Have you ever changed your mind about something that was of critical importance to you? Have you had beliefs that you were sure you would never change, but which you were forced to change by the evidence? That has happened to me more times than I can remember. But for many people, even one such deep reworking of their mindsets would be enough to break them.
For mental toughness, clarity, and survival, either a person must be trained to weigh the evidence and to be ready to change a belief if necessary — even a strong one — or they must be particularly resilient mentally. Preferably both.
Knowledge vs. Belief
Knowledge is what we gain through experience and experimentation. It derives from the realities of the world around us. As the world progresses, various sources of knowledge have also expanded. On the other hand, belief is all about conviction. This is mostly visible in religious settings, where the ideals are not tested but merely believed. This is the main difference between the two words.
Source
Most people seem to think that if they feel strongly about something, that it must be true. Religion, politics, climate, the environment, all are subject to being reduced to fanatical cultism when a person identifies so closely with a strong belief that he cannot see any other rational perspective. Feeling too strongly about one’s beliefs can be one of the toughest barriers to attaining knowledge on higher dimensions.
Barriers to Attaining Knowledge
- Blind Adherence to Authority
- Propaganda
- Prejudice
- Fallacies in Reasoning
- Source
A thinking person should be skeptical of authority and should be highly resistant to propaganda. Prejudice is inescapable, but thinking persons should learn to recognize it and have ways of dealing with it. Logical fallacies must be studied in detail, and thoroughly understood, if one wants to be as immune to them as possible. I first studied books on logical fallacies in my early teens, and found them more entertaining than most other reading.
I tend to neither believe nor disbelieve most of “facts” that I come across on a daily basis. They are sorted into categories, given probability ratings, and forgotten about until they come into play for some reason.
Digression 1: Anti-Aging Supplements
Brian Wang recently revealed part of his own personal anti-aging regimen, involving some rather heavy-duty life-extension supplements.
Berberine is a Geroprotector which canb slow the aging process. It is in the same class as Metformin. Metformin can be difficult in the USA as you need to get unless a doctor prescribe for pre-diabetes or diabetes. There is Metformin available online from Indian and other foreign pharmacy sources.
NAD+ restoration is enhanced with NMN. NAD levels decrease as we age. Restoring NAD using NMN can improve health. NAD+ is a nucleotide found in all living cells that plays an important role in energy metabolism. Levels may decline markedly with age and restoring them to a youthful state using various oral precursors, transdermal patches or IVs is believed to have beneficial effects on health and longevity.
Fisetin is a first-generation way to reduce zombie cells in the body. Our bodies produce a lot of cells when we are young so any cells that have any problem are removed from the body. When we get older our bodies do not produce a lot of new cells so our body keeps dysfunctional cells which produce toxins. Our body thinks it is better to have a half-effective cell than no cell. This choice is not good for our health as it makes arthritis and other conditions worse.
SIRT6 Activator helps Sirtuin 6. Sirtuin 6 commonly known as the longevity sirtuin, has many health benefits. SIRT6 enhances DNA double strand break repair under oxidative stress. Oxidative stress can damage all components of the cell, including DNA. SIRT6 recruits PARP1 to facilitate DNA repair. SIRT6 is instrumental for your energy as it increases the efficiency of ATP production. SIRT6 has been shown to be closely related to a number of metabolic pathways and genome maintenance, as well as telomere stability.
SIRT6 is neuroprotective, and patients with Alzheimers disease have low levels of SIRT6. The SIRT6 protein plays a key role in DNA repair, maintenance of genomic stability in cells and healthy ageing. Activating SIRT6 can provide broad tumor suppressant and health promoting benefits. Professor Gorbunova and her team are currently carrying out a study using Do Not Age’s SIRT6Activator® and full publication is due in November.
Brian Wang’s Anti-Aging Journey
Be aware that diving too deeply into the world of anti-aging supplements can cost a lot of money. And there no guarantee that you will achieve anything more than making very expensive urine.
Here is a more conventional grouping of longevity supplements from a popular website promoting health products:
In the image above, the supplement Resveratrol roughly corresponds to Brian’s supplement Sirt6 in terms of function. Quercetin roughly corresponds to Brian’s supplement Fisetin. The supplement labeled “NAD” in the image above corresponds to Brian’s “NMN.” There is no mention of Berberine in the image above, although Berberine is well known to life extension insiders as a potent phytochemical with multiple effects.
I recommend no smoking, no drugs, no more than 1 alcoholic drink per day, regular exercise, and an overall prudent lifestyle including medical checkups, screenings, and vaccinations. An active social life, active pursuit of intellectual curiosity, and spiritual calm and equanimity are all recommended.
Digression #2: Energy Realism is Life or Death
Without electricity and heat, civilization drags to a halt. A lot of modern people have become very sentimental about the idea of “saving the Earth” from the human taint, so sentimental in fact that they are in danger of dooming themselves and their descendants to nonexistence.
…many of the most strident and vocal climate activists refuse to consider nuclear energy as an option, despite it being clean, safe, reliable, affordable, and technologically proven.
That might seem irrational, but it is perfectly consistent with the last half-century of the organized environmental movement…. In part because of its association with nuclear weapons (and the close connection between the green and antiwar movements in the 1970s), environmentalists long ago categorized nuclear energy as an unnatural technology to be shunned. Many people today are also concerned about possible meltdowns and natural disasters, of course, but the environmental movement’s antipathy to nuclear energy was established long before anyone had heard of Chernobyl or Fukushima. Thus, the one technology that could realistically replace hydrocarbon combustion as a source of reliable power has been taken off the table in many parts of the world, even amidst what climate activists insist is a rapidly unfolding planetary disaster.
Descending into a Cultist Dystopia
One does not need to be wise or to know anything in order to be a vocal political or environmental activist. All you need is a very strong and blinding belief to protect you from any contrary ideas that might otherwise lead you astray from the true faith.
Digression #3: Peter Zeihan Achieves Respectability on Times Radio
Soon after listing on the NYT Bestseller List, and ranking high on the Amazon.com bestseller list, Peter Zeihan taped an interview with Times Radio. If this is not respectability, it is perilously close.
Digression #4: Russian Soldier Says They are Losing
We’re losing but Moscow will never admit it, Russian soldier says
Why Russian soldiers are refusing to fight in Ukraine
Russian recruits receiving only 5 days of training before thrown onto front lines
Ethnic divisions and poor discipline
For world peace, Russia’s population should reduce to 50 M
Summary:
True believers are a dime a dozen. People who can entertain large sets of conflicting and contradictory ideas while maintaining operational clarity are more rare. Dangerous Children tend to fall into the latter category of thinkers. It’s a good thing, too, because in the future the more conventional type of thinker is likely to be made obsolete — or worse.
al fin next level 
Reducing longevity supplements should be used AFTER : poor caloric regimen, physical exercises, good sleep. They are not a magic pill that can be substituted to real work.