Useful Not True
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Chapters:
Before
- What’s this about?
Almost nothing people say is true
- What time is it?
- Perspectives feel real
- No picture is the whole picture
- People share perspectives, not facts
- Separate events and interpretation
- Bridge guard
- Rules are a starting point, not the final answer
- Obligations are not true
- Cultural meanings
- Try to find their incentives
- The brain invents explanations
- Memories are not accurate
- The past is not true
- Wanna bet?
- Even science isn’t true
- Fake or real? True or false? So what?
- Bridge guard, revisited
- That was about you, not them
Your thoughts aren’t true
- You are the strange one
- Who planted those seeds in your head?
- You can’t trust your mind
- Re-edit your mind’s movies
- Hanging inherited paintings
- Make believe
- Beliefs are not facts
- The more emotional the belief, the less likely it’s true
- Your first thought is an obstacle
- Fill your senses with reality
Ideas can be useful, not true
- Bowling: curve into the target
- A daily run and imagination
- Beliefs → emotions → actions
- Useful?
- Religion is action, not belief
- Carpenters’ tools
- Judge the contents, not the box
- Which perspective empowers you?
- Magic mirror shows what you need to believe
- Placebo meanings
- Life is _______
- What is “the truth” really for?
- Philosophies are instruments
Reframe: find better perspectives
- The most useful part of this book
- Who chooses your (next) thoughts?
- Answer great questions
- Diamond in the trash
- Traits of useful beliefs and perspectives
- Five tiny tales of reframing
- An awesome collection of great questions
Adopt what works for you now
- How to decide and make the best choice
- From explorer to self-leader
- No new instructions for the computer
- Private journal to internalize it
- Talk with friends to solidify it
- Why your choice is wrong
- Take the first step immediately
- Keep tuning and adjusting
- You are what you pretend to be
After
- Reframing death
- What next?
- More books on this subject
More books on this subject
- Nothing & Everything - by Val N. Tine
- Useful Delusions - by Shankar Vedantam
- The Religious Case Against Belief - by James P. Carse
- You Can Negotiate Anything - by Herb Cohen
- How Religion Evolved - by Robin Dunbar
- The Righteous Mind - by Jonathan Haidt
- Awaken the Giant Within - by Tony Robbins
- Thinking in Bets - by Annie Duke
- Sapiens - by Yuval Noah Harari
- Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches - by Marvin Harris
- What Got You Here Won’t Get You There - by Marshall Goldsmith
- Switch - by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- The Happiness Hypothesis - by Jonathan Haidt
- Dreaming in Chinese - by Deborah Fallows
- Pragmatism - by William James
- Pragmatism an Introduction - by Michael Bacon
- Introducing Pragmatism - by Cornelis de Waal
- Pragmatism as a Way of Life - by Ruth Anna and Hilary Putnam
- Delphi Complete Works of William James - by William James
- The Biggest Bluff - by Maria Konnikova
- Philosophy: a Complete Introduction - by Sharon Kaye
- Thinking, Fast and Slow - by Daniel Kahneman
- How We Decide - by Jonah Lehrer
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Dummies - by Rob Willson and Rhena Branch
- The Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy - by Donald Robertson
- The Alter Ego Effect - by Todd Herman
- How to Live - by Sarah Bakewell
- You Are Not So Smart - by David McRaney
- Overachievement - by John Eliot
- Scepticism: A Very Short Introduction - by Duncan Pritchard
- Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking - by D.Q. McInerny
- Loving What Is - by Byron Katie
- Everything Is Obvious - by Duncan Watts
- Useful Belief - by Chris Helder
A soon-to-be awesome collection of great questions
When something goes wrong
- What’s great about this?
- How can I use this to my advantage?
- Does this change the goal, or the path, or nothing?
- How can I reduce the downsides?
When changing direction
- When I was at my happiest, what was I doing?
- What have I strongly wanted for the longest time?
- What’s the opposite of what I usually do?
- Which of my old beliefs are not serving me?
- Forget me. What would be most helpful for others?
When stuck
- What is my one top priority now?
- How can I begin without waiting for anything?
- What advice would I love to hear from an all-knowing sage?
- What am I doing that’s actually a distraction?
- Instead of avoiding mistakes, how can I make more to learn faster?
- Who can help?
To make peace with what’s out of your control
- What happens if I ignore it and do nothing?
- Should I learn a lesson from this, or just move on?
- How can I blame no one, and see this as nobody’s fault?
- How can I be OK no matter what happens?