Use Dunbar’s Number to Create Your Own Reality
“What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons. You’re born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts. But I never forget. I’m living like there’s no tomorrow, because there isn’t one..”
- Don Draper
I walk into my corridor kitchen only to find people laying in the couch watching TV. They are watching some Harry Potter movie. They start complaining loudly —in a surprised way— when suddenly the movie breaks for commercial.
A fat girl yells out:
—I love Christmas because this is the time of the year that they show the best movies!
I’m thinking to myself: what, you can’t download movies any day of the week? Or is it that you don’t even know what kind of movies you prefer to watch?
The fat girl sees a commercial and screams:
—Ahh, Avatar? I hated that movie, but then I watched it again and kind of liked it…
I ask her why she would possibly watch it again if she hated it.
Guess what she said?
—Well… Uh.. I believe in giving things a second chance.
She was completely serious.
——————————————————
What we have here is a perfect example of how to live your life unconsciously.
This is the kind of person who has no purpose in life.
A person who places zero value on her time.
A person who is content to kill time by any means necessary to carry on her pathetic existence for no other purpose than to… prolong homeostasis and eat more food?
A person like this is completely stuck in the leisure mindset and will avoid temporary boredom at any cost.
This is the complete opposite of what we’re aiming for.
So how do I avoid becoming one of these people?
By carefully managing your inputs for information, stimulation, and your environment.
Here in this post I’ll go into how you can manage your inputs for information.
But before I get into that I need to tell you into about Dunbar’s Number.
Respect Dunbar’s Number
Dunbar’s Number is a scientific finding within evolutionary psychology which states that humans have a cognitive limit that confines us to being familiar with a maximum of 100-230 other people. For some reason 150 is the number that’s usually being used when speaking about this, and therefore the number I’ll use as well.
So, what does this mean?
It means that:
These 150 people are the ones that you feel a sense of familiarity and connection to — they are the ones you perceive to be part of your tribe. Everyone else is perceived more or less as an outsider, and gets treated with much more suspicion and resistance.
Groups above 150 people tend to get increasingly disorganized the larger they become.
With regards to controlling your inputs for information, we are concerned mainly with the first implication.
But that’s not all.
There’s actually a twist to this — and an important one at that!
The cognitive limitations described by Dunbar’s Number are NOT confined only to how many human beings we perceive as being part of our tribe, but to anything we perceive as being a living entity with a personality.
This includes celebrities, imaginary characters, brands, and other things.
This is a major reason why companies spend massive amounts of money on PR and marketing. It’s because they want their companies to be perceived as a person and become one of your 150 buddies — they really want to be perceived as part of your tribe.
If you respect Dunbar’s Number you will not allow any of these things to be part of your tribe.
If you respect Dunbar’s Number you’re going to be VERY mindful about what 150 perceived personalities you allow into your life. Since you inherently trust, like, and feel connected to these 150 things, they are going to have a huge influence on how your life is governed.
If you respect Dunbar’s Number you will deliberately avoid poisoning your mind with celebrities, imaginary characters, brands, and other things that don’t serve as positive guideposts or role models for you accomplishing your goals.
Skip all that unconscious bullshit.
What you’ll do instead is to carefully and consciously select the 150 most important influences that you want in your life.
Stop Living in Hyperreality
Dunbar’s Number is also the reason why so many people live in a confused hyperreality.
Hyperreality is defined as “a real without origin or reality”
It’s a hard concept to grasp for most people because they are so immersed in it that they can’t see it. But it’s very obvious to those who aren’t.
This is why I recommend that you stop watching TV — forever.
Since many of people’s 150 most influential sources of information are occupied by useless things, they inevitably get a skewed understanding about what is important in their lives. They are influenced by things such as:
The mainstream media
Coca Cola
Justin Bieber
And this handicaps their ability to critically consider questions about how they should lead their lives.
We are bombarded with more ads, social media, television, and other unnecessary sources of information than we have ever been before.
No one knows the exact amount, but the average person is subjected to about 5000 advertising messages per day.
There’s no doubt that this affects us.
Yes, even you.
So how can I avoid this from happening?
—By managing your inputs for information.
Just like the stupid fat girl from my corridor, most people aren’t very mindful of what sources they get their information from.
They just consume whatever information they can get without thinking about how this aligns with their goals in life.
Why?
Don’t even go there…
Just focus on yourself and manage your inputs for information.
Summary: Manage Your Inputs for Information
Remember Dunbar’s Number and be mindful about what 150 perceived personalities you have in your head.
Drop TV and mainstream media forever. Stop being average, these are activities reserved for the uneducated masses.
Read books and direct your information search to things that have to do with accomplishing your goals.
It’s up to you to build your own reality, step by step – brick by brick, to slowly but surely create a masterpiece.
If you don’t, you’ll automatically be part of the hyperreality that 99% of everyone else is part of. And take a good look at 99% of all people; they’re living vastly below their potential, they are generally unsuccessful and in many cases miserable.
They lack drive.
They’re uncertain about what they want out of life.
They are willing to do whatever seems to be the most fun in this moment because they lack a long-term vision of what they’ll accomplish in life.
The older they get the worse they become; wishfully looking back at their youth making up stories of how cool and great they were (when they really didn’t do shit) – stories that they relive on a daily basis and live vicariously through.
It’s pathetic.
So if you don’t make the decision to step up and own your life —starting by controlling your inputs for information — this is likely going to be the outcome, at least statistically.
Will you allow yourself to be a mere statistic?
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