#1907 The Impossibility of Objectivity - Harps

to me, it means something different to you. And that's because there are things that happened to us around us, because of us, in spite of us, events, situation, circumstances that happen in our external, physical, three dimensional world. And then you and me we see that, we experience that, we hear it, we feel it, we touch it, we whatever,

and then we give it meaning. And we give it meaning based on what we think or what we believe, or what we know or more accurately, what we think we know, our feelings, our opinions, our biases, our previous experiences, our history, our education, our inclination, the stuff that we're

scared of, the stuff we're inspired by. All of these things are variables, cognitive and emotional and experiential variables which influence the way that you and I see stuff, and the way that you and I see stuff or interpret stuff is a subjective thing, which is why something happens in front of you and me and you have a different story about the thing because you're not me. Your mind is not my mind. Your brain works differently to mine.

You've been programmed and educated and influenced and poked and products cognitively and emotionally and sociologically over the course of your life in one way. I've been influenced in another way, And so we're looking at the same thing, but we're not seeing the same thing because Craig's version of the world is subjective. So in a way, I coexist in the world and Craig's world my version of the world, and I think problems happen when we mistake our version

of the world for the world. We mistake our subjective interpretation for a global, objective truth, and then we get very defiant about that. So what I'm talking about today is, you know, I'm not an expert in this, but I think I have a pretty good grasp of it. So if you can bear with me, this is not scripted clearly, and there's only me and I'm sitting by myself thinking out loud, and so trying to explore this idea of the impossibility of objectivity, or that our capacity we have

to be somewhere in the ballpark of objective. I'm kind of thinking out loud as I go, so in advance. I apologize for my clumsiness and perhaps for the lack of inspiration or flow, but I just think this is a I genuinely think this is a really fucking important concept for people to grasp because I think so many people spend their life looking at things through a certain lens without realizing they even have a fucking lens. They just think that what they think is what is You know,

so that ain't true. That ain't true, And sometimes your version of events will align with actual events, or sometimes the way that you see something is consensual amongst among a group, right, so you might be somewhere close to being accurate in the way that it's seen more globally. And there'll be times where you're completely inaccurate, wildly off track, as am I. We all will be. But so let's

start with identifying or explaining what objectivity is. So objectivity is it is the ability to observe, assess, or respond to something without being influenced by your personal feelings, your opinions, your background, your bias is, your wants, likes, needs, experiences, and even your genetics. It's about seeing things as they are versus how you want them to be or fear them to be, or how you have can conditioned being conditioned to believe they are. And this is the same

for me. This is you, this is me, this is everyone. And so in Layman's terms, we might say that objectivity is that mythical unicorn where you kind of magically separate yourself from your ego, your beliefs, your baggage, culture, hormones, genetics, your morning mood and just see something as it is. Well, good luck with that. Because I don't know that any

of us do that. I will say I think there are things that, of course, we can be more objective about than others because we perhaps don't have any pre existing thoughts, ideas, beliefs, or understanding of a certain thing. So when someone says to me, for example, hey Craig, I want to teach you the best way to build a tree house for your nephew that I don't have, I want to teach you. I want to so I don't have any I don't have an idea of how to do that, Like I don't have a pre existing concept.

I have no fucking idea, no theories, I have no understanding. That's never been of interest to me. So when old mate says to me, let me tell you how to build a tree house, this is the best way to do it, I'm probably going to be way more open minded, neutral, objective than if they say to me, Hey, Craig, I want to talk to you about how to get in shape. I want to tell you about the best way to train, the best way to work out, the best things to

do in a gym. Well, good luck with that, because I got all my own fucking thoughts, I got all my own baggage, I've got all my own experiences, I've got all my pre existing stuff, And good luck trying to teach me, because I fucking know everything. Wink wink with me. So I think that depending on the conversation, depending on the topic or the issue, I think we can be more or less objective. But also keeping in mind that even when old mate is teaching me about

how to build a tree house, it's still me. It's still it's still me looking through the Craig lens. The fact that I've never thought about building a treehouse, or I've never built one, doesn't mean that my emotional stuff or psychological stuff, or my hesitation to do anything that resembles handyman work, or my underlying belief that I'm fucking useless with tools, or all of those things, they're going

to influence that. Even though I've never thought about building a treehouse, there's going to be stuff there which will make me more or less objective and open minded. Right, And we love to see ourselves as being open minded. We like it because it's like it's culturally and socially seen as a noble trait or characteristic. It's like it's a desirable thing. He's so she's so open minded, so objective, so easy going, you know, like not prejudiced, not biased,

blah blah blah blah blah. And it's it's a good feeling, because who the fuck wants to be seen as being closed minded? Who doesn't want to be objective? Who wants to be shut down emotionally and mentally, and who wants to be locked into a certain way of thinking and being? Well, we say we don't. We say we don't want that, but fucking he fuck Batman. Have a look around how many people, including me and you. At times, I'm sure

that's what we are. I think we're way more closed minded about many things than we are open minded or objective. We are very very very much intertwined, intertwined with our subjective story that we created because we are identified with that story. That story makes me feel like I know, and I like knowing. I don't like not knowing. Also that subjective story that I have about that objective thing that gives me a level of comfort and familiarity and certainty.

And I like all of those things. And what I don't like is one I don't like someone knowing when I don't know, and then they challenge my thoughts. Right, So I'm not going to fuck and listen to them. I'm going to stay in the echo chamber. I'm gonna I'm going to get trapped in this thing called confirmation bias, where I only listen to people who agree with me, or think like me, or are in my thought cult

because that's where I feel safe. That's where I'm around people and ideas that are familiar to me, and I love, familiarity, right, and this is this is a very very very common thing. Like we we tend not to realize in the moment that we what we call our truth our knowledge is really just or what we call I should say truth or knowledge is really just our our truth and knowledge. And sometimes you know, maybe we're right, maybe we're right a lot, maybe you're right a lot. I don't know.

But also, guess what you're not right? Sometimes guess what you're wrong. Guess what not because you're bad or weird or flawed or evil. But you've been wrong about a lot of things. And the reason I know this is because you're a human. I've been wrong about probably as many things as I've been right. And the older that I get, the less certain I get, and the more open I am to acknowledging that I'm getting things wrong.

Every day, I'm trying, I'm learning, I'm doing what I can, but I have to acknowledge my flaws and my humanity, and I have to realize that no, this is not this is not a universal truth. This is my version, This is my understanding, This is my story, This is my interpretation of something that is much bigger than me, and even when we even when we try to be neutral, Like, the thing is that you wherever you are, there are

your beliefs. Wherever you are, there are your biases. That's wherever you are, there's your upbringing, your family, the echoes of decades of conversations, the imprint, the psychological, emotional, sociological imprint of your dad's thinking and your mum's thinking, and the trauma and the joy and the hopes and the culture and the education and the religion, all of that shit that's just been programmed into you. You can't leave that behind like you take it everywhere with you. And again,

this is not good or bad. This is something to be aware of. This is something to be cognizant of, which is why I'm really comfortable to say to people, Look, this is what I think about. You know. In fact, I had a meeting. This not a meeting. I had a coffee this morning. I'm recording this on a Saturday with Tommy, and Tommy and I were talking about God, as we did briefly the other day Tommy Jacket, and not for a long time, but just for a moment, and I said, you know, basically, we got to the

point where we're talking about what we believe. And I said, well, this is what I believe. But also I believe that because in part that's familiar to me, in part I'm comfortable with that, in part I was programmed this way. There are some things that I don't align with or don't think anymore, but there's a lot that I do. Now. If I am being somewhere in the ballpark of objective, I need to say, this is just Craig's version, This

is my story, this is my understanding. This is my subjective interpretation of something way fucking bigger than me that I'll probably never understand. And if I'm being a little bit humble and aware and real and raw, I have to say I could be wrong. I could be wrong about some of it, a bit of it, a lot of it, or none of it. But I'm definitely not wrong about none of it. There's definitely a shit that I'm getting wrong on a daily basis, and that's okay.

And I think the moment that we recognize that we don't see things as they are, see things as we are, Thanks and as Nint who said, we don't see things as they are, we see things as we are, the moment that we realize that the moment that we go ah, this is just me looking at the world through the

Craig window. This is me looking through this lens. This is me looking at this through my understanding on my vocabulary, or the lens of my education, or the lens of my self limiting beliefs, or whatever the fucking lens is. This is just me seeing that thing. Whatever, that stimulus over there, that event, that circumstance, that's human, those words, whatever it is. That's just my interpretation of a thing.

And the moment that we realize this is not the thing, this is my version of the thing, then I believe we actually move closer towards a level of or a greater degree perhaps of openness, objectivity, and perhaps neutrality where we're not pulled one way or the other so much by our bias, you know, like confirmation bias is our brain's favorite shortcut. Like we unconsciously and all humans do this.

We unconsciously seek out the stuff that confirms what we believe, what we think, our values, our ideas, and without really thinking about it, we discard or discredit anything that contradicts us or what we believe because that other opinion or that other version of truth or that other version of what is feels threatening when it challenges our self story or our worldview, and we don't like being threatened. In fact, our brain one of the things that our brain is

really hardwired for is confirmation and familiarity and comfort. So it's not really we're not really looking for objectivity. We like the idea of it, but when the boots are on the ground in the middle of it, it's really just mental self soothing, where where we're finding something that's comfortable. And you know this is I mean, let me zoom

back a little bit. You know, we think about like in personal development and self help and you know, human behavior, whatever, whatever big banner we want to put over the top of all of the stuff that I do with you and share with you. Like we you know, we love the idea of being a better person. We love that. We love the idea of eating a great diet. We love the idea of living our life which is aligned with our values. We love the idea of being a

better communicator and a better parent. We love the idea of knowing more and doing better. We love the idea of improving performance and outcomes and having a spiritual life and being having greater connection with others. And we love all of these things that are constant conversations on this show. But as I've said many times, away from the idea, away from the thing that we like, away from the

intention or the desire, it ain't fucking easy. Like the idea of open mindedness or objectivity, let's call it that. That's the title, the idea of objectivity. It's really nice. I want to be. Yeah, Craig, Craig's really objective, like he really you know, minimum bias, really open minded, really neutral, talk to him about anything. Yeah, no, that's not you can.

And I'm definitely better than some, but not all. And some days you'll find me depending on where where I am at, because I'm a human, i might be having a shit day. I'm going to be absolute crap. I'm going to be defensive. I'm going to find the story that suits me. I'm going to be completely subjectively wrapped in my own idea because in that moment, it fucking suits me. And this is the disparity, This is the space, This is the divergence between self help theory and life. Life.

Life is where we change. Life is where in the middle of the shit and in the middle of the discomfort, in the middle of the unfamiliarity, in the middle of that interaction with that person where you want to be defensive because they might be telling you something that does an align with your something, and you fucking love your something. You want to defend your something. Your something's the right something.

Fuck they're something right. Well, this moment that I'm describing that is the moment where you and me need to go hang on, is there something in there? Something? Is there something in there something? Is there any chance that my thought, idea, in my something, my belief, my standard, my story, Is there any chance that it's a bit wrong,

quite a bit wrong, or completely fucking wrong. And it's not so much about truth or facts or information as it is about me protecting something that I want to protect. And fuck you because I've thought this for a long time. See here's the thing, right, Being really open minded an objective requires great strength, great strength, great humility, great awareness, great resilience. Like this is really fucking hard. The idea of it requires no effort me talking about it, just

talking doing it. And this is true for all things in the human experience. When we're trying to grow, learn, evolve, adapt, become better. Like you and I are all programmed, even if we don't realize it. An objectivity or a level of objectivity requires us to step outside of our or at the very least be aware of our programming and aware of the things that perhaps stand between us and the what is, the what isness of reality beyond our reality, the what isness that lives beyond our window or our

curtain or our bias. Most of us live in echo chambers, you know, pay attention to the same things, the same news sources, the same people, the same algorithms, the same shows, the same the same everything. And it's not objectivity. That ain't objectivity, it's just groupthink. This is me just living in a cult of thought. This is me, This is me finding something that makes me feel better about what

I already believe. You know so much of my journey, you know, with my PhD and with all the other things that I'm sorry to bore you with all my shit. By the way, it must be fucking mindlessly boring to keep hearing me bang on about stuff. But my life is my life, isn't it. Uh? But you know, there are so many things I've had to unlearn. There are so many things that I've needed to admit that I didn't know, or I needed to admit that something that I thought was wrong. And we don't want to I'm

globalizing here. You might not be like this, and if you're not fucking gou but we don't like to be wrong publicly. We don't even want to be wrong in front of one person, let alone fucking publicly. Like I look back at the stuff that I've done on this show, and some of it's really good. I think some of it's in the ballpark of good to great maybe, and then some of its shits, and some of it's in the middle. Some conversations I did pretty well, some I did pretty bad. Some were are a bit of a

train wreck, you know. But the truth is just the truth. Like me telling myself that all of the work that I do is somewhere between good and amazing is me being deluded because it's just not true. It's just not true. I am not the best, I am not incredible. I am not And people go, oh, stop talking yourself down. No, this is not talking yourself down. This has been practical and real. This is like, you know, there are days

where I do really good work. There are days where I'm a fucking catastrophe and I don't even want to be around me, and I am me. But I think I think part of the secret is is just doing what I'm doing now, which is saying, hey, you know what, I don't know of all the stuff there is to know, Like I feel like this. I feel like mankind humanity. We think of all the things there is to know, we know ninety nine percent. You know, let's say of everything there is to know, that equals one hundred percent.

I feel like mankind we currently think that we know about now. You know, there's still some stuff to learn, but maybe ninety percent, I think, And this is just a thought. I can't I can't quote you anything on this. I can't even give you a I probably could, but I'm not going to. But I don't think we really understand or know or comprehend one percent of all there is to know for humans. Let's call that one hundred percent. I don't think we know one. That's not to say

I think we're globally ignorant and stupid. I don't think that either, But I just think we can't even begin to understand what there is beyond the tininess of the human mind and the tininess of the human brain. We think brains are fucking brilliant. Well they are, but they're limited. You know that my thinking is limited, my understanding is limited, My cognitive horsepower is limited. And so being able to recognize that you know most of what there is to know,

I don't know and probably never will know. And also that's fine, that's fine. Being able to learn things that quiet knowledge expose ourselves to new ideas and thoughts and information and research is great. But also to be able to when the time is right, when the situation calls for it, to be able to unlearn things. Because when we've learned things that we have intertwined with the way that we live and our identity and our sense of who we are the self, and those flaw those ideas

are in some way flawed. Well, that sets us lf up for problems. And one of the problems being that you know, I've built a way of living and being and doing on perhaps an ideology that is that that could be I'm not talking about anything in particular, but it could be flawed. It could be flawed. Think about this, what if you eat a certain mind. I'm not talking about any particular model of eating, so don't try and

assume I'm just talking globally. Let's say, let's say, you know, five years ago, you met someone and they said to you, they showed you research, they did all this stuff, and they went, you know, this is the best way. People haven't caught on yet, but this is the single best

way to human for human beings to eat. And you you brought in, You brought in mentally, you brought in emotionally, you brought in socially and behaviorally, and this person just they convinced the shit out of you, and you went, fuck, I'm on board. Now you're five years down the track, and this way of eating is unequivocally intertwined with who you are, how you live, and people who don't eat like you are dumb and uninformed and they're gonna die

earlier than you, and blah blah blah blah. Now, thing like this, this theoretical example I'm giving, Things like this exist all the time, with a myriad of different subjects, right,

and a myriad of different kind of focuses. Only to find out after the five years that, oh my god, all of this or some of this was based on a flawed idea, only to find out that now I'm actually sicker than I would have been if I hadn't eaten how I was previously eating, or I've now predisposed myself to this condition or that condition because I was following flawed science or a flawed idea or whatever it was.

And this is the challenge. Is when we are when we believe a thing will, we're emotional, We're emotional about it. And the moment that I am emotional about something that I believe to be right, that I am certain about that will, now that fucking wears the objectivity there is none. Because I know that I'm right. I am un teachable now because I know that I'm right, I know that my God is the God, so you can't teach me.

And everyone who doesn't follow my God, or everyone who doesn't have the divine conduit to you know, whoever or whatever that I have, well, they're going to Hell or they're going wherever, wherever it is. I think they're going because I'm right. And everyone who doesn't work out this way, everyone who doesn't do this kind of training, this kind of functional training with kettlebells and this, and that they're dummies, they're trapped in the eighties. They're dumb, they don't know.

And everyone who doesn't invest their money this way, and everyone who doesn't realize that that monogamy is stupid. Polygamy is how it should be. And this is whatever the fucking belief is. And when when that's you, you're gone. You're gone because you have built a psychological and emotional prison for yourself because for a range of reasons, you can't wink wink, you can't be wrong, because you build an operating system based on the things that you know

you are right about. And your brain doesn't want truth. It wants comfort. Your brain wants certainty, your brain wants safety, your brain wants consistency. And we do it backwards. We rationalize, we rationalize backwards. We decide emotionally. We make decisions based on fear and anxiety and self preservation, and so we make these decisions which are essentially emotionally driven, and then

we try to justify it with logic and objectivity. Just dies in the spin cycle of self justification, like self justifification and self rationalization, and it's the opposite of objectivity, an open mindedness. All right, so what do we do? So you and I are never going to be completely objective. And that's because if you or I have any pre existing anything, ideas, thoughts, believes, values, experience is conditioning, programming. Of course, that's going to influence us. And that's okay.

That is not a bad thing. What is a good thing is to be aware of that. A bad thing is to pretend that none of us or none of that affects the way that we make a decision. Yep, No, I'm totally objective. This does not affect my thinking, This does not affect my decision making. It will not affect how I treat you or talk to you. It will not. That's bullshit, and we all need to know and say

and admit that that's bullshit. But what I will try to do is I will try to be aware of my bullshit so that I can You know, this is an amazing exercise in self awareness, right, Self awareness and self regulation is in the moment. I have to do

this all the time. There are so many times when I want to talk to somebody about let's say, health and fitness and wellness and nutrition and training is a very specific example for me, but you might imagine right now, I want to talk to them in a way or I'm compelled to just fucking cut to the chase, right because I know how to fix this again, wink wink, I know how to fix it. And I know you know.

This is a psychological problem with a physiological outcome, and your food's is not the problem, and your your training is not the problem, and resources are not the problem. It's not a time management issue. It's a psychological issue that's creating all of these bad choices and behaviors and actions and lifestyle and that outcomes. And I know because I'm crak up, I've done this fucking a million times. Well guess what, I don't know. I don't know. I know a fair bit, but I get shit wrong even

with this all of the time. I might come in with the best intentions to chat to Diane about her health, wellness, fitness, energy and so on, and I go, listen, I've got Diana, I'm sixty one, I've been doing this fade years. I've got forty three years of experience. Bat down the hatchet, to sit the fuck down and pay attention, because I'm going to fucking blow your head off and change your life right. Fourteen minutes later, she walks out because I'm a dickhead and I'm not relating and I'm I'm just

looking at it through the craigfilter. I have no idea, no understanding, no objectivity, no awareness of what this is for her, because I'm not understanding the objective reality of what I'm in the middle of. I'm in the Craig reality. I'm all about the subjective truth of what I know versus what Diane doesn't know. And you're here because I'm the expert. So pay attention. You're welcome, you with me,

and this is you and me all the time. And this is something that we need to be well, we don't need to, but I would suggest we need to be mindful of something that we lean into get curious about. So we're less we're less inclined to want to be right, and we're more inclined to want to be curious and to understand and to build connection and rapport with people.

Because that old chestnut we're looking through their window, you know, that old chestnut of that I drag out too many times of theory of mind is trying to understand their version of what is. And if you can understand your version of what is and their version of what is, and you can understand a perspective or have insight into a perspective or a reality or a version of right now that isn't yours, then you're opening the objectivity door just a little bit wider