Howdy howdy howdy!

This is the main research page.

For some added context, Substratum 611 is for the most part a personal development project with a lot of emphasis on research and understanding topics. This wiki, Life is what you make of it, is just as it sounds. I want to make this mostly for any topics that I catch and then expand on it.

For specific, episode-related research, please refer to the Episode Notes page.

This is also kinda like a shortcut, but in the sense that shortcuts aren’t necessary the shortest path or the path of least resistance but the path that works the best with what you have. The pain of mistakes won’t leave. The worry of what could have been won’t dissipate. Failure is still an option. This writing isn’t necessarily to get rid of any of those, but to both reduce the possibility of it happening and to better handle the situation when it does.

Ownership and control are both a recurring theme in this writing. If you don’t want to change, then probably read this writing later. You gotta want it. There are a lot of things we can’t control but this is something you can, but you have to want to control it.

And no, there won’t be a perfect time to read this. Or even a better time. It’s either now or never. If there is anything I understand about people is that if you have someone’s attention, capitalize on it because you won’t get it again.

As Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi said in his book on flow:

“The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen.”

Just as economics is fundamentally the study of scarcity, this writing is about one key idea: weighted attention.

In psychology, this is often referred to as “attentional bias” which refers to the idea that your attention is naturally drawn to certain stimuli or goals over others, regardless of their actual importance or priority.

One major theme here is humans are naturally emotional creatures.

This writing doesn't have to be read in order so feel free to jump to whichever chapter or subchapter gets your tism to tism. This is like a reference writing, with citations and other readings if you want to dive deeper into a concept.

Disclaimers

There won’t be stupid assumptions or speculations. By no means am I assuming you want something but actually want something else. That’s delulu. I’ve seen countless times (usually men talking about women or women talking about men) saying XYZ wanted ABC but actually wanted DEF. I’m not going to say this is what you actually want. I can only deal with facts, objective understanding, and back it up with evidence when needed.

None of the following should be construed as advice or telling you what to think. This is about showing another perspective. Think of this as a conversation. You don’t need to agree with the writing as a whole. You be the judge of the content you consume and pick and choose what you want and how you use it.

By no means do I want to waste your time or attention. The structure of this writing is intended to be as much information packed in a way that is both easy to digest and clarifies any tangents and caveats as possible without overwhelming the amount of information.

Keep in mind that everything covered here are not absolutes nor one-size-fits-all or a get-rich-quick scheme. This is just some of the tools in a warehouse of improvement. It has been and always will be your job to make something out of it.

Sometimes you have to break yourself down and build yourself back up.

You won’t be perfect (perfection is an illusion) but you will be better.

That’s what counts.

You already have everything you need to be the person you want to be.

Lots of love

-Aren