The idea that observations we make which alter our decision-making toward future events should be offered as truth, because it is truth, for me, comes across as overly self-centered.  When I say, "in my experience, "  I mean, "take this with a grain of salt because I'm just winging it like everyone else."  I don't mean, "this is the truth as given through my life."  Maybe sometimes it is.  Poets and novelists are great at mining truth from anecdote.  Most of us are full of shit.

However, should I say, "In my experience," on a topic for which I am an expert, such as the tropic of Sir Galahad, I'm not winging it.  I know exact truth.  Believe.

My truth and "in my experience" aren't the same thing. The one is inarguable. A statement of facts about you and your apprehensions. Your authentic self. The other is, as people have noticed, a qualifier.

I'm a grower. You can see it in my fields, in my fridge, whenever I bring something to a party, on my bookshelf, in my office, on my browser history. Whenever I try to be or do anything else I'm completely miserable.

(December 15, 2021 at 12:15 pm)brewer Wrote: I hear some many different people using this claim, most recently a Oprah commercial. Is My Truth actually a valid claim?

What if your/their truth conflicts with mine? Or facts? Or science?

Do people use My Truth to give lend some extra credence to their opinions, beliefs, experiences or views of reality? If they are how does it come close to truth, especially in light of objective vs subjective truth. truth objective.

Maybe My Truth is the other side of the Fake News coin.

(about time I got off my ass and made a thread)

There certainly is a claim of "different points of view". And even between scientists there are always competing ways to solve a problem. But there is are always a difference between facts and opinions. It was never true that the earth was flat. It was never true that the earth was made in 6 days. The ability to change with changing data is the key to fact finding. 

It isn't a matter of squashing dissent of opinion, but more a matter of more people valuing the concept of going where the evidence leads, and not where they want it to go to prop up personal bias.

(December 15, 2021 at 7:49 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: My truth and "in my experience" aren't the same thing.  The one is inarguable.  A statement of facts about you and your apprehensions.  Your authentic self.  The other is, as people have noticed, a qualifier.

I'm a grower.  You can see it in my fields, in my fridge, whenever I bring something to a party, on my bookshelf, in my office, on my browser history.  Whenever I try to be or do anything else I'm completely miserable.

Truths are not always facts, back to objective/subjective, so some are definitely arguable. Someone making a claim about 'my truth' that appears questionable (Trump for example) I wouldn't accept as truth.

Do you use 'my truth' in conversation? Does it add any extra credibility to 'this is who believe I am" by inserting the word truth?

I often get a feeling of pretentiousness from people that use 'my truth'.

I'm not worth a damn with philosophical stuff, but the first thing that came to my mind was an exchange from 'Jesus Christ Superstar'...

Pontius Pilate:
Then you are a king.

Jesus:
It's you that say I am. I look for truth, and find that I get damned.

Pontius Pilate:
And what is 'truth'? Is truth unchanging law? We both have truths. Are mine the same as yours?

(December 15, 2021 at 9:18 pm)brewer Wrote: Truths are not always facts, back to objective/subjective, so some are definitely arguable. Someone making a claim about 'my truth' that appears questionable (Trump for example) I wouldn't accept as truth.

Do you use 'my truth' in conversation? Does it add any extra credibility to 'this is who believe I am" by inserting the word truth?

I often get a feeling of pretentiousness from people that use 'my truth'.

Again, the term isn't about establishing claims.  It simply refers to your authentic self. A person could be authentically pretentious.

(December 16, 2021 at 8:33 am)The Grand Nudger Wrote:

(December 15, 2021 at 9:18 pm)brewer Wrote: Truths are not always facts, back to objective/subjective, so some are definitely arguable. Someone making a claim about 'my truth' that appears questionable (Trump for example) I wouldn't accept as truth.

Do you use 'my truth' in conversation? Does it add any extra credibility to 'this is who believe I am" by inserting the word truth?

I often get a feeling of pretentiousness from people that use 'my truth'.

Again, the term isn't about establishing claims.  It simply refers to your authentic self.  A person could be authentically pretentious.

Ugh, authentic self. Does the description of 'authentic self' give you a higher level of credibility than 'self'?

Its not about credibility. It doesn't matter whether, for example, the notion that I'm a grower is credible. Even if it weren't, it would still be the thing that the term refers to - that some people think we'd all be happier and more successful leaning into.

The exhortations to live your truth no matter what describe precisely that circumstance. When the thing you are is not the thing people see you to be. It was very difficult for anyone to take me seriously when I upended my life to do this, for example. It'd have been easy to get family and friends to invest in a rapid pcb shop. There was no help..and nothing but doubt and criticism, though, for the plan that spoke to my truth.

All of it backed by genuine worry and concern - and not for nothing, my entire life up to that point. I'm not a hippie, or a back to the lander, or a homesteader. There was no credible reason for anyone in my family to think there was money in what I do..or, if there were, I was the guy to make it.

Other people deal with this about things much more difficult than their dream jobs. I just figured (before this thread, I guess?) that using our personal or professional aspirations would be an unobjectionable example. We all get that alot of us are doing things we don't want to do - or when we would rather do something else. That some of us are living lives that we'd rather live some other way. Well. That's your truth. Go live it.

Are you saying that in your IRL circle of friends, when you describe yourself and your life you use "my truth" or "my authentic self"? Do your acquaintances?

Quite frankly I see those two as catch phrases used mostly for getting attention. I also find those phrases used (or over used) in the therapy community, or by those that are poser pop culture therapists. Apparently they also help to sell a lot of books. There is even online tests for my truth and authentic self. I took an authentic self one (didn't get my score, required my email) and at the bottom there was a button to sign up therapy. 

Hopefully these will be a fad and my instant skeptic knee jerk will fade.

Edit: What is rapid pcb?

Me, no. Though I'll consistently offer the same advice in different words. Its a self help thing, which is sort of oprahs thing - so it makes sense you heard it there. There's not much to be skeptical about. It's the sort of boilerplate no shit slogan that folks make millions thinking of creative ways to rephrase. That one might not be a fad, it's stuck.

Rapid pcb shops make small batch and custom printed circuit boards, generally for use by military partners or before a thing goes into mass production. Sometimes when someone doesn't have a mass line and doesn't need a bunch of boards and is willing to pay alot for each one tomorrow. Clean rooms, security clearance, ndas, noncompetes, lots of nasty chemicals and a huge stream of industrial waste up to and including mixed metal in an arsenic/g5 slurry that has to be piped and processed or shipped to someone who will (this is what I went to school for - it's a huge cost, you could run every other pcb shop out of business if you can handle the waste at a lower price point). More specifically to the thread, it's what I did before and after the service, what my dad taught me to do the way that some peoples dads teach them to fix old cars or frame a house. Hence the expectations.

Just wasn't me. It was making me unhappy. Very unhappy. The culture, the process, the environment. I what I enjoyed about it was working with my dad - but I'd left our little shop behind me personally and professionally by that point. To the people who cared about me and my ability to continue to provide..any notion that I was going to step out of that and do something like sustainable ag was a ludicrous and expensive pipe dream. In alot of ways they were right. It cost more than I expected, it made less than I'd hoped, and I found plenty to be dissatisfied by in the process. I don't give them shit for wondering how or why a kid like me would end up..or want to end up..on a farm in the middle of nowhere. They didn't see that it was just another waste processing scheme.

-but I had to do it. It wasn't really much of a choice for me. That's the kind of thing the term refers to. Oprah and self help didn't invent it, oprah and self help make money because so many people are in those situations, be it a job, or a town, or a circle of friends, or even their public persona set against their private nature.

If you wanna cash out on being a lawyer and become a clown - thats your truth, live it.
If you want to sell your house and do a little valhallan flight, that's your truth, live it.
If your clutch of friends is a catty trainwreck you never really wanted to be a part of and you dream of ditching them, that's your truth, live it.
If you really want a boyfriend but teh gayness is double plus ungood - that's your truth, live it.

You can see how other people being "skeptical" is immaterial to any of that, I'm sure. Does it sometimes stand in for things people won't succeed at - such that when they say "I'm going to do/be x" you say "I don't believe you"? Sure, it must. I didn't get into this to do exactly what I'm doing now, it's still a work in progress. However, trying and failing is still living your truth. Other people might suggest that you keep doing what you're doing and have fun with your toys on the side (that was the suggestion I got) - but you know you can't. FWIW, like I mentioned above, it was all a product of trying to be the thing I was expected to be, it's just that I found something in that attempt that made the initial goal completely and irrevocably worthless to me. I could cash out now and start my own shop without help, and be richer for it, but I won't.

(they still grumble, they grumbled while I was down there a couple weeks back about when I was going to give up this silly shit and come home to the space coast, teased me about the tiny fish up here, that sort of stuff, lol)