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.

building /bracket | talking /greatbooks | ex-BCG, ex-PHD | poli + phil + econ

everyone thinks they are honest with themselves

the problem is generally people lie to themselves while thinking they are not

Building @warpcast and @farcaster, new dad, like making food

completely agree they are aware to some extent

the body knows and some part of the mind

but if an entire world view rests on some belief I think it's easy to be blind to something that's right there in front of you

This is a very tricky point (and important), but here's a sign that people are more aware than they may seem:

Defensiveness.

When people feel their self-lie under threat, they have a physiological response that is something like fight/flight. This response could not be triggered w/o some awareness of the self-lie.