All posts by : Markus Modin

I am writing this article because I think it concerns a profoundly important, though delicate subject matter – namely the very thing that determines what you do with what you know, which is your integrity. But what is integrity? Is it a metaphysical, theoretical or a practical subject matter?

I would argue it is a very practical subject matter, perhaps the most practical of them all, seeing as how it determines everything you accept and allow yourself to do, in thoughts, words and deeds, in every moment of breath. So thus, it concerns the very question of who you are within and as what you accept and allow, within as well as without. It is in a way the one undeniable metric by which you can actually measure your integrity. What do I accept and allow, directly and indirectly?

In the words accept and allow lies all the power in the world. And it really matters what you accept and allow; in your thoughts, words and deeds. I believe that now, more than ever – children need to have this explained to them. It is almost as if children, as well as many adults, do not see, realize or understand that they do not have to accept and allow themselves to participate in their minds the way that they currently do. It is as if the process is automatic. But everything that is automatic in a human-being is unconscious, by virtue of its premise. So the implication suggests, that we are a very unconscious/automatically driven species, and it’s time we transition from automatics to directive self-awareness and self-responsibility.

Self-awareness should be the primary subject in schools as it determines how the students will relate to everything.

So I am here to argue the case that integrity is a very practical subject that can and needs to be taught in schools; as a long-term strategic and cautionary measure, which furthermore does not require any religious or spiritual undertones or gurus. What it does require however, are practical frameworks which one can verify by executing in a way that measurably produce outcomes in thoughts, words and deeds and based on principles and values centered around honoring life – values that ensures an ethical existential impact.

But it is a matter of accustoming the public for the adoption of certain concepts, concepts which inherently bring about dissonance, fear of change, resistance and anxiety, which speaks to the extensive challenge of making integrity a matter of education. One of the things that bespeak this existential anxiety is the undeniable truth that you are equal and one with that which you accept and allow within and without. And I personally believe that this is the premise that is required in order for one to start developing a sense of moral duty, responsibility and integrity. For integrity to matter, one simply must take ownership of ones acceptances and allowances.

The reason it needs to become part of the education process, is because without integrity one may abuse what one learn in school. So in order to ensure that children do not abuse knowledge, they must consider how to create an ethical relationship to knowledge. Here an emphasis on the ways of the students of relating to things will become primary, which thus means that responsibility and self-awareness will become primary. Current and collectively accepted definitions of ”normal” means children should blame outside circumstances and events for how they accept and allow themselves to react to them internally; which has removed self-responsibility from the equation of a child’s conduct. Grown-ups also function this way based on where we are in our evolutionary process at the moment. And before you meet that sentence with some potential dismay, let me put you at ease by saying that I understand that you obviously cannot hold a child or adult accountable for what it does not have the tools to understand.

But what I am saying is that with such tools at an early age you can expect a great deal more from a child or adult. But like all things, it requires a process. At the very least, we must get children used to the idea that they are responsible for what they accept and allow within and as their thoughts, words and deeds and that they can do something about that. The consideration of what a child accepts and allows in thought, words and deeds should be a standard tool for support at an early age; seeing as how it has such an enormously positive impact on the development of a child’s self-awareness and sense of responsibility.

So what is integrity really all about, practically? As I’ve already said, it’s about everything; including the very uncertain continuation of the human-race. But let’s get concrete. Think of it in terms of a self-aware process of integration and self-responsibility. For example, when you become conscious of an unconscious tendency that is destructive, dishonest or in any way limiting, and you begin to correct and realign such a point in an integrity wise way by stopping your participation in that which fuels its causes, what happens? The unconscious point is no longer a unconscious point. You have integrated it from your unconscious to your conscious. You have taken responsibility thus, for who you are within and as what you do/act out, think, speak in a specific context. Such is the practical process of integrity. It’s about taking ownership of who you are and who you are not. It’s about taking a stand for real in and out.

I am not saying that we can judge people based on how integrity-wise they are, or any some such authenticity policing. And it is nearly always too early to claim if someone is dishonest or not. Time will tell. Besides, you cannot really ever know, nor should you make it your mission to find out who is who, like some kind of existential judge. You should however, clarify your own integrity and focus on cultivating that through introspection, realignment, application and correction. So you get to a point where you no longer blame outside circumstances and events for how you accept and allow yourself to relate to them. I realize this is a great ask, as it means you must deliberately go against human-nature. But remember, the key to success is actually integrity. Forget those self-help books, and ponder on this for yourself.

I am confident you will realize that the key to success is to effectively cooperate with people, and for that you must deserve their trust by behaving in a consistent and integrity-wise way. People naturally want to work with someone with some integrity, courage and values. It’s not a big mystery, because what do you know about a person with integrity? They will do the right thing; no matter what.

So what I am suggesting is a slow but sure start of introducing some concepts, applications, tools, disciplines and ideas of how to practice and develop integrity, without the spiritual, metaphysical and mystical nonsense that too often come with it. Because ladies and gentlemen, if we begin to solve these issues in ourselves, it will be reflected in our approach to the world and change will really happen. I am not particularly spiritual, but I do understand that there is a correlation between what we accept and allow within, and what manifests without. This is a highly practical perspective, not mystical at all.

Now, let’s look at seriously detrimental problems with our infrastructure in the world. The whole thing is setup based on perceived short-term self-interest, profit, greed as well as the tacit assumption that this is the way it is and has always been and so shall remain, and most likely no better alternative can be created because of human nature. So if self-honesty, self-responsibility and correction would be introduced as a practical process in schools – the whole thing would collapse. This is the biggest problem of the 21^st century, and one could argue, an age old problem. You might have noticed, that the most clear integrity wise examples, who told us all to leave together in integrity and peace, got killed. From Jesus, Martin Luther King etc. So this is why I say that it is the one and only problem, and that everything else should be considered as ripple effects thereof. So now that we have established that integrity is bad for the economy, what are we to do?

Policy Suggestions:

These policy suggestions primarily relates to education, which means it will in the long-term relate to everything, as education systems function as the programming people will act out in the system, directly and indirectly to a considerable extent. So let’s list a few points that need to be conveyed through the education process in terms of provoking some practicality to the subject of integrity.

1. Self-awareness must be differentiated in terms of it being based on perceptions and it being based on facts.
2. It must be understood that there is a difference between rational and irrational self-interest, and that perceived self-interest can actually lead people to edit memories to suit their self-interest and thereby distort the very self-image of a person. Self-interests need to be created with awareness and not automatic compulsions of addictive self-interests.
3. You can never trust yourself if you are not honest with yourself, and thereby self-honesty should be considered as a premise and determining factor for a healthy and well-deserved kind of confidence.
4. Reactions indicate automatic pre-programming that can be changed. The difference between an action and reaction must be understood.
5. It is not healthy to blame outside circumstances and events for how you accept and allow yourself to relate to them internally.
6. The only control that a human-being can exercise over their self lays in thoughts, words and deeds. It is here you are totally responsible for what you accept and allow and therefore it is in your thoughts, words and deeds your integrity is visible.
7. Integrity means: who you are within and as what you accept and allow within every moment.

With respect to this most important subject, we propose a simple module to start with, as a means for deconstructing the various thoughts, feelings, emotions, self-definitions, belief-systems, ideas, personality-constructs, defense-mechanisms, perceptions and judgments that can be considered as dishonest, destructive or in any other way limiting to a human-being. Here we suggest a module we call Trinity. But before you read on, please note: we are not saying that we have some universal answer to the problem of self-dishonesty, but that we should treat the subject seriously and find ways of introducing the subject in schools as a practical way of taking responsibility for oneself.

Through the practical process we will naturally find ways to improve, develop and make the subject more and more practical. So we humbly suggest the above as potential content for the future of education. But as with all EOS directives, we are asking for an opportunity to test these things, and through that process we adapt and discover what to keep, refine, eliminate and take responsibility for.

Trinity:

It is based on looking at your content from three dimensions. One being the conscious dimension (what it is – anger, sadness, fear etc), then the subconscious dimension (what it consist of and as – beliefs, definition, memories etc), and thirdly, the unconscious dimension (the effects and consequences it creates within and without – manifests in the ways within which a person relates to things, experiences etc).

By deconstructing internal points from this perspective you integrate them in a more full sense and understanding. And once you understand something, you can do something about it. But you must understand what it is, what it is based on, and the consequences and effects it has in order to put yourself in a position to do something about the matter, as well as assess its integrity/substance, or lack thereof.

What this module is about therefore, is taking that which is unconscious/subconscious and making it conscious. Thus, it’s about a process of aware integration; to put the pieces of yourself back together, for understanding, responsibility, improvement, change and correction. In this we want to emphasize that once you become conscious of something unconscious by integrating it through this module, you actually take ownership of a part of your mind and put it into context/perspective in such a way that you can use it in a self-aware and integrity wise way.

As you might have noticed, many things come in the number three. We have thoughts, words and deeds. And we have the conscious, subconscious and unconscious. Then of course, many consider the human-being as a kind of trinity, as mind, body and spirit. And in organisations we often use the number in terms of the why, how and when. We speak, write and read. And so it goes…

Point is, this number seems to simplify the structure of things to make things more easily understandable and actionable. So the module we call Trinity has many applications in three dimensional reality.

Thanks for considering our current public considerations for integrity as a public education policy.

Markus Modin

Sequence Director for Relations at EOS

markus.modin@technate.eu

This world is incredibly complex and interconnected, and there are laws and principles that regulate the way it all works in relation to each respective part. It’s been referred to as first order principles, governing dynamics, universal laws etc. But these governing dynamics, or as I like to call them, determining factors; play a decisive role in all fields and areas of society, nature, as well as human behavior, without exception. Yet, we tend to study such principles and/or laws in isolation from each other. Much like we tend to study various subjects in isolation from each other. I mean, consider for example the study of human behavior, in terms of how it requires a very multidisciplinary approach in order to come to terms with. You have to consider genetics, biology, history, psychology, spirituality, education systems, politics, parenting, social circle, economics etcetera. Because they all play a decisive role in the creations of human behavior.

The point is that you must be able to draw from multiple disciplines and connect dots that might seem unrelated at first, but in fact aren’t. And this I believe, is what the future of education must accomplish, as an integrated, multidisciplinary and holistic approach towards everything, especially since everything keeps getting more and more connected.

At present, many people specialize by virtue of market demands. But many of these market demands are and will continue to be met with increased levels of automation, and so human-beings who specialize in one particular thing or field, are particularly at risk of becoming unemployed. Consider a PhD student in chemistry for example; someone who has basically only studied chemistry for years. How much mobility in the system does such a skillset warrant, in terms of participating in domains outside of chemistry? Whereas someone with skills and understanding in science, communication, psychology, group behavior, history, leadership and law has a lot more mobility and flexibility in terms of capacity to execute, problem solve and effectively operate in various domains and disciplines, as well as cooperate with people of very diverse culture and specialty. Even such demanding and complex professions as those relating to chemistry, programming, medicine, engineering and law are at risk. With enhanced diagnostics by means of machine learning/artificial intelligence and 3D printing, there is a great chance that even such meticulous and demanding work will become automated to a considerable extent. What this means is that a specialist has a very limited future in the system.

As the world gets increasingly more interconnected, various disciplines are integrating, overlapping and intersecting, which will increase the level of complexity, and so obviously problem solving will become a very important skill, as it always has been. So why is a multidisciplinary approach to education so important in order to develop the skill of problem solving?

Because it gives you a more deep and wide reference framework for considering the causes and effects of problems, and thus find alignments between these points in order to articulate solutions. It improves your ability to consider things from multiple perspectives at the same time, as well as measure various ripple effects, as you can consider how those manifests through different domains and collective relationships. It also makes you more able to consider seemingly diametrically opposite views in terms of similarities. Because as a multi-disciplinarian, you will recognize how two opposite views can be accurate at the same time, from different perspectives (something that might illuminate the political debate?). You learn to think more holistically around problems and solutions. You become someone that can integrate things, which means you will make sense out of things. And this is something that will always be in demand. Especially in a highly complex and interconnected world that in many cases – does not make sense.

The current approach to education is largely based on specialization, which is obviously a very foundational problem when the markets are evolving faster than the education systems; as the education is meant to prepare the student for the marketplace, but alas – the student finds that there is no alignment between the education/preparation he/she went through and the actual market place grim physical reality.

And it is particularly difficult for an eager young mind that is trapped in this type of preparation system. Because based on the current and collectively accepted and allowed market conditions, and the education systems that are supposed to be designed to serve as infrastructure in creating/improving the marketplace, we directly and indirectly force children as well as adults to define themselves within one specific category of work or field, which is frustratingly limiting for a person that might care about many different types of disciplines and want to use all of them in their work life.

And I would further argue that this type of education, that is primarily based on specialization, really limits the self-image of the student. A student who sees him or herself as a specialist, will inevitably become trapped in a comfort zone, not only of the mind, but also professionally. A multi-disciplinarian will on the other hand have mobility, confidence and flexibility, by virtue of approach. Because in the multidisciplinary students head, there are considerations of many different things and opportunities, outside of the current circle of competence. Because the self-image is not restricted to one thing or field. All in all, the multi-disciplinary approach creates a psychology of creativity, self-trust and competence. The multidisciplinary mind can walk through a lot of human territory without the dissonance of feeling totally insecure or out of depth, and it is in such a state a human-being gets real productive and constructive.

I also want to emphasize that this is actually not particularly unusual a preference for a human being, but commensurate to the natural. Everyone naturally wants to expand in their understanding, application, capacity, experimentation and responsibility. It is just a matter of encouraging and imprinting this type of mind-set early on. The beauty of humanity is that we forever more want to expand, grow and realize our potential. And if you look at various people who have made successful contributions to mankind, there is this underlying pattern of a multi-disciplinary approach. They read everything they could get their hands on, not just things that seemed relevant based on their current knowledge and understanding. In short, they read because of the thing they didn’t know, as oppose to about the things they knew.

Many of our innovations came to be by total accidental flimsies of man’s hunt for the unknown. Someone broke the rules of the classroom by thinking outside of it and crossing, blending and mixing disciplines. All of a sudden in the middle of a classroom for example, when he or she should’ve paid attention to the chemistry teacher; started thinking about how to create an interface between the mind and the physical that could stabilize the world in a long term strategic way. This thought would most definitely not have occurred unless the person could draw connections between various disciplines. The point is, we get to major breakthroughs and realization when we let go of our ideas and preconceived notions of how to get there and we jump from discipline to discipline. And it is in this process of integrating seemingly unrelated disciplines we got to innovation and creativity.

Think about it this way, if you look at a singular variable; not for long you will see that it is connected to an additional point/variable, then a network, that is part of systems and so it goes. Everything becomes part of a greater picture, and it is through understanding how it fits together, we see opportunities for solutions, alignments and creativity, interaction and cooperation. Life is about making connections. Its about integration.

Context is everything, and you have to understand the context you are in; in order to make connections. So anything that helps you understand the context you are in is relevant and as a multi-disciplinarian you have so much more to draw from in order to deduce that context.

But let me clarify, obviously you can be a multi-disciplinarian even though you specialize, and I would argue that it would in fact help you specialize, by virtue of the contrast it affords your perspective. But I mainly wrote this article because I want this to be considered in terms of early stage development, as education control self-image. And self-image controls everything you do. So if you see yourself as a chemist, truck driver, leader, expert or perhaps just a humble student – you will behave in ways that are commensurate with those self-definitions. And it is here we want to emphasize that you should see yourself as a multi-disciplinarian, for then your self-image may be deep and broad. And as such, so will your actions. At length when we really begin to challenge the current state of education, we will look at how to create effective self-definitions that empowers people, and that are based on facts, not perceptions. But for now this is sufficient to argue the importance for a new more multidisciplinary approach towards ones education.

Below are some of our current public considerations for policy suggestions.

Policy suggestions:

A subject need to be created as a means of support in helping one deal with all other subjects. Let’s call it a toolkit for intellectual self-defense, shall we?

This toolkit should be designed based on factual awareness and understanding of how determining factors of human judgment influence perception when one study things unknown.

In other words, what are de common denominators that make a person a good student no matter in what field the student focus? This is the question that shows that what is required is not specific knowledge, but attributes that help one deal with all kinds of knowledge; attributes such as humbleness, teachability, critical thinking, attention-span, pattern-recognition, judgment, delayed-gratification, patience etcetera. These are the type of qualities that help you excel in all fields of endeavor and it is thus the type of stuff that makes for a framework that inspires a multi-disciplinary mindset and way of life that can support you in all fields and areas of life.

I am talking about a subject that will cover all subjects, to a certain extent. Take cognitive biases for illustrative purposes. There are standard causes for human misjudgment that are unconscious and thus automatic, such as cognitive biases. If you do not understand or even know about these inherent blind spots in psychology, you will naturally be ruled by them.

So what is needed are multi-disciplinary frameworks based on the determining factors for how human beings relate to things. This framework must be able to be applied in relation to everything, not just one field, which is the marvelous thing with psychology. You can’t really avoid it.

It’s time we get to the causes of things and that is impossible without a toolkit to discern the truth. Because as we all deeply know, just because one believe something to be true, doesn’t make it so.

We must think in terms of how to see through the mind, not merely because of it. Education should teach the student to see through her own limitations, perceptions, reactions, thoughts, emotions and feelings. But to get at least some practicality in to this very abstract subject of the multidisciplinary approach, let’s consider what this framework needs in order to help people operate more like multi-disciplinarians in a beneficial way.

Let’s first list all the subjects we need to integrate into this one subject, for the development of a multi-disciplinary approach.

1. Principles
2. Laws
3. Mind-programming
4. Cognitive Biases
5. Self-awareness
6. Intellectual Accountability

What we are talking about is the development of self-awareness based on facts, not perceptions. This article is meant to serve as a hint of what’s to come. We will be more forthright with specific suggestions for how to create this subject and then naturally, we want to test it and thereby discover what is worthy to keep.

The knowledge base you create as a cross reference framework for dealing with your reality, does not solely determine your sight, but vision. For whatever you see, you will see it in contrast to your knowledge base, and if your knowledge base is not wide and deep enough, you will obviously miss a lot of points, and in so doing – loss a lot of time you could’ve saved. This is why a constantly expanding knowledge base is a strategic imperative no matter who you are or what you do, as it saves you a lot of time and grief by cutting the learning curve and quantifies your process towards any kind of goal or attainment. But to really quantify your process of accumulating knowledge and understanding in an optimal way, it is necessary to develop a strategy or method by which you constantly expand your perspectives, by simply deciding and planning what to focus on. Your time, attention and efforts are your primary assets, and how you deploy these in a strategic long term manner is of outmost importance when it comes to really creating a desirable future. 

All of this seems fairly obvious, but in terms of really having a more in-depth look at the implications of directing any kind of content through your mind, I believe we tend to overlook some of the more major implications. Because when directing something through your mind, it is not merely a matter of the conscious-mind. The data goes through the subconscious and unconscious-mind as well, and in that process provokes all kinds of reactions, pre-programmed responses and so on. So, knowing this to be the case, and that everything you put in is highly suggestive to the subconscious and unconscious-mind, it makes it easier to see the need for prevention as the best cure. Meaning: to not put anything in that is not useful, supportive and/or integrity wise, in a long term strategic way, as a way of applying the principle of prevention as the best cure to ensure long term success and effectiveness. Because what you put in will determine what you put out. 

What I am basically talking about is a strategically long term information diet that is meant to support you in dealing with various areas of life that is determining. There are certain areas of life that we may consider foundational. This would include areas that largely determine what becomes of a human-being. Such as relationships, social-environment, self-awareness, understanding, health and well-being. All of these areas cover a lot of the ground work in learning how to adjust and adapt to really optimize your life. And what is more, all of these areas are changing with the disposition of times, and thus it is necessary to consistently expand your awareness and competence in these areas in order to remain flexible and effective, no matter where and with whom you must deal. 

So to contextualize all this in a practically self-empowering way, I will share a bit about an obsession of mine that started when I was about 15 years old, nearly 12 years ago; as I started studying how leaders read. But my interest was more specifically about how leaders decide what to focus on and invest in – a question that has been very difficult for me, as there are so many things of interest to me. So it all started as a way to help myself deal with everything, as I always felt a bit overwhelmed by all the possibilities, opportunities and potential I could see through all kinds of knowledge and information that I just couldn’t decide what to really work on. But in this I started seeing a need for planning what to focus on and invest my time in. I started making investment plans in knowledge and information, by building a library, both physical and digital, and eventually, I started working with this concept of long term strategic information diets, that could be constructed and engineered after individual needs. 

In this I began creating booklists/data-diets to tackle various problems. I created data diets for people considering suicide, people experiencing anxiety, fear, anger etc. Any kind of problem I could identify, I tried to find a knowledge and information diet that could remedy the problem. And so in this I began a process of living a consistent kind of mind-programming. Eventually I began to experience the effects of my data-diets in terms of improved pattern-recognition, empathy, strategic thinking, deduction abilities and an overall ability to see, realize and understand more complex systems, relationships and problems. I began to experience a kind of mental acuity that I realized anyone could develop. So I started getting in deep, by studying the reading habits of all kinds of leaders. I studied emperors, business leaders, innovators, experts, politicians, athletes and so forth. Now, in this process I found some interesting correlations between many world leaders, and particularly the highest achieving ones. There was always a behavioral pattern of constant learning and reading, and it was always very deep and wide. So what I saw was that what all leaders did was to constantly expand their current perspectives, and neglecting all conclusions to remain flexible and expansive in reasoning, or teachable more directly put.  So what can simply be concluded by these studies of the reading habits of leaders, is that you need a plan for your own personal intellectual leadership, in terms of how to invest in knowledge and information. To help people become knowledge and information investors in long term strategic ways. What really is required is a more long term sustainable and strategic approach towards one’s own education, as it is a never ending pursuit, that extends far beyond the education that is formal, and a strategy regarding your education can save you decades of hard work. In this age of knowledge it is clear how complexity is the enemy of execution, and so I think reading disciplines can simplify the complexity and put things into a perspective that makes one more able to execute. 

And maybe it is true what the wealthy say, that the only thing you can buy that will make your rich, is books. And additionally, another point to consider about making investment plans for the accumulation of knowledge and understanding, is the compound interest of it. There is for instance no way to predict the compound interest of buying a book such as Benjamin Grahams book The Intelligent Investor. How could that book change your life? 

By consistently accumulating valuable knowledge and information, it will throughout time create compound interest, get more organized and you may easier find ways to convert the knowledge into value. It’s about a way of life I suppose; to constantly expand your view, develop leadership vision and find ways to lead your mind and become an effective processor of the 21 century, which is this age of knowledge. It is time to take the habit of reading seriously, and consider how when you create habits, they will eventually create you. Reading is the one constant of the mind. It is always reading, whether it be reactions, emotions, feelings, content, people etc. You are reading both internally and externally, and so reading is a skill, not just an ability, I would argue it is The Skill, and my primary interest is dedicated to help develop people develop this skill, in the fashion many billionaires, investors and world-leaders have done it. It’s truly time to sharpen our reading skills, to make sense out of this overflowing world of information and knowledge. 

So with this I hope I have aroused your interest regarding my company and that you would like to learn more about how data diets can be utilized to support yourself in the long term and increase your chances for success in whatever you pursue.

Markus Modin

Founder at Directive Dynamics