july

I am beginning to believe that this may be the BIGGEST difference in types of humans:

People who are honest with themselves

vs.

People who lie to themselves

This isn't even related to intelligence (although very wise people seem to be honest with themselves more frequently, bc they realize the truth will always come out, with enough time).

We usually define "honest" as "honest toward others".  But actually, the really critical thing is whether you are honest with yourself. And in any case: If you are not honest with yourself, you can not be honest with others – except by chance.

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I always assume my natural inclination is to lie to myself, and so I've developed a lot of habits/tricks to make it very hard for me to lie to myself.

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Absolutely. When I was a teenager I was a little shit.

Building an honest brain is a struggle that takes time.

It's a struggle because believing lies is easy and what most mids do. So the honest man must leave mids behind.

Inside their brain is an internal life-or-death war between the neurons that want to be honest and the neurons that want to be liked.

Only way for honesty to win is to burn your ships. No turning back.

As you say it, I wonder whether self-honesty is perhaps "built" more than "inherited". In the sense that maybe all of us may want to lie to ourself in many cases, but it's those who are aware of this desire, dislike it, and take action on it, that become honest to ourselves.