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    • AMMDI is an open-notebook hypertext writing experiment, authored by Mike Travers aka mtraven. It's a work in progress and some parts are more polished than others. Comments welcome! More.
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perfect confidence

30 Jul 2025 - 02 Aug 2026
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    • In the improv of life, you play yourself to perfection.
    • This is an attribute of The Magus. A necessary component of Magick, which is why Magick is so rare – who among us has that kind of confidence?
    • Ask Claude

      • Perfect Confidence

      • The note makes a sharp observation: most people are performing an approximation of themselves, hedging, adjusting, seeking feedback loops to calibrate who they should be. Perfect confidence here isn't arrogance - it's the absence of that gap between intention and execution.
      • Some tensions worth examining:
      • What this means technically
      • Not confidence that outcomes will go well
      • Confidence in the act itself - you are fully behind what you're doing while you're doing it
      • No observer-self splitting off to evaluate mid-performance
      • The rarity problem Most people experience themselves as almost themselves - there's always a residue of "I'm not quite sure about this." The Magus closes that gap. This might be why charismatic people feel uncanny - we're detecting someone who isn't leaking self-doubt.
      • The paradox Trying to achieve perfect confidence undermines it - the effort to close the gap is the gap. It may be less a skill to develop than a condition that occasionally arises.
      • Questions this raises
      • Is this achievable durably, or only in moments?
      • Is it the same as what performers call "flow"?
      • Does it require not caring about outcomes, or something more active?
      • What's the broader Magus framework this sits in?
    • Feeling it now, as I create this actual sentence, this page, this idea.
      • Not create – think about with my full being.
    • Really the opposite of my normal self, which is wracked with guilt and always manages to get in his own way.
    • This state is much more fun! Although doesn't seem sustainable (why not).
      • It's linked to being high for me. And the first rule of high is that you have to come down.
    • I am mostly getting this from Meditations on the Tarot/1 The Magician although I'm not sure I have it right..."confidence" is not used.
      • He holds these two objects with perfect ease, without clasping them or showing any other sign of tension, encumbrance, haste or effort. What he does with his hands is with perfect spontaneity — it is easy play and not work.