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Aug. 28th, 2023 01:30 am
The caloric cost of change
For several years I've been using and honing a lens for viewing the world, and it's proven useful to me.
I call it the 'caloric cost of change.'
This is all a big heaping gob of my understanding and my opinion, steeped and cooked and expressed through poor writing. Let every statement be prepended with "In my opinion," or appended with, "this is my understanding." This is a thought model, and yes: all models are wrong, but some are useful. This one has been useful to me.
1. We're all living beings. One of the characteristics of life as I understand is the conservation of energy. Calories are hard to find and mustn't be wasted. Despite many people having ready access to lots of calories in our oil-bubble, we still know this deep down, that hunger is a thing to be avoided. So, we avoid expending energy unnecessarily, or many unconscious parts of our bodies do.
2. Our human brains are highly energy consumptive. They consume energy when we use them for anything, including when we learn something, or form an opinion. They also consume the same amount of energy when we have to un-learn something, or change our opinion. Possibly more energy, as we have to 'un-fix' what had previously been fixed in our minds.
1+2=3. When we have to un-learn something, or change an opinion, many people feel resistant to doing so. This is, I believe, the body's hesitancy to expend calories unnecessarily. "Didn't we already learn that? Do we really need to un-learn it? That looks expensive!" This lens is how I account for the 'hook in the gut' feeling I encounter when needing to revise a thought or opinion I've held deeply for some time. Time and energy went into forming that opinion and holding onto it, so it won't be freed up for nothing.
This lens has been so helpful to me in looking at why people are so hesitant to change their minds about things. It's simply the caloric cost of change, and we are all deeply resistant to it. This resistance manifests in physical and emotional pain; whatever signals a person has adapted to use when speaking with their bodies. Only with lots of practice and perhaps some natural inclination can we be more change-oriented.
This, of course, speaks nothing to the additional higher-brain evolutionary reasons people are resistant to change, and the social-cultural reasons people are entrenched in their opinions or beliefs. These naturally add additional pain and resistance to changing beliefs and opinions, while adding justification for holding fast to them.
It's also been helpful to me when I realize that I'm in the throes of bearing the caloric cost of changing my mind, or am about to be. Here goes! I grab the healthiest food I can find and dig in. (Within reason and with healthy eating habits in mind.) Those calories don't come from no where!
I call it the 'caloric cost of change.'
This is all a big heaping gob of my understanding and my opinion, steeped and cooked and expressed through poor writing. Let every statement be prepended with "In my opinion," or appended with, "this is my understanding." This is a thought model, and yes: all models are wrong, but some are useful. This one has been useful to me.
1. We're all living beings. One of the characteristics of life as I understand is the conservation of energy. Calories are hard to find and mustn't be wasted. Despite many people having ready access to lots of calories in our oil-bubble, we still know this deep down, that hunger is a thing to be avoided. So, we avoid expending energy unnecessarily, or many unconscious parts of our bodies do.
2. Our human brains are highly energy consumptive. They consume energy when we use them for anything, including when we learn something, or form an opinion. They also consume the same amount of energy when we have to un-learn something, or change our opinion. Possibly more energy, as we have to 'un-fix' what had previously been fixed in our minds.
1+2=3. When we have to un-learn something, or change an opinion, many people feel resistant to doing so. This is, I believe, the body's hesitancy to expend calories unnecessarily. "Didn't we already learn that? Do we really need to un-learn it? That looks expensive!" This lens is how I account for the 'hook in the gut' feeling I encounter when needing to revise a thought or opinion I've held deeply for some time. Time and energy went into forming that opinion and holding onto it, so it won't be freed up for nothing.
This lens has been so helpful to me in looking at why people are so hesitant to change their minds about things. It's simply the caloric cost of change, and we are all deeply resistant to it. This resistance manifests in physical and emotional pain; whatever signals a person has adapted to use when speaking with their bodies. Only with lots of practice and perhaps some natural inclination can we be more change-oriented.
This, of course, speaks nothing to the additional higher-brain evolutionary reasons people are resistant to change, and the social-cultural reasons people are entrenched in their opinions or beliefs. These naturally add additional pain and resistance to changing beliefs and opinions, while adding justification for holding fast to them.
It's also been helpful to me when I realize that I'm in the throes of bearing the caloric cost of changing my mind, or am about to be. Here goes! I grab the healthiest food I can find and dig in. (Within reason and with healthy eating habits in mind.) Those calories don't come from no where!
