Thursday 4 November 2010

Positive Thinking in Skill-Acquisition and in Life - Part 2

By WithoutWriting
2. An Inspirational Example

A person considering taking up the martial arts might say "I'm unfit, so training would just be painful and annoying, I'm smaller than other people so I'm fighting at a disadvantage, and I'm not naturally aggressive so I'll find the whole experience upsetting and intimidating." These kinds of statements might well lead the person to not take up martial arts. And all of these statements might be true.

But none of these statements are valid reasons for not taking up the training, because none of these stated facts, even if true, would stop this individual from becoming a formidable fighter, or even a champion in one or more disciplines.

To this hypothetical person, I would retort: "All that may be true, but you do have one or more limbs, don't you?" And I would refer them to the case of Kyle Maynard. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Maynard)

Mr Maynard is a quadruple congenital amputee. He was born with no arms and no legs. But in the highly competitive and athletically demanding world of mainstream American Collegiate Wrestling, he attained a record of 35 wins and 16 losses. His opponents (like every amateur wrestler in the US) were fighting for athletic prestige, academic opportunity and social standing. I highly doubt a single one of his opponents was willing to lose to a man with neither arms nor legs. This makes Mr Maynard's achievements all the more inspiring. He is an inspiration within the martial arts and the sporting communities.

My hypothetical naysayer might respond: "This guy is clearly one in a million. I'm not exceptional in any respect, so what good is this example to me?" And I would respond that while Mr Maynard is undoubtedly an exceptional case, his disadvantages in wrestling are so sizeable that it makes any excuses from any of us who possess limbs seem like childish whining by comparison.

And what exactly is exceptional about Mr Maynard? Well he said in an interview once that he lost every single match he ever fought in his first year of wrestling. This shows us that despite massive disadvantages, a positive belief that in the future he WOULD win, was enough for him to overcome those disadvantages and amass a more impressive record than many wrestlers who have no physical problems whatsoever.

For me, the only exceptional thing about Kyle Maynard is his staying power. His determination and willingness to carry on training, when many, many others would not only have given up: they would never have started in the first place. We can all possess such a power, if we are optimistic regarding the outcome of our effort.

3. The Interpretation of Evidence

But let us leave the example set by a single individual, and return to the realms of provable theory:

Once again, I don't believe in having a positive attitude if overwhelming evidence is against such an attitude. I believe that when there's a rough balance of evidence (i.e: Not much more evidence one way or another), one should by default take an optimistic outlook. This is because of the simple fact that without the attempt to accomplish something, there will be no positive outcome. In other words, if you try you may fail, but if you don't try, you will definitely fail.

The second theoretical point to be made is that often, people believe that there's an overwhelming amount of evidence stacked against them, when this simply isn’t so. It would have been easy for Kyle Maynard to say "all the evidence is against my succeeding; no congenital amputee has ever succeeded in wrestling". But while the statement is technically correct, it is incorrect in its substance. The facts are not: "no amputee has ever succeeded in wrestling", the facts are: that so few disabled people have ever TRIED competing in mainstream wrestling that no conclusions can reasonably be drawn. Therefore Kyle Maynard's positive attitude was intellectually defensible, and necessarily well-founded. And he succeeded. And now the next disabled person who considers trying their hand at any sport, or any martial art, will be able to look at Maynard's achievements and make their decision more easily.

On a larger scale, people look at the history of humanity and find almost literally endless cruelty, suffering, greed and war. From these terrible facets of human nature, so richly expressed throughout history, many people draw the conclusion that they should have no faith in human nature at all. But they aren't thinking critically. If one thinks critically and one REALLY knows history, a pattern is easily detectable: From ignominious beginnings where the strong and the wealthy universally preyed on the weak and the poor, we have moved forward to a time in which- despite the fact that we haven't totally escaped our animalistic drives- we have things like welfare states, public healthcare in several countries, campaigns for liberation of all peoples and campaigns for universal peace. (They may not have won their final victory just yet, but at least they exist.)

Throughout the vast majority of human history there was NONE of this. In fact, in the past hundred years, social improvements have been literally unfathomable compared to what came before. Therefore the real lover of truth, the true critical thinker, will be without hesitation optimistic for the future of mankind. All past evidence points towards improvement in the future.

And this is the lesson to take from history and from life, I think: When you think the evidence warrants negativity, look deeper. A scientific mind is a wonderful tool to have in all areas of life, but especially when addressing the question of whether one should be optimistic or pessimistic.

1 comment:

  1. I agree with you WithoutWriting, I'm quite a pessamist myself - the little train that could comes to mind.

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