Definitions

Self-discipline

Self-discipline is the determination to self-integrate.

Self-integration

Self-integration is the process of mutually aligning one’s actions, values, and desires, through the resolution of internal conflicts. The process of self-integration involves a continual dialogue between what we do, what we value, and what we desire, with the understanding that each can inform and shape the other. You have a theory, an explanation, for why an action is desired or undesired. Can you uncover this explanation? Can you rationally criticize it? Is it a good, hard to vary, explanation? 

Wealth

The repertoire of physical transformations that one is capable of causing. The most direct measure of your "wealth" is the tangible transformations you've been able to make in various aspects of life—be it personal, professional, or communal.

Good Explanation 

Is a hard to vary assertion about reality, because every detail, ideally, plays a functional role, and if the explanation is refuted, its defenders would have nowhere to go.

Project 

Is an interconnected set of assertions. This set contains assertions about the value (contextual) and benefits (measured advantages) the fulfillment of certain objectives (intended results) will create for its stakeholders. Furthermore, it accounts for the requirements needed, the manner in which to fulfill these objectives, and the constraints under which this fulfillment must take place either explicitly or implicitly. Noting that omissions of any parameters or aspects are also part of the conjectures and relate to their perceived importance or arbitrariness. Thereafter, these assertions are unavoidably subjected to being tested against reality (the world or the state of things as they actually exist) producing an outcome (result). The difference between the outcome and reality represents errors in the conjectures. 

Explanation

Statement about what is there, what it does, and how and why.

Creativity

The capacity to create new explanations.

Fallibilism

This recognition that there are no authoritative sources of knowledge, nor any reliable means of justifying knowledge as true or probable.

Problem

A problem exists when a conflict between ideas is experienced.

Rational

Attempting to solve problems by seeking good explanations; actively pursuing error correction by creating criticisms of both existing ideas and new proposals.

Evolution (Darwinian)

Creation of knowledge through alternating variation and selection.

Computation

A physical process that instantiates the properties of some abstract entity.

Proof

A computation which, given a theory of how the computer on which it runs works, establishes the truth of some abstract proposition.

The Principle of Optimism

All evils are caused by insufficient knowledge.

Bad philosophy

Philosophy that actively prevents the growth of knowledge.

Culture

Set of shared ideas that cause their holders to behave alike in some ways.

Rational meme

Idea that relies on the recipients’ critical faculties to cause itself to be replicated.

Anti-rational meme

Idea that relies on disabling the recipients’ critical faculties to cause itself to be replicated.

Law of Requisite Complexity 

In order to be efficaciously adaptive, the internal complexity of a system must match the external complexity it confronts.

Leverage

Is the (strategic) use of a resource to gain a disproportionate advantage.

Resource

Anything that has functional value.

Critical Thinking

Thinking aimed at producing criticisms.

Criticism

Expressing or involving an analysis of the merits and faults of an idea.

Coercion 

is a way of choosing between rival theories that is independent of the theories’ content, and depends only on which of the proponents of the theories is stronger. Coercion embodies the false theory that might makes right. Disagreements can either be resolved through reason, or they can be dealt with coercively.

Knowledge

Information that has causal power.

Explanatory Knowledge

Information where its causal power is derived from an understanding of reality

Service Dominant Logic

Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic is a theoretical framework that posits that all economic value creation is co-created through the exchange of services. Money represents rights to future service.

Theory-ladenness

Theory-ladenness is the concept that our observations and interpretations of the world are heavily influenced by our theoretical assumptions. It suggests that we do not perceive the world purely or objectively; instead, our understanding and perception are shaped by our existing mental frameworks.