Study. Thursday, 09:11 AM. Misanthropist / Philosopher
How much do I pay you again?
What exactly am I getting in return?
You do most of the talking.
Well, then, you get to listen.
Except you're not a comedian or a motivational speaker.
Of course not, you would have to pay me much more. But in a way, I'm a combination of both.
Comedians, if they're any good, see beyond the box, past the bullshit. The confrontation between your common sense and their nonsense is what makes you laugh. Motivational speakers are the opposite, they pick your nonsense and dress it in common sense, to make the bullshit seem more appealing.
Don't flatter yourself. Besides, you shouldn't curse.
BS is a valid empirical category. Without BS, we wouldn't be able to function. BS is what allows us to do things, stupid things and great things alike.
We live in a world too complicated to be fully understood. If, during our day to day life, we were able to grasp the immense possibilities and non-possibilities of everything, we would be paralyzed in fear. So, we bullshit ourselves. We bullshit ourselves about how much we know. That confidence, even if based on a lie, is essential. It's what propels us to discover, experiment, enjoy.
That means no one learns from their mistakes, as they will bullshit themselves later, once again.
The point is not for you to learn from your mistakes.
It's for you to learn from the mistakes of others. And others from yours. It's how you avoid The Fragilista Olympics.
Imagine a team sport where three men stand still forming a triangle, each holding a gun pointed at the temple of the one to his left. The referee blows the whistle. All three men, at the same exact millisecond, shoot their respective guns. The crowd cheers. The team has just won the gold medal for synchronized homicide. Unfortunately, they will not be able to ever receive their honors. Having seen the result, do you think there will be any other team competing?
So I guess the prize is handed to the people watching.
Sacrifice for knowledge. Through bullshit.
The point is they were too drawn into the bullshit to predict their own demise, in a sense, they were consumed by their confidence. They won, but they lost by wining, and we won by watching them lose.
Can't help but think that you're incredibly overpriced.
Hopefully, someone will learn from your mistake.
Can we get back on track?
You keep going on these philosophical tangents.
That's what you pay me for. I thought we've established that.
You pay me to help you make better decisions. We have had now, what? Three, four sessions?
In those three or four sessions my aim has been to make you understand that I can't decide for you, and that there is no a priori good decision. But I think we've turned a page.
Yes, today I want to tell you that there is also no a posteriori good decision. Essentially, you can't appraise your decision, not totally, never. So better just choose one and stick with it. You might get lucky, which is good for you. Or you might get unlucky, which is good for others who will learn from your fragilista olympics.
You asked me already several questions for which there is no possible, all encompassing answer. Should you quit your job? Should you leave your wife? Should you give up smoking?
Most doctors would say that last one is a no-brainer.
Technically you are a doctor.
Of a very different kind. You came to me because you had a problem, but not a physical one. You want to improve your life and better yourself. That is a noble purpose. But the question you ask has many different answers – and I don't mean a different answer for every person. I mean different answers for the same person. We live in a random environment, and the biggest source of randomness is not even nature – it's us. We have free will. We are unpredictable. And what is making you joyless is trying to fit to a predictable pattern...
...You are like this Snow Globe. Sitting on his own it's just a tiny, stupid Eiffel Tower nailed to a floor of white fluff, inside a spherical, glass casing. When I shake it, however, the magic happens. A little shake once in a while will make things more susceptible to beauty, but also less prone to hazardous disruptions. If I stop it, however, it goes back to it's uninteresting self. Modern man is a Snow Globe that never gets shaken. And you know what happens to Snow Globes that never get shaken? They're boring, lifeless – no use for them in such a comfortably arrested state. Just look at it. You might as well throw it away. We are the same. When we're not subjected to small, healthy doses of volatility, we will be subjected to large, deadly ones.
The philosopher proceeds to throw the Snow Globe out the window.
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