Reply to Re: Rob's Viewpoints #2 - What's your approach?
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Interesting viewpoint on the matter Robj. I think there's definitely some truth to that, but I think as with your pickpocketing experiment there's also a luck factor involved as Skull pointed out. What I'm saying is, it could have been luck that your first pickpocket succeeded and the subsequent ones didn't 
I'm a little against trying to analyze all that's going on with people, because everyone is so unique that it's hard to make rules about their potential reactions. All my life I've been someone who was afraid to step out in front of people, literally for 20 years I would fear having to stand in front of the class doing an assignment or a presentation. Today I'm a teacher. The thing that changed it for me was a rafting trip, go figure. One small event changed 20 years of fear. But trying to analyze what brought it on and replicating it would be in vain, because every situation or person is too different for this.
Yes, there are definitely simple rules such as conditioning that apply (like on the baby), but I think a much stronger panacea is the placebo effect. That's why I feel all those self help books and psychological mumbo jumbo COULD be true, but more than anything I feel it's true first and foremost for the person who wrote it. Because it helped for them. Because a certain pattern was observed by them. Even confirmation bias is a problem here.
They are 100% convinced something specific, an idea, an action, ... helped them cope with something and now it DOES help them cope with it! So yay, it worked and that's great!
But it could also be a placebo and there's nothing wrong with that. Only that other people might not elicit the same reaction when trying to mimic their attitude. Research into placebos isn't very far along yet, but it has been proven that placebos can cure warts and they still work even AFTER the person has been told he will be given a placebo. This is likely a matter of two parts of the brain taking in information and storing it differently without communicating with each other. Very interesting stuff.
Thanks for posting this inspirational article Robj, was fun to read and think about And I would love to someday see you perform.
I'm a little against trying to analyze all that's going on with people, because everyone is so unique that it's hard to make rules about their potential reactions. All my life I've been someone who was afraid to step out in front of people, literally for 20 years I would fear having to stand in front of the class doing an assignment or a presentation. Today I'm a teacher. The thing that changed it for me was a rafting trip, go figure. One small event changed 20 years of fear. But trying to analyze what brought it on and replicating it would be in vain, because every situation or person is too different for this.
Yes, there are definitely simple rules such as conditioning that apply (like on the baby), but I think a much stronger panacea is the placebo effect. That's why I feel all those self help books and psychological mumbo jumbo COULD be true, but more than anything I feel it's true first and foremost for the person who wrote it. Because it helped for them. Because a certain pattern was observed by them. Even confirmation bias is a problem here.
They are 100% convinced something specific, an idea, an action, ... helped them cope with something and now it DOES help them cope with it! So yay, it worked and that's great!
But it could also be a placebo and there's nothing wrong with that. Only that other people might not elicit the same reaction when trying to mimic their attitude. Research into placebos isn't very far along yet, but it has been proven that placebos can cure warts and they still work even AFTER the person has been told he will be given a placebo. This is likely a matter of two parts of the brain taking in information and storing it differently without communicating with each other. Very interesting stuff.Thanks for posting this inspirational article Robj, was fun to read and think about
And I would love to someday see you perform.
