Are there any areas of study that teach you how to handle complex situations, probabilities, skilset

I'm looking for any areas of study or branches of thought that I can explore that would teach you how to best handle complex situations that involve a number of unknown factors, and give you the best probabilities on the best moves to make.

For example: You are a boss with 10 employees under you, and 3 bosses over you. Each day at work there are so many different factors and evolutions of change happening & it's impossible to figure out what each individual is thinking, wants, hates, etc. Some want you out & will do whatever it is to get you out, others are on your side, some you can't figure out & read. Then there is the narcicist, prankster, the quiet solitary, etc all with whom you need to find balance

Another example: You are with family on holidays, and some members can't stand each other. Eventually some arguments break out. Do you let them break out and resolve on their own? Or perhaps the holes get dug deeper & there is no resolution. Or if you intervene at a level of neutrality & compromise, you can disengage the situation and bring everything back to equanimity.

There are so many situations and examples that I can come up with and life in general as a macrocosm, of the microcsomic examples I just gave.

Only thing I can think of is Art of War, but surely there have to be other books that teach a well defined skillset that teaches you to master, adapt, overcome, and resolve any and all situations as simple and as complex as possibly can be.

reply to post by dominicus



You need to look into leadership books.

Maybe some managerial books as well.

Maybe some conflict resolution too.

When it comes to work. You are paid to go to work and do a job. You aren't paid to deal with anyones issues.
You should tell your boses so. And if they really want you to deal with their crap ask for a big raise.
btw never be scared to walk away from a job that isn't worth your time.

For your underlings. You need to let them know that they are there to work. not to bring their outside issues to the office. you just deal with office issues.

reply to post by dominicus


Have you thought about studying group psychology/psychotherapy? Irvine Yalom has a brilliant book on group therapy which you might find very helpful to start with.

Try an amazon search for his name and he'll pop up. Good luck.

B x

reply to post by dominicus


In addition to Grey580s suggestions, I'd recommend diving into Psychology.

Nothing really worth knowing, or having should be expected to come easy, so, you may desire to prepare for some years of dedicated study.

If someone isn't concerned about accreditation, they can tap the full resources of materials online:
800 Free Online Courses from Top Universities



Even so, people will be people and it can sometimes turn into the likes of herding cats.

Along with the above, you could look into Computational Theory, Complex Systems, and Game Theory.

You might consider taking a Logic course. Here's a link to an online course:

www.coursera.org...

reply to post by dominicus


Study all you want. But life lessons are the best learned ones.

Get a part-time job at a fast food restaurant.

Real-life people skills will be forged on the fires of real life.

Just my 2 cents.

This may sound far fetched but there's research behind it.

Video games.

They have been shown to increase cognitive function, problem solving, as well as complex situation analysis which leads to faster decision making.

And to go even further,

World Of Warcraft, and other MMOs with guild function has shown to teach people advance management skills based solely on the needs of the game. (time and skill management is a HUGE part of those games).

All of which funny enough translates into real world skills.


ETA: I just had a real world example of skills training from video games, I was driving today and lost traction on a sharp turn (portlands constantly slick) I hadn't noticed my wife had turned off the all wheel drive and traction control for some reason (she doesn't like the lights on her dash...)


Anyway, Ive been playing a ton of FORZA 5, so when I felt what was occurring I reacted quickly to the situation, probably far faster than I would of otherwise.

Point being I drifted the turn off the freeway exit like a fricken pro, it was nuts, Something I have no real world ability in, nor the experience to handle.

It could of been dangerous, but A video game, helped me see what was happening and react accordingly, I was pretty amazed afterwards by it all.

A video game helped me analyze and recognize a hazard and react accordingly.

grey580
reply to post by dominicus

 

You need to look into leadership books.

Maybe some managerial books as well.

Maybe some conflict resolution too.

When it comes to work. You are paid to go to work and do a job. You aren't paid to deal with anyones issues.
You should tell your boses so. And if they really want you to deal with their crap ask for a big raise.
btw never be scared to walk away from a job that isn't worth your time.

For your underlings. You need to let them know that they are there to work. not to bring their outside issues to the office. you just deal with office issues.

I mean, that's more work related.

I'm thinking more of a universal philosophy of living life in general. With principles that apply to every situation. Not just work, but every aspect of life. Say you find 100 grand that fell out of one of those bank trucks, but its one of those banks that's corrupt. Do you give it back or keep it. Do what you want or give it to the poor sacrificing what you want over the needs of others. Why even sacrifice? What will benefit you more?

AT what age do you teach your kids about sex, death, life, etc? How do you teach them considering each one has strengths and weaknesses?

DO you give a poor homeless man money he says he needs for food, when there is a certain probability he will use that money for drugs/liquor?

I can literally pull out hundreds of examples

dominicus

grey580
reply to post by dominicus

 

You need to look into leadership books.

Maybe some managerial books as well.

Maybe some conflict resolution too.

When it comes to work. You are paid to go to work and do a job. You aren't paid to deal with anyones issues.
You should tell your boses so. And if they really want you to deal with their crap ask for a big raise.
btw never be scared to walk away from a job that isn't worth your time.

For your underlings. You need to let them know that they are there to work. not to bring their outside issues to the office. you just deal with office issues.

I mean, that's more work related.

I'm thinking more of a universal philosophy of living life in general. With principles that apply to every situation. Not just work, but every aspect of life. Say you find 100 grand that fell out of one of those bank trucks, but its one of those banks that's corrupt. Do you give it back or keep it. Do what you want or give it to the poor sacrificing what you want over the needs of others. Why even sacrifice? What will benefit you more?

AT what age do you teach your kids about sex, death, life, etc? How do you teach them considering each one has strengths and weaknesses?

DO you give a poor homeless man money he says he needs for food, when there is a certain probability he will use that money for drugs/liquor?

I can literally pull out hundreds of examples

Well, again gonna sound weird.

BUT I grew up on video games and comic books, and despite what the media says, for the most part universally carry a strong moral slant.

Using story telling to carry meaning and morals is as old as human language, I found a strong moral compass in much of the ideals expounded in such sources.

Truth is valued, Villains face justice, People with the ability have a moral obligation to help, really not bad concepts.

Playing games taught me about sacrifice for my fellow man, the cost of doing whats right over all else, death, love, concepts that I wasn't exposed to from other sources, atleast not that young.

All in all, I think Video Games, and Comics for that matter, are a largely undervalued culture art form and teaching medium, and like all art you get the Jackasses who will put poop in a jar and call it art but for the most part though, those are the exception not the rule.

reply to post by benrl


I strongly agree. I know alot of people just believe anything Big Media tells them, but people should realize that video games is really like a simulation (nothing more, nothing less), and can really improve reflexes and imminent decision processes. And they can also serve as virtual punching bags, thus relieving stress from one's day.

(By "they" I was of course referring to the video games, not the Big Media... )

I'm thinking mostly in terms of life being a chess game.

If you look at chess, there are so many moves, strategies such as yielding, giving into, sacrifice, traps, enticement, trickery, illusion, etc. All of this can apply to life situations.

For example one technique I learned is mimicry. I find out the things someone likes, their hobbies, their favorite everything, their personality type, etc...then I can study up on these various aspects and causally bring them up to that person I'm mimicking, and a sort of connection and level of trust happens between them and me, though the trust is entirely on them, and for me can be an optional aspect that I can reserve or extend.

Eventually in mimicry you pick up on this persons thoughts and body language, twitches, feelings, etc and they become so much easier to read and know.

Now that's just one example. Another example that goes with Mimicry, is yielding.

In Yielding, when you have reached a level of trust with someone, then they will be more open to you and bring you into their personal self at a certain level. At that point, if there is something they want from you or are pushing a certain way, you can slowly start to yield to that necessity and sort of in the last moment, you get completely out of the way and if it was something they pushed for too far, they fall under the weight of what they were pushing for, collapsing in the process but unable to realize exactly how and what happened.

As an example: Someone who thinks they can be a boss, even though you and everyone know they can't. You yield to it knowing they will collapse under their won weight, and low and behold, they fail just like you predicted. But in the end, they have no idea you knew this would happened and yield to it happening. They're left scratching their heads wondering what went wrong and still thinking they can do what they thought they could do, even though they clearly can't.

Yielding & Mimicry both are applicable to all relationships, love, family, life, nature, art, etc.

But what are the rest of Life Philosophy aspects such as these and who has written a life philosophy book that touches on things such as these?

reply to post by dominicus


Life experience.

That's what you need.

All those things are tough.

In order to know what to do in those situations you need wisdom.

Wisdom comes from doing, making mistakes and learning from those mistakes.

So don't worry so much. Do what you have to. If you mess up no problem. Correct the mistake and carry on.

Later on you'll know not to make that mistake next time.

benrl

dominicus

grey580
reply to post by dominicus

 

You need to look into leadership books.

Maybe some managerial books as well.

Maybe some conflict resolution too.

When it comes to work. You are paid to go to work and do a job. You aren't paid to deal with anyones issues.
You should tell your boses so. And if they really want you to deal with their crap ask for a big raise.
btw never be scared to walk away from a job that isn't worth your time.

For your underlings. You need to let them know that they are there to work. not to bring their outside issues to the office. you just deal with office issues.

I mean, that's more work related.

I'm thinking more of a universal philosophy of living life in general. With principles that apply to every situation. Not just work, but every aspect of life. Say you find 100 grand that fell out of one of those bank trucks, but its one of those banks that's corrupt. Do you give it back or keep it. Do what you want or give it to the poor sacrificing what you want over the needs of others. Why even sacrifice? What will benefit you more?

AT what age do you teach your kids about sex, death, life, etc? How do you teach them considering each one has strengths and weaknesses?

DO you give a poor homeless man money he says he needs for food, when there is a certain probability he will use that money for drugs/liquor?

I can literally pull out hundreds of examples

Well, again gonna sound weird.

BUT I grew up on video games and comic books, and despite what the media says, for the most part universally carry a strong moral slant.

Using story telling to carry meaning and morals is as old as human language, I found a strong moral compass in much of the ideals expounded in such sources.

Truth is valued, Villains face justice, People with the ability have a moral obligation to help, really not bad concepts.

Playing games taught me about sacrifice for my fellow man, the cost of doing whats right over all else, death, love, concepts that I wasn't exposed to from other sources, atleast not that young.

All in all, I think Video Games, and Comics for that matter, are a largely undervalued culture art form and teaching medium, and like all art you get the Jackasses who will put poop in a jar and call it art but for the most part though, those are the exception not the rule.

Yes, I grew up on comic books and video games as well.

But some things I picked up from being with people and learning how to make music especially was invaluable for me.

If you know comics, and if you ever watched the show Hero's, then what I'm talking about is an ability like Sylar, who was a watch maker, and could basically pick part anyone and any situation and know it all as macrocosm.

Or Dr. Manhattan, who had this macrocosmic view of any situation.

For example, when I walk into a cafe for a sandwhich and there are 2 people eating and 3 people working. I can gather the temperatre, age, genders, assumptions (though not always 100%) based on clothes, age, body language, what they're eating, reading, apple or pc, etc. Knowing the air pressure that day is X-Amount and causes people who have allergies to suffer alot more just before a storm comes. The ffloor is tiled, chairs uncomfortable, and the 2 employees both can't agree on what the best sandwhich is they offer.....all of this says something. It gives you a whole view.

Now, on the way out, the younger early 20's girl spills the older 50's guy's coffee all over him and his table. They argue and its getting heated, but since you know ___________(life philosophy I'm looking for) you know exactly how to diffuse this situation using wit & cleverness.

reply to post by dominicus


Art of War by Sun Tzu is good as a basic introduction. Game theory would be another. As far as ascertaining probability, psychology would be beneficial along with sociology and statistics. As far as statistics go, a general principle that can be applied would be the bell curve of normative behavior aka a "normal distribution". To consider how this works, most of the time, people respond rather predictably to a specific stimuli and this would be a normative response. Normal distribution can be applied to population masses to allow for trending and a somewhat reasonably accurate predictive modeling of expected outcomes. This is all actually what the NSA itself suggests for its desired K-12 curriculum (found in the academia tab on their site though not sure if it's still there as I've been unable to load their site for a while now).

In terms of complex problem analysis, using an Ishikawa diagram (aka "fishbone" diagram) is useful as is a SWOT analysis.

WhiteAlice
reply to post by dominicus

 

Art of War by Sun Tzu is good as a basic introduction. Game theory would be another. As far as ascertaining probability, psychology would be beneficial along with sociology and statistics. As far as statistics go, a general principle that can be applied would be the bell curve of normative behavior aka a "normal distribution". To consider how this works, most of the time, people respond rather predictably to a specific stimuli and this would be a normative response. Normal distribution can be applied to population masses to allow for trending and a somewhat reasonably accurate predictive modeling of expected outcomes. This is all actually what the NSA itself suggests for its desired K-12 curriculum (found in the academia tab on their site though not sure if it's still there as I've been unable to load their site for a while now).

In terms of complex problem analysis, using an Ishikawa diagram (aka "fishbone" diagram) is useful as is a SWOT analysis.

Okay,
Now we are getting somewhere. I've studied some of what you've mentioned, briefly.

Now the question is, how do you tie all this in together into one teaching that can be simplified and practical, as well as quick to pick up and try?

I Feel like who ever sets something like this up, will have a winning formula on their hands!!!!!

Game theory.

reply to post by dominicus


Well that's the reason why the NSA encourages statistical analysis, trending, game theory ideas and other related subjects in educational curriculum because it's effective. How to sum it up simply would be asking a series of questions. In terms of complex problem analysis, it'd go something like this with application of psychology, sociology and Game Theory to better ascertain the situation and likelihoods:

1. Is the problem that you perceive an actual problem or a symptom of a larger problem? (Ishikawa)
   
2. What are the most likely responses to the problem and its symptoms? (individual --> society wide as per normative distribution)
   
3. What are the least likely (but still possible) responses to the problem and its symptoms? (would represent outliers to the normative distribution)
   
4. What are all of the available strengths? (for both opponents; SWOT)
   
5. What are the weaknesses? (for both opponents; SWOT)
   
6. Where are there available opportunities for exploitation (SWOT)?
   
7. Where are there threats in obtaining a desired outcome (SWOT)?
   

I have only one great example/answer to your question: MARRIAGE

reply to post by dominicus

The natural answer would be Quantum Physics. As you know banks have been recruiting graduates with Phd in Physics in the last 25 years . If you know about Derivatives then you would realise how there are so many variables that only a physicist would be able to come up with a formula that achieved the objective. It will not be long before physics is applied to situations that you mentioned.

As for myself , I have other ways of dealing with situations that have a multiplicity of variables.