Dealing With Flexible Reality

TL; DR: Liminal space is a situation/mindset where reality is flexible. Most people aren’t comfortable with the unknown, so the uncertainty of liminal space leads to fear and anxiety. But the world is seeing an increase in liminal space, and you can learn to master this environment. If you don’t, it will master you.

Sometimes reality is flexible.

Let me explain.

If you’ve ever gone to an audition, moved to a new city, started a business, or changed jobs, you’ve probably been in this space where the future is uncertain.

Have you ever been worried or anxious about an uncertain future? It’s a situation that most people try to avoid most of the time. But it can be a powerful circumstance if you use it in your favor.

This uncertain state is sometimes called “liminal space.”

Liminal space is the threshold of transition. You could either get the gig or go home dejected. You could find the community you’ve always craved or spend a year in loneliness. You could grow rich and famous or go bankrupt.

Until all the possibilities crystalize into reality, it’s both all and none simultaneously.

The most famous example of liminal space might be Schrödinger’s cat, who is alive and dead at the same time.

Why should you care about all of this?

Because a window is opening up in the world. The speed at which things change is about to increase geometrically. Here are just a few of the forces in play:

· The most influential political and corporate leaders are changing the way information is disseminated, regulated, and evaluated

· General Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is poised to take over many tasks that traditionally required a highly trained human brain

· Global weather patterns are becoming unstable, leading to more extreme fires, storms, and other disasters

· Multiple forms of digital currency are gaining traction, which may radically change the way we earn money and pay for things

· The U.S. government is being run by people who want to dismantle many of our traditions and institutions

I’m worried about all this uncertainty, but there’s a flip side to uncertainty that doesn’t get enough attention.

Flexible Reality

Are you old enough to remember the “dot-com” boom of the 90s?

This might have been the first global liminal space since the invention of the printing press. When the Internet became mainstream, it changed the way every organization functioned.

I was a young, Bambi-faced copywriter, and a lot of old school writers warned me about how the internet was ruining their livelihood.

True enough, the internet initially made life harder for a lot of professions, especially writers and artists. But the people in these fields who figured it out were ultimately the ones who benefitted the most.

In the end, there was an unprecedented economic boom that took most people along for the ride.

The only thing you need to understand is that “uncertainty” just means that reality is flexible. The outcome is unprecedented and unwritten. This means you can bend it to your will.

I’m going to show you how to do this.

How to Master Liminal Space

The first thing you need is the right mindset.

Decide right now that you are a master of liminal space.  Remember that you have the power to create your own life.

This courage will create a profound shift in your mind.

There’s a part of the brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS) that filters information for you. It looks for the things that you decide are important.

If you are worried about the future and afraid of uncertainty, the RAS will be on the alert for problems and things that could go wrong. You will be on the defensive, clinging to old ways and habits.

But when you embrace the uncertainty and decide that you’re going to take advantage of liminal space, the RAS shifts gears.

At this point, you’ll be able to see what others don’t. Your RAS will look for opportunity instead of danger. You’ll get new ideas about how to achieve whatever it is that you want.

The quickest way to cultivate this mindset is by choosing a project or a mission. It should be something that will benefit you materially, and that you've never done before.

Most importantly, it's got to be an achievement that will cause you to develop new skills along the way. You’ll be learning the necessary skills of the new reality in real time.

This is what I call the adventure. It’s your self-engineered Hero's Journey where you get to decide on the goal.

Stay grounded in your mission while constantly being flexible as to how you accomplish it.

You need to get into the habit of not only being comfortable with liminal space but actually creating it. You’ll learn how with the Tool of the Week.

Tool of the Week: Build Your Own Liminal Space

1. Look for a part of your life where you feel stuck. A set of circumstances that make you feel unhappy, frustrated, or stagnated.

2. Look at the conditions that cause this stuck feeling. What are they, specifically? Write them down.

3. Circle the conditions that you can change.

4. Go through your changeable circumstances and pick the one that has the most leverage to break you out of your stuck situation. Imagine what you life will be like if you make this change.

5. If you’re unsure what the outcome would be, then you’ve just found a way to create a liminal space.

6. Be crystal clear on how you want this liminal space to be resolved. Have a mission, a vision, or an adventure in mind.

7. Make the change and dive into uncertainty.

Liminal space is possibility. it's transformation. If anything, liminal space gives your RAS more material to work with.

I can’t stress enough that the number one thing is to have an adventure laid out before you.  

When you have an objective that you're focusing on, your RAS will look for ways to carry it out. You'll find you'll see new opportunities in the rapid changes that are happening.

But now, let’s address the elephant in the room. There’s going to be a lot of pain in the coming years. So let’s end this week with a few additional practices for dealing with the storm on the horizon.

· Hold on to your humanity. The connections you make, the experiences you have, and the stories you tell are assets that can’t be replaced by any amount of machine learning.

· Never stop learning “soft” skills that are harder to replace. Read books on history, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience.

· Get your hands dirty. Delegate one of your regular chores to AI. Research and tinkering will reveal a way to do this, and you’ll learn a lot through the process.

· Spend a little bit of time each day learning about GAI.

· Make space for creative thinking. Walks, workouts, and showers are all good times for this. Develop a system for capturing your ideas and executing on the good ones.

· Take care of your health and fitness. Carbon-based neurons have a tendency to deliver winning lottery tickets when you take good care of them. A healthy body = a healthy brain.

· “Clear the table.” The number one use of AI is to free up your cognitive bandwidth. Constantly look for ways that agents can handle tasks that don’t fit your skills or your passion.

· Invest in the tech. I’m not saying you should put your life’s savings into Crypto or NVID, but don’t miss out by staying on the sidelines, either. Do your homework and make a few small bets.

· Learn to lead. A lot of displaced workers and even machines with apparent superpowers will soon be looking for new ways to apply their skills. It’s time to share your vision.

· Inspire others. Disruption is going to leave a lot of people feeling scared and confused. Be a model of hope and meaning.

If I’m being honest, I wrote this to put my own mind at ease. I’ve been worried about the changes coming down the pipeline.

But lately, excitement has replaced most of my fear. I always embrace the chance to learn and grow in new ways, and so should you.

There’s a big wave coming. Grab your board.

That wraps it up for this week.

If you’re enjoying these rants, lessons, and tools, I would love to hear from you.

If you’re not, I would like to hear from you even more.

Reply to this email and tell me what you think, what you’d like to see in the future, or just to drop me a line about your cat.

I don’t always have the time to reply to your message, but I read every one of them.

Jacob