Conditions for a Rational Life

It's been a long time since my last post [7 Jan 2012].


From my first post -

I'll consider this experiment [blogging] a success if I can publish a (meaningful and significant) blog post every week. That way, I'll be forced to regularly pull out various pertinent issues in my life and try to explain what is really worthwhile and important about them and, most importantly, how others can benefit from them.

Testing for irrational thinking

• Statement - If I am thinking and behaving rationally in life, then I will publish at least one blog post every week.
• Contrapositive - If I don't publish a blog post every week, then I am NOT thinking and behaving rationally in life.
• A statement and its contrapositive are equivalent.

Conclusion - I haven't thunk rationally for the last two months. In fact, I pretty much haven't thunk at all.

Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.
- George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950)

Yeah.

 


Anyway, to take a lesson from my last post, I will consider my lacklustre mental performance over the past two months as a sunk cost and look for ways to live a better life hereupon.

Moving on...


Logic Test [5 points] - How would I know if I've been thinking rationally in life?


[Warning: Trick question (sort of)]

Think about it for a moment or so.

Try to come up with some quick check I can do to see if I've been thinking rationally.

The Economics of Spilt Milk

Movie Tickets, Career choices, and Sunk Costs.

There is no use crying over spilt milk


It's one of the most obvious things in the world (is it?). There is no point crying over spilt milk. It's spilt. Nothing you can do about it. It's a very graphic example. It hits you especially hard when you actually do spill something (or break something) and just stare mournfully at it.

It's all very well to say that about spilt milk but is there some deeper principle at work here that can apply to other (more important) aspects of life?


Let's go to the movies


To me, the underlying principle is best explained using a classic example.

Thought Experiment:

Assume you want to go to a movie (X). You pay Rs 120 to buy a ticket and start to get inside the movie hall.

However, when you reach the hall, you discover that you've lost the ticket.

What will you now do?

• Will you go back home and do something else?
• Or, will you pay another Rs 120 and go for the movie?
  You know that the movie isn't worth Rs 240. Will you still go?

Christopher Hitchens: A huge loss for rational people everywhere

Christopher Hitchen - New Atheist par excellence!

Died 15 December 2011

Dear Christopher Hitchens,

It was mainly you and Richard Dawkins who gave me the courage to make the jump to atheism and, more importantly, stay there.

I know I have watched countless debates of yours. It was more to receive reassurance than for any logical arguments, especially in those shaky first few months of newly-deconverted atheism. There was something in the way you absolutely demolished all the claims made by your religious opponents that soothed a mind feeling completely lost and at sea in a world without a god.

Thank you, Christopher Hitchens. Thank you so much for all the support you have given me.

I will never forget the world-famous Hitchslaps you handed out to your hapless, deluded debaters. We needed, and will continue to need, a sure, logical, and unbelievably charismatic voice like yours to bring out all the other people out there sitting on the fence. 

I will miss your intellectual company.

 ps: To the uninitiated, just a quick search on Google will turn up his classic debates on Youtube, etc.

New and Exclusive : Why we are in love with the Latest and Greatest

Last chance to enjoy this blog post before you close your browser! Don't Miss it!!!

Have you noticed how we tend to be drawn in by things that seem to be rare, in demand, and/or exclusive? Especially if the chance to experience them is going to be withdrawn within a short while?

Say hello to the Scarcity Principle.

The Scarcity Principle

  "The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost."                                                

- G. K. Chesterton

Scarcity Principle : Opportunities seem more valuable to us when their availability is limited. (ref : "Influence" by Robert Cialdini)

We are all familiar with this idea. We may not have articulated it to ourselves, but there is no doubt we have all felt the urge to go after something after hearing that it is now in short supply or is exclusive, even if we didn't really want it that much earlier.

And more proof comes from the fact that so many advertisements use it. It works.

  New and Exclusive!!
  Limited Offer!!
  Offer valid till stocks last!!!

We have all seen the slogans. Why is it that we covet something that is "New"?

The Meaning of Life (and Death) in an Indifferent World

What is the purpose of life?

The most potent way to tie yourself up in knots, dive into confusion and anxiety, and, in general, become miserable in life would seem to be to ask the above question. Or, its brother - What is the meaning of life?

Once you reject the idea of existing religious frameworks providing any remotely sensible answer to the above (which would not be steeped in wishful thinking and over-simplification) you're left with... nothing.

The Indifferent "Mother"

From everything we can see, from the various scientific reports on the nature of the universe, the nature of living beings (as far as we can see), there doesn't seem to be any objective meaning or purpose of life as such.

Yup. We're (almost certainly) not here to pass a test to go to Heaven/Hell, or to become liberated from the clutches of this material world and the cycles of birth/rebirth, or for anything else in particular at all. (Unless, of course, the Flying Spaghetti Monster finally condescends to show himself and bless us all with his infinite glory.)

There doesn't seem to be any evidence that we're here to do anything other than survive. It took me a long time to accept this. Mother Nature (the beautiful, bountiful provider) doesn't give a damn about you!

Let me repeat that - Nature (or the universe or however you want to describe the world we live in) doesn't give a damn about you.

First Step : Reasons

Why am I writing a blog?

"This is certainly the most important thing I'll ever say in my blogs: YOU should write blogs. Even if nobody reads them, you should write them. It's become pretty clear to me that blogging is a source of both innovation and clarity. I have many of my best ideas and insights while blogging. Struggling to express things that you're thinking or feeling helps you understand them better.

Blogging is also weird because, as it happens, the best things to write about are things you already know, or have just figured out for yourself. You'd be amazed at how many things you take for granted as "common knowledge" are actually brand new to other smart people. There's simply too much to know in this world, and we're all continually learning. (I hope)."

- Steve Yegge, You Should Write Blogs

That is about the learning and helping part of writing stuff.

Another side-effect, hopefully, would be that by making my (vainglorious and grandiose) goals public, I'd think twice about backing out of the venture and would stay on track longer than I otherwise would. Social pressure can be a force for good in this case, I think.