anyway?
@@xzan88 Sorry, but my comment was not directed towards you, it was an answer for the top comment. I actually agree with you.