Malcolm Ocean's roamblog

July 19th, 2021

edited 2021-07-19 · open in Roam
  • Aella has some great stuff on frame strength here - a useful different angle on frame battle / frame override
    • > It's fuzzy, but I have some faint idea of a specific style of frame-strength. Some people tend to carry more gravity than others; it's often super subtle (or sometimes not), it's sometimes damaging but sometimes not - but for whatever reason, when their view of reality collides with a lower-gravity frame, theirs "wins."
    • > I don't mean they win on the object level, I mean their frame 'eats' the other frame, even if the disagreement still exists, or if it's just a preference thing; a super oversimplified example if Strong-Frame Steve thinks a hat is amazing, and Weak-Frame Wendy thinks the hat sucks, then it's more likely that Wendy will come away from the interaction being like "I do think the hat sucks, but maybe my hat-suck view comes out of some deeper judgmentalness in me, I wonder why I can't see how cool the hat is?"
    • > Whereas Strong Frame Steve won't have a corresponding reaction, *won't* have a subtle check to see if "have I missed how out-of-style this hat is? Is my taste real shallow?" He just.... thinks the hat is cool and moves on.
    • > I'm real susceptible to it in individuals too; there've been multiple times where I felt drawn in and really trusting of charismatic strong-frame people because of their strong frame, and then when separated from them/their ideas for a while, I go "wait a damn freaking second, I trusted them because of the frame, not cause of the ideas, and I also lost touch with myself somehow in connection with them."
    • [there's more to the post]
    • further comments disambiguate:
      • > 1. i don't think it's the same as 'frame control', though it's got lots of similarities. Strong Frame feels... maybe closer to an 'absence' of doubt, while frame-control features a lot of active or deliberate moves in a conversation. (I do think ppl who frame-control often usually have Strong Frame, though)
      • > 2. I don't think it's the same thing as wanting to please someone in social power; I know several friends in high social statuses who don't have Strong Frames, even if they're largely confident and not insecure.
      • > 3. I don't think it's exactly the same thing as self confidence, although it probably has a lot of overlap. I can think of many people who have a ton of self confidence, but who don't feel like they have the Strong Frame effect.
    • this post by Tasshin Fogleman has some suggestions for finding win-wins internally or between people
      • > Ask one or more of the following questions as generative prompts:
        • > Is there a way to meet need 1, without doing X?
        • > Is there a way to meet need 2, while doing X?
    • quoted in its entirety:
      • > An ethical teacher is simply someone who gives you THE OPTION to not be in a cult dynamic with them.
      • > But you still have to exercise it.
      • > Related, if you’re in a cult dynamic with a teacher it’s ultimately because you lack a developed centre, end of story.
      • > And if you’re afraid of being in a cult dynamic with someone that’s always your shit to deal with by growing some maturity as a student - not the teacher’s.
    • I partially agree with this and also think it's profoundly misguided as well. I would steer away from having a teacher-student relationship with a teacher who thinks they can fully assess whether they're doing anything culty, which is what this implies.
    • In practice, many wise teachers give you the option to not be in a cult dynamic with them on one level, as long as you don't point out any of their blindspots on another level... at which point you're in a cult dynamic with them in precisely the ways they can't see or acknowledge.
    • From the teacher's perspective—which is subject to the frame maintaining the blindspot—you absolutely have the option of not being in a cult dynamic. From a perspective outside the blindspot frame, that option doesn't exist. The teacher may go to great lengths to show you how to enter their frame so that you can experience this non-culty dynamic with them! Much of what they're saying will probably even be wisdom and generally-applicable.