Your Life For Better or Worse consists of the decisions you make both large and small moving to a different country or simply moving out of your parents' house breaking up with a partner or asking out your crush even small things like picking up a book out of boredom or taking one class could entirely change your life and this could be for the better or the worst you could regret breaking up with that partner the country you move to might become War torn these decisions no matter how well thought out are played in a world that
offers us no guarantees and we know this that's why for the most part making decisions can be so stressful what are we to do with the time we have here one useful way to explore this is by comparing the thoughts of two different ancient Chinese philosophers who both recognized the capricious nature of the world Moosa a carpenter and a fairly low social status emerged as a prominent thinker who would advised several powerful leaders in China MO preached a philosophy of love and introspection and rejected the idea that rituals were of any use in fact Mozza
believed that Society was not suited for human flourishing instead Society should encourage people towards believing that the world is made up of a clear sense of right and wrong this does not mean that he actually believed that the world was coherent or predictable but rather that we should construct a society that sincerely believes it to be coherent menus a disciple of the famous confucious agreed with much of what Moy had to say he also agreed that the world was largely unpredictable however he also feared that Moses world of reward and Punishment could train everyone into
making decisions based purely on self-interest it would be a society of profit-driven selfish individuals rather than artificially constructing a world of right and wrong menus instead advocated for people to understand and accept that the world is in a state of Perpetual disorder but [Music] how this video is sponsored by brilliant while the world can be pretty unpredictable that doesn't mean we should completely give up on making any decisions at all in fact there's a whole science behind trying our best to predict the best next move from interpreting patterns and data it's called probability but isn't
that hard to learn I thought so too until I found brilliant uh fun and interactive way to learn topics that I usually would find to be way too complex brilliant's new introduction to probability course is perfect for Learners of any level to start or continue learning data analysis the course covers everything from Bay theorem to multiple linear regressions and lets you gain Insight by providing real data sets from real life companies if your curiosity goes beyond statistics and probability brilliant has over 60 other courses with clear and intuitive explanations that can tell you how stem
actually works and how it's relevant in your everyday life no matter what your level of knowledge the step-by-step Solutions and fun problem solving exercises ensure that you'll be able to master all sorts of technical subjects from neural networks to astronomy to try everything brilliant has to offer for free for a full 30 days visit brilliant.org cisus 55 everyone who clicks the link will also get 20% off their premium annual subscription mencius's Solutions seems pretty difficult if we are to assume that we often make choices based on logic and reasoning we need some idea of coherence
predictability and reasoning in order to rationally come to a conclusion over the decisions we make we cannot simply rely on our gut instinct or Vibes to navigate the world right however according to the sematic mark hypothesis proposed by Antonio damasio we've never really been that rational to begin with well philosophers such as Renee deart proposed that the mind and body are separate and subsequently that reasoning guides our emotions and choices damasio points to a wide range of studies that demonstrate the crucial role that emotions play in making decisions one example is the case study of
Elliot a patient who suffered from frontal lobe damage the frontal lobe is an area in the brain that is larg l l involved in emotional processing and under dart's argument disruption to this area shouldn't result in changes in reasoning however as demonstrated Elliot could reason but the decisions he made were usually against his very well-being Elliot and other frontally damaged patients were still sensitive to punishment although the effects of punishment did not seem to last for very long probably because it was not connected with the formulation of predictors concerning future prospects these predictors were in
simple terms Elliot's emotions damasio uses this among other examples to show that rather than obstacles emotions are crucial in making rational decisions okay so maybe we can't be rational machines does this mean we should go with our gut not necessarily these emotions are still pretty wild and can lead us to impulsively deciding whatever we would like to do at the moment however as menus argued these emotions could be cultivated for better decision making importantly menus believed that all individuals have the potential for goodness in the same way that water tends to flow downwards we tend
towards goodness and to unlock this goodness requires little effort for example we might see a child who has fallen into a river and without thinking try to save them menus believes that this impulse is natural and Universal however just like how a dam can keep water from flowing downward so too can Society obstruct us from reaching this potential for for goodness this is demonstrated in how we tend to make plans based on who we think we are how we view ourselves maybe a set of patterns we have fallen into patterns that Society has told us
to make decisions based on this is to risk limiting ourselves you eliminate your ability to grow as a person because you are limiting that growth to what is in the best interests of the person you happen to be right now and not the person you will become do we really know what is good for us let alone who we truly are are that is why cultivating a third approach the heart mind is crucial the heart mind harnesses both our emotions and rationality it deliberates just as much as it loves the drowning child is a good
example of the heart mind in action the cognitive ability to observe and act on the child's situation as well as the emotion needed to motivate one to actually save the child equips our rational and emotional capacities this is the tool of flexible judgment our ability to make good decisions instinctively while rationally weighing each situation on a case-by casee basis we will need this sort of judgment if we ever wish to tackle far more ambiguous problems than drowning children to cultivate the heart mind requires a deliberate and patient study of one's emotions and desires to understand
ourselves better and approach situations with open minds that means accepting certain principles such as the possibility that we don't entirely know ourselves and that the world is largely unpredictable nothing is guaranteed this is Ming the unpredictability of Life Our Lives will involve endless uncertainty and confusion twists and turns however as menus argues it should never be anyone's Fate To Die in shackles in other words we should never fail to respond appropriately to what befalls us we should expect to be surprised and the most we can ever really do is harness our heart mind to better
handle these surprises because sometimes these surprises can be good holding on to tightly might lead you to missing out in short the right decision is the one that makes sense both emotionally and rationally it feels good regardless of the outcome it speaks to that inner potential for goodness but to understand what is good takes a lot of work it takes years of mistakes and seemingly wrong turns it takes existential crises and late night heart Hearts some might even call it the simple process of growing up whatever the case be patient listen close and never be
too hard on yourself nobody really knows what they're doing [Music] anyways feeling lonely feeling Lo patience in all the things I trust I keep waiting for something to come to me but maybe it's just more misery and there's nothing else for [Music] eternity
