Small Defeats or Unskillful Actions

What's the focus?

I visited a friend recently. She is a Buddhist. As we talked, she spoke about ‘unskillful actions’. That is – mistakes we make from time to time. It seems Buddhists prefer language that is not blaming us as individuals – and more describing what we do.

I realised that ‘small defeats’ are, in fact, unskillful actions. By contrast, small victories arise from our skilled actions.

This might be a useful, alternative way to think about the safe experiments you are designing.

Our actions, when we implement a safe experiment will have consequences or results. Those results will demonstrate whether actions we used were:

skillful —————————————————————————– unskillful.

I like this idea as it still encourages me to build on skills I demonstrate. It still asks “what can I do differently ….” when I am unskillful.

In addition, however, it allows for middle-of-the-road results; mixed results.

It could help with recording results. After all, the line above, a continuum from skillful to unskillful, can be used to records complicated results. Can you try it out?

Does this make designing experiments any more easier for you?

Further lines to consider

https://your-nudge.com/

https://your-nudge.com/how-to-give-yourself-a-nudge/

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