Category Systems Thinking

  • Home
  • /
  • Category: "Systems Thinking"
15Feb 2018

Pithy Post Potpourri – Winter/Spring 2018

0 Artificial Intelligence, Biohacking, Coaching, Creativity, Culture, Dancing, Economics, Education, Entrepreneurship, Futurism, Health, Investing, Learning, Life, Life Purpose, Meditation, Motivation, Music, My Personal Journey, Philosophy, Physical Fitness, Poetry, Politics, Psychology, Relationships, Sexuality, Spirituality, Sports, Startup Science, Success, Systems Thinking, TrueSelf, Video, Writing 0

If you and your partner(s) can’t both reliably access a state of awakened awareness beyond the ordinary sense of self then any exploration of non-monogamy will inevitably lead to an increase in pain and suffering.

#PsychographicEntryCriteria

—

When you lose your cool, when you get triggered do you tell yourself to raise your game and live up to a higher standard?

Or do you justify why it was okay to lose your cool and ascribe fault to other people and external circumstances?

This is one of the key regular decisions that separates the extraordinary humans from the ordinary.

—

I love my morning meditation view so much.

There is a reason yogis go to the mountaintop.

The sparkling, harmonious, blissful, spacious, luminous nature of reality is unassailably clear.

—

People who don’t utilize the tool of debt and credit in their life have been afflicted by a false sense of lack.

They lack sufficient belief in themselves.

And they lack a willingness to invest in themselves for the long run and to bet on themselves.

The question for analyzing whether debt and credit is worth utilizing is very simple:

Can you create more value, faster with the money you are loaned than the interest rate you are given?

—

One of the worst decisions the masculine can make is to seek comfort.

The masculine grows through setting big goals, pushing to exhaustion and then savoring accomplishment in the recovery phase before setting a new bigger goal that lies beyond the new expanded comfort zone.

—

From the higher perspective there is no such thing as rejection.

There is just energy jostling around trying to find its way into proper alignment.

From the higher perspective there is no such thing as failure.

There is just feedback about what needs to be improved and recalibrated.

—

Black Panther was so much better than the Last Jedi.

Plot and Story Arc.

Character Development & Consistency.

Visual Effects.

Empowering portrayal of Cultural Minorities.

…the script for Luke Skywalker was particularly terrible…acting like someone who was never a Jedi

…so many of the Star Wars characters felt like forced affirmative action plays rather than authentic casting.

…One disappointing feature of the Wakandan’s was that for being so technologically and culturally advanced in many dimensions, they still had an Ethnocentric Worldview when looking to the outside world, opining about how to help downtrodden and oppressed blacks around the world rather than how to help downtrodden and oppressed humans with their technological prowess.

All for now. No time to be a detailed movie critic.

—

I am currently reading the Life Divine by Sri Aurobindo.

Who else has read it?

My personal website is titled In Quest of Super Humanity and I’m coming to see how my intuitive guidance has been (previously unbeknownst to me) plugged into the same source as Aurobindo’s, especially with respect to his articulation of the Supermind and its Divine Unfolding through Humanity’s Involutionary Process.

—

Your body is an instrument that the Consciousness of your Soul learns to play.

An Evolved Soul is therefore a masterful musician.

—

Back on my own again and restarting my cooking skills after 2 years of dormancy.

Immediately noticing a shift in my relationship to food preparation as I’ve deepened my relationship to the fundamentally universal nature of subtle energy in all things.

—

Succinct infographic of a lot of misguided class warfare and anti-wealth sentiment from the Liberal Left.

—

Always remember that how we react to every moment of our life will reinforce either our negative habits or positive habits. No matter how challenging life may be, each moment can be seen as either a problem or an opportunity. If we can understand this, we can start to bring our entire life to the path.

~ Chamtrul Rinpoche

—

You might ask, ‟If I have Buddha nature, why can’t I perceive it right now?”

It is because, like gold hidden in its matrix, that nature is hidden by our habits that we have accumulated since beginningless time. These habits have been created by our disturbing emotions and then reinforced by the actions that those disturbances have produced.

~ Shechen Gyaltsab

—

The ultimate nature of the mind is empty and without basis. It is intangible like empty space. But this is not a nihilistic view. Self-arisen, primordial consciousness is original, clear consciousness. Self-arisen and self-illuminating, it is like the essence of the sun.

~ Guru Rinpoche

 

04Jan 2018

Do Not Do a Vipassana Retreat. Do Not Practice Transcendental Meditation. Do Not Pass Go.

0 Health, Learning, Life, Meditation, Philosophy, Spirituality, Success, Systems Thinking, Uncategorized 0

If you would like to progress quickly along the spiritual path through meditation, do not go to a Vipassana retreat.
Do not practice transcendental meditation.
Do not learn from a teacher whose central teaching is mindfulness.
These are all inferior methods that will likely slow down your progress for years, leave you stuck in meditative eddies, leave you feeling frustrated, and will likely lead to you giving up on meditation as a transformational practice.
I have seen this happen to too many people.
There are many far better options for learning how to meditate.
For the sake of all beings,
Heed these words of caution.

03Jan 2018

Don’t Listen to Sam Harris on Spirituality — His Depth is Childish

0 Meditation, Philosophy, Spirituality, Success, Systems Thinking 0

This quote from Sam Harris has been making the rounds:

“Science has revealed a world that doesn’t care about us. Or if it does, it has a strange way of showing it. The universe cares about us exactly this much. It loves us as much as it loved the dinosaurs. Spirituality has nothing in principle to do with the idea that the universe cares about you.”

What this quote actually reveals is that Sam Harris is far from understanding the cutting edge of Science and knows little about Spirituality, yet he vastly overrates his skillful attainment in both domains.

He is in fact a dinosaur. A large creature that presumes itself to be atop of the foodchain (of the intelligentsia) yet is unaware of the maladaptivity of his worldview and the meteors barreling down on him that will perform natural selection on his overly reductionistic and materialistic worldview.

You can follow Sam, as I once did 5-10 years ago, but if you don’t evolve beyond the worldview he represents you will also be a casualty of coming waves of cultural and memetic natural selection…

As the new wave of Integral Whole Systems Spiritually Awakened Entrepreneurs, Leaders and Communities use the Competitive Advantage of this New Level of Development to Disrupt the fuck out of the Status Quo.

As Bruno Mars said,

“Cause uptown funk gon’ give it to you
Don’t believe me just watch.”

28Dec 2017

Developmental Levels for How Different Social Systems React to Trauma

0 Health, Systems Thinking 0

Here’s a rough developmental framework I just sketched out on how social systems react to trauma:

Level 1 – stigmatize all trauma as weakness
Level 2 – Accept trauma responses and provide compassion
Level 3 – Provide healing modalities and environments where trauma healing can potentially occur (although it often doesn’t effectively)
Level 4 – Hold individuals and practitioners to standards of quality and accountability where healing actually takes place instead of endless therapy with marginal improvement in life conditions.

Most of the social systems I am in are in level 3.

Many of my posts are about how to go from level 3 to level 4, such as many of my posts which have a theme self-responsibility over normalizing arrested development via limiting stories of victimization.

Or people who have potential to heal their triggers and traumas but don’t do anything about them for years and instead reify them, acting them out repeatedly in the roles of victim, hero and perpetrator.

18Oct 2017

A temporarily growing global economy, an inevitable war with North Korea & a Bitcoin bubble

1 Economics, Investing, Systems Thinking 0

Highlights from the interview I watched this morning with two of the world’s best macro-economic and finance minds working today: Keith McCollough of Hedgeye and Jim Rickards.

1. There will be no rate hike in December contrary to consensus.
2. Disinflation will continue. The natural state of the world is deflation.
3. Stocks will continue to go up through the end of the year. The next 3 months are smooth sailing from the perspective of systemic financial risk.
4. 2018 presents a lot of risks geopolitically, and EPS profit slowdown YoY.
5. A War with North Korea is extremely likely. Either we’re going to attack NK preemptively in the next 6 months depending on their second strike Nuclear capabilities, or NK is going to invade South Korea within the next 18 months as a re-animation of the Korean War and NK’s desire for Korean Unification. The allies of the South Korea, which includes the US will then have to step in.
6. Bitcoin is in a bubble. Most of the non-speculative transactions taking place are black market: money laundering, arms dealing, drug dealing. “It’s a Ponzi scheme with nobody in charge.” You can make money in a Bubble you just have to get out in time. The Bitcoin Bulls understand technology but they don’t understand the history of markets and currency. Will you make money during the bubble or be like the masses of retail clients left holding the bag in the Dot Com Crash? (Disclosure — I’ve made significant returns speculating on Bitcoin but I plan to sell when particular catalysts are closer on the horizon).
7. China will experience a major economic slowdown in 2018/2019. They were in a holding pattern until Xi Jinping consolidated power, which just occurred. A China slowdown will have far reaching negative effects on the global economy.

My question for my friends:

Do you understand what’s coming? Are you prepared? Financially, Physically, Emotionally, Mentally, Spiritually?

27Sep 2017

Making progress towards a grand unification theory of everything

0 Philosophy, Spirituality, Systems Thinking 1

Nice! I just figured out a key missing ontological construct to explain how Time Travel works.

Unifying Spiritual Claims about Simultaneous Time with the intractable problems of forward and backward causality in Physics (the killing your grandfather problem).

It has to do with the conversion process between Energy, Information and Matter as they move between the Gross, Subtle, Causal…(and higher and subtler) realms.

And how to use multi-dimensional Developmental Constraints to enable the Computational Conservatism/Pruning required to support Parallel Universe Hypotheses, reining in the infinite branching problem.

The model (which I created part of 2 years ago) also posits a 10 dimensional space (possibly more) like many variants of String Theory, but unlike most of those models, these higher dimensions actually have Correspondence and Coherence to validated Phenomena in Reality.

What I mean by that is, it is possible to tap into these higher dimensions in your First Person Phenomenological Experience via Meditation. Whereas in String Theory these higher dimensions are just weird Mathematical Abstractions that don’t seem to provide any real explanatory utility beyond the 4th or 5th dimension.

In the model I’m proposing, you get the first 10 dimensions by taking the conventional 4 dimensions in the gross Realm (3D + Time), the same 4 in the Subtle Realm, 1 more in the Causal Realm, and 1 more from a 5th dimensional time folding dimension — 4+4+1+1 = 10.

See, String Theory doesn’t know what to do with all the dimensions their mathematical equations predict beyond the 4th dimension. But the math actually exactly alludes to the model I’m proposing here:

“It’s not so hard to construct higher dimensional worlds using the Einstein equations. But the question is then: WHY BOTHER?
It’s because physicists dream of a unified theory: a single mathematical framework in which all fundamental forces and units of matter can be described together in a manner that is internally consistent and consistent with current and future observation.
And it turns out that having extra dimensions of space makes it possible to build candidates for such a theory.

Extra dimensions in string theory:

Superstring theory is a possible unified theory of all fundamental forces, but superstring theory requires a 10 dimensional spacetime, or else bad quantum states called ghosts with unphysical negative probabilities become part of the spectrum.
Now this creates a problem in d=10 string theory: how to get the d=4 world as we know it out of the theory.”
– ( Patricia Schwarz, PhD Physicist, CalTech, http://www.superstringtheory.com/experm/exper5.html)

This is not a bug, it is a feature! :

“Bad quantum states called ghosts with unphysical negative probabilities become part of the spectrum”.

It is pointing to the existence of the Subtle Realm but which the theoretical physicists can’t see because they don’t have access to the Subtle Realm in their own personal experience and thus no conceptual framework for making sense of this data which is right in front of their noses!

The problem is that they only believe the Gross Realm of Matter exists and have negated all the other Realms of Reality.

I’m more Philosopher & Systems Theorist than Physicist or Mathematician, so I don’t know yet how to translate an Ontological insight (like Einstein’s thought experiment of the speed of light relative to the bullet train) into a mathematical model that can be experimentally validated, but I suspect I can enroll some physicist friends at some point.

Psychographic entry criteria to fully follow the logic behind the model construction yourself: mastery of AQAL integral theory, deep understanding of evolutionary developmental systems theory, an intermediate understanding of theoretical physics and universe as quantum computer, a taste of all-at-once-ness in the post-awakening stabilization stages of meditation, a spiritual lineage with a rigorous soul development model.

So most challengingly the people who can fully comment on my work at the theoretical level I can probably count on one hand.

I may literally be the only person in the world (right now) with sufficient knowledge and training in all 6 of those aforementioned domains. A couple close friends have 4-5.

But many can contribute through mastery in any of the integrated dimensions to point out what insights are not being taken into account or what problems still need to be solved. Or through other paths that I have not travelled that lead to a similar ‘deep structure’ conclusion with a different ‘surface structure’. An example of a path that I am told is able to do this that I have not walked very far down is the indigenous plant medicine path.

And with my ‘alone on the mountaintop analogy’, I am also pointing to the truth that in a legitimate sense we are all, all alone on our own mountaintop.

Nobody has your exact life experiences, your exact karma, your exact genetic code, your exact combination of lineages and methodologies you accumulated through your lifetimes of experience. And from your own unique mountaintop you have the vantage point to glean your own unique perspective on reality.

The key distinction is what is ‘surface structure’ and what is ‘deep structure’…and ‘What Level of Deep Structure can you see’. i.e. From your mountain top do you just see Newtonian Mechanics or can you see General Relativity. Can you see General Relativity before anyone else like Einstein, or can you see it after Einstein showed us all how to climb that mountain? How clearly can you see from that mountain do you just see hazy outlines of truth or can you see the minuté details and mathematically not just metaphorically explain causal relationships?

What is described here is the time-tested process of how theoretical novelty is generated: new multidisciplinary integration is akin to climbing a new unseen mountain, getting to the top and looking out at the horizon and observing what is now blatantly clear from this new vantage point.

Now I’ve just got to find others who want to climb this mountain so we can collaborate and make further sense of what is possible to see from here.

#livebloggingcreativeprocess
#stanforddropoutstillapolymath
#findinggodthroughthemind

24Aug 2017

Chöd — cutting through confusion to the true nature of the culture wars

0 Culture, Philosophy, Psychology, Systems Thinking 0

Enough Content has now been Invoked in the Field of my Facebook feed that people have revealed where they are coming from.

It is time to reveal and explain the Map that can make Order out of this appearing Chaos.

The essential idea of this Map is that all values, Beliefs, Thoughts, Emotions, Cultures, Systems and Institutions emerge out of a particular Field of Consciousness, that oscillates around a phase space like an electron cloud.

This is not a complete map of the Field of Consciousness, but rather a 2 dimensional projection of two of the most fundamental dimensions: Psychological Developmental Stages and State-Stages of Consciousness.

Other hidden variables, from this perspective, include domain specific Developmental Lines, Typological structures like personality, Shadow, and Trans-Incarational and Collective Karma.

On this map you will see 3 Rectangles.

The Red Rectangle represents the field of consciousness where most of my critics reside.

The Green Rectangle represents the field of consciousness where the people I seek to influence reside.

The Black Rectangle represents where those in the Red Rectangle perceive phenomena in the Green Rectangle to reside.

The Black Rectangle is also where most actual Misognysts, Racists and Nazis reside.

The phenomena where those in the Red Rectangle misclassify the Green Rectangle as the Black Rectangle is an instance of what is called the Pre/Trans Fallacy.

There are various properties inherent to the Terrain within the Red Rectangle that work together to create this particular Pre/Trans Fallacy.

One feature is Moral Absolutism. Those in the Red Rectangle don’t believe anything could possibly be more Evolved than their Perspective, so they improperly classify it as less Evolved than their Perspective.

Or in other words, “if you’re not for women’s rights in the way that has been deemed Morally Correct within the Red Rectangle, then you must be a Misogynistic, White Nationalist”.

This is aligned with the Post-Modernist Deconstructionist Project where all Vertical Structures are perceived to be Dominator Hierarchies, which must be collapsed to equal playing fields.

Those in the Red Rectangle will deny the Field of Consciousness exists as depicted by this Map. However, it is also a well studied feature of the Field of Consciousness that those in the Pluralistic Band will reject anything resembling Hierarchy. So arguing with people in the Red Rectangle about whether the Field of Consciousness exists is fruitless, unless they have some access to the Integral Band of Consciousness.

This angers those in the Red Rectangle because by stating that Reality effectively has a Perceptual Permission System, you are violating one of their Fundamental Values that Phenomena should Universally Accessible.

Furthermore, it is a feature of the Field of Consciousness that many people who reside within the Red Rectangle believe it is their mission in life to Deconstruct Hierarchy. So they really won’t like this Map.

However, it is worth noting that Deconstructing Dominator Hierarchies within the Black Rectangle is a worthy cause— the Rational and Mythic Bands of Consciousness.

Unfortunately, Mythic Structures and Integral Structures look the same to those in the Red Rectangle.

As a consequence, those within the Red Rectangle are simultaneously Healing the Past and Preventing the Future.

The Integral Band of Consciousness rejects overdone Deconstructionism and recognizes the Systemic Nature of Reality as Holarchical, rather than Hierarchical.

Holoarchy is a series of nested Holons. Holons are constructs that are simultaneously Parts and Wholes. So when we say Reality is Holarchical, we mean it is made up of Systems within Systems within Systems…

To accurately determine where one resides in the Field of Consciousness requires learning Integral Epistemology and Methodological Pluralism.

Therefore, if you are within the Red Rectangle you will be unable to employ methodology that is capable of correctly classifying people without committing Pre/Trans Fallacies.

Those in the Green Rectangle may or may not possess adequate methods of classifying people and phenomena within the Field of Consciousness, but precise accuracy requires considerable skill, attunement and error correction methodologies. Nonetheless, low-precision intuitive classification is reliable and valuable.

I hope this is illuminating to those of you in the Green Rectangle.

To those of you in the Red Rectangle…

I hope you will turn your energies to Deconstructing Hierarchies that are actually in the Black Rectangle and stop wasting your Precious Energy on me.

08Feb 2016

How The Establishment Manipulates Society

0 Culture, Economics, Psychology, Systems Thinking 0

The intricate web that holds the Establishment together is strong and deep.

1. Big Pharma Makes Billions of Dollars Selling Drugs.

2. They then BUY Political Candidates that support their interests.

3. Political candidates pass laws that make doctors OVER-PRESCRIBE drugs like anti-depressants.

4.People take anti-depressants that harmfully changes their biochemistry so that they feel a little better, but are simultaneously ADDICTED to Big Pharma’s drugs because they’re so hard to get off of.

5. Rather than using DEPRESSION as A SIGN SOMETHING IS OFF in their life and needs to be changed, Big Pharma’s drugs sap the emotional energy needed to FIGHT AGAINST the problems in their life that are making them sick.

6. Citizens become DOCILE and accept the status quo enabling other Billion Dollar EXPLOITATIVE Industries like Big Oil, Wall Street, BIG AGRICULTURE to further run rampant over Citizens’ self interests.

To paraphrase and add onto a thought from my friend Zak Stein, a Harvard trained developmental psychologist: The Psychopharmacology industry is part of a COMPOUNDING META-CRISIS at the global level. It is an actual PHYSICAL INTERVENTION into the central nervous system that is altering millions of Americans fundamental conscious experience of daily life. And that is DECIMATING the life prospects of up and coming generations. There’s an urgency to fix this problem for the sake of the dignity of human society.

Now quoting a famous speech from the movie The Network,

“I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,’I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!’”

…And then Support Bernie Sanders For President.

Because him winning the democratic nomination would be an amazing leverage point for a host of almost intractable, systemic, parasitic problems with the status quo of THE ESTABLISHMENT.

Max Marmer's photo.
03Feb 2016

Why the Models Probably Underestimate Bernie Sanders chance of Winning the Democratic Nomination

0 Culture, Politics, Systems Thinking 0

Predict Wise gives Bernie Sanders an 18% of chance of winning the Democratic Nomination.

Without studying the model, I think that is a grave underestimate.

I would give Bernie Sanders an intuitive Bayesian Prior of 65% of winning the Democratic Nomination right now.

Whether I move that number up or down depends on the unfolding skillful means of his campaign team.

Bernie Sanders has struck an incredibly powerful chord. A movement is brewing that will accrue exponential momentum that these models aren’t forecasting.

I think my facebook feed is a powerful early adopter signal and it is overwhelmingly pro-Bernie. And Bernie will Successfully Cross Geoffrey Moore’s Chasm.

Here are 5 big presumptive flaws in the current prediction model that puts Bernie at 18%, but will eventually tip the scales in his favor:

1. The Apathetic, Disenfranchised Millennial

Most pollsters expect this demographic to not come out to vote because they haven’t come out in the past. But they haven’t come out in the past because they believe the system is fundamentally broken. And the system is fundamentally broken, but now there’s finally a candidate who represents the viewpoint that system is fundamentally broken. So Bernie Sanders is activating a huge well of energy that was considered off the map. I see him tapping into the same energy of Hope and Change that Obama tapped into but was unable to fully deliver on, in part because he was too much of diplomat and not enough of a fighter. Bernie actually has the character disposition, track record and values to pick up where Obama left off.

He is tapping into an authentic moral developmental sequence of the universe. For those who know Integral Spiral Dynamics, he is the first full spectrum Green candidate, unlike Obama and Hillary who are Orange/Green. [Orange and Green roughly stand for Modernism and Post-Modernism] .

2. The Socialized Mind

There have been a plethora of tropes about Bernie Sanders not being capable of winning. Now that results have come in Iowa, he undeniably has to be taken seriously. He will likely win New Hampshire because it’s near his home state and then he will have a ton of momentum.

The Majority of American voters are in the psychological stage of development that Harvard Developmental Psychologists Robert Kegan would call the Socialized Mind. Essentially this means people primarily make decisions based on what their social circle is doing rather than really critically thinking for themselves.

When a population is made up primarily of people who are Socialized Minds, that population is incredibly susceptible to momentum.

3. The Socialized Mind Momentum Swing will Trigger a Bernie Sanders Fundraising Tidal Swell

We already saw the legitimizing effect the Iowa Caucus had on Sanders’ fundraising efforts yesterday: he raised 3 Million dollars in one day — his biggest day ever.http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/dem-primaries/267999-sanders-raised-3m-in-24-hours-his-biggest-single-day-yet

I expect his fundraising success to continue to in a positive feedback loop:
Appears more credible -> Raises more money -> Runs a more effective campaign -> Gets Results -> Appears more credible

4. Mainstream Media Indicators vs. Social Media indicators

The mainstream media has ignored Bernie. Yet Bernie has succeeded anyway. Mainstream media influences linearly and static-ly. The models and pundits underestimate the viral, interactive nature of social media.

5. Winning the Black Vote

The models say he struggles with this demographic. But that’s probably because he looks like a white grumpy grandpa who is easily dismissed on first impression. And Clinton has long time name recognition with Southern born Bill Clinton serving them well.

All the aforementioned factors will force Bernie to be seriously considered rather than dismissed on first impression.

Black leaders like Cornell West saying Bernie Sanders stands on the legacy of Martin Luther King will tip the scales in his favor.

I must admit — 3 years ago I posted I thought Hillary Clinton had probably better than 80% chance of being the next President of the United States.(https://www.facebook.com/maxhmarmer/posts/4410505574849)

I did not see Bernie coming.

But I’m very glad The Bern has arrived.

21Oct 2015

In Favor of Non-Local Consciousness

0 Futurism, Philosophy, Systems Thinking 0

If the Universe-as-a-Simulation Hypothesis is correct…or the very least where we are somewhere not near the beginning of a chain of intelligent civilizations then the theory that some part of Consciousness does not wholly reside in the brain but rather comes through us like a radio receiver is also probably correct…because the same thing is now happening in our current technology landscape where data and processing increasingly live in the cloud and are downloaded onto the hardware on an as needed, just in time basis.

This follows because the universe shows the pattern of self-similarity all the way up and all the way down (the most popular example of this being Fractals). So the developmental design patterns we converge on as optimal for guiding our technological evolution are very likely the same design patterns present in the evolution of consciousness and humanity.

Having said all that I’m not sure I’ve found anyone’s writing who I believe as the optimal balance between information processing of Consciousness “in-the-cloud” vs. “on-the device”. Almost everyone I’ve read are on the extremes of the path.

Like the liberation of the Buddha-Mind, I prefer the middle path.