What’s this all about Riemer? Is this some kind of must-see-travel destination or did you get lost during one of your hiking trips?
Let me guide you through my journey…
😱The Valley of Despair
🗺️ I visited the Valley of Despair.
I’ve been playing improv theatre for over a year now. After many classes and 6 shows, I felt quite confident. Although I thought I stayed very humble and knew I still have lots to learn, it felt like I knew it all and was sure to handle everything. My confidence grew a lot.
Then suddenly a series of events made me tumble down into the valley of despair. I didn’t make it through the selection for the improv audition. Although I knew the chances were very low, I felt I made some good progress and was ready for it. When the news came that I didn’t make it, I felt disappointed at first. I got myself over it quite fast and moved on. Then during the first class of the new series, I blocked at a certain moment. I just couldn’t get into character anymore and suddenly got huge self-doubt. All of the sudden, my confidence hit rock bottom.
So, there I was: all the way down in the valley of despair. Suddenly I had the feeling I knew nothing anymore.
This is my most recent personal example, but I’ve had it before. I saw a similar effect when my wife became more and more of an expert in dog behaviour. Moreover, most of us have visited the valley of despair already. It’s a common phase in the Dunning-Kruger effect. It’s a cognitive bias whereby people with low knowledge, expertise, or experience of a task, skill or area of knowledge tend to overestimate themselves.
Or in simple words: the less you know of something the more confident you are and the more you start to know of something, the less secure you become.
💡 I’m climbing the slope of enlightenment.
Once you tumbled down, you have two options. You either stay there and wallow in self-pity. Or you can pick yourself up and start searching the upward trail signs. For me, it didn’t take much longer than a week to see the light again. That’s what they call the slope of enlightenment.
Like it or not, you will always have to move through all the phases: you get over-confident and arrive at mount stupid, you fall all the way down to the valley of despair and you start climbing the slope of enlightenment until you reach the plateau of sustainability. Sometimes the peaks might be higher or the valleys less deep.
The difference is, now we have a map. We know what is coming. That means
the more we apply it, the better we get at learning itself. We will be more humble after our first wins and the drops will feel less painful. In short, the extremes will not be so extreme anymore
by being aware of the effect and its phases, we can use it as a self-help tool. It will help us to reflect in a more honest way. So, instead of becoming overenthusiastic or being drowned in negative emotions, we will be more realistic and be able to track our progress.
This is extremely important in the valley of despair, as you just hit rock bottom and are ready to give up. You have to get up, remind yourself that this is part of the progress and start climbing again. I started applying the feedback and went to the next improv class and these small wins helped me through it very fast. So, don’t let the Dunning-Kruger effect trick your brain, but make it work for you instead. After all, the journey is more important than the destination.
😍My Favorite Things of last week
📺 Series: Chasing beauty: I watched the Belgian series ‘Chasing Beauty’ about plastic surgery. I was positively surprised by the balance in the series. On one hand, it follows the people in their plastic surgery journey, on the other hand, there’s a lot of explanation by the scientists. It fits well into the topic of body neutrality that I’ve been following for some months now. The real hazard is clearly that plastic surgery is becoming such a mainstream thing to do for people with low self-esteem. It’s more affordable and easier accessible than some years ago. The experts expect it to become even more of a choice in the future and expect it to evolve into a similar thing as doing your nails, going to the hairdresser or even shaving your legs.
🎥 Video: How I made my life a video game - Better ideas: this video is a bit of a gimmick, but it touches well on the idea of gamifying your life. It might sound stupid at first, but it can be a great way to make life more enjoyable. For example, by finding meaning in what you do, celebrating accomplishments and taking ownership of your outcome, process and beliefs.
🎙 Podcast: Naval: I listened to the podcast of Angel Investor1/Philosopher Naval Ravikant. His advice that really stuck with me was the one on reading original, classic books. By reading classic essential books of a specific domain such as On the Origin of Species - Charles Darwin, Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith or Six Easy Pieces - Feynman you know the essential elements of biology, economy or physics. This gives you the more basic knowledge to cut out the bullshit from more modern books.
🛌 Sleep Research: Russel Foster (Professor Of Neuroscience): I dove into Foster’s latest research on sleep. It’s super interesting. I will definitely get back to this topic, but the biggest takeaways for me were that blue filters/glasses/apps actually don’t work, and neither do sleep apps. One of the biggest influences on our sleep is the morning light we (don’t) get.
🗨 Quote of the week
Don’t chase the cat. Be the milk.
✏Visual of the week
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An angel investor is an individual who provides capital for a business or business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity.