What outcome do you hope for? I was on a call for the last hour talking with a friend about supporting a vision he has. 

At the end of the call, he asked "what are you hoping to get out of this?"

I found the question really hard to answer in a way that makes any sense at all.

My answer to the questions comes in feelings, images, and body sensations. I see a bowl overflowing, I feel a magnetic pull, I experience a sense of duty, I follow synchronicities, I release and this is what came to me. One of my purposes in this life is to bring people together, especially really smart people. I don't have a goal, and if I did, I am sure it would change. I want to be of service to a vision of the best future possible.

I'm after the experience. My vision will fill out along the way. 

When I can't frame the answer in an intelligible way, it causes doubt- maybe this isn't right? Maybe my intuition would have a clearer answer if this were the right path. Maybe I'm cutoff from what outcomes I hope for and need to work on getting more in touch with my desires. Am I too scared to name a desired outcome for fear of being letdown if it doesn't come true?

But I want to try on that the question may just be the wrong question for me. Or that my answer to the question isn't going to sound like what I've heard from other people. 

Sharing here, and open to others experience of answering this question. How do you know what you want? 

And if you know me, happy to hear your perspective on my specific psychology or what you think is going on 🤔

Let’s assume 1960 (JFK election) was the last “good year” in the USA. What has actually happened with inflation since?

Photo above - The good old days. Was 1960 the last "normal" year in America? You could get a newspaper for 10 cents.

I get 100 spam pieces a day ranting about inflation in America. This is a lot, but I couldn't say how much the spam rate has increased.

So I did the next best thing: I used the official US government dollar inflation website (link below) to calculate what happened to the US dollar since 1960. It’s big number, and a round one: 999% inflation. Something that cost $1 in 1960 theoretically costs $11 today. According to the US government. They wouldn't lie to us, would they?

I decided to check the online inflation calculator against some real-world purchases. If you want to have a cheerful and happy day, please don’t read any further.

1 – F150 pickup. America’s best-selling vehicle. According to several websites, this stickered for $4,000 in 1960. The average sale price in 2025 was $60,100. You could pay more – a lot more – for the nice ones, but let’s stick to average. The F150 price increased by 1,500%. Way more than the official 999% inflation rate. In Ford's defense, let me concede that the 2025 models can tow more and have bigger tires. But still . . .

2 – College Tuition. No, I am NOT going to cite “Harvard” because nobody you know actually went there. Let’s use Arizona State University instead. America’s largest public university. In 1960, tuition was $186. Not a misprint - $186 a semester for in-state students. In 2025 a semester (full 6 course hours) would be $5,416. Without dorm, meal plan, or parking. Still, that doesn’t look bad next to Harvard. However the ASU single semester price increase is THREE THOUSAND PERCENT. For a government run education. I don’t think this kind of stuff ever makes it into the official CPI data.

3 – Appendectomy – This one is especially tricky. Hospital costs are all over the map, as are hospitals. Best I could come up with: $418 in 1960 (before insurance), including a week’s stay in a hospital room for recovery. Today’s cost seems to average $20,000. How long you get to stay in that room varies too, but 1-2 days if there are no complications is the norm. Price increase: 5,000 percent – 5 times the official CPI inflation rate. I warned you to stop reading, didn’t I? I doubt putting the government in charge of hospitals will rein in medical inflation, after seeing what they did to college tuition.

4 – Grab bag – local costs may vary: Big Mac, up 1,400%. Converse sneakers – 2,000%. Washington post single copy – up from 10 cents to $3 (3000%)

Median US income for 1960 was $3,000. Today it’s 1,800% higher: $53,010. But we all feel poor, unless our last name is Musk, Bezos, or Swift.

As I said at the beginning – the official government data could be completely made up BS. How would we even know? And what did we expect from a bunch of guys who borrowed $38 trillion in our name which they never intend to repay?

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Inflation Calculator | Find US Dollar's Value From 1913-2026

Easily calculate how the buying power of the U.S. dollar has changed from 1913 to 2026. Get inflation rates and U.S. inflation news.

 www.usinflationcalculator.com

On the plethora of Therapeutic modalities.

There's a genre of book that's the therapy modality book. They're all the same. They go

I was a therapist and what I was doing wasn't working, and then I discovered <specific technique the book is advocating> and then it cured me and all my clients and now things are great and we just need to teach everybody this technique.

So many therapy books are like this. Focussing, the IFS book, the EFT book, to name a few. The various ACT books. Waking the Tiger.

And the specific technique is different from book to book. Radically different. And even contradictory.

So what's going on here? Apart from probably there's some book somewhere about how to write a therapy book, or some ghostwriter that's cranking these out?

If we take these stories as more or less true, how do we make sense of these seeming contradictions?

This is not a rhetorical question! I'm going to give you my best guess below, but please take a moment to think of your answer, and ideally post it in the comments for everyone to see. I am very much interested in other answers here.

Ok, my best guess (at least, the guess that I find most interesting):

What works is having a therapist who believes they are helping. It's like the placebo effect. If the doctor handing you a sugar pill is like "Yeah, idk, people told me this is helpful. lmk what you think", my guess is, you're not going to get much placebo effect out of that pill (actually they've done research and you do still get some but not as much iirc).

So when the therapist is out of school, they're doing what they were told works, but for a certain kind of mind, that doesn't give them confidence. So then they have to go on a big heroes journey, and come back with some technique, some approach, that for whatever reason they believe in.

Now they're back, and they believe it works, and low and behold, it does!

It's like Dumbo's magic feather.

"some technique, some approach, that for whatever reason they believe in."

So why do they believe in the technique they chose? Because they love to do it. Because, when they're doing it, they feel most like themselves, and they feel most connected with the person they're working with. Or they feel most connected with what they consider important, about a mind, about a heart, about a life.

And maybe this gives it some extra sauce too. Maybe this love of themselves, this intrinsic interest, radiates out, and reminds their clients that they too can love themselves, love life, be enthusiastic, and intrinsically interested.

Or maybe that last part is just what I have come to believe works ;)

your posts are too long. if i can’t read it in less than a minute i ignore it