Introducing people to PCT (and myself to this group)

MalcolmOcean · May 1, 2018, 3:51am

Hi all,

I wrote most of this email last summer, and it got lost in my drafts. But today is Email Debt Forgiveness Day, so here I am, cleaning out my drafts!

In addition to talking about introducing people to the theory, I also mostly haven’t posted on this group, particularly about myself and my context & goals, so… hi!

I started with B:CP and personally found it quite accessible! …but then, I studied Systems Design Engineering in university, so I already had a technical understanding of control systems. I read Making Sense of Behavior as well, and it’s been the main thing I’m sending to my friends, but it’s just harder to convince the people I know to order a $20 paper book than to buy a $10 ebook or read things that are free online, if they aren’t already interested in the theory.

I have also picked up a few other PCT books, the only one of which I’ve actually read any of is Ed Ford’s Freedom from Stress. Finding it quite insightful as well.

Abbott’s introduction looks quite good… but I suspect it wouldn’t make the reader particularly curious if they weren’t already. This delightful paperÂ posits out that in order to seem “interesting” a theory must deny some assumption(s) that people have when they encounter it. Abbott eventually gets to this when he says “The central assertion of PCT is that behavior exists solely for the purpose of controlling one’s perceptions” but this is quite far down and not emphasized.

Warren’s presentation has an even better “whoa” moment with the elastic knot-over-dot demo, although it’s also partway through. For a live presentation, he can afford to wait until halfway, because nobody’s going anywhere, but people might stop watching the video, or skip ahead in such a way that they miss the real juice.

I’ve been working on trying to write some of my own introductions, but they’re in the form of some scattered drafts at the moment. OneÂ recent personal blog postÂ does start to tease people about Perceptual Control Theory, and has successfully caused several of my friends to look more into it.

…It may be clear by now that my intent to spread PCT among my intellectual circles is more than just casual; I’ve come to believe that lack of understanding the implications of PCT (particularly regarding conflict) is a major bottleneck in most peoples’ ability to be effective individually and collectively. I’m therefore attempting to cause a substantial fraction of the people I interact with online to get excited about PCT.

If you’re curious, those people primarily consist of two overlapping groups:

the “rationality community” of people trying to upgrade their thinking by whatever means work (this community originated on lesswrong.comÂ (which has hadÂ a fewÂ posts on BCPÂ already)
the Effective Altruism movement, which is a group of people trying to figure out how to use their time and money to maximally benefit the world.

My intent is to cause most of them to have a general (and not-confused) sense of what PCT is, most of those people to generally think it’s a decent theory, and from them, some smaller fraction of people who are actively applying PCT to self-improvement and organizational development contexts. The purpose of all of this is to improve the effectiveness of people who are working to care for humanity’s future.

···

All that to say: I continue to be interested in knowing more what introductions this group has found most effective, or if you also feel like the perfect PCT introduction essay doesn’t yet exist but could be written.

Malcolm

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals withÂ Â Complice

Read my latest blog post:Â Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 5 July 2017 at 07:19, Boris Hartman boris.hartman@masicom.net wrote:

Hi Malcolm…

Â

From: Malcolm Ocean [mailto:malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: UCL talk on PCT yesterday on YouTube

Â

Wow, this is great!

Â

MO : I’m thinking of sending it to some friends of mine who’ve said “PCT seems interesting but it’s not clear what it predicts that other theories don’t”

Â

HB : Well if PCT is presented only as psychological theory with Â»controlled variableÂ« which is Â»protected from disturbancesÂ« then you get Â»under-avarageÂ« S-R theory which tells nothing new about how people behave in comparison to classical psychology. It’s even misleading. In one word of no use.

Â

But if you want to understand how organisms function and specially nervous system (how you function), then PCT is the best theory for understanding such a phenomenon.

Â

MO : …(they mostly hhaven’t looked into PCT that much, I think, just maybe read the wikipedia article).

Â

HB : Well I looked at the Wikipedia article and I must say that it’s maybe complicated for reading, but main points of PCT are there. Maybe there is too much psychological and mathematical orientation what is not giving the whole picture what PCT is about.

Â

PCT is general theory about how organisms function not just from psychological or mathematical view but also from view of other nature sciences (physiology, biology). That’s what by my oppinion makes it so strong. But as any theory it can be ugraded.

Â

MO : I’m curious what other media people typically link people to when introducing them to PCT. I’ve found myself wishing that B:CP and MSOB were available as ebooks, since it would lower the friction to starting to read them.

HB : I’d suggest you first reading Â»Making sense of BehaviorÂ«. Or if you want internet version of understanding PCT try with Bruce Abbott synopsis. It’s really good also with easy to understand language. http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/pct/pct.html

Â

And then try to read B:CP. Well that is a difficult peace. Maybe you’ll need help in some chapters. Depends how well you are equiped with knowledge from different sciences.

Â

Boris

Â

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals withÂ Â Complice

Read my latest blog post:Â Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

Â

On 30 June 2017 at 23:03, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:

OK world, try to hide from PCT…

http://youtu.be/U2TLepJ_sLg?a

Â

bnhpct · May 1, 2018, 10:41pm

[Bruce Nevin 2018-05-01_18:35:06 ET]

Malcolm Ocean Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM –

Malcolm Ocean Tuesday,Â

Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM –

Hi, Malcolm. I missed a lot of email on the net last July and August because of other work, so I didn’t see your earlier post. I’m glad Boris gave you those helpful leads.

You may have noticed the datestamp that we put at the top of our email for easy reference and for archival purposes.Â
Eetu Pikkarainen (2018-01-23_11:24:55) has created a script that easily generatesÂ this reference tag.Â Here’s how:

DownloadÂ https://wiki.oulu.fi/download/attachments/71895546/IdTag.zipÂ
Open the zip file and save its contents to some folder, for example to desktop or to programs folder.
Some help info is in ReadMe.txt
Put your name in name.txt file (first row, no line break) Note that this file must be in the same folder as idtag.exe.Â
Run the idtag.exe.Â
Create a shortcut file in your startup folder so that it is renewed every time restart your computer. To do this, right-click to create the shortcut, then open the Run box (Windows-R) and type shell:startup to open your Startup folder. Drag the shortcut into the Startup folder.
CTRL-8 produces a canonical PCT tag comprising your name and the current local time. (Use 8 at the top of the keyboard, if your computer has a numeric keypad the 8 there doesn’t do the job.)

There’s another script that generates a UTC datestamp (Greenwich time, GMT) atÂ
https://wiki.oulu.fi/download/attachments/71895546/IdTag2.zip. Same instructions for IdTag2.exe and its IdTag2 shortcut in your startup folder, except that you press CTRL-9 to get the UTC stamp. He says you can find out more about it atÂ https://autohotkey.com/.

I like your suggestions for more effective and engaging presentations. Bill would have appreciated this. He wrote a great many introductions to PCT over the years. I also like your appeal for e-book publications. Dag Forssell runs Living Control Systems Publishing, and has made his publications completely readable in Google Books. Go to http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/ to see the list and follow the links. MSOB is published by Benchmark, and they’re now tied up bringing out a major new book on PCT, we hope in time for our meeting in October. (I’m in no position to promise that, and may be speaking out of turn, but that’s a hope.)

I, too, see great value in PCT for conflict resolution. I haven’t gone back to read Getting to YesÂ with my awareness informed by control theory, but I think it would be a very worthwhile exercise. Many years ago I read about a game-theoretic confirmation of an approach to negotiation derived from the “I cut, you choose” principle. A complex situation (an arms-control treaty was the chosen topic) is parsed out into discrete desiderata by each side, and each side privatelyÂ ranks their desiderata and the other side’s desiderata. The process depends upon the difference in the valuations made by one side vs. those made by the other side. The aim of each side is to exchange something of (undisclosed) less value to themselves (which the other side values more) in exchange for something of (undisclosed) more value to themselves (which the other side values less). This can be specified with PCT modeling. Basically, an elaboration of the Test for controlled variables.

We don’t have a good metalanguage for specifying complex models involving a plurality of autonomous control systems. Diagrams very quickly become unwieldy and are very labor intensive to create and then tinker with. I see this as an important need for spec-ing out a model before attempting implementation and test. And without it, discussions become labored and complicated, and very easily get confused.Â

Welcome!

···

On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM, Malcolm Ocean malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I wrote most of this email last summer, and it got lost in my drafts. But today is Email Debt Forgiveness Day, so here I am, cleaning out my drafts!

In addition to talking about introducing people to the theory, I also mostly haven’t posted on this group, particularly about myself and my context & goals, so… hi!

I started with B:CP and personally found it quite accessible! …but then, I studied Systems Design Engineering in university, so I already had a technical understanding of control systems. I read Making Sense of Behavior as well, and it’s been the main thing I’m sending to my friends, but it’s just harder to convince the people I know to order a $20 paper book than to buy a $10 ebook or read things that are free online, if they aren’t already interested in the theory.

I have also picked up a few other PCT books, the only one of which I’ve actually read any of is Ed Ford’s Freedom from Stress. Finding it quite insightful as well.

Abbott’s introduction looks quite good… but I suspect it wouldn’t make the reader particularly curious if they weren’t already. This delightful paperÂ posits out that in order to seem “interesting” a theory must deny some assumption(s) that people have when they encounter it. Abbott eventually gets to this when he says “The central assertion of PCT is that behavior exists solely for the purpose of controlling one’s perceptions” but this is quite far down and not emphasized.

Warren’s presentation has an even better “whoa” moment with the elastic knot-over-dot demo, although it’s also partway through. For a live presentation, he can afford to wait until halfway, because nobody’s going anywhere, but people might stop watching the video, or skip ahead in such a way that they miss the real juice.

I’ve been working on trying to write some of my own introductions, but they’re in the form of some scattered drafts at the moment. OneÂ recent personal blog postÂ does start to tease people about Perceptual Control Theory, and has successfully caused several of my friends to look more into it.

…It may be clear by now that my intent to spread PCT among my intellectual circles is more than just casual; I’ve come to believe that lack of understanding the implications of PCT (particularly regarding conflict) is a major bottleneck in most peoples’ ability to be effective individually and collectively. I’m therefore attempting to cause a substantial fraction of the people I interact with online to get excited about PCT.

If you’re curious, those people primarily consist of two overlapping groups:

the “rationality community” of people trying to upgrade their thinking by whatever means work (this community originated on lesswrong.comÂ (which has hadÂ a fewÂ posts on BCPÂ already)

the Effective Altruism movement, which is a group of people trying to figure out how to use their time and money to maximally benefit the world.

My intent is to cause most of them to have a general (and not-confused) sense of what PCT is, most of those people to generally think it’s a decent theory, and from them, some smaller fraction of people who are actively applying PCT to self-improvement and organizational development contexts. The purpose of all of this is to improve the effectiveness of people who are working to care for humanity’s future.

All that to say: I continue to be interested in knowing more what introductions this group has found most effective, or if you also feel like the perfect PCT introduction essay doesn’t yet exist but could be written.

Malcolm

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals withÂ Â Complice

Read my latest blog post:Â Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 5 July 2017 at 07:19, Boris Hartman boris.hartman@masicom.net wrote:

Hi Malcolm…/span>

Â

From: Malcolm Ocean [mailto:malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: UCL talk on PCT yesterday on YouTube

Â

Wow, this is great!

Â

MO : I’m thinking of sending it to some friends of mine who’ve said “PCT seems interesting but it’s not clear what it predicts that other theories don’t”

Â

HB : Well if PCT is presented only as psychological theory with Â»controlled variableÂ« which is Â»protected from disturbancesÂ« then you get Â»under-avarageÂ« S-R theory which tells nothing new about how people behave in comparison to classical psychology. It’s even misleading. In one word of no use.

Â

But if you want to understand how organisms function and specially nervous system (how you function), then PCT is the best theory for understanding such a phenomenon.

Â

MO : …(they mostly haven’t lookked into PCT that much, I think, just maybe read the wikipedia article).

Â

HB : Well I looked at the Wikipedia article and I must say that it’s maybe complicated for reading, but main points of PCT are there. Maybe there is too much psychological and mathematical orientation what is not giving the whole picture what PCT is about.

Â

PCT is general theory about how organisms function not just from psychological or mathematical view but also from view of other nature sciences (physiology, biology). That’s what by my oppinion makes it so strong. But as any theory it can be ugraded.

Â

MO : I’m curious what other media people typically link people to when introducing them to PCT. I’ve found myself wishing that B:CP and MSOB were available as ebooks, since it would lower the friction to starting to read them.

HB : I’d suggest you first reading Â»Making sense of BehaviorÂ«. Or if you want internet version of understanding PCT try with Bruce Abbott synopsis. It’s really good also with easy to understand language. http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/pct/pct.html

Â

And then try to read B:CP. Well that is a difficult peace. Maybe you’ll need help in some chapters. Depends how well you are equiped with knowledge from different sciences.

Â

Boris

Â

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals withÂ Â Complice

Read my latest blog post:Â Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

Â

On 30 June 2017 at 23:03, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:

OK world, try to hide from PCT…

http://youtu.be/U2TLepJ_sLg?a

Â

Ed_Heidicker · May 2, 2018, 1:28pm

[Ed Heidicker 2018-05-02_09:27:06 ET]

Seems that the link for the zip file no longer works.

···

On Tue, May 1, 2018 at 6:41 PM, Bruce Nevin bnhpct@gmail.com wrote:

[Bruce Nevin 2018-05-01_18:35:06 ET]

Malcolm Ocean Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM –

Malcolm Ocean Tuesday,Â

Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM –

Hi, Malcolm. I missed a lot of email on the net last July and August because of other work, so I didn’t see your earlier post. I’m glad Boris gave you those helpful leads.

You may have noticed the datestamp that we put at the top of our email for easy reference and for archival purposes.Â
Eetu Pikkarainen (2018-01-23_11:24:55) has created a script that easily generatesÂ this reference tag.Â Here’s how:

DownloadÂ https://wiki.oulu.fi/download/attachments/71895546/IdTag.zipÂ

Open the zip file and save its contents to some folder, for example to desktop or to programs folder.

Some help info is in ReadMe.txt

Put your name in name.txt file (first row, no line break) Note that this file must be in the same folder as idtag.exe.Â

Run the idtag.exe.Â

Create a shortcut file in your startup folder so that it is renewed every time restart your computer. To do this, right-click to create the shortcut, then open the Run box (Windows-R) and type shell:startup to open your Startup folder. Drag the shortcut into the Startup folder.

CTRL-8 produces a canonical PCT tag comprising your name and the current local time. (Use 8 at the top of the keyboard, if your computer has a numeric keypad the 8 there doesn’t do the job.)

There’s another script that generates a UTC datestamp (Greenwich time, GMT) atÂ
https://wiki.oulu.fi/download/attachments/71895546/IdTag2.zip. Same instructions for IdTag2.exe and its IdTag2 shortcut in your startup folder, except that you press CTRL-9 to get the UTC stamp. He says you can find out more about it atÂ https://autohotkey.com/.

I like your suggestions for more effective and engaging presentations. Bill would have appreciated this. He wrote a great many introductions to PCT over the years. I also like your appeal for e-book publications. Dag Forssell runs Living Control Systems Publishing, and has made his publications completely readable in Google Books. Go to http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/ to see the list and follow the links. MSOB is published by Benchmark, and they’re now tied up bringing out a major new book on PCT, we hope in time for our meeting in October. (I’m in no position to promise that, and may be speaking out of turn, but that’s a hope.)

I, too, see great value in PCT for conflict resolution. I haven’t gone back to read Getting to YesÂ with my awareness informed by control theory, but I think it would be a very worthwhile exercise. Many years ago I read about a game-theoretic confirmation of an approach to negotiation derived from the “I cut, you choose” principle. A complex situation (an arms-control treaty was the chosen topic) is parsed out into discrete desiderata by each side, and each side privatelyÂ ranks their desiderata and the other side’s desiderata. The process depends upon the difference in the valuations made by one side vs. those made by the other side. The aim of each side is to exchange something of (undisclosed) less value to themselves (which the other side values more) in exchange for something of (undisclosed) more value to themselves (which the other side values less). This can be specified with PCT modeling. Basically, an elaboration of the Test for controlled variables.

We don’t have a good metalanguage for specifying complex models involving a plurality of autonomous control systems. Diagrams very quickly become unwieldy and are very labor intensive to create and then tinker with. I see this as an important need for spec-ing out a model before attempting implementation and test. And without it, discussions become labored and complicated, and very easily get confused.Â

Welcome!

/Bruce

–

On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM, Malcolm Ocean malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I wrote most of this email last summer, and it got lost in my drafts. But today is Email Debt Forgiveness Day, so here I am, cleaning out my drafts!

In addition to talking about introducing people to the theory, I also mostly haven’t posted on this group, particularly about myself and my context & goals, so… hi!

I started with B:CP and personally found it quite accessible! …but then, I studied Systems Design Engineering in university, so I already had a technical understanding of control systems. I read Making Sense of Behavior as well, and it’s been the main thing I’m sending to my friends, but it’s just harder to convince the people I know to order a $20 paper book than to buy a $10 ebook or read things that are free online, if they aren’t already interested in the theory.

I have also picked up a few other PCT books, the only one of which I’ve actually read any of is Ed Ford’s Freedom from Stress. Finding it quite insightful as well.

Abbott’s introduction looks quite good… but I suspect it wouldn’t make the reader particularly curious if they weren’t already. This delightful paperÂ posits out that in order to seem “interesting” a theory must deny some assumption(s) that people have when they encounter it. Abbott eventually gets to this when he says “The central assertion of PCT is that behavior exists solely for the purpose of controlling one’s perceptions” but this is quite far down and not emphasized.

Warren’s presentation has an even better “whoa” moment with the elastic knot-over-dot demo, although it’s also partway through. For a live presentation, he can afford to wait until halfway, because nobody’s going anywhere, but people might stop watching the video, or skip ahead in such a way that they miss the real juice.

I’ve been working on trying to write some of my own introductions, but they’re in the form of some scattered drafts at the moment. OneÂ recent personal blog postÂ does start to tease people about Perceptual Control Theory, and has successfully caused several of my friends to look more into it.

…It may be clear by now that my intent to spread PCT among my intellectual circles is more than just casual; I’ve come to believe that lack of understanding the implications of PCT (particularly regarding conflict) is a major bottleneck in most peoples’ ability to be effective individually and collectively. I’m therefore attempting to cause a substantial fraction of the people I interact with online to get excited about PCT.

If you’re curious, those people primarily consist of two overlapping groups:

the “rationality community” of people trying to upgrade their thinking by whatever means work (this community originated on lesswrong.comÂ (which has hadÂ a fewÂ posts on BCPÂ already)

the Effective Altruism movement, which is a group of people trying to figure out how to use their time and money to maximally benefit the world.

My intent is to cause most of them to have a general (and not-confused) sense of what PCT is, most of those people to generally think it’s a decent theory, and from them, some smaller fraction of people who are actively applying PCT to self-improvement and organizational development contexts. The purpose of all of this is to improve the effectiveness of people who are working to care for humanity’s future.

All that to say: I continue to be interested in knowing more what introductions this group has found most effective, or if you also feel like the perfect PCT introduction essay doesn’t yet exist but could be written.

Malcolm

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals withÂ Â Complice

Read my latest blog post:Â Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 5 July 2017 at 07:19, Boris Hartman boris.hartman@masicom.net wrote:

Hi Malcolmâ€¦

Â

From: Malcolm Ocean [mailto:malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: UCL talk on PCT yesterday on YouTube

Â

Wow, this is great!

Â

MO : I’m thinking of sending it to some friends of mine who’ve said “PCT seems interesting but it’s not clear what it predicts that other theories don’t”

Â

HB : Well if PCT is presented only as psychological theory with Â»controlled variableÂ« which is Â»protected from disturbancesÂ« then you get Â»under-avarageÂ« S-R theory which tells nothing new about how people behave in comparison to classical psychology. It’s even misleading. In one word of no use.

Â

But if you want to understand how organisms function and specially nervous system (how you function), then PCT is the best theory for understanding such a phenomenon.

Â

MO : …(they mosttly haven’t looked into PCT that much, I think, just maybe read the wikipedia article).

Â

HB : Well I looked at the Wikipedia article and I must say that it’s maybe complicated for reading, but main points of PCT are there. Maybe there is too much psychological and mathematical orientation what is not giving the whole picture what PCT is about.

Â

PCT is general theory about how organisms function not just from psychological or mathematical view but also from view of other nature sciences (physiology, biology). That’s what by my oppinion makes it so strong. But as any theory it can be ugraded.

Â

MO : I’m curious what other media people typically link people to when introducing them to PCT. I’ve found myself wishing that B:CP and MSOB were available as ebooks, since it would lower the friction to starting to read them.

HB : I’d suggest you first reading Â»Making sense of BehaviorÂ«. Or if you want internet version of understanding PCT try with Bruce Abbott synopsis. It’s really good also with easy to understand language. http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/pct/pct.html

Â

And then try to read B:CP. Well that is a difficult peace. Maybe you’ll need help in some chapters. Depends how well you are equiped with knowledge from different sciences.

Â

Boris

Â

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals withÂ Â Complice

Read my latest blog post:Â Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

Â

On 30 June 2017 at 23:03, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:

OK world, try to hide from PCT…

http://youtu.be/U2TLepJ_sLg?a

Â

Ed Heidicker
828 274-5929

EetuP · May 2, 2018, 1:42pm

[Eetu Pikkarainen 2018-05-02_13:36:43 UTC]

The zip file of the program is to be found from my PCT page:
https://wiki.oulu.fi/display/~epikkara/PCT

and its straight address is:
https://wiki.oulu.fi/download/attachments/71895546/IdTag2.zip

Eetu

···

[Ed Heidicker 2018-05-02_09:27:06 ET]

Seems that the link for the zip file no longer works.

On Tue, May 1, 2018 at 6:41 PM, Bruce Nevin bnhpct@gmail.com wrote:

[Bruce Nevin 2018-05-01_18:35:06 ET]

Malcolm Ocean Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM –

Malcolm Ocean Tuesday, Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM –

Hi, Malcolm. I missed a lot of email on the net last July and August because of other work, so I didn’t see your earlier post. I’m glad Boris gave you those helpful leads.

You may have noticed the datestamp that we put at the top of our email for easy reference and for archival purposes. Eetu Pikkarainen (2018-01-23_11:24:55)
has created a script that easily generates this reference tag. Here’s how:

Download https://wiki.oulu.fi/download/attachments/71895546/IdTag.zip

Open the zip file and save its contents to some folder, for example to desktop or to programs folder.

Some help info is in ReadMe.txt

Put your name in name.txt file (first row, no line break) Note that this file must be in the same folder as idtag.exe.

Run the idtag.exe.

Create a shortcut file in your startup folder so that it is renewed every time restart your computer. To do this, right-click to create the shortcut, then open the Run box (Windows-R) and type shell:startup to open your Startup folder. Drag the shortcut into
the Startup folder.

CTRL-8 produces a canonical PCT tag comprising your name and the current local time. (Use 8 at the top of the keyboard, if your computer has a numeric keypad the 8 there doesn’t do the job.)

There’s another script that generates a UTC datestamp (Greenwich time, GMT) at

https://wiki.oulu.fi/download/attachments/71895546/IdTag2.zip . Same instructions for IdTag2.exe and its IdTag2 shortcut in your startup folder, except that
you press CTRL-9 to get the UTC stamp. He says you can find out more about it at https://autohotkey.com/.

I like your suggestions for more effective and engaging presentations. Bill would have appreciated this. He wrote a great many introductions to PCT over the years. I also like your appeal for e-book publications. Dag Forssell runs Living
Control Systems Publishing, and has made his publications completely readable in Google Books. Go to
http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/ to see the list and follow the links. MSOB is published by Benchmark, and they’re now tied up bringing out a major new book on PCT, we hope in time for our
meeting in October. (I’m in no position to promise that, and may be speaking out of turn, but that’s a hope.)

I, too, see great value in PCT for conflict resolution. I haven’t gone back to read
Getting to Yes with my awareness informed by control theory, but I think it would be a very worthwhile exercise. Many years ago I read about a game-theoretic confirmation of an approach to negotiation derived from the “I cut, you choose” principle. A
complex situation (an arms-control treaty was the chosen topic) is parsed out into discrete desiderata by each side, and each side privately ranks their desiderata and the other side’s desiderata. The process depends upon the difference in the valuations made
by one side vs. those made by the other side. The aim of each side is to exchange something of (undisclosed) less value to themselves (which the other side values more) in exchange for something of (undisclosed) more value to themselves (which the other side
values less). This can be specified with PCT modeling. Basically, an elaboration of the Test for controlled variables.

We don’t have a good metalanguage for specifying complex models involving a plurality of autonomous control systems. Diagrams very quickly become unwieldy and are very labor intensive to create and then tinker with. I see this as an important
need for spec-ing out a model before attempting implementation and test. And without it, discussions become labored and complicated, and very easily get confused.

Welcome!

/Bruce

On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM, Malcolm Ocean malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I wrote most of this email last summer, and it got lost in my drafts. But today is
Email Debt Forgiveness Day, so here I am, cleaning out my drafts!

In addition to talking about introducing people to the theory, I also mostly haven’t posted on this group, particularly about myself and my context & goals, so… hi!

I started with B:CP and personally found it quite accessible! …but then, I studied Systems Design Engineering in university, so I already had a technical understanding of control systems. I read Making Sense of Behavior as well, and it’s
been the main thing I’m sending to my friends, but it’s just harder to convince the people I know to order a $20 paper book than to buy a $10 ebook or read things that are free online, if they aren’t already interested in the theory.

I have also picked up a few other PCT books, the only one of which I’ve actually read any of is Ed Ford’s Freedom from Stress. Finding it quite insightful as well.

Abbott’s introduction looks quite good… but I suspect it wouldn’t make the reader particularly curious if they weren’t already.

This delightful paper posits out that in order to seem “interesting” a theory must deny some assumption(s) that people have when they encounter it. Abbott eventually gets to this when he says “The central assertion of PCT is that behavior exists solely
for the purpose of controlling one’s perceptions” but this is quite far down and not emphasized.

Warren’s presentation has an even better “whoa” moment with the elastic knot-over-dot demo, although it’s also partway through. For a live presentation, he can afford to wait until halfway, because nobody’s going anywhere, but people might
stop watching the video, or skip ahead in such a way that they miss the real juice.

I’ve been working on trying to write some of my own introductions, but they’re in the form of some scattered drafts at the moment. One recent
personal blog post does start to tease people about Perceptual Control Theory, and has successfully caused several of my friends to look more into it.

…It may be clear by now that my intent to spread PCT among my intellectual circles is more than just casual; I’ve come to believe that lack of understanding the implications of PCT (particularly regarding conflict) is a major bottleneck
in most peoples’ ability to be effective individually and collectively. I’m therefore attempting to cause a substantial fraction of the people I interact with online to get excited about PCT.

If you’re curious, those people primarily consist of two overlapping groups:

the “rationality community” of people trying to upgrade their thinking by whatever means work (this community originated on
lesswrong.com (which has had a few posts on

BCP already)

the Effective Altruism movement, which is a group of people trying to figure out how to use their time and money to maximally benefit the world.

My intent is to cause most of them to have a general (and not-confused) sense of what PCT is, most of those people to generally think it’s a decent theory, and from them, some smaller fraction of people who are actively applying PCT to
self-improvement and organizational development contexts. The purpose of all of this is to improve the effectiveness of people who are working to care for humanity’s future.

All that to say: I continue to be interested in knowing more what introductions this group has found most effective, or if you also feel like the perfect PCT introduction essay
doesn’t yet exist but could be written.

Malcolm

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals with Complice

Read my latest blog post: Towards
being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 5 July 2017 at 07:19, Boris Hartman boris.hartman@masicom.net wrote:

Hi Malcolm…

From: Malcolm Ocean
[mailto:malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: UCL talk on PCT yesterday on YouTube

Wow, this is great!

MO : I’m thinking of sending it to some friends of mine who’ve said “PCT seems interesting but it’s not clear what it predicts that other theories don’t”

HB : Well if PCT is presented only as psychological theory with Â»controlled variableÂ« which is Â»protected from disturbancesÂ« then you get Â»under-avarageÂ«
S-R theory which tells nothing new about how people behave in comparison to classical psychology. It’s even misleading. In one word of no use.

But if you want to understand how organisms function and specially nervous system (how you function), then PCT is the best theory for understanding
such a phenomenon.

MO : …(they mostly haven’t looked into PPCT that much, I think, just maybe read the wikipedia article).

HB : Well I looked at the Wikipedia article and I must say that it’s maybe complicated for reading, but main points of PCT are there. Maybe
there is too much psychological and mathematical orientation what is not giving the whole picture what PCT is about.

PCT is general theory about how organisms function not just from psychological or mathematical view but also from view of other nature sciences
(physiology, biology). That’s what by my oppinion makes it so strong. But as any theory it can be ugraded.

MO : I’m curious what other media people typically link people to when introducing them to PCT. I’ve found myself wishing that B:CP and MSOB were available as ebooks,
since it would lower the friction to starting to read them.

HB : I’d suggest you first reading Â»Making sense of BehaviorÂ«. Or if you want internet version of understanding PCT try with Bruce Abbott synopsis. It’s really good also with easy to understand language.
http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/pct/pct.html

And then try to read B:CP. Well that is a difficult peace. Maybe you’ll need help in some chapters. Depends how well you are equiped with knowledge
from different sciences.

Boris

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals with Complice

Read my latest blog post: Towards
being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 30 June 2017 at 23:03, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:

OK world, try to hide from PCT…

http://youtu.be/U2TLepJ_sLg?a

–

Ed Heidicker
828 274-5929

richardhpfau · May 2, 2018, 2:25pm

[From: Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT)]

Malcolm,

If you haven’t already, have a look at the book Your Behavior: Understanding and Changing the Things You Do (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2017).Â Several reviewers have found it to be a good introduction to PCT.Â For example, on the back page, Martin Taylor and Warren MansellÂ state:

“Richard Pfau has written an engaging, accurate book on a complex subject. To introduce the power of Perceptual Control theory to a general readership in a way that may help in their everyday lives is no easy feat, but this book does just that. Highly recommended.”

Â Â Â Â – Martin Taylor, Ph.D., P.Eng., Senior Experimental Psychologist (Retd.), Defense Research Canada

“Wow! I am impressed with this book! It is comprehensive, neatly structured, and provides a great scientific context for introducing Perceptual Control theory to the layperson. The explanation builds up gradually over the chapters. Fantastic.”

Â Â Â Â – Warren Mansell, DPhil, DClinPsy, CPsychol, Reader in Psychology, University of Manchester, U.K.

Access to other reviews, most of which were written by persons who previously did not know about PCT, can be found at richardpfau.com onÂ “The Book” page.

Among other things, the section of the book titled “Why Are Some Theories So Special?” (pages 203 to 214), indicates why PCTÂ was focused uponÂ to help readers understand why they do the things they do. As the “Preface” and back coverÂ indicate, I also wrote the book to help move psychology beyond the outdated thinking that now dominates it.

With Regards,

Richard Pfau

···

On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM, Malcolm Ocean malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I wrote most of this email last summer, and it got lost in my drafts. But today is Email Debt Forgiveness Day, so here I am, cleaning out my drafts!

In addition to talking about introducing people to the theory, I also mostly haven’t posted on this group, particularly about myself and my context & goals, so… hi!

I started with B:CP and personally found it quite accessible! …but then, I studied Systems Design Engineering in university, so I already had a technical understanding of control systems. I read Making Sense of Behavior as well, and it’s been the main thing I’m sending to my friends, but it’s just harder to convince the people I know to order a $20 paper book than to buy a $10 ebook or read things that are free online, if they aren’t already interested in the theory.

I have also picked up a few other PCT books, the only one of which I’ve actually read any of is Ed Ford’s Freedom from Stress. Finding it quite insightful as well.

Abbott’s introduction looks quite good… but I suspect it wouldn’t make the reader particularly curious if they weren’t already. This delightful paperÂ posits out that in order to seem “interesting” a theory must deny some assumption(s) that people have when they encounter it. Abbott eventually gets to this when he says “The central assertion of PCT is that behavior exists solely for the purpose of controlling one’s perceptions” but this is quite far down and not emphasized.

Warren’s presentation has an even better “whoa” moment with the elastic knot-over-dot demo, although it’s also partway through. For a live presentation, he can afford to wait until halfway, because nobody’s going anywhere, but people might stop watching the video, or skip ahead in such a way that they miss the real juice.

I’ve been working on trying to write some of my own introductions, but they’re in the form of some scattered drafts at the moment. OneÂ recent personal blog postÂ does start to tease people about Perceptual Control Theory, and has successfully caused several of my friends to look more into it.

…It may be clear by now that my intent to spread PCT among my intellectual circles is more than just casual; I’ve come to believe that lack of understanding the implications of PCT (particularly regarding conflict) is a major bottleneck in most peoples’ ability to be effective individually and collectively. I’m therefore attempting to cause a substantial fraction of the people I interact with online to get excited about PCT.

If you’re curious, those people primarily consist of two overlapping groups:

the “rationality community” of people trying to upgrade their thinking by whatever means work (this community originated on lesswrong.comÂ (which has hadÂ a fewÂ posts on BCPÂ already)

the Effective Altruism movement, which is a group of people trying to figure out how to use their time and money to maximally benefit the world.

My intent is to cause most of them to have a general (and not-confused) sense of what PCT is, most of those people to generally think it’s a decent theory, and from them, some smaller fraction of people who are actively applying PCT to self-improvement and organizational development contexts. The purpose of all of this is to improve the effectiveness of people who are working to care for humanity’s future.

All that to say: I continue to be interested in knowing more what introductions this group has found most effective, or if you also feel like the perfect PCT introduction essay doesn’t yet exist but could be written.

Malcolm

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals withÂ Â Complice

Read my latest blog post:Â Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 5 July 2017 at 07:19, Boris Hartman boris.hartman@masicom.net wrote:

Hi Malcolm…

Â

From: Malcolm Ocean [mailto:malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: UCL talk on PCT yesterday on YouTube

Â

Wow, this is great!

Â

MO : I’m thinking of sending it to some friends of mine who’ve said “PCT seems interesting but it’s not clear what it predicts that other theories don’t”

Â

HB : Well if PCT is presented only as psychological theory with Â»controlled variableÂ« which is Â»protected from disturbancesÂ« then you get Â»under-avarageÂ« S-R theory which tells nothing new about how people behave in comparison to classical psychology. It’s even misleading. In one word of no use.

Â

But if you want to understand how organisms function and specially nervous system (how you function), then PCT is the best theory for understanding such a phenomenon.

Â

MO : …(they mostly haven’t looked into PCCT that much, I think, just maybe read the wikipedia article).

Â

HB : Well I looked at the Wikipedia article and I must say that it’s maybe complicated for reading, but main points of PCT are there. Maybe there is too much psychological and mathematical orientation what is not giving the whole picture what PCT is about.

Â

PCT is general theory about how organisms function not just from psychological or mathematical view but also from view of other nature sciences (physiology, biology). That’s what by my oppinion makes it so strong. But as any theory it can be ugraded.

Â

MO : I’m curious what other media people typically link people to when introducing them to PCT. I’ve found myself wishing that B:CP and MSOB were available as ebooks, since it would lower the friction to starting to read them.

HB : I’d suggest you first reading Â»Making sense of BehaviorÂ«. Or if you want internet version of understanding PCT try with Bruce Abbott synopsis. It’s really good also with easy to understand language. http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/pct/pct.html

Â

And then try to read B:CP. Well that is a difficult peace. Maybe you’ll need help in some chapters. Depends how well you are equiped with knowledge from different sciences.

Â

Boris

Â

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals withÂ Â Complice

Read my latest blog post:Â Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

Â

On 30 June 2017 at 23:03, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:

OK world, try to hide from PCT…

http://youtu.be/U2TLepJ_sLg?a

Â

bnhpct · May 2, 2018, 3:32pm

[Bruce Nevin 2018-05-02_11:32:26 ET]

Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT)Â –

Rich, I apologize for not mentioning your excellent book.Â I second your endorsement :-)Â and my apology is for leaving you in the somewhat awkward position of promoting your own work.

···

On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 10:25 AM, Richard Pfau richardhpfau@gmail.com wrote:

[From: Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT)]

Malcolm,

If you haven’t already, have a look at the book Your Behavior: Understanding and Changing the Things You Do (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2017).Â Several reviewers have found it to be a good introduction to PCT.Â For example, on the back page, Martin Taylor and Warren MansellÂ state:

“Richard Pfau has written an engaging, accurate book on a complex subject. To introduce the power of Perceptual Control theory to a general readership in a way that may help in their everyday lives is no easy feat, but this book does just that. Highly recommended.”

Â Â Â Â – Martin Taylor, Ph.D., P.Eng., Senior Experimental Psychologist (Retd.), Defense Research Canada

“Wow! I am impressed with this book! It is comprehensive, neatly structured, and provides a great scientific context for introducing Perceptual Control theory to the layperson. The explanation builds up gradually over the chapters. Fantastic.”

Â Â Â Â – Warren Mansell, DPhil, DClinPsy, CPsychol, Reader in Psychology, University of Manchester, U.K.

Access to other reviews, most of which were written by persons who previously did not know about PCT, can be found at richardpfau.com onÂ “The Book” page.

Among other things, the section of the book titled “Why Are Some Theories So Special?” (pages 203 to 214), indicates why PCTÂ was focused uponÂ to help readers understand why they do the things they do. As the “Preface” and back coverÂ indicate, I also wrote the book to help move psychology beyond the outdated thinking that now dominates it.

With Regards,

Richard Pfau

On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM, Malcolm Ocean malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I wrote most of this email last summer, and it got lost in my drafts. But today is Email Debt Forgiveness Day, so here I am, cleaning out my drafts!

In addition to talking about introducing people to the theory, I also mostly haven’t posted on this group, particularly about myself and my context & goals, so… hi!

I started with B:CP and personally found it quite accessible! …but then, I studied Systems Design Engineering in university, so I already had a technical understanding of control systems. I read Making Sense of Behavior as well, and it’s been the main thing I’m sending to my friends, but it’s just harder to convince the people I know to order a $20 paper book than to buy a $10 ebook or read things that are free online, if they aren’t already interested in the theory.

I have also picked up a few other PCT books, the only one of which I’ve actually read any of is Ed Ford’s Freedom from Stress. Finding it quite insightful as well.

Abbott’s introduction looks quite good… but I suspect it wouldn’t make the reader particularly curious if they weren’t already. This delightful paperÂ posits out that in order to seem “interesting” a theory must deny some assumption(s) that people have when they encounter it. Abbott eventually gets to this when he says “The central assertion of PCT is that behavior exists solely for the purpose of controlling one’s perceptions” but this is quite far down and not emphasized.

Warren’s presentation has an even better “whoa” moment with the elastic knot-over-dot demo, although it’s also partway through. For a live presentation, he can afford to wait until halfway, because nobody’s going anywhere, but people might stop watching the video, or skip ahead in such a way that they miss the real juice.

I’ve been working on trying to write some of my own introductions, but they’re in the form of some scattered drafts at the moment. OneÂ recent personal blog postÂ does start to tease people about Perceptual Control Theory, and has successfully caused several of my friends to look more into it.

…It may be clear by now that my intent to spread PCT among my intellectual circles is more than just casual; I’ve come to believe that lack of understanding the implications of PCT (particularly regarding conflict) is a major bottleneck in most peoples’ ability to be effective individually and collectively. I’m therefore attempting to cause a substantial fraction of the people I interact with online to get excited about PCT.

If you’re curious, those people primarily consist of two overlapping groups:

the “rationality community” of people trying to upgrade their thinking by whatever means work (this community originated on lesswrong.comÂ (which has hadÂ a fewÂ posts on BCPÂ already)

the Effective Altruism movement, which is a group of people trying to figure out how to use their time and money to maximally benefit the world.

My intent is to cause most of them to have a general (and not-confused) sense of what PCT is, most of those people to generally think it’s a decent theory, and from them, some smaller fraction of people who are actively applying PCT to self-improvement and organizational development contexts. The purpose of all of this is to improve the effectiveness of people who are working to care for humanity’s future.

All that to say: I continue to be interested in knowing more what introductions this group has found most effective, or if you also feel like the perfect PCT introduction essay doesn’t yet exist but could be written.

Malcolm

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals withÂ Â Complice

Read my latest blog post:Â Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 5 July 2017 at 07:19, Boris Hartman boris.hartman@masicom.net wrote:

Hi Malcolm…

Â

From: Malcolm Ocean [mailto:malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: UCL talk on PCT yesterday on YouTube

Â

Wow, this is great!

Â

MO : I’m thinking of sending it to some friends of mine who’ve said “PCT seems interesting but it’s not clear what it predicts that other theories don’t”

Â

HB : Well if PCT is presented only as psychological theory with Â»controlled variableÂ« which is Â»protected from disturbancesÂ« then you get Â»under-avarageÂ« S-R theory which tells nothing new about how people behave in comparison to classical psychology. It’s even misleading. In one word of no use.

Â

But if you want to understand how organisms function and specially nervous system (how you function), then PCT is the best theory for understanding such a phenomenon.

Â

MO : …(they mostly havenœt looked into PCT that much, I think, just maybe read the wikipedia article).

Â

HB : Well I looked at the Wikipedia article and I must say that it’s maybe complicated for reading, but main points of PCT are there. Maybe there is too much psychological and mathematical orientation what is not giving the whole picture what PCT is about.

Â

PCT is general theory about how organisms function not just from psychological or mathematical view but also from view of other nature sciences (physiology, biology). That’s what by my oppinion makes it so strong. But as any theory it can be ugraded.

Â

MO : I’m curious what other media people typically link people to when introducing them to PCT. I’ve found myself wishing that B:CP and MSOB were available as ebooks, since it would lower the friction to starting to read them.

HB : I’d suggest you first reading Â»Making sense of BehaviorÂ«. Or if you want internet version of understanding PCT try with Bruce Abbott synopsis. It’s really good also with easy to understand language. http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/pct/pct.html

Â

And then try to read B:CP. Well that is a difficult peace. Maybe you’ll need help in some chapters. Depends how well you are equiped with knowledge from different sciences.

Â

Boris

Â

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals withÂ Â Complice

Read my latest blog post:Â Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

Â

On 30 June 2017 at 23:03, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:

OK world, try to hide from PCT…

http://youtu.be/U2TLepJ_sLg?a

Â

Joh_Orengo · May 2, 2018, 3:45pm

[Joh Orengo 2018.05.02 6:36 EEST]

Welcome, Malcolm!

I also strongly endorse Rich’s book. It’s thorough, insightful, and useful (and respectful of people’s beliefs). I see it being used as a textbook (and not just for psychology), even at the high school level.

Joh

···

Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.

â?â?â?â?â?â?â? Original Message â?â?â?â?â?â?â?

On May 2, 2018 6:32 PM, Bruce Nevin bnhpct@gmail.com wrote:

[Bruce Nevin 2018-05-02_11:32:26 ET]

Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT) –

Rich, I apologize for not mentioning your excellent book. I second your endorsement and my apology is for leaving you in the somewhat awkward position of promoting your own work.

On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 10:25 AM, Richard Pfau richardhpfau@gmail.com wrote:

[From: Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT)]

Malcolm,

If you haven’t already, have a look at the book Your Behavior: Understanding and Changing the Things You Do (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2017). Several reviewers have found it to be a good introduction to PCT. For example, on the back page, Martin Taylor and Warren Mansell state:

“Richard Pfau has written an engaging, accurate book on a complex subject. To introduce the power of Perceptual Control theory to a general readership in a way that may help in their everyday lives is no easy feat, but this book does just that. Highly recommended.”

– Martin Taylor, Ph.D., P.Eng., Senior Experimental Psychologist (Retd.), Defense Research Canada

“Wow! I am impressed with this book! It is comprehensive, neatly structured, and provides a great scientific context for introducing Perceptual Control theory to the layperson. The explanation builds up gradually over the chapters. Fantastic.”

– Warren Mansell, DPhil, DClinPsy, CPsychol, Reader in Psychology, University of Manchester, U.K.

Access to other reviews, most of which were written by persons who previously did not know about PCT, can be found at richardpfau.com on “The Book” page.

Among other things, the section of the book titled “Why Are Some Theories So Special?” (pages 203 to 214), indicates why PCT was focused upon to help readers understand why they do the things they do. As the “Preface” and back cover indicate, I also wrote the book to help move psychology beyond the outdated thinking that now dominates it.

With Regards,

Richard Pfau

On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM, Malcolm Ocean malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I wrote most of this email last summer, and it got lost in my drafts. But today is Email Debt Forgiveness Day, so here I am, cleaning out my drafts!

In addition to talking about introducing people to the theory, I also mostly haven’t posted on this group, particularly about myself and my context & goals, so… hi!

I started with B:CP and personally found it quite accessible! …but then, I studied Systems Design Engineering in university, so I already had a technical understanding of control systems. I read Making Sense of Behavior as well, and it’s been the main thing I’m sending to my friends, but it’s just harder to convince the people I know to order a $20 paper book than to buy a $10 ebook or read things that are free online, if they aren’t already interested in the theory.

I have also picked up a few other PCT books, the only one of which I’ve actually read any of is Ed Ford’s Freedom from Stress. Finding it quite insightful as well.

Abbott’s introduction looks quite good… but I suspect it wouldn’t make the reader particularly curious if they weren’t already. This delightful paper posits out that in order to seem “interesting” a theory must deny some assumption(s) that people have when they encounter it. Abbott eventually gets to this when he says “The central assertion of PCT is that behavior exists solely for the purpose of controlling one’s perceptions” but this is quite far down and not emphasized.

Warren’s presentation has an even better “whoa” moment with the elastic knot-over-dot demo, although it’s also partway through. For a live presentation, he can afford to wait until halfway, because nobody’s going anywhere, but people might stop watching the video, or skip ahead in such a way that they miss the real juice.

I’ve been working on trying to write some of my own introductions, but they’re in the form of some scattered drafts at the moment. One recent personal blog post does start to tease people about Perceptual Control Theory, and has successfully caused several of my friends to look more into it.

…It may be clear by now that my intent to spread PCT among my intellectual circles is more than just casual; I’ve come to believe that lack of understanding the implications of PCT (particularly regarding conflict) is a major bottleneck in most peoples’ ability to be effective individually and collectively. I’m therefore attempting to cause a substantial fraction of the people I interact with online to get excited about PCT.

If you’re curious, those people primarily consist of two overlapping groups:

the “rationality community” of people trying to upgrade their thinking by whatever means work (this community originated on lesswrong.com (which has had a few posts on BCP already)

the Effective Altruism movement, which is a group of people trying to figure out how to use their time and money to maximally benefit the world.

My intent is to cause most of them to have a general (and not-confused) sense of what PCT is, most of those people to generally think it’s a decent theory, and from them, some smaller fraction of people who are actively applying PCT to self-improvement and organizational development contexts. The purpose of all of this is to improve the effectiveness of people who are working to care for humanity’s future.

All that to say: I continue to be interested in knowing more what introductions this group has found most effective, or if you also feel like the perfect PCT introduction essay doesn’t yet exist but could be written.

Malcolm

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals with Complice

Read my latest blog post: Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 5 July 2017 at 07:19, Boris Hartman boris.hartman@masicom.net wrote:

Hi Malcolm
/p>

From: Malcolm Ocean [mailto:malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: UCL talk on PCT yesterday on YouTube

Wow, this is great!

MO : I’m thinking of sending it to some friends of mine who’ve said “PCT seems interesting but it’s not clear what it predicts that other theories don’t”

HB : Well if PCT is presented only as psychological theory with Â»controlled variableÂ« which is Â»protected from disturbancesÂ« then you get Â»under-avarageÂ« S-R theory which tells nothing new about how people behave in comparison to classical psychology. It’s even misleading. In one word of no use.

But if you want to understand how organisms function and specially nervous system (how you function), then PCT is the best theory for understanding such a phenomenon.

MO : (they mostly haven’t looked innto PCT that much, I think, just maybe read the wikipedia article).

HB : Well I looked at the Wikipedia article and I must say that it’s maybe complicated for reading, but main points of PCT are there. Maybe there is too much psychological and mathematical orientation what is not giving the whole picture what PCT is about.

PCT is general theory about how organisms function not just from psychological or mathematical view but also from view of other nature sciences (physiology, biology). That’s what by my oppinion makes it so strong. But as any theory it can be ugraded.

MO : I’m curious what other media people typically link people to when introducing them to PCT. I’ve found myself wishing that B:CP and MSOB were available as ebooks, since it would lower the friction to starting to read them.

HB : I’d suggest you first reading Â»Making sense of BehaviorÂ«. Or if you want internet version of understanding PCT try with Bruce Abbott synopsis. It’s really good also with easy to understand language. http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/pct/pct.html

And then try to read B:CP. Well that is a difficult peace. Maybe you’ll need help in some chapters. Depends how well you are equiped with knowledge from different sciences.

Boris

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals with Complice

Read my latest blog post: Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 30 June 2017 at 23:03, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:

OK world, try to hide from PCT…

http://youtu.be/U2TLepJ_sLg?a

MalcolmOcean · June 2, 2018, 8:03pm

Got a copy of Rich’s book and really enjoying it so far. Am still very interested in shorter articles that can function as effective introductions, but maybe I’ll have to write them myself!

···

On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 10:25 AM, Richard Pfau richardhpfau@gmail.com wrote:

[From: Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT)]

Malcolm,

If you haven’t already, have a look at the book Your Behavior: Understanding and Changing the Things You Do (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2017).Â Several reviewers have found it to be a good introduction to PCT.Â For example, on the back page, Martin Taylor and Warren MansellÂ state:

“Richard Pfau has written an engaging, accurate book on a complex subject. To introduce the power of Perceptual Control theory to a general readership in a way that may help in their everyday lives is no easy feat, but this book does just that. Highly recommended.”

Â Â Â Â – Martin Taylor, Ph.D., P.Eng., Senior Experimental Psychologist (Retd.), Defense Research Canada

“Wow! I am impressed with this book! It is comprehensive, neatly structured, and provides a great scientific context for introducing Perceptual Control theory to the layperson. The explanation builds up gradually over the chapters. Fantastic.”

Â Â Â Â – Warren Mansell, DPhil, DClinPsy, CPsychol, Reader in Psychology, University of Manchester, U.K.

Access to other reviews, most of which were written by persons who previously did not know about PCT, can be found at richardpfau.com onÂ “The Book” page.

Among other things, the section of the book titled “Why Are Some Theories So Special?” (pages 203 to 214), indicates why PCTÂ was focused uponÂ to help readers understand why they do the things they do. As the “Preface” and back coverÂ indicate, I also wrote the book to help move psychology beyond the outdated thinking that now dominates it.

With Regards,

Richard Pfau

On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM, Malcolm Ocean malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I wrote most of this email last summer, and it got lost in my drafts. But today is Email Debt Forgiveness Day, so here I am, cleaning out my drafts!

In addition to talking about introducing people to the theory, I also mostly haven’t posted on this group, particularly about myself and my context & goals, so… hi!

I started with B:CP and personally found it quite accessible! …but then, I studied Systems Design Engineering in university, so I already had a technical understanding of control systems. I read Making Sense of Behavior as well, and it’s been the main thing I’m sending to my friends, but it’s just harder to convince the people I know to order a $20 paper book than to buy a $10 ebook or read things that are free online, if they aren’t already interested in the theory.

I have also picked up a few other PCT books, the only one of which I’ve actually read any of is Ed Ford’s Freedom from Stress. Finding it quite insightful as well.

Abbott’s introduction looks quite good… but I suspect it wouldn’t make the reader particularly curious if they weren’t already. This delightful paperÂ posits out that in order to seem “interesting” a theory must deny some assumption(s) that people have when they encounter it. Abbott eventually gets to this when he says “The central assertion of PCT is that behavior exists solely for the purpose of controlling one’s perceptions” but this is quite far down and not emphasized.

Warren’s presentation has an even better “whoa” moment with the elastic knot-over-dot demo, although it’s also partway through. For a live presentation, he can afford to wait until halfway, because nobody’s going anywhere, but people might stop watching the video, or skip ahead in such a way that they miss the real juice.

I’ve been working on trying to write some of my own introductions, but they’re in the form of some scattered drafts at the moment. OneÂ recent personal blog postÂ does start to tease people about Perceptual Control Theory, and has successfully caused several of my friends to look more into it.

…It may be clear by now that my intent to spread PCT among my intellectual circles is more than just casual; I’ve come to believe that lack of understanding the implications of PCT (particularly regarding conflict) is a major bottleneck in most peoples’ ability to be effective individually and collectively. I’m therefore attempting to cause a substantial fraction of the people I interact with online to get excited about PCT.

If you’re curious, those people primarily consist of two overlapping groups:

the “rationality community” of people trying to upgrade their thinking by whatever means work (this community originated on lesswrong.comÂ (which has hadÂ a fewÂ posts on BCPÂ already)

the Effective Altruism movement, which is a group of people trying to figure out how to use their time and money to maximally benefit the world.

My intent is to cause most of them to have a general (and not-confused) sense of what PCT is, most of those people to generally think it’s a decent theory, and from them, some smaller fraction of people who are actively applying PCT to self-improvement and organizational development contexts. The purpose of all of this is to improve the effectiveness of people who are working to care for humanity’s future.

All that to say: I continue to be interested in knowing more what introductions this group has found most effective, or if you also feel like the perfect PCT introduction essay doesn’t yet exist but could be written.

Malcolm

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals withÂ Â Complice

Read my latest blog post:Â Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 5 July 2017 at 07:19, Boris Hartman boris.hartman@masicom.net wrote:

Hi Malcolm

Â

From: Malcolm Ocean [mailto:malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: UCL talk on PCT yesterday on YouTube

Â

Wow, this is great!

Â

MO : I’m thinking of sending it to some friends of mine who’ve said “PCT seems interesting but it’s not clear what it predicts that other theories don’t”

Â

HB : Well if PCT is presented only as psychological theory with Â»controlled variableÂ« which is Â»protected from disturbancesÂ« then you get Â»under-avarageÂ« S-R theory which tells nothing new about how people behave in comparison to classical psychology. It’s even misleading. In one word of no use.

Â

But if you want to understand how organisms function and specially nervous system (how you function), then PCT is the best theory for understanding such a phenomenon.

Â

MO : (they mostly haven’t looked into PCT that much, I think, jjust maybe read the wikipedia article).

Â

HB : Well I looked at the Wikipedia article and I must say that it’s maybe complicated for reading, but main points of PCT are there. Maybe there is too much psychological and mathematical orientation what is not giving the whole picture what PCT is about.

Â

PCT is general theory about how organisms function not just from psychological or mathematical view but also from view of other nature sciences (physiology, biology). That’s what by my oppinion makes it so strong. But as any theory it can be ugraded.

Â

MO : I’m curious what other media people typically link people to when introducing them to PCT. I’ve found myself wishing that B:CP and MSOB were available as ebooks, since it would lower the friction to starting to read them.

HB : I’d suggest you first reading Â»Making sense of BehaviorÂ«. Or if you want internet version of understanding PCT try with Bruce Abbott synopsis. It’s really good also with easy to understand language. http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/pct/pct.html

Â

And then try to read B:CP. Well that is a difficult peace. Maybe you’ll need help in some chapters. Depends how well you are equiped with knowledge from different sciences.

Â

Boris

Â

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals withÂ Â Complice

Read my latest blog post:Â Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

Â

On 30 June 2017 at 23:03, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:

OK world, try to hide from PCT…

http://youtu.be/U2TLepJ_sLg?a

Â

Joh_Orengo · June 3, 2018, 5:07pm

Hi Malcom,

Happy you’re enjoying it. I also suggest Rupert Young’s website for his company Perceptual Robots. Here’s a link where you can take a look at his excellent articles, one of which is a one-page primer on PCT. http://www.perceptualrobots.com/articles/

Joh

···

Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.

â?â?â?â?â?â?â? Original Message â?â?â?â?â?â?â?

On June 2, 2018 11:03 PM, Malcolm Ocean csgnet@lists.illinois.edu wrote:

Got a copy of Rich’s book and really enjoying it so far. Am still very interested in shorter articles that can function as effective introductions, but maybe I’ll have to write them myself!

On Wed, May 2, 2018, 08:46 Joh Orengo joh.orengo@protonmail.com wrote:

[Joh Orengo 2018.05.02 6:36 EEST]

Welcome, Malcolm!

I also strongly endorse Rich’s book. It’s thorough, insightful, and useful (and respectful of people’s beliefs). I see it being used as a textbook (and not just for psychology), even at the high school level.

Joh

Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.

â?â?â?â?â?â?â? Original Message â?â?â?â?â?â?â?

On May 2, 2018 6:32 PM, Bruce Nevin bnhpct@gmail.com wrote:

[Bruce Nevin 2018-05-02_11:32:26 ET]

Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT) –

Rich, I apologize for not mentioning your excellent book. I second your endorsement and my apology is for leaving you in the somewhat awkward position of promoting your own work.

On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 10:25 AM, Richard Pfau richardhpfau@gmail.com wrote:

[From: Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT)]

Malcolm,

If you haven’t already, have a look at the book Your Behavior: Understanding and Changing the Things You Do (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2017). Several reviewers have found it to be a good introduction to PCT. For example, on the back page, Martin Taylor and Warren Mansell state:

“Richard Pfau has written an engaging, accurate book on a complex subject. To introduce the power of Perceptual Control theory to a general readership in a way that may help in their everyday lives is no easy feat, but this book does just that. Highly recommended.”

– Martin Taylor, Ph.D., P.Eng., Senior Experimental Psychologist (Retd.), Defense Research Canada

“Wow! I am impressed with this book! It is comprehensive, neatly structured, and provides a great scientific context for introducing Perceptual Control theory to the layperson. The explanation builds up gradually over the chapters. Fantastic.”

– Warren Mansell, DPhil, DClinPsy, CPsychol, Reader in Psychology, University of Manchester, U.K.

Access to other reviews, most of which were written by persons who previously did not know about PCT, can be found at richardpfau.com on “The Book” page.

Among other things, the section of the book titled “Why Are Some Theories So Special?” (pages 203 to 214), indicates why PCT was focused upon to help readers understand why they do the things they do. As the “Preface” and back cover indicate, I also wrote the book to help move psychology beyond the outdated thinking that now dominates it.

With Regards,

Richard Pfau

On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM, Malcolm Ocean malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I wrote most of this email last summer, and it got lost in my drafts. But today is Email Debt Forgiveness Day, so here I am, cleaning out my drafts!

In addition to talking about introducing people to the theory, I also mostly haven’t posted on this group, particularly about myself and my context & goals, so… hi!

I started with B:CP and personally found it quite accessible! …but then, I studied Systems Design Engineering in university, so I already had a technical understanding of control systems. I read Making Sense of Behavior as well, and it’s been the main thing I’m sending to my friends, but it’s just harder to convince the people I know to order a $20 paper book than to buy a $10 ebook or read things that are free online, if they aren’t already interested in the theory.

I have also picked up a few other PCT books, the only one of which I’ve actually read any of is Ed Ford’s Freedom from Stress. Finding it quite insightful as well.

Abbott’s introduction looks quite good… but I suspect it wouldn’t make the reader particularly curious if they weren’t already. This delightful paper posits out that in order to seem “interesting” a theory must deny some assumption(s) that people have when they encounter it. Abbott eventually gets to this when he says “The central assertion of PCT is that behavior exists solely for the purpose of controlling one’s perceptions” but this is quite far down and not emphasized.

Warren’s presentation has an even better “whoa” moment with the elastic knot-over-dot demo, although it’s also partway through. For a live presentation, he can afford to wait until halfway, because nobody’s going anywhere, but people might stop watching the video, or skip ahead in such a way that they miss the real juice.

I’ve been working on trying to write some of my own introductions, but they’re in the form of some scattered drafts at the moment. One recent personal blog post does start to tease people about Perceptual Control Theory, and has successfully caused several of my friends to look more into it.

…It may be clear by now that my intent to spread PCT among my intellectual circles is more than just casual; I’ve come to believe that lack of understanding the implications of PCT (particularly regarding conflict) is a major bottleneck in most peoples’ ability to be effective individually and collectively. I’m therefore attempting to cause a substantial fraction of the people I interact with online to get excited about PCT.

If you’re curious, those people primarily consist of two overlapping groups:

the “rationality community” of people trying to upgrade their thinking by whatever means work (this community originated on lesswrong.com (which has had a few posts on BCP already)

the Effective Altruism movement, which is a group of people trying to figure out how to use their time and money to maximally benefit the world.

My intent is to cause most of them to have a general (and not-confused) sense of what PCT is, most of those people to generally think it’s a decent theory, and from them, some smaller fraction of people who are actively applying PCT to self-improvement and organizational development contexts. The purpose of all of this is to improve the effectiveness of people who are working to care for humanity’s future.

All that to say: I continue to be interested in knowing more what introductions this group has found most effective, or if you also feel like the perfect PCT introduction essay doesn’t yet exist but could be written.

Malcolm

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals with Complice

Read my latest blog post: Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 5 July 2017 at 07:19, Boris Hartman boris.hartman@masicom.net wrote:

Hi Malcolm

From: Malcolm Ocean [mailto:malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: UCL talk on PCT yesterday on YouTube

Wow, this is great!

MO : I’m thinking of sending it to some friends of mine who’ve said “PCT seems interesting but it’s not clear what it predicts that other theories don’t”

HB : Well if PCT is presented only as psychological theory with Â»controlled variableÂ« which is Â»protected from disturbancesÂ« then you get Â»under-avarageÂ« S-R theory which tells nothing new about how people behave in comparison to classical psychology. It’s even misleading. In one word of no use.

But if you want to understand how organisms function and specially nervous system (how you function), then PCT is the best theory for understanding such a phenomenon.

MO : (tthey mostly haven’t looked into PCT that much, I think, just maybe read the wikipedia article).

HB : Well I looked at the Wikipedia article and I must say that it’s maybe complicated for reading, but main points of PCT are there. Maybe there is too much psychological and mathematical orientation what is not giving the whole picture what PCT is about.

PCT is general theory about how organisms function not just from psychological or mathematical view but also from view of other nature sciences (physiology, biology). That’s what by my oppinion makes it so strong. But as any theory it can be ugraded.

MO : I’m curious what other media people typically link people to when introducing them to PCT. I’ve found myself wishing that B:CP and MSOB were available as ebooks, since it would lower the friction to starting to read them.

HB : I’d suggest you first reading Â»Making sense of BehaviorÂ«. Or if you want internet version of understanding PCT try with Bruce Abbott synopsis. It’s really good also with easy to understand language. http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/pct/pct.html

And then try to read B:CP. Well that is a difficult peace. Maybe you’ll need help in some chapters. Depends how well you are equiped with knowledge from different sciences.

Boris

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals with Complice

Read my latest blog post: Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 30 June 2017 at 23:03, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:

OK world, try to hide from PCT…

http://youtu.be/U2TLepJ_sLg?a

bnhpct · June 3, 2018, 10:18pm

[Bruce Nevin 2018-06-03_14:09:45 ET]

Malcolm Ocean (Sat, Jun 2, 2018 at 4:03 PM) –

Am still very interested in shorter articles that can function as effective introductions

Here’s a collection of introductions and related commentaries written by Bill Powers:

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/intro_papers/index.html

Some other introductions and commentaries are collected here:

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/intro_papers/other_pct.html
A book of readings can be downloaded here:
http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/readings/readings.html

Talk and writing about PCT is fine, but without hands-on experience of the phenomenon of control, identified and recognized as such, more than a few people have been supremely confident of their grasp of PCT and blind to how they were merely clothing previously learned concepts in PCT jargon. There be dragons and unforeseen hazards here. “PCT is an innovation that destroys expertise on a massive scale” (Mats Lundqvist, Director of the School of Entrepreneurship, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden).

Easy demonstrations of control at several levels of the perceptual hierarchy are listed in Part 2 of the first major publication in the PCT literature, Powers et al. 1960:

http://pctweb.org/Powers%20et%20al%201960%20part2.pdf

The clearest and best organized hands-on presentation of the fact of control is Bill’s last book,Â Living Control Systems III: The fact of control.Â

The publisher, Benchmark Publications Inc., has made the text freely available atÂ

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/lcs3/content_lcs3.html

To use this book it is essential to install and run the computer demos. They may be freely downloaded from any of these sites:

Other tutorials,Â demos,Â and computer simulations of behavior are at that last site,Â pct-labs.com, and at

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/demos/tutor_pct.html.

Rick Marken’s excellent and illuminating demos and simulations are at

http://mindreadings.com/demos.htm

I do hope you will get your hands dirty with the phenomena of control long before you seriously consider producing your own introduction to the field.

···

On Sun, Jun 3, 2018 at 6:14 PM, Bruce Nevin bnhpct@gmail.com wrote:

[Bruce Nevin 2018-06-03_14:09:45 ET]

Malcolm Ocean (Sat, Jun 2, 2018 at 4:03 PM) –

MO> Am still very interested in shorter articles that can function as effective introductions

Here’s a collection of introductions and related commentaries written by Bill Powers:

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/intro_papers/index.html

Some other introductions and commentaries are collected here:

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/intro_papers/other_pct.html
A book of readings can be downloaded here:

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/readings/readings.html

Talk and writing about PCT is fine, but without hands-on experience of the phenomenon of control, identified and recognized as such, more than a few people have been supremely confident of their grasp of PCT and blind to how they were merely clothing previously learned concepts in PCT jargon. There be dragons and unforeseen hazards here. “PCT is an innovation that destroys expertise on a massive scale” (Mats Lundqvist, Director of the School of Entrepreneurship, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden).

Easy demonstrations of control at several levels of the perceptual hierarchy are listed in Part 2 of the first major publication in the PCT literature, Powers et al. 1960:

http://pctweb.org/Powers%20et%20al%201960%20part2.pdf

The clearest and best organized hands-on presentation of the fact of control is Bill’s last book, Living Control Systems III: The fact of control.Â

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Control-Systems-III-Fact/dp/0964712180

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=William+Powers&bi=0&bx=off&cm_sp=SearchF--Advtab1--Results&ds=30&recentlyadded=all&sortby=17&sts=t&tn=Living+Control+Systems+III+the+Fact+of+control

The publisher, Benchmark Publications Inc., has made the text freely available atÂ

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/lcs3/content_lcs3.html

To use this book it is essential to install and run the computer demos. They may be freely downloaded from any of these sites:

http://www.billpct.org/

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/billpct.html

http://www.pct-labs.com/

Other tutorials, demos,Â and computer simulations of behavior are at that last site, pct-labs.com, and at

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/demos/tutor_pct.html.

Rick Marken’s excellent and illuminating demos and simulations are at

I do hope you will get your hands dirty with the phenomena of control long before you seriously consider producing your own introduction to the field.

/Bruce

On Sat, Jun 2, 2018 at 4:03 PM, Malcolm Ocean csgnet@lists.illinois.edu wrote:

Got a copy of Rich’s book and really enjoying it so far. Am still very interested in shorter articles that can function as effective introductions, but maybe I’ll have to write them myself!

On Wed, May 2, 2018, 08:46 Joh Orengo joh.orengo@protonmail.com wrote:

[Joh Orengo 2018.05.02 6:36 EEST]

Welcome, Malcolm!

I also strongly endorse Rich’s book. It’s thorough, insightful, and useful (and respectful of people’s beliefs). I see it being used as a textbook (and not just for psychology), even at the high school level.

Joh

Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.

â€?â€?â€?â€?â€?â€?â€? Original Message â€?â€?â€?â€?â€?â€?â€?

On May 2, 2018 6:32 PM, Bruce Nevin bnhpct@gmail.com wrote:

[Bruce Nevin 2018-05-02_11:32:26 ET]

Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT)Â –

Rich, I apologize for not mentioning your excellent book.Â I second your endorsement :-)Â and my apology is for leaving you in the somewhat awkward position of promoting your own work.

On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 10:25 AM, Richard Pfau richardhpfau@gmail.com wrote:

[From: Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT)]

Malcolm,

If you haven’t already, have a look at the book Your Behavior: Understanding and Changing the Things You Do (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2017).Â Several reviewers have found it to be a good introduction to PCT.Â For example, on the back page, Martin Taylor and Warren MansellÂ state:

“Richard Pfau has written an engaging, accurate book on a complex subject. To introduce the power of Perceptual Control theory to a general readership in a way that may help in their everyday lives is no easy feat, but this book does just that. Highly recommended.”

Â Â Â Â – Martin Taylor, Ph.D., P.Eng., Senior Experimental Psychologist (Retd.), Defense Research Canada

“Wow! I am impressed with this book! It is comprehensive, neatly structured, and provides a great scientific context for introducing Perceptual Control theory to the layperson. The explanation builds up gradually over the chapters. Fantastic.”

Â Â Â Â – Warren Mansell, DPhil, DClinPsy, CPsychol, Reader in Psychology, University of Manchester, U.K.

Access to other reviews, most of which were written by persons who previously did not know about PCT, can be found at richardpfau.com onÂ “The Book” page.

Among other things, the section of the book titled “Why Are Some Theories So Special?” (pages 203 to 214), indicates why PCTÂ was focused uponÂ to help readers understand why they do the things they do. As the “Preface” and back coverÂ indicate, I also wrote the book to help move psychology beyond the outdated thinking that now dominates it.

With Regards,

Richard Pfau

On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM, Malcolm Ocean malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I wrote most of this email last summer, and it got lost in my drafts. But today is Email Debt Forgiveness Day, so here I am, cleaning out my drafts!

In addition to talking about introducing people to the theory, I also mostly haven’t posted on this group, particularly about myself and my context & goals, so… hi!

I started with B:CP and personally found it quite accessible! …but then, I studied Systems Design Engineering in university, so I already had a technical understanding of control systems. I read Making Sense of Behavior as well, and it’s been the main thing I’m sending to my friends, but it’s just harder to convince the people I know to order a $20 paper book than to buy a $10 ebook or read things that are free online, if they aren’t already interested in the theory.

I have also picked up a few other PCT books, the only one of which I’ve actually read any of is Ed Ford’s Freedom from Stress. Finding it quite insightful as well.

Abbott’s introduction looks quite good… but I suspect it wouldn’t make the reader particularly curious if they weren’t already. This delightful paperÂ posits out that in order to seem “interesting” a theory must deny some assumption(s) that people have when they encounter it. Abbott eventually gets to this when he says “The central assertion of PCT is that behavior exists solely for the purpose of controlling one’s perceptions” but this is quite far down and not emphasized.

Warren’s presentation has an even better “whoa” moment with the elastic knot-over-dot demo, although it’s also partway through. For a live presentation, he can afford to wait until halfway, because nobody’s going anywhere, but people might stop watching the video, or skip ahead in such a way that they miss the real juice.

I’ve been working on trying to write some of my own introductions, but they’re in the form of some scattered drafts at the moment. OneÂ recent personal blog postÂ does start to tease people about Perceptual Control Theory, and has successfully caused several of my friends to look more into it.

…It may be clear by now that my intent to spread PCT among my intellectual circles is more than just casual; I’ve come to believe that lack of understanding the implications of PCT (particularly regarding conflict) is a major bottleneck in most peoples’ ability to be effective individually and collectively. I’m therefore attempting to cause a substantial fraction of the people I interact with online to get excited about PCT.

If you’re curious, those people primarily consist of two overlapping groups:

the “rationality community” of people trying to upgrade their thinking by whatever means work (this community originated on lesswrong.comÂ (which has hadÂ a fewÂ posts on BCPÂ already)

the Effective Altruism movement, which is a group of people trying to figure out how to use their time and money to maximally benefit the world.

My intent is to cause most of them to have a general (and not-confused) sense of what PCT is, most of those people to generally think it’s a decent theory, and from them, some smaller fraction of people who are actively applying PCT to self-improvement and organizational development contexts. The purpose of all of this is to improve the effectiveness of people who are working to care for humanity’s future.

All that to say: I continue to be interested in knowing more what introductions this group has found most effective, or if you also feel like the perfect PCT introduction essay doesn’t yet exist but could be written.

Malcolm

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals withÂ Â Complice

Read my latest blog post:Â Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 5 July 2017 at 07:19, Boris Hartman boris.hartman@masicom.net wrote:

Hi Malcolm…<

Â

From: Malcolm Ocean [mailto:malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: UCL talk on PCT yesterday on YouTube

Â

Wow, this is great!

Â

MO : I’m thinking of sending it to some friends of mine who’ve said “PCT seems interesting but it’s not clear what it predicts that other theories don’t”

Â

HB : Well if PCT is presented only as psychological theory with Â»controlled variableÂ« which is Â»protected from disturbancesÂ« then you get Â»under-avarageÂ« S-R theory which tells nothing new about how people behave in comparison to classical psychology. It’s even misleading. In one word of no use.

Â

But if you want to understand how organisms function and specially nervous system (how you function), then PCT is the best theory for understanding such a phenomenon.

Â

MO : …(they mostly havven’t looked into PCT that much, I think, just maybe read the wikipedia article).

Â

HB : Well I looked at the Wikipedia article and I must say that it’s maybe complicated for reading, but main points of PCT are there. Maybe there is too much psychological and mathematical orientation what is not giving the whole picture what PCT is about.

Â

PCT is general theory about how organisms function not just from psychological or mathematical view but also from view of other nature sciences (physiology, biology). That’s what by my oppinion makes it so strong. But as any theory it can be ugraded.

Â

MO : I’m curious what other media people typically link people to when introducing them to PCT. I’ve found myself wishing that B:CP and MSOB were available as ebooks, since it would lower the friction to starting to read them.

HB : I’d suggest you first reading Â»Making sense of BehaviorÂ«. Or if you want internet version of understanding PCT try with Bruce Abbott synopsis. It’s really good also with easy to understand language. http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/pct/pct.html

Â

And then try to read B:CP. Well that is a difficult peace. Maybe you’ll need help in some chapters. Depends how well you are equiped with knowledge from different sciences.

Â

Boris

Â

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals withÂ Â Complice

Read my latest blog post:Â Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

Â

On 30 June 2017 at 23:03, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:

OK world, try to hide from PCT…

http://youtu.be/U2TLepJ_sLg?a

Â

Joh_Orengo · June 4, 2018, 6:17am

[Joh Orengo 2018.06.04.09:15 UTC]

Thanks for the links, Bruce. I haven’t seen some of these.

Joh

···

Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.

â?â?â?â?â?â?â? Original Message â?â?â?â?â?â?â?

On June 4, 2018 1:18 AM, Bruce Nevin csgnet@lists.illinois.edu wrote:

[Bruce Nevin 2018-06-03_14:09:45 ET]

Malcolm Ocean (Sat, Jun 2, 2018 at 4:03 PM) –

MO> Am still very interested in shorter articles that can function as effective introductions

Here’s a collection of introductions and related commentaries written by Bill Powers:

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/intro_papers/index.html

Some other introductions and commentaries are collected here:

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/intro_papers/other_pct.html
A book of readings can be downloaded here:

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/readings/readings.html

Talk and writing about PCT is fine, but without hands-on experience of the phenomenon of control, identified and recognized as such, more than a few people have been supremely confident of their grasp of PCT and blind to how they were merely clothing previously learned concepts in PCT jargon. There be dragons and unforeseen hazards here. “PCT is an innovation that destroys expertise on a massive scale” (Mats Lundqvist, Director of the School of Entrepreneurship, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden).

Easy demonstrations of control at several levels of the perceptual hierarchy are listed in Part 2 of the first major publication in the PCT literature, Powers et al. 1960:

http://pctweb.org/Powers%20et%20al%201960%20part2.pdf

The clearest and best organized hands-on presentation of the fact of control is Bill’s last book, Living Control Systems III: The fact of control.

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Control-Systems-III-Fact/dp/0964712180

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=William+Powers&bi=0&bx=off&cm_sp=SearchF--Advtab1--Results&ds=30&recentlyadded=all&sortby=17&sts=t&tn=Living+Control+Systems+III+the+Fact+of+control

The publisher, Benchmark Publications Inc., has made the text freely available at

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/lcs3/content_lcs3.html

To use this book it is essential to install and run the computer demos. They may be freely downloaded from any of these sites:

http://www.billpct.org/

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/billpct.html

http://www.pct-labs.com/

Other tutorials, demos, and computer simulations of behavior are at that last site, pct-labs.com, and at

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/demos/tutor_pct.html.

Rick Marken’s excellent and illuminating demos and simulations are at

http://mindreadings.com/demos.htm

I do hope you will get your hands dirty with the phenomena of control long before you seriously consider producing your own introduction to the field.

/Bruce

On Sun, Jun 3, 2018 at 6:14 PM, Bruce Nevin bnhpct@gmail.com wrote:

[Bruce Nevin 2018-06-03_14:09:45 ET]

Malcolm Ocean (Sat, Jun 2, 2018 at 4:03 PM) –

MO> Am still very interested in shorter articles that can function as effective introductions

Here’s a collection of introductions and related commentaries written by Bill Powers:

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/intro_papers/index.html

Some other introductions and commentaries are collected here:

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/intro_papers/other_pct.html
A book of readings can be downloaded here:

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/readings/readings.html

Talk and writing about PCT is fine, but without hands-on experience of the phenomenon of control, identified and recognized as such, more than a few people have been supremely confident of their grasp of PCT and blind to how they were merely clothing previously learned concepts in PCT jargon. There be dragons and unforeseen hazards here. “PCT is an innovation that destroys expertise on a massive scale” (Mats Lundqvist, Director of the School of Entrepreneurship, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden).

Easy demonstrations of control at several levels of the perceptual hierarchy are listed in Part 2 of the first major publication in the PCT literature, Powers et al. 1960:

http://pctweb.org/Powers%20et%20al%201960%20part2.pdf

The clearest and best organized hands-on presentation of the fact of control is Bill’s last book, Living Control Systems III: The fact of control.

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Control-Systems-III-Fact/dp/0964712180

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=William+Powers&bi=0&bx=off&cm_sp=SearchF--Advtab1--Results&ds=30&recentlyadded=all&sortby=17&sts=t&tn=Living+Control+Systems+III+the+Fact+of+control

The publisher, Benchmark Publications Inc., has made the text freely available at

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/lcs3/content_lcs3.html

To use this book it is essential to install and run the computer demos. They may be freely downloaded from any of these sites:

http://www.billpct.org/

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/billpct.html

http://www.pct-labs.com/

Other tutorials, demos, and computer simulations of behavior are at that last site, pct-labs.com, and at

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/demos/tutor_pct.html.

Rick Marken’s excellent and illuminating demos and simulations are at

I do hope you will get your hands dirty with the phenomena of control long before you seriously consider producing your own introduction to the field.

/Bruce

On Sat, Jun 2, 2018 at 4:03 PM, Malcolm Ocean csgnet@lists.illinois.edu wrote:

Got a copy of Rich’s book and really enjoying it so far. Am still very interested in shorter articles that can function as effective introductions, but maybe I’ll have to write them myself!

On Wed, May 2, 2018, 08:46 Joh Orengo joh.orengo@protonmail.com wrote:

[Joh Orengo 2018.05.02 6:36 EEST]

Welcome, Malcolm!

I also strongly endorse Rich’s book. It’s thorough, insightful, and useful (and respectful of people’s beliefs). I see it being used as a textbook (and not just for psychology), even at the high school level.

Joh

Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.

â?â?â?â?â?â?â? Original Message â?â?â?â?â?â?â?

On May 2, 2018 6:32 PM, Bruce Nevin bnhpct@gmail.com wrote:

[Bruce Nevin 2018-05-02_11:32:26 ET]

Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT) –

Rich, I apologize for not mentioning your excellent book. I second your endorsement and my apology is for leaving you in the somewhat awkward position of promoting your own work.

On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 10:25 AM, Richard Pfau richardhpfau@gmail.com wrote:

[From: Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT)]

Malcolm,

If you haven’t already, have a look at the book Your Behavior: Understanding and Changing the Things You Do (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2017). Several reviewers have found it to be a good introduction to PCT. For example, on the back page, Martin Taylor and Warren Mansell state:

“Richard Pfau has written an engaging, accurate book on a complex subject. To introduce the power of Perceptual Control theory to a general readership in a way that may help in their everyday lives is no easy feat, but this book does just that. Highly recommended.”

– Martin Taylor, Ph.D., P.Eng., Senior Experimental Psychologist (Retd.), Defense Research Canada

“Wow! I am impressed with this book! It is comprehensive, neatly structured, and provides a great scientific context for introducing Perceptual Control theory to the layperson. The explanation builds up gradually over the chapters. Fantastic.”

– Warren Mansell, DPhil, DClinPsy, CPsychol, Reader in Psychology, University of Manchester, U.K.

Access to other reviews, most of which were written by persons who previously did not know about PCT, can be found at richardpfau.com on “The Book” page.

Among other things, the section of the book titled “Why Are Some Theories So Special?” (pages 203 to 214), indicates why PCT was focused upon to help readers understand why they do the things they do. As the “Preface” and back cover indicate, I also wrote the book to help move psychology beyond the outdated thinking that now dominates it.

With Regards,

Richard Pfau

On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM, Malcolm Ocean malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I wrote most of this email last summer, and it got lost in my drafts. But today is Email Debt Forgiveness Day, so here I am, cleaning out my drafts!

In addition to talking about introducing people to the theory, I also mostly haven’t posted on this group, particularly about myself and my context & goals, so… hi!

I started with B:CP and personally found it quite accessible! …but then, I studied Systems Design Engineering in university, so I already had a technical understanding of control systems. I read Making Sense of Behavior as well, and it’s been the main thing I’m sending to my friends, but it’s just harder to convince the people I know to order a $20 paper book than to buy a $10 ebook or read things that are free online, if they aren’t already interested in the theory.

I have also picked up a few other PCT books, the only one of which I’ve actually read any of is Ed Ford’s Freedom from Stress. Finding it quite insightful as well.

Abbott’s introduction looks quite good… but I suspect it wouldn’t make the reader particularly curious if they weren’t already. This delightful paper posits out that in order to seem “interesting” a theory must deny some assumption(s) that people have when they encounter it. Abbott eventually gets to this when he says “The central assertion of PCT is that behavior exists solely for the purpose of controlling one’s perceptions” but this is quite far down and not emphasized.

Warren’s presentation has an even better “whoa” moment with the elastic knot-over-dot demo, although it’s also partway through. For a live presentation, he can afford to wait until halfway, because nobody’s going anywhere, but people might stop watching the video, or skip ahead in such a way that they miss the real juice.

I’ve been working on trying to write some of my own introductions, but they’re in the form of some scattered drafts at the moment. One recent personal blog post does start to tease people about Perceptual Control Theory, and has successfully caused several of my friends to look more into it.

…It may be clear by now that my intent to spread PCT among my intellectual circles is more than just casual; I’ve come to believe that lack of understanding the implications of PCT (particularly regarding conflict) is a major bottleneck in most peoples’ ability to be effective individually and collectively. I’m therefore attempting to cause a substantial fraction of the people I interact with online to get excited about PCT.

If you’re curious, those people primarily consist of two overlapping groups:

the “rationality community” of people trying to upgrade their thinking by whatever means work (this community originated on lesswrong.com (which has had a few posts on BCP already)

the Effective Altruism movement, which is a group of people trying to figure out how to use their time and money to maximally benefit the world.

My intent is to cause most of them to have a general (and not-confused) sense of what PCT is, most of those people to generally think it’s a decent theory, and from them, some smaller fraction of people who are actively applying PCT to self-improvement and organizational development contexts. The purpose of all of this is to improve the effectiveness of people who are working to care for humanity’s future.

All that to say: I continue to be interested in knowing more what introductions this group has found most effective, or if you also feel like the perfect PCT introduction essay doesn’t yet exist but could be written.

Malcolm

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals with Complice

Read my latest blog post: Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 5 July 2017 at 07:19, Boris Hartman boris.hartman@masicom.net wrote:

Hi Malcolm

From: Malcolm Ocean [mailto:malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: UCL talk on PCT yesterday on YouTube

Wow, this is great!

MO : I’m thinking of sending it to some friends of mine who’ve said “PCT seems interesting but it’s not clear what it predicts that other theories don’t”

HB : Well if PCT is presented only as psychological theory with Â»controlled variableÂ« which is Â»protected from disturbancesÂ« then you get Â»under-avarageÂ« S-R theory which tells nothing new about how people behave in comparison to classical psychology. It’s even misleading. In one word of no use.

But if you want to understand how organisms function and specially nervous system (how you function), then PCT is the best theory for understanding such a phenomenon.

MO : (they mostly haven’t loooked into PCT that much, I think, just maybe read the wikipedia article).

HB : Well I looked at the Wikipedia article and I must say that it’s maybe complicated for reading, but main points of PCT are there. Maybe there is too much psychological and mathematical orientation what is not giving the whole picture what PCT is about.

PCT is general theory about how organisms function not just from psychological or mathematical view but also from view of other nature sciences (physiology, biology). That’s what by my oppinion makes it so strong. But as any theory it can be ugraded.

MO : I’m curious what other media people typically link people to when introducing them to PCT. I’ve found myself wishing that B:CP and MSOB were available as ebooks, since it would lower the friction to starting to read them.

HB : I’d suggest you first reading Â»Making sense of BehaviorÂ«. Or if you want internet version of understanding PCT try with Bruce Abbott synopsis. It’s really good also with easy to understand language. http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/pct/pct.html

And then try to read B:CP. Well that is a difficult peace. Maybe you’ll need help in some chapters. Depends how well you are equiped with knowledge from different sciences.

Boris

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals with Complice

Read my latest blog post: Towards being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 30 June 2017 at 23:03, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:

OK world, try to hide from PCT…

http://youtu.be/U2TLepJ_sLg?a

rupert · June 4, 2018, 7:29pm

Is this any use?

Rupert

···

http://www.perceptualrobots.com/sdm_downloads/the-natural-selection-of-robotics/

  On 02/06/2018 21:03, Malcolm Ocean

( via csgnet Mailing List) wrote:

    Got a copy of Rich's book and really enjoying it
so far. Am still very interested in shorter articles that can
function as effective introductions, but maybe I’ll have to
write them myself!

On Wed, May 2, 2018, 08:46 Joh Orengo <joh.orengo@protonmail.com >
wrote:

[Joh Orengo 2018.05.02 6:36 EEST]

Welcome, Malcolm!

        I also strongly endorse Rich's book. It's thorough,
insightful, and useful (and respectful of people’s beliefs).
I see it being used as a textbook (and not just for
psychology), even at the high school level.

Joh

          Sent
with ProtonMail
Secure Email.

â?â?â?â?â?â?â? Original Message â?â?â?â?â?â?â?

On May 2, 2018 6:32 PM, Bruce Nevin <bnhpct@gmail.com >
wrote:

[Bruce Nevin 2018-05-02_11:32:26 ET]

                    Richard Pfau
(2018.05.02 10:24 EDT) Â

            Rich, I apologize for not mentioning your excellent
book.Â I second your endorsement :-)Â and my apology is
for leaving you in the somewhat awkward position of
promoting your own work.

On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 10:25 AM, Richard Pfau richardhpfau@gmail.com
wrote:

[From: Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT)]

Malcolm,

                  If you haven't already, have a look at the book
                   Your Behavior: Understanding and Changing the
Things You Do* (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House,
2017).Â Several reviewers have found it to be a
good introduction to PCT.Â For example, on the
back page, Martin Taylor and Warren MansellÂ state:

                  "Richard Pfau has written an engaging, accurate
book on a complex subject. To introduce the power
of Perceptual Control theory to a general
readership in a way that may help in their
everyday lives is no easy feat, but this book does
just that. Highly recommended."

                  Â Â Â Â  -- Martin Taylor, Ph.D., P.Eng., Senior
Experimental Psychologist (Retd.), Defense
Research Canada

                  "Wow! I am impressed with this book! It is
comprehensive, neatly structured, and provides a
great scientific context for introducing
Perceptual Control theory to the layperson. The
explanation builds up gradually over the chapters.
Fantastic."

                  Â Â Â Â  -- Warren Mansell, DPhil, DClinPsy,
CPsychol, Reader in Psychology, University of
Manchester, U.K.

                  Access to other reviews, most of which were
written by persons who previously did not know
about PCT, can be found at richardpfau.com
onÂ “The Book” page.

                  Among other things, the section of the book
titled “Why Are Some Theories So Special?” (pages
203 to 214), indicates why PCTÂ was focused uponÂ to
help readers understand why they do the things
they do. As the “Preface” and back coverÂ indicate,
I also wrote the book to help move psychology
beyond the outdated thinking that now dominates
it.

With Regards,

Richard Pfau

                      On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM,

Malcolm Ocean malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com
wrote:

Hi all,

                             I wrote most of this email last
summer, and it got lost in my drafts.
But today is Email Debt
Forgiveness Day , so here I am,
cleaning out my drafts!*

                             In addition to talking about
introducing people to the theory, I
also mostly haven’t posted on this
group, particularly about myself and
my context & goals, so… hi!*

                            I started with B:CP and personally
found it quite accessible! …but then,
I studied Systems Design Engineering in
university, so I already had a technical
understanding of control systems. I read
Making Sense of Behavior as well, and
it’s been the main thing I’m sending to
my friends, but it’s just harder to
convince the people I know to order a
$20 paper book than to buy a $10 ebook
or read things that are free online, if
they aren’t already interested in the
theory.

                              I have also picked up a few other
PCT books, the only one of which I’ve
actually read any of is Ed Ford’s
Freedom from Stress. Finding it quite
insightful as well.

                              Abbott's introduction looks quite
good… but I suspect it wouldn’t make
the reader particularly curious if
they weren’t already. This
delightful paper Â posits out that
in order to seem “interesting” a
theory must deny some assumption(s)
that people have when they encounter
it. Abbott eventually gets to this
when he says “The central assertion of
PCT is that behavior exists solely for
the purpose of controlling one’s
perceptions” but this is quite far
down and not emphasized.

                              Warren's presentation has an even
better “whoa” moment with the elastic
knot-over-dot demo, although it’s also
partway through. For a live
presentation, he can afford to wait
until halfway, because nobody’s going
anywhere, but people might stop
watching the video, or skip ahead in
such a way that they miss the real
juice.

                              I've been working on trying to
write some of my own introductions,
but they’re in the form of some
scattered drafts at the moment. OneÂ recent
personal blog post Â does start to
tease people about Perceptual Control
Theory, and has successfully caused
several of my friends to look more
into it.

                              ...It may be clear by now that my
intent to spread PCT among my
intellectual circles is more than just
casual; I’ve come to believe that lack
of understanding the implications of
PCT (particularly regarding conflict)
is a major bottleneck in most peoples’
ability to be effective individually
and collectively. I’m therefore
attempting to cause a substantial
fraction of the people I interact with
online to get excited about PCT.

                              If you're curious, those people

primarily consist of two overlapping
groups:

                                  the "rationality community" of
people trying to upgrade their
thinking by whatever means work
(this community originated on lesswrong.com Â (which
has hadÂ a few Â posts
on BCPÂ already)
the Effective
Altruism movement , which is
a group of people trying to figure
out how to use their time and
money to maximally benefit the
world.

                              My intent is to cause most of them
to have a general (and not-confused)
sense of what PCT is, most of those
people to generally think it’s a
decent theory, and from them, some
smaller fraction of people who are
actively applying PCT to
self-improvement and organizational
development contexts. The purpose of
all of this is to improve the
effectiveness of people who are
working to care for humanity’s future.

                                                      All
that to say: I
continue to be
interested in
knowing more
what
introductions
this group has
found most
effective, or
if you also
feel like the
perfect PCT
introduction
essay doesn’t
yet exist but
could be
written.

Malcolm

–

Malcolm Ocean

                                                      Achieve your

personal and
professional
goals withÂ Â Complice

                                                      Read

my latest blog
post:Â Towards being
purpose-driven
without
fighting
myself

                                On 5 July 2017 at 07:19, Boris

Hartman boris.hartman@masicom.net
wrote:

Hi Malcolmâ¦

Â

From: Malcolm Ocean
[mailto:malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July
04, 2017 6:52 AM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: UCL
talk on PCT yesterday on
YouTube

Â

                                        Wow, this

is great!

Â

                                          MO :
I’m thinking of sending it
to some friends of mine
who’ve said “PCT seems
interesting but it’s not
clear what it predicts
that other theories don’t”

Â

                                                HB : Well if
PCT is presented
only as
psychological theory
with Â»controlled
variableÂ« which is
Â»protected from
disturbancesÂ« then
you get
Â»under-avarageÂ« S-R
theory which tells
nothing new about
how people behave in
comparison to
classical
psychology. It’s
even misleading. In
one word of no use.

Â

                                                But if you
want to understand
how organisms
function and
specially nervous
system (how you
function), then PCT
is the best theory
for understanding
such a phenomenon.

Â

                                          MO :
(they mostly haven’t
looked into PCT that much,
I think, just maybe read
the wikipedia article).

Â

                                                HB : Well I
looked at the
Wikipedia article
and I must say that
it’s maybe
complicated for
reading, but main
points of PCT are
there. Maybe there
is too much
psychological and
mathematical
orientation what is
not giving the whole
picture what PCT is
about.

Â

                                                PCT is general
theory about how
organisms function
not just from
psychological or
mathematical view
but also from view
of other nature
sciences
(physiology,
biology). That’s
what by my oppinion
makes it so strong.
But as any theory it
can be ugraded.

Â

                                          MO :
I’m curious what other
media people typically
link people to when
introducing them to PCT.
I’ve found myself wishing
that B:CP and MSOB were
available as ebooks, since
it would lower the
friction to starting to
read them.

                                          HB : I'd suggest you first reading Â»Making
sense of BehaviorÂ«. Or if
you want internet version
of understanding PCT try
with Bruce Abbott
synopsis. It’s really good
also with easy to
understand language. http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/pct/pct.html

Â

                                          And then try to read B:CP. Well that is a
difficult peace. Maybe
you’ll need help in some
chapters. Depends how well
you are equiped with
knowledge from different
sciences.

Â

Boris

Â

–

                                                      Malcolm

Ocean

                                                      Achieve

your personal
and
professional
goals withÂ Â Complice

                                                      Read

my latest blog
post:Â Towards
being
purpose-driven
without
fighting
myself

Â

                                            On 30

June 2017 at 23:03,
Warren Mansell <wmansell@gmail.com >
wrote:

OK

world, try to hide
from PCT…

http://youtu.be/U2TLepJ_sLg?a

Â

malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com

EetuP · June 8, 2018, 10:38am

[Eetu Pikkarainen 2018-06-08_10:34:39 UTC]

Malcolm,

I really recommend writing your own introductions. It is probably the best way to get introduced. (Here is one what I wrote:
https://wiki.oulu.fi/download/attachments/22119055/PCT_EP.pdf )

Eetu

···

Got a copy of Rich’s book and really enjoying it so far. Am still very interested in shorter articles that can function as effective introductions, but maybe I’ll have to write them myself!

On Wed, May 2, 2018, 08:46 Joh Orengo joh.orengo@protonmail.com wrote:

[Joh Orengo 2018.05.02 6:36 EEST]

Welcome, Malcolm!

I also strongly endorse Rich’s book. It’s thorough, insightful, and useful (and respectful of people’s beliefs). I see it being used as a textbook (and not just for psychology), even at the high school level.

Joh

Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.

â€?â€?â€?â€?â€?â€?â€? Original Message â€?â€?â€?â€?â€?â€?â€?

On May 2, 2018 6:32 PM, Bruce Nevin bnhpct@gmail.com wrote:

[Bruce Nevin 2018-05-02_11:32:26 ET]

Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT) –

Rich, I apologize for not mentioning your excellent book. I second your endorsement and my apology is for leaving you in the somewhat awkward position of promoting your own work.

On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 10:25 AM, Richard Pfau richardhpfau@gmail.com wrote:

[From: Richard Pfau (2018.05.02 10:24 EDT)]

Malcolm,

If you haven’t already, have a look at the book Your Behavior: Understanding and Changing the Things You Do(St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2017). Several reviewers have found it to be a good introduction to PCT. For example, on the back page, Martin Taylor and Warren Mansell state:

“Richard Pfau has written an engaging, accurate book on a complex subject. To introduce the power of Perceptual Control theory to a general readership in a way that may help in their everyday lives is no easy feat, but this book does just
that. Highly recommended.”

– Martin Taylor, Ph.D., P.Eng., Senior Experimental Psychologist (Retd.), Defense Research Canada

“Wow! I am impressed with this book! It is comprehensive, neatly structured, and provides a great scientific context for introducing Perceptual Control theory to the layperson. The explanation builds up gradually over the chapters. Fantastic.”

– Warren Mansell, DPhil, DClinPsy, CPsychol, Reader in Psychology, University of Manchester, U.K.

Access to other reviews, most of which were written by persons who previously did not know about PCT, can be found at
richardpfau.com on “The Book” page.

Among other things, the section of the book titled “Why Are Some Theories So Special?” (pages 203 to 214), indicates why PCT was focused upon to help readers understand why they do the things they do. As the “Preface” and back cover indicate,
I also wrote the book to help move psychology beyond the outdated thinking that now dominates it.

With Regards,

Richard Pfau

On Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 11:51 PM, Malcolm Ocean malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I wrote most of this email last summer, and it got lost in my drafts. But today is
Email Debt Forgiveness Day, so here I am, cleaning out my drafts!

In addition to talking about introducing people to the theory, I also mostly haven’t posted on this group, particularly about myself and my context & goals, so… hi!

I started with B:CP and personally found it quite accessible! …but then, I studied Systems Design Engineering in university, so I already had a technical understanding of control systems. I read Making Sense of Behavior as well, and it’s
been the main thing I’m sending to my friends, but it’s just harder to convince the people I know to order a $20 paper book than to buy a $10 ebook or read things that are free online, if they aren’t already interested in the theory.

I have also picked up a few other PCT books, the only one of which I’ve actually read any of is Ed Ford’s Freedom from Stress. Finding it quite insightful as well.

Abbott’s introduction looks quite good… but I suspect it wouldn’t make the reader particularly curious if they weren’t already.

This delightful paper posits out that in order to seem “interesting” a theory must deny some assumption(s) that people have when they encounter it. Abbott eventually gets to this when he says “The central assertion of PCT is that behavior exists solely
for the purpose of controlling one’s perceptions” but this is quite far down and not emphasized.

Warren’s presentation has an even better “whoa” moment with the elastic knot-over-dot demo, although it’s also partway through. For a live presentation, he can afford to wait until halfway, because nobody’s going anywhere, but people might
stop watching the video, or skip ahead in such a way that they miss the real juice.

I’ve been working on trying to write some of my own introductions, but they’re in the form of some scattered drafts at the moment. One recent
personal blog post does start to tease people about Perceptual Control Theory, and has successfully caused several of my friends to look more into it.

…It may be clear by now that my intent to spread PCT among my intellectual circles is more than just casual; I’ve come to believe that lack of understanding the implications of PCT (particularly regarding conflict) is a major bottleneck
in most peoples’ ability to be effective individually and collectively. I’m therefore attempting to cause a substantial fraction of the people I interact with online to get excited about PCT.

If you’re curious, those people primarily consist of two overlapping groups:

the “rationality community” of people trying to upgrade their thinking by whatever means work (this community originated on
lesswrong.com (which has had a few posts on

BCP already)

the Effective Altruism movement, which is a group of people trying to figure out how to use their time and money to maximally benefit the world.

My intent is to cause most of them to have a general (and not-confused) sense of what PCT is, most of those people to generally think it’s a decent theory, and from them, some smaller fraction of people who are actively applying PCT to
self-improvement and organizational development contexts. The purpose of all of this is to improve the effectiveness of people who are working to care for humanity’s future.

All that to say: I continue to be interested in knowing more what introductions this group has found most effective, or if you also feel like the perfect PCT introduction essay
doesn’t yet exist but could be written.

Malcolm

–

Malcolm Ocean

Achieve your personal and professional goals with Complice

Read my latest blog post: Towards
being purpose-driven without fighting myself

On 5 July 2017 at 07:19, Boris Hartman boris.hartman@masicom.net wrote:

Hi Malcolmâ€¦

From:
Malcolm Ocean [mailto:malcolm.m.ocean@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2017 6:52 AM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: UCL talk on PCT yesterday on YouTube

Wow, this is great!

MO : I’m thinking of sending it to some friends of mine who’ve said “PCT seems interesting but it’s not clear what it predicts that other theories don’t”

HB : Well if PCT is presented only as psychological theory with Â»controlled variableÂ« which is Â»protected
from disturbancesÂ« then you get Â»under-avarageÂ« S-R theory which tells nothing new about how people behave in comparison to classical psychology. It’s even misleading. In one word of no use.

But if you want to understand how organisms function and specially nervous system (how you function),
then PCT is the best theory for understanding such a phenomenon.

MO : …(they mosstly haven’t looked into PCT that much, I think, just maybe read the wikipedia article).

HB : Well I looked at the Wikipedia article and I must say that it’s maybe complicated for reading,
but main points of PCT are there. Maybe there is too much psychological and mathematical orientation what is not giving the whole picture what PCT is about.

PCT is general theory about how organisms function not just from psychological or mathematical view
but also from view of other nature sciences (physiology, biology). That’s what by my oppinion makes it so strong. But as any theory it can be ugraded.

MO : I’m curious what other media people typically link people to when introducing them to PCT. I’ve found myself wishing that B:CP and MSOB were available as ebooks,
since it would lower the friction to starting to read them.

HB : I’d suggest you first reading Â»Making sense of BehaviorÂ«. Or if you want internet version of understanding PCT try with Bruce Abbott synopsis. It’s really
good also with easy to understand language. http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/pct/pct.html

And then try to read B:CP. Well that is a difficult peace. Maybe you’ll need help in some chapters.
Depends how well you are equiped with knowledge from different sciences.

Boris

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On 30 June 2017 at 23:03, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:

OK world, try to hide from PCT…

http://youtu.be/U2TLepJ_sLg?a