The Cold rational concept of Irrational behaviors. And what is to be done
Posted by: adonis49 on: October 4, 2014
The Cold rational concept of Irrational behaviors
Why most of our decisions and reactions seem to be pretty much irrational?
A Cold attempt was undertaken to remind ourselves of a few facts and realities to be taken into consideration:
1. Thinking is not a “pure process”.
2. Thinking is prone to error and this realization affects everyone
3. Highly intelligent people fall prey to the same cognitive traps as common people
4. And errors are Not randomly distributed.
5. Mankind systematically err in the same direction
6. Our mistakes are mostly predictable and be repaired and avoided in slight degrees
7. Most of our organs function predictably, but our brain keep experiencing lapse after lapse
8. Thinking is a biological phenomenon: It does not follow an abstract mathematical logic.
9. We are still a hunter-gatherer species, but living in a totally different environment
10. Our new environment is getting increasingly complex, interdependent, and man-made functions and facilities are exacerbating the frequency of faulty behaviors
11. Evolution has stopped optimizing the behavior of this hunter-gatherer species in this new environment.
12. Our brain is designed to reproduce (persuade) rather than search for the “truth”
13. We tend to construct a reason for our compulsive decisions (intuitive reaction). a justification for a predetermined conclusion.
What is to be done?
1. When in your “circle of competence” let your intuition lead your decisions and reactions. You had invested more than 10,000 hours on your talents and skills and you can now rely of your bodily reactions.
2. Otherwise, do your due diligence to apply the hard, slow and high energy consuming process of the rational thinking on your projects and serious decisions.
Think clear and go through the long list of behavioral biases, fallacies, illusions, myths.. and start eliminating one error after another from the list of prone error tendencies.
Rational thinking might not give you a correct resolution, but again, you have been vaunting the superiority of mankind brain over other species who have far better abilities and capabilities than us in many domains.
Repeat the rational thinking process as you invested in acquiring your talents.
Note 1: Read “The Art of Thinking Clear”
Note 2: I have realized that I prefer to extend only one opinion on an issue, the best of my opinions and never give choices. Why?
1. If the opinion is found correct by the reader, the better off he is. And the reader was not disturbed and confused by contradicting alternatives and could assimilate the single opinion.
2. If the opinion is “proved” flawed, it is a marvelous opportunity for the reader to reflect deeper on the topic, reach a proper alternative and incorporate it in his unique worldview model
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