Hello tridork and All, "I do a lot of my thinking on long bike rides or long runs. I pose myself a question at the beginning of the ride, and debate with myself as I ride. Big ideas, like my view on abortion, take several rides to develop my view. Once I develop my opinion on something, it's pretty set. Ocassionally someone will provide some data or information that I hadn't considered and that may tweak or swing my opinion another way, but that doesn't happen very often."
Actually you most likely have already formed your belief before the ride and only find reasons to reinforce that belief during the ride or run because that is how 'we are wired' through evoulution.
You might see evidence of the accuracy of this 'belief first' and 'only tell me what I want to hear' cognitive brain function here on this ST forum.
http://www.michaelshermer.com/the-believing-brain/ We form our beliefs for a variety of subjective, personal, emotional, and psychological reasons in the context of environments created by family, friends, colleagues, culture, and society at large; after forming our beliefs we then defend, justify, and rationalize them with a host of intellectual reasons, cogent arguments, and rational explanations. Beliefs come first, explanations for beliefs follow. Dr. Shermer also provides the neuroscience behind our beliefs. The brain is a belief engine. From sensory data flowing in through the senses the brain naturally begins to look for and find patterns, and then infuses those patterns with meaning. The first process Dr. Shermer calls
patternicity: the tendency to find meaningful patterns in both meaningful and meaningless data.
The second process he calls
agenticity: the tendency to infuse patterns with meaning, intention, and agency.
We can’t help believing. Our brains evolved to connect the dots of our world into meaningful patterns that explain why things happen. These meaningful patterns become beliefs. Once beliefs are formed the brain begins to look for and find confirmatory evidence in support of those beliefs, which adds an emotional boost of further confidence in the beliefs and thereby accelerates the process of reinforcing them, and round and round the process goes in a positive feedback loop of belief confirmation. Dr. Shermer outlines the numerous cognitive tools our brains engage to reinforce our beliefs as truths and to insure that we are always right.
http://www.amazon.com/...nforce/dp/0805091254 Bestselling author Michael Shermer's comprehensive and provocative theory on how beliefs are born, formed, reinforced, challenged, changed, and extinguished.
In this work synthesizing thirty years of research, psychologist, historian of science, and the world's best-known skeptic Michael Shermer upends the traditional thinking about how humans form beliefs about the world. Simply put, beliefs come first and explanations for beliefs follow. The brain, Shermer argues, is a belief engine.
From sensory data flowing in through the senses, the brain naturally begins to look for and find patterns, and then infuses those patterns with meaning.
Our brains connect the dots of our world into meaningful patterns that explain why things happen, and these patterns become beliefs.
Once beliefs are formed the brain begins to look for and find confirmatory evidence in support of those beliefs, which accelerates the process of reinforcing them, and round and round the process goes in a positive-feedback loop of belief confirmation. Shermer outlines the numerous cognitive tools our brains engage to reinforce our beliefs as truths.
Interlaced with his theory of belief, Shermer provides countless real-world examples of how this process operates, from politics, economics, and religion to conspiracy theories, the supernatural, and the paranormal.
Ultimately, he demonstrates why science is the best tool ever devised to determine whether or not a belief matches reality.
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From Wiki:
Scientific method refers to a body of
techniques for investigating
phenomena, acquiring new
knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge.
[1] To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering
empirical and
measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.
[2] The
Oxford English Dictionary says that scientific method is: "a method or procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of
hypotheses."
[3] The chief thing which separates a scientific method of inquiry from other methods of acquiring knowledge is that scientists seek to let reality speak for itself, and contradict their theories about it when those theories are incorrect
[4] ==========================================
As you say and perhaps with the Scientific Method in mind we should consider our opinions as subject to change if new information is discovered.
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And in keeping with the triathlon aspect of the forum as a tridork you are probably familiar with Shermer's Neck Syndrome named for the author of the work above.
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http://ultracycling.com/...ining/neck_pain.html As Thomas and Gooch prepared for their 2004 RAAM, they invited Sue Morris, LMT, to join their crew. Morris immediately researched Shermer's Neck and found no existing knowledge. She consulted Walter Libby, a 30-year licensed massage therapist and instructor in kinesiology at the Oregon School of Massage. Libby interviewed Thomas and discovered he had been involved in a severe automobile accident years earlier that included a whiplash injury.
A physical examination revealed soreness and numerous trigger points in the front muscles of his neck (sternocleidomastoid or SCM and scalenes).
Libby established a treatment plan with Morris providing two to three massages per week working specifically on the trigger points in the effected muscles. Myofacial trigger points are commonly referred to as knots in the skeletal muscle. In the case of Shermer's Neck they appear in long strings along the SCM and scalenes. Trigger points are sore even to a light touch; they cause referred pain, restriction of movement and loss of function.
By the fifth month of treatment the trigger points were gone. Morris continued treatment until the start of the race.
During the race she performed light trigger point work. She also used ice on the SCM and scalene muscles and heat on the trapezius muscles during each of Thomas' breaks off the bike.
Although he began to develop small trigger points around mile 300, none of them grew large enough to cause a problem and the condition did not impede his performance or comfort level during the remainder of the 3,000-mile race.
The SCM attaches to the skull behind the ear and plays a role in supporting the head. There are three separate scalene muscles that run beneath and behind the SCM and perform a similar function. In an extreme cycling position the scalene muscles may be in strong contraction while extending the neck.
These muscles are not accustomed to prolonged, sustained work when the head is in an aero position during a long race. If there has been a pre-existing injury these muscles may develop trigger points, fatigue and can ultimately fail. By eliminating trigger points in the sternocleidomastoid and scalene muscles, strength returns to these muscles and much of the pain and dysfunction of Shermer's Neck is reduced.
What do you think?
Cheers,
Neal
+1 mph Faster
Cheers, Neal
+1 mph Faster
