Handling the Dark Forest: Survival When the World's On Fire

@arthurdoler Arthur Doler Resources: Boring details about me are at
https://arthurdoler.com @arthurdoler Arthur Doler Resources: Boring details about me are at https://arthurdoler.com

@arthurdoler Why hello there.

@arthurdoler When people ask what I do I always just
tell them I solve problems

@arthurdoler tag urself I’m the two dead fish in a
bowl

@arthurdoler “Beer” brand beer. For when you need to know
it’s an actual beer.

@arthurdoler Not pictured – approximately 321514 other crises

@arthurdoler I took some artistic license – SARS COV2 is
not a Langolier

@arthurdoler Thus began The Case of the Missing Toilet Paper

@arthurdoler Dun dun…. Dun dun…. Dun dun dun dun dun
dun dun dun dun dun d

@arthurdoler DUN DUN DAAAAAAAAA

@arthurdoler The person in the bathroom has been thoughtfully omitted

@arthurdoler “How did you catch soup on fire?”

@arthurdoler Just… eating 2-day old Orange Chicken on my Peloton
while binging Tiger King

@arthurdoler “I totally think Carol’s husband is tiger food.” “Why
are you here?!”

@arthurdoler Or tolerated it, in the case of most cats

@arthurdoler Wearing a thin path into the carpet

@arthurdoler “… where is all the cream cheese?”

@arthurdoler “WHERE IS ALL THE CREAM CHEESE?!”

@arthurdoler “What if there’s never any cream cheese again?”

@arthurdoler “All I wanted was some cream cheese for my
bagel…”

@arthurdoler Not exactly comfortable, but your code will smell nice

@arthurdoler One weird trick your chiropractor will hate

@arthurdoler Movin’ on up! ♫

@arthurdoler The Rock of Damocles

@arthurdoler Your brain and you The Walled Garden & the
Dark Forest Your brain during the pandemic Surviving the fire Handling the next fire that comes along A roadmap for the next

@arthurdoler Thoughtbags may be larger than depicted in this image

@arthurdoler “Thanks, that’s very helpful.”

@arthurdoler "Trauma and Shock“, American Psychological Association

@arthurdoler The Science of Stuck, Britt Frank

@arthurdoler WHEN YOU GET INDIGESTION YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE YOU
FAILED “O my own stomach, why dost thou attack me?”

@arthurdoler YOU DON’T FEEL BROKEN WHEN SOMEONE ELSE GETS INDIGESTION
AND YOU DON’T Unless you really like the flavor of antacids, I guess?

@arthurdoler Work being the most important part of your life,
of course.

@arthurdoler lol, lmao

@arthurdoler #1 champion organ

@arthurdoler This is the talk where I draw a lot
of headbands apparently

@arthurdoler More like the ego-centric bias, am I right?!

@arthurdoler Pets who want fed also count

@arthurdoler Rough measurements of the meat sac in your cranium

@arthurdoler EnterpriseCognitionFactoryFactoryBean

@arthurdoler THIS IDEA IS CALLED THE EXTENDED MIND The Extended
Mind, Annie Murphy Paul – also Daniel Dennett and Andy Clark

@arthurdoler Miyake & Shah, 1999

@arthurdoler Just & Carpenter, 1992

@arthurdoler You Are Not So Smart podcast, Ep 184 @arthurdoler

@arthurdoler The topiary rabbit does not represent anything in particular
@arthurdoler

@arthurdoler THIS IS THE INTENTIONAL SELF The Blindspots Between Us,
Gleb Tsipursky

@arthurdoler @arthurdoler the forest is very spoopy

@arthurdoler THIS IS THE AUTONOMOUS SELF The Blindspots Between Us,
Gleb Tsipursky

@arthurdoler Binoculars only included with the “Deluxe” brain model

@arthurdoler “Thanks! Don’t mind if I do!”

@arthurdoler @arthurdoler Strangers to Ourselves, Timothy Wilson

@arthurdoler Pronin, 2009

@arthurdoler @arthurdoler This is just an example! Avocados are great!
Please don’t hurt me :c

@arthurdoler Thinking Fast & Slow, Kahneman

@arthurdoler Wilson & Bar-Anan, 2008

@arthurdoler The citations for this are vast

@arthurdoler @arthurdoler mmm... tacos.

@arthurdoler @arthurdoler ERROR: UNEXPECTED ELEPHANT IN PATH

@arthurdoler Why We Snap, Fields

@arthurdoler Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman

@arthurdoler An ominous sound, at best

@arthurdoler So much for reading your book…

@arthurdoler Ow ow ow ow ow ow

@arthurdoler The symptoms of this condition vary widely

@arthurdoler @arthurdoler *hacker voice* you messed with the wrong wolves

@arthurdoler Donald Norman, Emotional Design

@arthurdoler STRESS DIMINISHES YOUR ABILITY TO THINK AND TO CONTROL
YOUR ATTENTION Liston, McEwen, and Casey, 2009

@arthurdoler Like a toddler having a tantrum

@arthurdoler If you find wolves emitting smilies, please back away
slowly

@arthurdoler WE SEEK COMFORT WHEREVER WE CAN GET IT, WHEREVER
WE’VE GOTTEN IT IN THE PAST Even in some not-so-nice places

@arthurdoler Even when stressed, please do not stab anyone over
toilet paper.

@arthurdoler “Now I can kill any germ I see coming!
... Wait a minute…”

@arthurdoler Jansen, Nguyen, Karpitsky, & Mettenleiter, 1995

@arthurdoler Surely this won’t be so bad. Might as well
make the best of it…

@arthurdoler Citation on this one is literally everyone’s lived experience

@arthurdoler It happens over and over and over

@arthurdoler WE STARTED TO ENCOUNTER: A lack of forward progress
Emotional problems Physical health problems Diagnosable mental problems As the indigestion spills out into the rest of our existence

@arthurdoler I’m assuming it doesn’t suck as I’m giving this
talk, which seems like bad odds

@arthurdoler Stop, drop, and roll, maybe?

@arthurdoler It’s distressing to do but it hurts less than
constantly failing

@arthurdoler Ha ha ha ha no, but seriously

@arthurdoler Are the murder hornets still out there? Does anyone
know?

@arthurdoler SEEK CONTROL IN LIMITED, REASONABLE FASHION, EVEN IF IT’S
NOT “USEFUL” Key word here is “reasonable”

@arthurdoler Maybe you really like neon green

@arthurdoler It’d be a super depressing talk if we couldn’t.

@arthurdoler WE ABSOLUTELY CAN. You can believe me, because I’m
a Thought Leader.

@arthurdoler Frazier, et al., 2009.

@arthurdoler STRATEGIES FOR RECOVERY Managing the path back to being
okay

@arthurdoler Time to give a talk inside another talk!

@arthurdoler FIND AN ACTIVITY WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE DIFFERENCE
YOU MAKE Give and Take, Grant

@arthurdoler @arthurdoler It’s essential to do, but… good luck!

@arthurdoler Or at least returning to some kind of baseline

@arthurdoler RECONNECT WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS! … assuming you want
to!

@arthurdoler “I have specific comfort needs.” “So, let’s talk about
that…”

@arthurdoler COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (CBT) Retraining the Conscious/Autonomous dynamic

@arthurdoler This slide sponsored by Flava Flav

@arthurdoler Bubble-gum flavored drugs were the worst.

@arthurdoler Just tell them a Thought Leader said it was
okay.

@arthurdoler Make sure to tell your boss I said so,
too.

@arthurdoler Or at least find a direction for that path.

@arthurdoler @arthurdoler “Oh no, not my remote!”

@arthurdoler @arthurdoler Larcom, Rauch, & Willems, 2015

@arthurdoler @arthurdoler I hope you didn’t have to teach your
family what Discord was…

@arthurdoler @arthurdoler Not the easiest choice in the world

@arthurdoler It is most definitely coming for us.

@arthurdoler Like the alarm clocks, remember?

@arthurdoler EXTERNAL SYSTEMS HELP YOU FREE UP WORKING MEMORY Paas
& van Merriënboer, 2020

@arthurdoler Inner peace and enlightenment not guaranteed.

@arthurdoler Oh look, another headband!

@arthurdoler Uplifting!

@arthurdoler Or any combination of the above

@arthurdoler WHAT CAN YOU SOLVE BEFOREHAND, SO YOU DON’T NEED
TO THINK ABOUT IT? Think of it like spinning up other instances

@arthurdoler LET THE DARK HARVEST BEGIN

@arthurdoler Just livin’ in a monopoly house

@arthurdoler Apologies to whichever poor artist did the original for
me to butcher

@arthurdoler This is my least-favorite slide in the talk

@arthurdoler Astonishingly convenient!

@arthurdoler LEARN PLAY CONNECT GROW A checklist for resiliency

@arthurdoler Just don’t breathe in the dust, it’s probably toxic

@arthurdoler The blueprints for success, when everything else is on
fire

@arthurdoler Arthur Doler My website is probably still https://arthurdoler.com Resources:

Handling the Dark Forest: Survival When the World's On Fire

Handling the Dark Forest: Survival When the World's On Fire

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