Self-Experimentation with Meta-Rules: Quality of Knowledge & the Justificationist Addiction

Nassim Taleb talks about epistemic humility in terms of quality of knowledge. Jerome Groopman, in parallel, shares a similar theme by asserting that knowledge does not translate directly into wisdom.

And it's wisdom that we're seeking, ultimately.

That's why I wrote about Black Swan Logic for n=1 Health.

Knowledge is just a (necessary, but not sufficient) stepping stone in between.

So, when it comes to assessing quality of knowledge, interdisciplinary inquiries in philosophy of science seem potentially useful for informing how we structure and interact with our daily self-experiments; our daily living. Personally, these inquiries have led me to think that self-experimenting with meta-rule formation is one potential way to accomplish a few goals at once, to "kill two (or more) birds with one stone," as they say:

1) Reflecting on quality of knowledge

2) Structuring our experiences as clinical trials

3) Creating feedback systems to observe and capture results

4) Integrating personal data effectively

5) Acting on lessons learned from living

Because we are all scientists in our own way. Whether or not we frame our lives in that fashion matters less to the universe than it does to us: Personally, I find value in viewing living as self-experimenting, as testing my m=1 story-telling empirically through my experiences, creating vibrant interactions with my constantly-updating and evolving narratives, myths, intuitions, and heuristic habits.

Epistemology, as the study of knowledge, requires conjectures (hypotheses / ideas / theories / stories / mythologies / concepts / et al.) for testing; and, at the margin, anything can serve as a source of suggestions. And anyone can test these suggestions; not just people with the word "scientist" in their formal titles. Titles matter little to reality; reality just reacts accordingly. Luckily, Seth Roberts has advanced this field immensely, and he regularly highlights three keys to self-experimenting successfully:

1) The subject-matter knowledge of insiders

2) The freedom of outsiders

3) The motivation of someone with the problem

Motivations matter. For instance, I fit these three descriptors when it came to my chronic migraines and sinus infections: I cured myself nutritionally ... eventually. But it wasn't easy. I had to falsify a lot of theories painfully before emerging on the other side of this opaque tunnel safely. While trying to escape the darkness of this epistemological tunnel, "experts" both misled (deceived) and helped (nudged) me, but regardless of the knowledge source, I was still left to sort it all out for myself, on my own terms, with my own devices.

Recently, a perceptive reader of my blog, Marc Simonson (who has been self-experimenting with Ancestral Health for over fifty years), emailed me with a thread that I feel captures all these concepts magnificently (and concretely, more importantly).

HISTORY HAS SHOWN THAT, WORLDWIDE, MANY PEOPLE FOR MANY CENTURIES HAVE KNOWN THAT IF THEY FERMENT FOODS, THEY ARE BETTER ABLE TO DIGEST AND ASSIMILATE THEIR NUTRIENTS.

SO, IS IT NOT LOGICAL TO THINK THAT THOSE FOOD FERMENTING ORGANISMS CAN PRODUCE NEUTRALIZING / INHIBITING SUBSTANCES AGAINST FOOD ANTINUTRIENTS ... JUST LIKE ORGANISMS ROUTINELY PRODUCE THEM AGAINST ANTIBIOTICS? I THINK YES.

DO YOU THINK YOU CAN FIND OUT IF ANY RESEARCH STUDIES HAVE BEEN DONE ON THIS SUBJECT, AND IF YES, LET ME KNOW WHAT THE RESULTS ARE? AND, IF THERE ARE NO RESEARCH STUDIES ON THIS SUBJECT, WOULDN'T IT BE A GOOD SUBJECT FOR THE ANCESTRAL HEALTH SYMPOSIUM FOLKS TO PURSUE BEFORE THE ACTUAL EVENT?

Clearly, this cuts right to the core of what self-experimentation with meta-rules for m=1/n=1 Ancestral Health is all about. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Here is my response:

Yes, it is well known that fermentation reduces the toxicity of many compounds. I eat Greek yogurt for this reason; it's like a universal condiment in my nutritional bricolage schema.

I could send you research studies, but do you really need epidemiology to justify to yourself this reality? You have access to the best experiment: your own body experience.

I would trust those results--if you have not falsified your conjecture, keep thinkering with it and observing closely.

That's how I like to operate.

Though it's always fun to read the research literature, and I enjoy that form of inquiry immensely, when it comes to quality of knowledge and avoiding the Justificationist Addiction, I always place more weight in what my body tells me.

With this groundwork in place, I decided to create this post as the permanent list of Meta-Rules that I will use to catalogue and archive all the aphorisms that I utilize and that others share with me, giving credit to the author of each (hat tip to Navanit Arakeri for suggesting this forum format):

Meta-Rules are simply rules for making 'rules to live by':

~Don't consume anything that causes negative physiological responses, such as excessive mucous production. - Brent Pottenger

~You can't eat a bunch of peanut butter and then take a bunch of fish oil to cancel it out. - Melissa McEwen

~Don't forget to stay mentally and physically flexible. - Marc Simonson

~A 'Paleo' cupcake is still a cupcake. - Melissa McEwan

~Don't consume anything that causes allergic reactions. - Brent Pottenger

• How? "Start with the next Meta-Rule by Chris, then also consider other allergy indicators like itchiness, swelling, inflammation, redness, irritability, and skin bumps." - Brent Pottenger

~Don't eat or drink anything that makes you sneeze. - Chris

~Don't consume anything that leads to a bad aftertaste. - Brent Pottenger

~Don't omit daily setting of your circadian rhythm; it is the starting point to optimum health. - Marc Simonson

• How? "On cloudy days, stay indoors in rooms with lights that give off UVA, UVB, and blue light. Also, install these full spectrum lights in your bathrooms and in your kitchen since this is where you most likely will spend the first part of your day. Then, on the way to work, open up the car windows to let in the UVA and UVB light ... and some fresh air!" - Marc Simonson

~More "flow" of body fluids and nerve impulses equals less cellular entropy. Less "flow" of body fluids and nerve impulses equals more cellular entropy. So, get those body juices flowing! Or, better said, DON'T let those body fluids stagnate! - Marc Simonson

~Don't expend energy in ways that make you feel chronically sore. - Brent Pottenger

~Never become dogmatic; we are still learning. - Sarah-Ann

~Don't consume seafood that tastes/smells overly fishy. Wait until you aren't repulsed by the fishiness any longer to commence consumption again (mercury poisoning avoidance). - Brent Pottenger

~Don't become a Thanksgiving Turkey (i.e. Minimize your exposure to negative Black Swan hits). - Aaron Blaisdell

~Don't consume anything that makes your face look puffy (inflammation avoidance). - Brent Pottenger

• How? "Look in the mirror after consuming meals and see what the results say. I suspect excessive beer consumption is one of the worst culprits on this front. I drink very little EtOH." - Brent Pottenger

~Suspect any conclusion that runs against Evolutionary Logic. - Miki

• How? "Black Swan Logic for n=1 Health." - Brent Pottenger

~Don't expend energy in ways that make your lower back ache (injury avoidance). - Brent Pottenger

~Don't ignore your daily circadian rhythm energy cycle requirements: eat like a king in the morning (for work & non-work energy); ... a prince in the afternoon (for work & non-work energy); ... and a pauper in the evening (for non-work energy). - Marc Simonson

~Don't go more than a week without consuming some type of fermented food. - Brent Pottenger

~Don't let negative communications and circumstances become your own, as they might become negative self-fulfilling prophecies. - Marc Simonson

~Don't go more than five days without doing one upside-down exercise. - Brent Pottenger

~Don't push your body too far out of its homeostatic norm; competition-level conditioning cannot be maintained for a lifetime. - Marc Simonson

~Don't consume anything that destabilizes your mood or degrades your energy levels. - Brent Pottenger

~Don't consume any (or minimize consumption of) foods or liquids that contain chlorine, fluorine, or bromine; they can damage your thyroid by replacing its iodine. - Marc Simonson

• How? "Coffeedy, Conjectures: Aged Water Coffee Brewing." - Brent Pottenger

~Never go anywhere unprepared. - Aaron Blaisdell

~Never go anywhere overprepared. - Aaron Blaisdell

~When earthly opportunities come into my life that I might want, I ask God, "Please don't let me have this, if it is not good for me; and, please let it happen, if it is good for me." - Marc Simonson

~Don't expend energy in non-Power-Law ways for too long (linearity avoidance). - Brent Pottenger

~Don't limit your supply of fresh air while awake or sleeping. You need the oxygen for cellular repair and recovery. - Marc Simonson

~Don't move non-fractally (non-musically) repetitively. - Brent Pottenger

~Don't let either your analytical or creative/artistic/aesthetic mental activities dominate the other; take time each day to engage both of these capacities in functional exercise to maintain balance between them. - Marc Simonson

• How? "I try to do some activity in my garden each day and put my hands in the dirt. It does me good. I also try to listen to some good music each day." - Marc Simonson

~Don't practice skeptical empiricism without simultaneously knowing where your faith is. - Brent Pottenger

~Don't overreact to life's situations. - Marc Simonson

• How? "Rate things that come up in life on a scale from 1 to 10 before making a decision or acting: 1 being the least important and 10 being the most important. It is amazing how this helps to sort out priorities."

~Don't experiment with more than one variable [at once]. - Jake A

~Don't sleep with the light on. - Chris

~Don't eat or drink anything your grandmother would not recognize. - Anonymous, adapted by Brent Pottenger

~A computer needs electrons to work properly, and a body needs photons to work properly. - Marc Simonson

• How? See Chris' Meta-Rule directly below ...

~Never spend less than two hours outdoors in nature per week. - Chris

~Don't let a week pass without breaking a sweat at least once. - Brent Pottenger

~Don't ignore the importance of your body's pH (acid - base) balance; it is vital to your survival. - Marc Simonson

~Don't think naively that plants are your friendly food friends; they've evolved as immobile creatures with toxin-laden tissues for protection against herbivory. - Brent Pottenger

~Let food be thy medicine. - Tom Woodard (reiterated via Hippocrates)

~Don't disrespect the spirit of The Ten Commandments. - Brent Pottenger

~You can change the location of your body (genes) all over the planet (i.e. by traveling), but you cannot change the diet that your genes evolved on ancestrally. - Marc Simonson

~Don't forget that some stressors happen once per hour, others once per day, some once per month, with a few occurring just once per year (or less). - Brent Pottenger (adapted from @NNTaleb)

~Don't neglect to help your friendly intestinal bacteria / micro-organisms thrive ... they are your closest allies in health. - Marc Simonson

~Never let a week pass without one intermittent fast. - Brent Pottenger

~Let health, not appearance, be your motive; let wisdom, not knowledge, be your guide. - Rick

~Remember that biological systems almost always involve conflicts, tradeoffs, and compromises between conflicting factors; there is no perfection to reach. - Matthew

~Experiment on yourself conservatively. - VMary

~Don't disrespect your ancestry. - Brent Pottenger

~Once you get the idea of Ancestral living, don't spend too much time on the Internet reading about it. - Pieter D

*Email me or leave a comment to add your rules here! - Author TBA ...

This is a live, evolving list; catalogue and share your meta-rules openly.

I'll keep updating this list of rules as we progress. I've composed these statements--grace nudges like Mark Sisson's excellent Primal Laws or Kurt Harris' wonderful 12 Steps--as 'Negative Advice' because I think this is more empowering and respectful than is positive advice: it clips away what not to do, allowing what to do to be left up to you. It's reflective of the 'Asymmetry of Uncertainty': we know what is bad for us much more certainly than we know what is good for us. Be creative with this leeway.

Also, I am adding "How?" entries under some of the Meta-Rules. These will hopefully help illustrate how individuals are applying Meta-Rules in practice to deduce 'rules to live by' based upon higher-level conceptions and intuitions. Feel free to share your "How?" entries too.

Because sometimes asking "How?" is better than asking "Why?" (hat tip to Patrick Vlaskovits for his excellent essay).

Whenever you are assessing quality of knowledge and sense the Justificationist Addiction rearing its head, maybe you can say: "Let's simply capture that notion as a meta-rule, analyze it for its merits, and then, potentially, test it in our own unique ways."

To me, this underpins something that I've learned from Dave Lull, my deductivist mentor: Never practice skeptical empiricism without conscientious self-awareness of your faith. The limits of knowledge are far too vast to live any other way.

That's at least my take.

Because so many times I've realized that I simply had the wrong map in the first place.

Negative empiricism just may win the day.

Meta-Rule away!

To good health,

Brent