Name: Liminal Thinking
ISBN: 9781933820620

Dave Gray

"Why do some people succeed at change while others fail? It's the way they think! Liminal thinking is a way to create change by understanding, shaping, and reframing beliefs. What beliefs are stopping you right now? You have a choice. You can create the world you want to live in, or live in a world created by others. If you are ready to start making changes, read this book."

Create the Change You Want by Changing the Way You Think

Liminal Thinking

Pranav Mutatkar

-Beliefs can guide us and limit us. If we are not careful they create an identity that at best limits us at worst makes our life a living hell. 

-The book illustrates this idea with the blind men and the elephant. So, we must learn and use other peoples worldviews to create feedback for our own beliefs forever modifying and getting them closer to the truth. The map may not be the territory, but if we are always aware of this we may be able to make a map that's close enough. 

-Buddha said his teaching is like a finger pointing at the moon. The finger is helpful if you want to see the moon, but you should not mistake the finger for the moon. 

-Beliefs are created in a single loop of learning. Our beliefs lead to actions which create results which is feedback (psychological reward or punishment) to our needs/identity which leads to beliefs. To affect the loops, it's too hard to affect beliefs directly. We should instead change our actions and change our interpretation of them. Otherwise sticking to our feedback loops creates self-reinforcing behavior. This is great when it's good (my lazy habit system is all about creating self-reinforcing feedback girls what Jim Collins refers to as flywheels), but it's terrible when it's bad (creating doom circles). For example, eat cookies when sad which leads to sugar rush and dopamine (reward) which leads to the belief that cookies make me happier. Substitute this for any addiction you get a problem. So how do you reinterpret, increase the loop, and use techniques to stop in the middle? 

-Part of it is asking for outside support and feedback. We are unaware of blindspots and certain loops that drive us. Awareness is the first step. Then the second step using the right KPIs, test it. This is hard because as Gray states beliefs protect themselves since they are tied to your perceived identity. 

-Before you clean the world, clean your room. If you get the right mindsets, beliefs, etc. then changing the world becomes easier. 

- Start with a beginner's mind. See where you wrong always test and try to see how you can be wrong. Argue the other side with your beliefs constantly. You shouldn't try to be right, but true. They are almost always the wrong thing. Be an alchemist, not somebody who happens upon gold. 

-Falsifiability, as Popper says, is the test of a good test. I would take it further. False and containable failure is what you are aiming for. 

-Other good strategies include disrupting routine, and acting as if. 

-Most importantly, create anti-fragility expose your beliefs to small falsifiable experiments. Aim to be wrong in any which way you can. It's through this that you will get stronger and your beliefs close to the territory they seek to explain.

Liminal Thinking Create the Change You Want by Changing the Way You Think