Dface's Topic about Self-Help Books He's Reading

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101

I’m writing about the collapsed paragraph below:

Paragraph

For example, if we step out into a busy street, turn our head, and see a car coming right at us, we instinctively jump back onto the safety of the sidewalk. That fear reaction helps us to learn quickly that streets are dangerous and to approach them with caution. Evolution made this really simple for us. So simple that we need only three elements in situations like this to learn: an environmental cue, a behavior, and a result. In this case, walking up to a busy street (the environmental cue) is our signal to look both ways before crossing (the behavior). Crossing the street uninjured (the result) teaches us to remember to repeat the action again in the future. We share this survival tool with all animals. Even the sea slug, a creature with the most “primitive” nervous system known in science (twenty thousand neurons total, as opposed to roughly a hundred billion in the human brain), uses this same learning mechanism.

5th sentence(5/9):

In this case, walking up to a busy street (the environmental cue) is our signal to look both ways before crossing (the behavior).

“In this case” means the case that the author was talking about avoiding danger from an oncoming car.

The first part where the negative reinforcement happens:

walking up to a busy street (the environmental cue)

Walking up to a busy street is the environmental cue it seems. What is an environmental cue? I saw from Merriam Webster that a cue is a like a signal or a hint to do something.

I think it’s called an enviornmental cue because our surroundings let us know about what to do.

I notice in the quote above, the street is busy. That would cause fear if we were in oncoming traffic again. I think if we would be in that busy street again it would have us think about the conflict about surviving while crossing the street.

The author says that the environmental cue is:

is our signal to look both ways before crossing (the behavior).

It’s interesting that they classify looking both ways as the behavior. It seems kind of disconnected to what actually happens. Like, the behavior is the result of what happens not the process idk.

But yeah we would have a new behavior which is to look both ways before crossing traffic. That’s an action we do for a reason. I think that’s what we were taught after avoiding getting hit by a dangerous car. Idk really. Stuff is different. Idk if we got the new behavior after encountering a dangerous incident or if we learned that our first time.

102

I’m writing about the following paragraph:

Paragraph

For example, if we step out into a busy street, turn our head, and see a car coming right at us, we instinctively jump back onto the safety of the sidewalk. That fear reaction helps us to learn quickly that streets are dangerous and to approach them with caution. Evolution made this really simple for us. So simple that we need only three elements in situations like this to learn: an environmental cue, a behavior, and a result. In this case, walking up to a busy street (the environmental cue) is our signal to look both ways before crossing (the behavior). Crossing the street uninjured (the result) teaches us to remember to repeat the action again in the future. We share this survival tool with all animals. Even the sea slug, a creature with the most “primitive” nervous system known in science (twenty thousand neurons total, as opposed to roughly a hundred billion in the human brain), uses this same learning mechanism.

6th sentence(6/8 not 9 total sentences):

Crossing the street uninjured (the result) teaches us to remember to repeat the action again in the future.

Crossing the street while being uninjured is the result. You walked across unharmed.

I think looking left and right is us error correcting the possibility of us getting harmed

The result seems to teach us according to the author. How does the result teach us stuff? How does it teach us to remember stuff for the future? How does it teach us to remember to repeat stuff? We’re taught to remember to repeat the action that helped us survived? Can we be taught to do stuff in the future? I think yeah. I think we remember what works so when a situation the same happens in the future we can tell to do the action that helped us. I wonder if the action has to help us so negative reinforcement has us remember it.

103

We share this survival tool with all animals.

I think the survival tool is the fear reaction that the author was talking about. It’s where we learn from being afraid.

If all animals shared the same fear reaction then we should see it too among them. I wonder how they learn stuff or are taught. I wonder if fear teaches them things more. Can they learn to error correct like we do? Is error correct the correct term to apply here?

If we do share the survival tool then it’s a very primitive thing in our bodies. So many animals must have it. Even very ancient ones

Even the sea slug, a creature with the most “primitive” nervous system known in science (twenty thousand neurons total, as opposed to roughly a hundred billion in the human brain), uses this same learning mechanism.

I see the fear reaction is also termed as “learning mechanism”. I wonder how even sea slugs learn to avoid danger. I just think there’s gotta be a huge difference between humans and animals cuz we’re smarter.

It’s hard at times to go through the day without feeling some kind of anxiety. I’m learning to identify when it happens. Maybe learning the fear reaction can help with learning why it happens or the mechanisms behind it.

104

Here’s the book’s next paragraph:

Sometime in the last million years, humans evolved a new layer on top of our more primitive survival brain; neuroscientists call this the prefrontal cortex (PFC). (From an anatomical perspective, this “newer” brain region is located just behind our eyes and forehead.) Involved in creativity and planning, the PFC helps us to think and plan for the future. The PFC predicts what will happen in the future based on our past experience. Yet critically, the PFC needs accurate information to make accurate predictions. If information is lacking, our PFC plays out different versions of what might happen to help us choose the best path forward. It does this by running simulations based on previous events in our lives that are most similar. For example, trucks and buses are similar enough to cars that we can safely assume we should look both ways to avoid any fast-moving vehicle.

Here’s the book’s first sentence:

Sometime in the last million years, humans evolved a new layer on top of our more primitive survival brain; neuroscientists call this the prefrontal cortex (PFC).

Wow, 1 million years is a lot of time. That’s 10 100,000 years.

I wonder if the “new layer” is literal. How does the primitive brain look like? How does the prefrontal cortex look like? How do we evolve new organs?

I’ve heard of the prefrontal cortex. I wonder how many animals have this part of the brain. Is it unique to us?

The following quote takes place after the first sentence:

(From an anatomical perspective, this “newer” brain region is located just behind our eyes and forehead.)

The quote is in parentheses so I think it’s giving us more info. It’s probably giving the reader more background info.

When it says:

From an anatomical perspective,

that’s like when you’re looking at anatomy? I think I kind of know what perspective is and what anatomical means. But put together I kind of know too.

this “newer” brain region is located just behind our eyes and forehead.

I see that the PFC is called “‘newer’”. That’s probably cuz it’s been recently developed through eveloution.

I see that the quote is talking about where the PFC is located. I think I know what anatomical perspective is. It’s like in the perspective of anatomy. You can find the PFC relative to other parts of the body.

The PFC is pretty close to the forehead. That’s interesting. It sounds like it’s small but idk.

105

The PFC or Prefrontal Cortex is involved in creativity and planning. What does it do there? It helps us plan stuff out? We use it to be creative?

When it says:

the PFC helps us think? How? I think if I know what it does then I’ll know how.

The PFC also helps to plan for the future. It sounds like a computer we use to figure stuff out.

I read the following site about the prefrontal cortex:

It was interesting; it seems like the part of your brain that handles ideas. Idk really. But it manages making decisions or something with emotions.

106

The first sentence sounds like induction. It’s saying something like the future is gonna happen like the past. I know an example like the sun is gonna rise because it has in the past. It’s like thinking something is gonna happen in the future and its reason for it is because it happened in the past.

It would be nice to get a refresher about what induction is to talk about it.

According to the first sentence, we have a brain region that predicts stuff. I think you could still predict that stuff is going to happen based on ideas of how something works. Like… it’s hard to think of an example, but it reminds me of Eli Goldratt saying something along the lines about predicting stuff for your solution to check if you’re right or not about something.

Here’s the actual quote; it’s a TOC idea where, in the fourth step, you predict effects of a cause:

Also, I think we predict stuff when we make projects and talk about success criteria. The success criteria is what’s gonna happen if you’re successful with the project.

I think the first sentence of the anxiety book quote is saying we think stuff is going to happen in the future. Us thinking that is based on our past experience. I think it’s what we learned from the past and the ideas from there that have us predict.

I think an example is like “I will go on stage in front of everybody and be nervous cuz that’s happened in the past.” Idk

107

The sentence says “Yet critically” which means this sentence is connected to the last one. Like, even tho the PFC predicts what will happen, there’s something else that has to take place. I think the “critically” part is something is crucial. What proceeds in following sentence is crucial.

I see that the PFC needs something that’s accurate to make something that’s accurate. Cuz the PFC makes predictions of what will happen, in order to get accurate predictions you need accurate info.

What is accurate info? Information that’s correct? If it’s correct then, you can make accurate predictions about the future? Those predictions are correct too? That sounds a lot like trying to tell the future. I think there may be some stuff we won’t be able to predict. I think it’s related to knowing about an issue and the impact of a solution.

Maybe an example of needing accurate info to make accurate predictions is: Rush hour traffic can be hectic and not everybody is paying attention to traffic that’s oscillating in speed. This might cause people to slow down too late and involve themselves in a car accident.

108

So it can happen that information is lacking. What does that look like? You don’t know enough about something. There’s gaps in what you know about. What are gaps? How do they look like?

I think the PFC showing us different versions of what might happen show that there’s uncertainty. There’s uncertainty in how something works maybe. There’s uncertainty about how something may pan out. If we’re not sure about what’s going to happen then there’s different things to think about. Given what we know, if something works a certain way then it’s going to play out one way. If it works a another way then it’s going to play out another way.

It seems that we’re indecisive about what’s going to happen. That happens when we lack information. What if it’s really hard to get more info? Figure out what to do from there? Look up a resource to help you out maybe.

I think Im starting to see what the author is getting at about anxiety. If there’s uncertainty about what’s going to happen then what if you’re uncertain that something really bad isn’t going to happen?

109

Example:

Inaccurate info: The restaurant closes at 10pm

Prediction: If we go now (it’s 8pm) it will be open.

Result: Arrive at closed restaurant.

If you had accurate info (it closes at 8pm) then your prediction would have been better.

110

Inaccurate info seems that you get a detail wrong. In the example above, the info about when the restaurant closes was wrong. It was close to the actual time like two hours close, but it still resulted in arriving the restaurant at the wrong time.

More innacurate info in that example would like the restaurant closes at 9pm. That doesn’t match with when the restaurant actually closes too.

More innacurate info may be that the restaurant closes at 10pm but the lobby actually closes at 8pm. Your info was inaccurate cuz it didn’t account for when the lobby closes too. It resulted in the error of not being able to eat inside.

You could make a prediction based on info you have. You can talk about how the future will be. Since, you leave at 8pm and it takes you a few minutes to get to the restaurant, you predict that the restaurant will remain open the time you get there.

The prediction is the restaurant will be open at 8pm + the time it takes to get there. It will also be open long enough to get inside or order food. You’re predicting there’s a long enough window for your food ordering project. Are you predicting those actions will happen too? Like, I will order food and eat it there. Or I will order takeout and leave back home.

The result is what ends up happening. You think you have a long enough window to order food, but you arrive at a closed restaurant. Your inaccurate info led to you making a false prediction. The restaurant wasn’t open, you didn’t get to order food from there, and you didn’t get any takeout… not too sure about the last two results

Your prediction would have been better. You could’ve predicted that if you leave at 8pm then you will arrive at a closed restaurant. Who knows maybe they haven’t closed the restaurant yet?

111

The PFC predicts what will happen in the future based on our past experience. Yet critically, the PFC needs accurate information to make accurate predictions.

If the PFC works like that then I think I could think about examples of inaccurate info and making predictions:

  1. Inaccurate info about when a project for school is due. Instead of it being due one month, it’s due in two weeks.
    • The prediction is if I work on it past two weeks then I can still turn in work on time. Or I will still have the same grade on the third week. That or the project can still be turned in online.
  2. Another example is there is no traffic on a street after 10pm. Your prediction is when you cross the street it will be clear at 10:30pm.
  3. In Minecraft, you can think that there are no endermen in the nether in the latest update. Your prediction would be that when you arrive through the nether portal, you’ll encounter other mobs.
  4. If you play fortnite, you can have the inaccurate info that no one can enter buildings. A prediction there can be made that if you hear a player’s footsteps then you’ll encounter them outside.
1 Like
112

I think the PFC playing out differrent versions of what might happen is it predicting stuff. Based on the information we have we predict what will happen. I wonder why it plays different versions. Maybe it’s like “if x is true, then I predict this will happen.” I can’t think of examples of that.

It seems that the PFC playing different versions of what might happen is automatic. Like, it’s a skill. That’s why probably being anxious about something happen so fast. Like, you think about what was going to happen already that you can feel anxious about it. Idk how anxiety fits here but that was my guess.

The PFC playing stuff to help us makes sense to me cuz it’s up to us to choose the best path forward. I think that makes sense.

The quote below answers the question how does the PFC play out different versions of what might happen?:

I think maybe I can see how information can be lacking. If your brain is playing versions of what might happen and you have only info/knowledge of stuff that’s similar, then you’re gonna probably be unsure of the future.

113

The last sentence:

For example, trucks and buses are similar enough to cars that we can safely assume we should look both ways to avoid any fast-moving vehicle.

It seems that we’re lacking information about trucks and buses in the quote above. Us thinking that cars are similar to those vehicles and safely assuming we should treat them the same is the example. I think the example’s idea is that since we lack information about how something plays out, we run different simulations about how it might work. Something you can think about is that buses and trucks go fast too like cars and will hurt too if you’re in the way of them. They’re fast as cars and as dangerous we should look both ways for them too.

It seems like it can be easy to think a lot of things as the same. Like if you’re anxious about many things then there might be some overlap about why you’re anxious about them idk…If you see something as slightly dangerous you might treat it like other things that seem dangerous. If they’re similar enough then the same reaction could be used. I think I have a few examples in mind where that might happen with myself. I really think I don’t have enough information about the things im anxious about and so I kind of react to them the same way. The author hasn’t gotten to anxiety yet so imma read on.

I’ve seen the words “safely assume” before. It was when I read the CF article about cycling prerequisites. The sentence was about safely assuming that studying basic grammar was going to be useful with a lot of things. There’s going to be verbs and nouns in like every sentence. I think safely assumes means you won’t be making an error. Like a big error. Usually when you assume stuff you could be wrong cuz you’re missing info

114

I’m going to write about the following paragraph:

Enter anxiety.

Anxiety is born when our PFCs don’t have enough information to accurately predict the future. We saw this with COVID-19, when it exploded onto the world stage in early 2020. As would be true of any newly discovered virus or pathogen, scientists raced to study the characteristics of COVID-19 in order to find out precisely how contagious and deadly it was so that we could act appropriately. Yet especially in the early days of discovery, uncertainty abounded. Without accurate information, our brains found it easy to spin stories of fear and dread, based on the latest reports that we had heard or read. And because of the way our brains are wired, the more shocking the news—increasing our sense of danger and feelings of fear—the more likely our brains are to remember it. Now add elements of fear and uncertainty—the illness or death of family members; the prospect of losing your job; hard decisions about whether or not to send your kids to school; concerns about how to safely reopen the economy; and so on—and you get a big heap of badness for your brain to try to sort through.

First paragraph sentence:

Enter anxiety.

I forget what it means when something enters. I see it used in essays to introduce something. I think it brings up an issue. I’ll look up what it means…I saw online that saying that something enters is a stage and actor thing. I think that’s when an actor is introduced in the movie or play. I think we’re gonna now talk about what anxiety’s role is in all this.

Next sentence:

Anxiety is born when our PFCs don’t have enough information to accurately predict the future.

I see that the author says that anxiety is born in the quote’s situation. What does born mean? That it come to fruition? i don’t know what fruition means. I think anxiety comes from not having enough accurate information. It could be that, but at the very least anxiety happens at the time that the PFC doesn’t have enough info to predict the future.

What does anxiety do when you don’t have accurate info to predict? Why does anxiety happen? If you have inaccurate info then you can predict false things. You can predict that something really wrong can happen. Like, the sky is going to fall on you. You can think that the sky is an object in free fall from space. You’ll think that the sky will fall on you at some point.

Next sentence:

We saw this with COVID-19, when it exploded onto the world stage in early 2020.

If we saw anxiety born at the time of COVID-19, then we would be seeing people predicting inaccurate things. Were people anxious at this time? Yes, we didn’t have that much info about the virus so it was hard to know what was true. It was hard to know what action to take to not get the virus. We didn’t know at one point that it was airborne. I think we found that out later. One could’ve had inaccurate info that led them to think they would not get sick being around someone who’s ill.

115

We didn’t know how deadly or contagious COVID-19 was when it started spreading. I forget when we found out about it. Was it when it was in only one country? Or when there were lots of reports around the world about it?

You could have innacurate information about the virus in the beginning. You could have ideas that it didn’t spread at all. That or it wasn’t deadly at all. You could also have inaccurate info that made you think that everybody who got it was going to die.

How does anxiety fit in all this?

116

How was uncertainty abounded? Was there a lot of things to be uncertain about? Is that why there was so much uncertainty? Was it that so many of us were uncertain about the illness? That’s a lot of uncertainty if you add it all up.

What were some things we were uncertain about in early 2020?

  • How contagious the illness was
  • how deadly it was?
  • Did we have to lock up the country?
  • How long do we have to quarantine if we do
  • What is going to happen to all of our jobs if there is a pandemic?
  • Is there people in my area who have it?
  • How susceptible am I to the disease?
  • How dangerous is it for an individual?
  • How dangerous is it for me specifically?

Did our brains find it easy to spin those kinds of stories? What did they find easy to spin? Is this a phrase or literal? Does this relate to the PFC’s thinking about many different scenarios based on the info we have?

I think according to the author, we would be thinking about how things will play out based on info we got. I think seeing that a group of people suffered the disease in the US would get one to think that’s it’s already in the US. Where would the virus be at that point? How is it not already at my neighbors’ doorstep? How do you prove this wrong? If it’s there then you could get infected tomorrow. If it’s deadly then you could die. That could happen tomorrow.

117

I think we didn’t know everything when COVID 19 spread. We could get bits and pieces of accurate info I think from news sources but there was inaccurate info there too. I remember it was polarizing to talk about the virus cuz you could say the wrong thing.

If you had inaccurate info then you would be predicting the wrong things. You could predict based on news story that covid wasn’t even deadly and it would be ok for you to go out to a gathering.

I’m going to tag the name of the book after every reply cuz im planning to do a second self-help book too. I think I’ll reply to something that at least has the name every time.

118

From the book, “Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind” by Judson Brewer:

I always see people talk about how our brains our wired. A part of me thinks that’s a wrong metaphor or something. I think the author is saying cuz of the way the brain works. How does software and hardware stuff from the brain relate to this?

the more shocking the news—increasing our sense of danger and feelings of fear—the more likely our brains are to remember it.

There’s a relationship here that says the more shocking the news the more likely our brains will remember it. That sounds right and wrong. Does likely mean it’s based on chance? Is it based on context? Like, because you’re afraid of x,y, and z you’re more likely going to remember the shocking news.

The quote makes sense to me in a way cuz if you get afraid of something and find it dangerous, it’s going to be hard to forget about it. I think we pay a lot of attention to the things we’re afraid cuz it could be bad for our survival. Idk

There’s this hyphenated part of the quote:

—increasing our sense of danger and feelings of fear—

I remember we were talking about sense of danger and feelings of fear. That’s the stuff that helps us learn something quickly. It’s from that example about crossing the street where you’re about to get hit and you quickly learn that it could be dangerous to cross the street. I remember as a kid learning about looking both ways to cross the street. I was slightly afraid of getting hit, but it made sense to me to remember it and try it out when I cross a street. I heard that a lot of people get hurt from not crossing one properly and I wanted to do as much as I could to cross one safely I think.

I think to tie it back to the covid example from the book: You could remember some things about covid better cuz it made you afraid and made you think that it’s dangerous. It reminds me of when I learned about people doing backflips and rolls and getting hurt. I didn’t want to get badly injured so I learned about tucking your head to the side to not bend the neck weirdly. That’s when doing a forward roll on the ground.

119

From the book, “Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind” by Judson Brewer:

I see now there’s elements of fear and uncertainty. So, there’s how the brain works with fear and that there’s elements of fear and uncertainty. What are elements? They seem like things that would cause fear. That things that one may find fearful. Idk

I think the illness or death in the family are elements of fear. They could be part of uncertainty too cuz you can be unsure about the illness or if a family member is going to survive or not. The prospect of losing your job has elements of fear and uncertainty. You don’t know if you’re going to lose you’re job cuz of the pandemic. You don’t know what you’re going to do if that does happen. Something bad could happen to you or your family so that could be something to be fearful about. Like, not making enough money to support the family.

hard decisions about whether or not to send your kids to school

You can be uncertain about sending your kids to school. Like, you don’t know if it’s a good choice or not during the pandemic. That requires research and it might be hard to do with not a lot of information going around. How good are people researching in general?

You could be afraid of your kids contracting the illness and getting badly sick. They could be in danger sending them to school during the pandemic.

concerns about how to safely reopen the economy;

Is this an element of fear or uncertainty? I think it’s of uncertainty, like how do you safely reopen the economy during the pandemic? Maybe after it’s done? When do you do it? How do you do it safely? What’s the answer? Was it done before?

After the list of elements this is what’s said:

and so on—and you get a big heap of badness for your brain to try to sort through.

I think I see how you get a big heap of badness for your brain. Like, it could be bad cuz there’s a lot of bad feelings you could get. It could hard to solve problems and feel better. I think if you get anxiety then you could have a lot to grapple with. Like, you have feelings that are hard to control.

120

Paragraph from the book, “Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind” by Judson Brewer:

Notice how fear itself does not equal anxiety. Fear is an adaptive learning mechanism that helps us survive. Anxiety, on the other hand, is maladaptive; our thinking and planning brain spins out of control when it doesn’t have enough information.

The first sentence:

Notice how fear itself does not equal anxiety.

Now that I notice, there were some things from the book and my writing that looked like fear but were actually anxiety. You can be afraid of an outcome you predicted based on inaccurate info…Idk what anxiety exactly is and how it’s different from fear. I could kind of see intuitively.

I know in the last paragraph the author talked about shocking news. Like, the more shocking the news the more one is likely to remember it. I think you can be afraid of a piece of news and be anxious too. Like, anxiety has you spin stories in your mind about what might happen. And you can end up being afraid of the possibilities. It sounds like there could be a cycle of fear and anxiety. Not too sure