_{Exploring binary beliefs, awareness, and the mask}

Happy Thursday! Thanks for reading Intentional Dollar — where we look at old money ideas through a new perspective.

What’s inside?

• One idea to experiment with

• Two quotes from others

• Three questions to dig deeper

• Four lines of poetry for the point

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. These weekly posts represent my simple thoughts, a few quotes, and some questions — for educational purposes only.

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_{One idea to experiment with:}

Binary Beliefs:

I see three progressive levels to holding an opinion. The first two birth binary thinking and erect two opposing armies that fight a hopeless war with words and “facts.” The third level is the golden goose.

This coveted third level transcends binary thought and creates a multi-dimensional world of robust, free thinking. However, there’s no crunch, there’s no fight, there’s no entrenchment, there’s no tribe with the third level. It’s you by yourself, independent. These characteristics almost guarantee that pursuit of level 3 means a lonely, misunderstood life as a rebel, a misfit.

What are the levels?

Level 1 Thinking: Research facts to support a predisposed belief on a subject of interest. Let’s say it’s “debt is bad.” Most opinion holders stop here and look for the confirming catastrophic examples that prove "debt is bad.”

Level 2 Thinking: Research the other side of the debate and lay out the facts for both sides of the equation before landing on your final thesis, that debt is still bad. The few that trickle to this level have a more enlightened opinion than level 1 thinkers, but still fall into the trap of binary beliefs. Despite doing some work to support the belief, the premise remains faulty. And that premise is the yes or now, good or bad filter. When the premise is wrong, it’s hard, yet not impossible, to get back to the correct premise.

Level 3 Thinking: Levitate above the binary camps that seek to debate whether debt is or is not bad. This is the level where you juggle multiple ideas in mind at once. You see the situations where debt is good and where debt is bad. You don’t plant your flag on one hill, but look for the appropriate times to use and avoid debt.

There’s some alchemy occurring within level’s 1 and 2 that transforms the initial truth-seeking objective into a magnet attracting ideological debate. And once in this magnetic field, our ability to maintain clarity of thought is completely compromised. We become increasingly entrenched through confirmation bias and overconfidence; we become defenders of opinions, not seekers of truth.

Each confirming piece of data further polarizes us in our respective binary A/B camps.

You look for your evidence, I look for mine. We debate, but this isn’t discourse.

This binary plague is obvious in political circles: Left or Right. Moderate Left, Far Left, Far Right, Moderate Right. The common thread? When you’re for one side, you’re against another.

But opinions aren’t binary. So when we treat them as such, we limit our ability to see beyond the walls of our intellectual prisons.

Has any of this thinking slipped into your financial life?

• Budget, don’t budget

• Use debt, don’t use debt

• Pay debt fast, pay debt slow

• Need life insurance, don’t need life insurance

• Need a new car, don’t need a new car

• Buy a used car, never buy a new car

Truth is more like a circle than a line. You might start with a line, but each question adds another segment of your line. Soon you have a triangle. Then you have a square. Then a pentagon. Then a hexagon. On and on and on until you have a circular perspective and a robust opinion.

There’s social pressure to have an opinion. This pressure, further exacerbated by social media, induces very strong opinions supported by very weak work. Social media encourages quick takes, hot takes, loud takes, whatever you want to call them. All versions are antagonists against truth.

Level 3 thinkers are pursuers of perspectives. They intuit that each perspective is another node, another angle, another point closer to forming that robust 360 degree opinion.

_{Two quotes on awareness:}

Taking a pause out of the day to simply watch, observe, and be aware, can help release the sticky grips of the busy lives we live. It’s this time where we can appreciate, readjust, and reevaluate whether we are on the right trajectory.

_{Three questions on the mask:}

1. What percentage of my day am I wearing a mask to be perceived in a specific light? Likable, funny, intelligent, serious, put-together, etc.

2. How often do I repress my real thoughts/feelings and go along to get along?

3. What’s the daily energetic cost of wearing this mask? What returns could I achieve from redeploying saved energy after burying the mask?

Which question stuck with you? Questions like these are spotlights for the mind. Reply to this email and let me know which one shined light on a previously dark cave.

_{Four lines of poetry for the point:}

Contact Me:

Content ideas, questions? Reply to this email or reach out to me at [email protected]

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. These weekly posts represent my simple thoughts, a few quotes, and some questions — for educational purposes only.

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