Joined: Aug 03, 2006 Posts: 4313 Location: Graceland
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 4:01 pm Post subject: Peak Oil Hazard: "Target Fixation"
Many of you may be aware of the concept of "target fixation." It is the tendency to focus on something--a target--to the exclusion of everything else, and ultimately make poor decisions because the brain is not processing all of the important NON-target related information (like when it's time to pull up on a bombing run).
I believe that males are more predisposed to target fixation than females (as I recall this was the result of some studies done by auto insurance companies on crash rates for men vs. women).
Perhaps the most important aspect of target fixation is being aware of when you may be in a target fixation situation yourself, and what you may need to do to broaden your perspective enough to have a clear view of the whole playing field.
In the PO environment, the dangers of target fixation are obvious: you focus on PO and its negative effects to the exclusion of everything else in the world, including what might be useful PO mitigation strategies.
The danger of target fixation for pilots is that they might fly right into an object they are simply using as a point of reference. The danger for POers is that they may miss out on living a happy life today because they are so troubled by the future they see unfolding. Another risk for POers is that they may over-prepare for PO and under-prepare for other challenges life may throw at them, such as personal illness, loss of loved ones, poor relationships with other family members, and a sense of alienation from people who don't "get it."
I saw an interesting quote: "Fanaticism is doubling one's efforts, yet forgetting one's purpose."
Joined: Jun 14, 2007 Posts: 146 Location: SE Qld Australia
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:47 pm Post subject: Re: Peak Oil Hazard: "Target Fixation"
BigTex
Good post! I feel that this is part of the psychological evolution of the understanding of the world that is unfolding.
Fatigue over time
These ideas we so glibly discuss are in essence scary and painfull to many. They require a change in paradigm and effective action. In the short term, no worries, can be done. In the medium term it can be difficult to sustain and we get 'tired'.
Myself, I had a 3 phase approach. Short term resposne, medium term response and long term response. Once up and running, I am about 90% prepped for short term, 80% prepped for the medium and about 10% (materially) for the long term.
After a burst of activity, prep has slowed down. I still have my cunning plan but I am having to work harder to get the damn thing done. My motivation has taken a back seat to day to day concerns again. I think this has come form some sort of fatigue on this subject. I have 'gotten the point' and have started a plan of action where I have started to get results. Now I need to kick back for a bit as the next set of steps will take a lot.
Good post mate!
Dr Bang _________________ For every question , there is a lie. For every lie, there is a truth. For every truth, there is a way. And for every way, there is a time. This is the time.
Joined: Aug 03, 2006 Posts: 4313 Location: Graceland
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:47 pm Post subject: Re: Peak Oil Hazard: "Target Fixation"
DrBang wrote:
I still have my cunning plan but I am having to work harder to get the damn thing done. My motivation has taken a back seat to day to day concerns again.Dr Bang
Perhaps you need the help of someone skilled in putting together
"a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel."
Joined: Jun 14, 2007 Posts: 146 Location: SE Qld Australia
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:57 pm Post subject: Re: Peak Oil Hazard: "Target Fixation"
AH HA!!!!!!
I am unmasked! (poor old Edmund)
I did indeed sit down and work out an optimised response fitted to me personally here in SE Queensland. I don't have the resources that many do here on PO.com. I am far from helpless though!
A cunning plan (ratatooie without the rat even). What I did not count on was losing momentum. I will pick it up again though. Every 30 days, I revise the plan based on what I see, observe and
understand.
I have been making a concious effort though to enjoy life though. If we are right, this era of excess and entertainment will end very soon. How to balance the two, thats the trick.
I can post my plan if you like. Remember it is for Australia so you guys may think parts of it are odd. _________________ For every question , there is a lie. For every lie, there is a truth. For every truth, there is a way. And for every way, there is a time. This is the time.
Joined: Aug 03, 2006 Posts: 4313 Location: Graceland
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:19 pm Post subject: Re: Peak Oil Hazard: "Target Fixation"
DrBang wrote:
AH HA!!!!!!
I am unmasked! (poor old Edmund)
I did indeed sit down and work out an optimised response fitted to me personally here in SE Queensland. I don't have the resources that many do here on PO.com. I am far from helpless though!
A cunning plan (ratatooie without the rat even). What I did not count on was losing momentum. I will pick it up again though. Every 30 days, I revise the plan based on what I see, observe and
understand.
I have been making a concious effort though to enjoy life though. If we are right, this era of excess and entertainment will end very soon. How to balance the two, thats the trick.
I can post my plan if you like. Remember it is for Australia so you guys may think parts of it are odd.
Sure, share the plan if you would like.
I love Australians. I don't think I've ever met a gloomy Aussie.
Australia produced the best movies about post-industrial apocalypse.
Australia also produced the best tranvestite road trip karaoke movie.
I just picture a bunch of guys drinking beer and cracking each other up all the time with those fantastic accents.
Joined: Nov 16, 2007 Posts: 295 Location: Rural Western Idaho
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:48 pm Post subject: Re: Peak Oil Hazard: "Target Fixation"
BigTex wrote:
Many of you may be aware of the concept of "target fixation." It is the tendency to focus on something--a target--to the exclusion of everything else, and ultimately make poor decisions because the brain is not processing all of the important NON-target related information (like when it's time to pull up on a bombing run).
Perhaps the most important aspect of target fixation is being aware of when you may be in a target fixation situation yourself, and what you may need to do to broaden your perspective enough to have a clear view of the whole playing field.
In the PO environment, the dangers of target fixation are obvious: you focus on PO and its negative effects to the exclusion of everything else in the world, including what might be useful PO mitigation strategies.
The danger of target fixation for pilots is that they might fly right into an object they are simply using as a point of reference. The danger for POers is that they may miss out on living a happy life today because they are so troubled by the future they see unfolding. Another risk for POers is that they may over-prepare for PO and under-prepare for other challenges life may throw at them, such as personal illness, loss of loved ones, poor relationships with other family members, and a sense of alienation from people who don't "get it."
I saw an interesting quote: "Fanaticism is doubling one's efforts, yet forgetting one's purpose."
I could not help but quote most of what you said above -- because it is so timely for me to have read this. My personal focus over the past couple of weeks -- maybe a month -- has become much narrower ... more like tunnel vision.
By nature I am a believer that things will work themselves out ... an optomist and a person of good cheer. Well, I was. Even though I knew about and believed in PO, and even accepted that much would change and much sacrifice and hardship would come about. Still, I believed that it would be for the best -- that it would force us to return to a better way of living ... those of us that make it through.
Over the past weeks, though, my focus has become more and more toward the "not making it through" part, rather than the "life will be simpler and better and more grounded for those who DO make it through." This does not feel right, good, or productive to me as a way of thinking. I believe it tends to make one reactive instead of proactive ... and proactive is more of what I have been in the past.
I am looking around for my old self. I am sure I am in here somewhere.
Thanks for this post.
Lumpy _________________ Dean Karnazes : "Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up." --- Jackie Joyner-Kersee: "It is better to look forward & prepare, than to look back & regret."
Joined: Aug 03, 2006 Posts: 4313 Location: Graceland
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:53 pm Post subject: Re: Peak Oil Hazard: "Target Fixation"
Lumpy wrote:
My personal focus over the past couple of weeks -- maybe a month -- has become much narrower ... more like tunnel vision.
By nature I am a believer that things will work themselves out ... an optimist and a person of good cheer. Well, I was. Even though I knew about and believed in PO, and even accepted that much would change and much sacrifice and hardship would come about. Still, I believed that it would be for the best -- that it would force us to return to a better way of living ... those of us that make it through.
Over the past weeks, though, my focus has become more and more toward the "not making it through" part, rather than the "life will be simpler and better and more grounded for those who DO make it through." This does not feel right, good, or productive to me as a way of thinking. I believe it tends to make one reactive instead of proactive ... and proactive is more of what I have been in the past.
I am looking around for my old self. I am sure I am in here somewhere.
What would you tell a patient who told you the same thing? _________________
Joined: Nov 16, 2007 Posts: 295 Location: Rural Western Idaho
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:27 am Post subject: Re: Peak Oil Hazard: "Target Fixation"
BigTex wrote:
Lumpy wrote:
Over the past weeks, though, my focus has become more and more toward the "not making it through" part, rather than the "life will be simpler and better and more grounded for those who DO make it through." This does not feel right, good, or productive to me as a way of thinking. I believe it tends to make one reactive instead of proactive ... and proactive is more of what I have been in the past.
I am looking around for my old self. I am sure I am in here somewhere.
What would you tell a patient who told you the same thing?
1. Practice wellness -- i.e. don't feed your illness (in this case, target fixation), feed your wellness
2. Walk in the light -- literally and figuratively (spiritually/emotionally/mentally) (After all, someone wiser than us said "As a man thinketh, so shall he be."
3. Walk away from whatever is pulling you toward your personal darkness -- at least until you regain perspective
4. Take your meds (if you are on any)
Thanks, Tex.
Lumpy _________________ Dean Karnazes : "Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up." --- Jackie Joyner-Kersee: "It is better to look forward & prepare, than to look back & regret."
Last edited by Lumpy on Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:42 am; edited 1 time in total
Joined: Dec 27, 2004 Posts: 12559 Location: zombie horde wonderland
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:54 am Post subject: Re: Peak Oil Hazard: "Target Fixation"
Lumpy wrote:
1. Practice wellness -- i.e. don't feed your illness (in this case, target fixation), feed your wellness
2. Walk in the light -- literally and figuratively (spiritually/emotionally/mentally) (After all, someone wiser than us said "As a man thinketh, so shall he be."
3. Walk away from whatever is pulling you toward your personal darkness -- at least until you regain perspective
4. Take your meds (if you are on any)
I wish more peak oil doomers would take this advice. _________________ No original ideas are contained in this post.
Joined: May 18, 2006 Posts: 4381 Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:59 am Post subject: Re: Peak Oil Hazard: "Target Fixation"
Ludi wrote:
Lumpy wrote:
1. Practice wellness -- i.e. don't feed your illness (in this case, target fixation), feed your wellness
2. Walk in the light -- literally and figuratively (spiritually/emotionally/mentally) (After all, someone wiser than us said "As a man thinketh, so shall he be."
3. Walk away from whatever is pulling you toward your personal darkness -- at least until you regain perspective
4. Take your meds (if you are on any)
I wish more peak oil doomers would take this advice.
I say walk towards your personal darkness & walk towards your personal light. One must do each of both.
Many of you may be aware of the concept of "target fixation." It is the tendency to focus on something--a target--to the exclusion of everything else, and ultimately make poor decisions because the brain is not processing all of the important NON-target related information (like when it's time to pull up on a bombing run).
I believe that males are more predisposed to target fixation than females (as I recall this was the result of some studies done by auto insurance companies on crash rates for men vs. women).
Perhaps the most important aspect of target fixation is being aware of when you may be in a target fixation situation yourself, and what you may need to do to broaden your perspective enough to have a clear view of the whole playing field.
In the PO environment, the dangers of target fixation are obvious: you focus on PO and its negative effects to the exclusion of everything else in the world, including what might be useful PO mitigation strategies.
The danger of target fixation for pilots is that they might fly right into an object they are simply using as a point of reference. The danger for POers is that they may miss out on living a happy life today because they are so troubled by the future they see unfolding. Another risk for POers is that they may over-prepare for PO and under-prepare for other challenges life may throw at them, such as personal illness, loss of loved ones, poor relationships with other family members, and a sense of alienation from people who don't "get it."
I saw an interesting quote: "Fanaticism is doubling one's efforts, yet forgetting one's purpose."
But without concentration of mind we wont get far with our accomplishments. Balance is the key.
A few years ago I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about a con man named Charles Ponzi. He was credited with inventing the first pyramid scheme.
The article stated when Ponzi was interviewed he was asked how he was able to swindle so many people so easily, his responded, "When a man's mind is concentrated he is blind."
This case of having your mind concentrated to the point of blindness is not anything new. The ancient philosophers new this well. They called it "putting passion before reason."
Both these areas of passion and reason where the foundation of much philosophical discussion of ethics and virtue with the ancient Greeks.
They knew when passion rules the mind, that the only job left for reason is that of the subservient task to find cleaver ways to satisfy the passions.
When our minds are occupied with too much wreckage of the past, too many problems and complexities and out of control passions then there is little room left in it for reasonin.
My advice...stop fixating on the minutia and look at the total picture, otherwise blindness will set in.
Sometimes we jump the gun with survival mania and do it in an unbalanced way.
The way I work my survival preparedness is to do the footwork, prepare, educate and hold it on the back burner unless needed. Until that need, I just live life the best I can.
Without that mindset one cannot be at peace with life, as we are always looking for doom and gloom every day...every hour...every minute. And some survivalists seem to be disappointed if the don't get disaster!
This gives you your base. If things seem to be heading to code orange, step it up a notch. If code red is about to hit, I'm sure you will know it and it is time to implement your plan to the fullest.
So you switch gears from being a short term survivalist to a longer term one.
Driving my car, going to the movies, buying new clothes or gadgets, attending work, progressing my career, going on holidays, going out drinking/clubbing, etc... Isn't that just target fixation upon "business as usual"?
Perhaps "walking into the darkness" is the BEST thing we can do in this time. To fixate on PO and GW is an excellent way to prepare. If you lose friends and family who refuse to listen to the serious issues we are sson to face is it worth "forgetting" PO for them?
Sure you can take your mind off it occasionally. Making music is a good way for me. But most modern day entertainment just reminds me of the issues, and isn't so "fun" anymore.
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