Leo D.M.J. Aurini


A Question of Inquiry： Politics, Heuristics, and Knowledge [Requested Video]


Episode Stats

Misogynist Sentences

12

Hate Speech Sentences

8


Summary

In this episode, I discuss the nature of inquiry and how to understand it. I break down it into three segments: Purpose, Heuristic, and Objective Measurement. I also talk about why it's important to understand why you're doing it and why you should be doing it.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Thank you.
00:00:30.320 So the topic of this video is a question of inquiry, the nature of inquiry.
00:00:42.220 Nick writes in, asking, how do I find accurate information about the world, about politics, about life in general, really?
00:00:55.360 Okay.
00:01:25.340 At the same time, this guy was primarily creating a cult of personality, providing endless questions and never a reasonable course of action, never a solution.
00:01:43.740 The purpose was the question itself.
00:01:49.100 And this winds up with you spinning into these vortexes, these vortices of endless questioning with no purpose.
00:02:03.720 You constantly feel like you're learning something new without actually changing your situation or changing your life.
00:02:10.540 So the question is, how do we engage in productive inquiry?
00:02:21.900 And I'd like to break it down into three segments.
00:02:28.780 Number one is purpose.
00:02:31.460 What is the purpose of your inquiry?
00:02:34.720 What is your goal of inquiry?
00:02:37.280 What do you hope to do by asking these questions?
00:02:42.880 Number two is heuristic.
00:02:46.860 Which heuristic are you using?
00:02:49.800 Do you know that there's different heuristics?
00:02:51.840 And number three is objective measurement.
00:02:59.160 How do you qualify your inquiry as a success or a failure?
00:03:05.560 How do you validate it in a scientific manner?
00:03:08.360 So let's start with the first one.
00:03:12.900 This is a very fundamental question.
00:03:16.100 So many people fail to ask why they're doing anything.
00:03:20.920 And they get wrapped up in somebody else's plans.
00:03:27.040 I've made the joke before that there's so many people out there that they have a job so that they can pay the mortgage.
00:03:32.580 And the reason they have a mortgage is because it forces them to have a job.
00:03:36.360 And thus they never have to confront the existential angst of their abyssal existence.
00:03:45.220 They know how to get a black credit card.
00:03:49.300 They don't know why they're doing it.
00:03:53.180 So what is the purpose of your inquiry?
00:03:57.420 And let's not do politics.
00:04:00.600 Okay, because that's a little bit too big.
00:04:01.920 I mean, if it was as simple as finding the one person speaking the truth,
00:04:06.620 the one compendium of absolute wisdom,
00:04:10.680 life would be much simpler.
00:04:14.160 It's not that simple.
00:04:19.940 So you need to ask why you're getting into this in the first place.
00:04:23.100 So let's discuss game.
00:04:25.640 Because, again, in retrospect,
00:04:28.400 it's no surprise that game is what led to the eye-opening on so many other layers of what's going on.
00:04:42.860 So with game, what do you want?
00:04:44.660 Why are you studying game?
00:04:46.180 Well, you want to get with women.
00:04:48.160 Well, you want to get with women who are consenting.
00:04:52.980 You don't want to go around raping.
00:04:54.380 You don't want to hire prostitutes.
00:04:56.340 You want to get with good quality women.
00:04:59.660 Well, this now begs the question, what is a quality woman?
00:05:02.120 You want to get with women who are fun and interesting and kind and sweet.
00:05:11.140 The further you go down that trail, the more you refine the goal.
00:05:16.720 The more you understand what it is you're seeking out.
00:05:20.600 And so to achieve that goal, now we come to heuristics.
00:05:28.740 You need to understand what women are.
00:05:35.000 Now, let's say to try and understand women,
00:05:38.140 you only read books written during the 1980s.
00:05:42.300 If you restricted your field of view to all of the assumptions and norms and tropes
00:05:53.160 that would appear in 1980s fiction,
00:05:56.340 you'd learn a lot about the 1980s,
00:05:59.460 but without anything to contrast it to,
00:06:03.200 it wouldn't be very useful.
00:06:06.800 Because you'd only have that heuristic of the 1980s.
00:06:09.800 Maybe, after reading all of these books, watching all of these films,
00:06:14.100 you'd have a sense of how to dress like a cool guy from the 80s,
00:06:18.520 how to say the witty one-liners that would have worked in the 80s.
00:06:23.880 But if that's your entire grounding of knowledge,
00:06:26.960 is the 1980s decade and the women therein,
00:06:31.380 you have nothing to contrast it to.
00:06:37.940 Instead, if you want to understand women,
00:06:39.800 you need to read books from the 1980s.
00:06:43.160 You need to read books from the 1880s.
00:06:46.060 You need to read romance novels written originally in Mandarin.
00:06:53.020 You need to see all these different systems,
00:06:56.960 and you need to have a sense and appreciation
00:06:59.300 of all these different systems of knowledge.
00:07:02.500 All of these categorization systems,
00:07:08.860 all of these generalizations,
00:07:11.320 these simplifications.
00:07:13.720 Because every culture,
00:07:16.440 tropes, narrative culture,
00:07:18.280 these are just simplified heuristics.
00:07:22.440 Rules of thumb.
00:07:23.380 More than that.
00:07:24.460 A heuristic is a system that determines
00:07:28.780 what you consider valid information
00:07:31.080 and what you consider invalid information.
00:07:34.500 For instance, if you only read those 1980s books,
00:07:42.640 you know, set in presumably America,
00:07:44.760 Miami or California,
00:07:46.800 the characters are going to be white women,
00:07:52.640 maybe black women sometimes.
00:07:55.320 But you're not going to be dealing with any Japanese girls,
00:07:58.200 any Indian girls,
00:07:59.600 any African girls.
00:08:02.160 You'll have black Americans,
00:08:03.580 but not Africans.
00:08:06.960 It's a very narrow view.
00:08:09.420 So, in this view,
00:08:10.560 if you're only dealing with white women,
00:08:13.660 race and ethnicity won't come into play at all.
00:08:16.580 You will be completely colorblind
00:08:18.240 because skin color is utterly irrelevant.
00:08:23.780 If you're trying to pick up girls in the punk scene,
00:08:27.400 skin color is pretty irrelevant within the punk scene.
00:08:30.820 You probably won't have too many black punk girls,
00:08:33.340 but you'll have a few of them.
00:08:34.880 But you still approach them
00:08:36.300 the same way you'd approach a white punk girl.
00:08:40.560 So, your heuristic there says,
00:08:43.120 don't consider race.
00:08:44.700 Assume everybody speaks your language.
00:08:46.540 Assume everybody shares a common culture.
00:08:49.360 So, you can completely ignore those questions.
00:08:52.060 You put those on the back burner.
00:08:54.220 We already have the answers.
00:08:56.800 We're not going to spend resources
00:08:59.100 calculating those things.
00:09:00.320 We're going to focus on these variables,
00:09:03.020 which are significant.
00:09:06.480 So, that's what a heuristic is.
00:09:07.900 It tells you what to pay attention to
00:09:10.100 and what not to pay attention to.
00:09:13.020 You know, if you're trying to buy a fast car,
00:09:15.900 the paint job doesn't matter.
00:09:18.220 If you're trying to find somebody who speeds,
00:09:23.000 red cars probably do speed more often
00:09:26.280 than slate gray cars.
00:09:31.200 Cars with racing stripes tend to speed more often
00:09:34.160 than cars that don't have them,
00:09:35.720 even though the racing stripes
00:09:36.920 don't actually make the car a faster car.
00:09:39.900 So, again, two different heuristics.
00:09:42.040 Are you trying to find a fast car?
00:09:43.380 Are you trying to find speeders?
00:09:44.500 So, by educating yourself
00:09:49.060 in these different approaches
00:09:51.500 to the dance of the sexes,
00:09:54.020 between how men and women related,
00:09:56.760 to what the variations
00:09:59.100 and similarities
00:10:00.640 in the roles that men and women occupied
00:10:03.800 in societies,
00:10:04.620 now you have things to compare it to.
00:10:11.320 And the same thing goes for politics,
00:10:14.060 for civilization,
00:10:15.620 for history.
00:10:18.080 If you try and understand American politics,
00:10:21.740 having only been educated
00:10:23.300 in American politics,
00:10:25.500 you know, it's like asking a fish about water.
00:10:28.100 You're going to see the left
00:10:29.260 and you're going to see the right
00:10:30.320 and you won't see anything else.
00:10:34.620 You will be beholden
00:10:39.200 to all of the assumptions
00:10:40.400 that all of your fellow Americans
00:10:44.060 are subjected to.
00:10:47.580 And you won't even realize
00:10:48.940 you got them.
00:10:56.000 You need to learn different heuristics.
00:10:58.480 You need to familiarize yourself
00:11:00.340 with different heuristics.
00:11:02.460 And at that point,
00:11:05.380 you can start to determine
00:11:07.000 which is the best heuristic
00:11:09.000 for me to employ here.
00:11:17.360 And finally,
00:11:18.720 you need an objective standard
00:11:21.300 to hold all of this to.
00:11:23.980 You need a right or wrong.
00:11:27.240 Did my predictions come true?
00:11:29.100 And if they didn't,
00:11:30.260 why didn't they?
00:11:31.180 A failure is an opportunity
00:11:38.480 to grow and learn.
00:11:45.920 So to reiterate,
00:11:47.760 first, you need to know
00:11:50.060 why you're asking the question
00:11:51.520 in the first place.
00:11:52.360 what does it mean
00:11:53.800 to understand
00:11:55.500 the world,
00:11:57.540 to understand
00:11:58.200 contemporary events?
00:12:04.880 What does that mean for you?
00:12:06.020 Why do you want to understand this?
00:12:08.900 See, if you want to understand it
00:12:10.260 so you can be a political commentator,
00:12:12.120 then you have a very,
00:12:13.940 a very direct reason
00:12:15.800 why you want to understand this.
00:12:17.340 It makes perfect sense.
00:12:18.140 If you want to understand this
00:12:22.400 to predict shifts in the economy,
00:12:25.360 well, that's an entirely
00:12:26.220 different question.
00:12:28.240 If it's political responsibility,
00:12:31.500 many reasons to understand this,
00:12:33.800 but you need to know
00:12:34.580 why you want to understand it.
00:12:36.700 Then you need to move on
00:12:41.840 to the heuristic
00:12:43.300 you're using
00:12:44.420 to understand it.
00:12:45.920 Are you using
00:12:46.980 a Marxist
00:12:49.080 understanding of history
00:12:50.620 where you have
00:12:51.380 different social classes
00:12:53.220 struggling against one another?
00:12:55.460 Are you using
00:12:56.860 a spiritual
00:12:57.720 understanding of history
00:12:59.600 where each generation
00:13:02.200 has a character,
00:13:03.560 a virtue,
00:13:04.780 and a vice?
00:13:08.920 Are you using
00:13:10.060 a moral
00:13:10.640 interpretation
00:13:11.720 of history?
00:13:16.880 Depending on
00:13:17.840 what questions
00:13:19.040 you're asking
00:13:19.580 and why you're asking them,
00:13:21.720 all of these
00:13:22.600 different heuristics
00:13:23.540 apply.
00:13:26.940 And finally,
00:13:27.820 you need that
00:13:28.220 objective standard.
00:13:30.040 You know,
00:13:31.240 and this comes
00:13:32.000 from your purpose.
00:13:35.160 Did you succeed
00:13:36.140 or fail
00:13:36.680 in understanding
00:13:38.000 the world?
00:13:41.400 If you're trying
00:13:42.160 to make investments,
00:13:43.400 well,
00:13:43.600 if they paid off,
00:13:44.460 then you probably
00:13:46.160 understood the world.
00:13:47.120 Or maybe you were lucky,
00:13:48.140 but, you know,
00:13:48.580 probably understood
00:13:49.340 the world.
00:13:51.620 If you're trying
00:13:52.360 to make predictions,
00:13:54.600 you know,
00:13:54.840 well,
00:13:55.020 there you've got
00:13:55.440 that objective standard.
00:14:00.040 This is the
00:14:05.940 interesting thing
00:14:06.440 about humans,
00:14:07.240 is that
00:14:08.700 as soon as
00:14:09.780 you isolate
00:14:11.500 a person,
00:14:12.120 as soon as you
00:14:12.700 define a person
00:14:14.000 or a civilization
00:14:15.920 or an era
00:14:17.840 or a generation,
00:14:20.520 as soon as you
00:14:21.540 put that
00:14:22.340 into a box
00:14:24.100 and you define it,
00:14:26.820 it's like going
00:14:28.380 up to somebody
00:14:29.000 that's sitting down
00:14:29.900 on the sofa
00:14:30.420 and enjoying themselves
00:14:31.860 and saying,
00:14:32.300 hey, you,
00:14:33.520 keep sitting
00:14:34.080 on the sofa.
00:14:38.320 They'll jump up
00:14:39.340 and say,
00:14:39.640 no, you can't tell me
00:14:40.460 to sit on the sofa.
00:14:41.920 I'm going to go
00:14:42.340 sit in the chair.
00:14:47.220 Iterations upon iterations.
00:14:48.960 It's always,
00:14:51.560 always more complex.
00:14:53.300 And this is why
00:14:58.520 you need a purpose.
00:15:00.320 You know,
00:15:00.500 completely unfiltered
00:15:02.120 information,
00:15:03.180 information
00:15:03.880 with no heuristic
00:15:05.260 is nothing
00:15:06.220 but data.
00:15:08.600 Reams upon
00:15:09.440 reams
00:15:10.100 of data
00:15:11.180 and it's
00:15:13.080 meaningless.
00:15:13.440 So understand
00:15:19.420 what you're seeking.
00:15:22.060 Understand
00:15:22.620 the different
00:15:23.080 heuristics,
00:15:23.860 the different
00:15:24.260 ways
00:15:25.040 of analyzing
00:15:26.500 what's going on.
00:15:30.560 And have
00:15:31.920 an objective
00:15:32.400 standard.
00:15:33.580 Have a
00:15:34.600 measurable
00:15:35.840 result
00:15:37.160 that
00:15:38.900 you can achieve.
00:15:40.660 and keep
00:15:44.520 searching
00:15:44.840 because
00:15:46.860 trying to
00:15:48.660 understand
00:15:49.000 the world
00:15:49.420 and trying
00:15:49.960 to understand
00:15:50.400 the self
00:15:50.860 is a
00:15:52.960 never-ending
00:15:53.360 journey.
00:15:55.120 Best of luck,
00:15:55.780 brother.
00:15:57.360 Berini out.
00:16:10.660 an
00:16:13.120 legend.
00:16:25.520 'll
00:16:26.740 have
00:16:27.060 a
00:16:27.240 step
00:16:27.860 into
00:16:28.140 what
00:16:28.820 you
00:16:29.040 you
00:16:29.180 you
00:16:29.640 yourself
00:16:29.740 you
00:16:31.220 yourself
00:16:32.020 you