Our beliefs act as useful filters on the possibilities of reality. They are tradeoffs. We live our beliefs, often without realizing. We can also change them.

There are two possibilities: either the sun rises tomorrow, or it doesn't. I live the belief that the sun will rise tomorrow.

Why?

I’ve experienced it before. The sun rose yesterday, and every day before that. But this is the problem of induction - the sun rose today, but this does not mean necessarily that the sun will rise tomorrow. Maybe a freak anomaly will cause the sun to explode tonight. Maybe strange stars swallow everything up before sunrise. But I’m not stockpiling space heaters in vain or living a completely hedonistic lifestyle to prepare for the sun's absence. There’s a utility tradeoff I make that I’m not fully conscious of: it matters more to me to continue living my life vs. immediately prepare for something that’s never happened to me before.

This is also distinct from like, intellectual understanding. You might tell me that everything is a simulation and my consciousness could be a momentary arrangement of gaseous molecules and I might intellectually understand and even agree, but then I go right back to eating my banana or browsing Twitter. Beliefs seem to happen before or outside cognition - we live them.

However, I also have beliefs about things I've never experienced personally. I believe I would die if I jumped off the top of the Empire State Building. I don't know this from direct experience - I've never jumped off the ESB before.

There are two possibilities: either I jump off the ESB and die, or I jump off the ESB and don't die. I live the belief that if I jumped off the ESB I would die.

Why?

There's a tradeoff - the chance of realizing an amazing superpower (like Neo) vs. the risk of killing myself and ending all further possibility, which seems much more likely. So, I live the belief that I would die if I jumped off the ESB.

These are examples of pretty respectable beliefs. But here is a belief that is causing me suffering: I cannot get a job on the open market.

I've never gotten a job by simply applying on Indeed or AngelList, etc. Most jobs I've gotten have come through personal networks and connections.

Regardless, "I have not yet gotten a job on the open market" might be true. But "I cannot get a job on the open market" is a belief. I've noticed it operating in the background, muting me and depressing me and keeping me from finishing my resume and putting it out there.

There are two possibilities: either I can get a job on the open market, or I can't. I live the belief that I cannot get a job on the open market.

Why?

Once again, there's a utility tradeoff happening. What do I gain? If I live the belief that I can't get a job on the open market, I am protected from things I find really scary, like wasted time, negative judgment, failure, a hurt ego. What do I lose from this belief? I lose a really quick way to find a job and take care of myself. I lose a surefire avenue to security, independence, and strength.

By the way, why do I find negative judgment, a hurt ego, and failure really scary? Beliefs! These things don't have any valence in and of themselves - I lend them emotion and charge based on other, deeper beliefs. I could believe that it's wrong or scary to be judged negatively by others. I could believe that it's wrong to fail. These beliefs, too, have some utility tradeoff. It's beliefs all the way down.

Something is happening where I fear the pain of these emotions more than I crave the power of self-sufficiency. I think I can transcend this if I allow myself to feel these emotions fully. If I trust that I can feel them and still go on. If I trust that the emotions aren't bad or good or false or true - they exist, but they're nbd.

I don't think any of these tradeoffs happen "intellectually," in a System 2 manner. I can't quite name what the higher or Other thing that is the audience of our beliefs. It's something like an Awareness, very close to our Being. I feel we can ease our suffering by training this awareness to notice, without judgment, the distinctions between what is true and what is simply a belief.

What beliefs are you living, right now?