Welcome to Stoic Snippets,
The track that is short in time,
But not in depth.
Here's a strange realization.
Although the world exists outside your head,
You only experience it within your own head.
How you perceive the world is based on a very small sliver of what actually exists in reality,
And then the majority is plenty of guesses about what it all means.
In order to process the world then,
We use something called heuristics or mental shortcuts.
These shortcuts help us speed up decisions,
But in doing so,
Sacrifice accuracy.
Your brain is lazy,
Sort of.
It could also be described as very efficient.
Despite being 2% of your body weight,
It consumes 20% of your energy.
Your brain is always looking for ways to save its computing power for important tasks,
And so it cannot wait to offload unnecessary computing to the automatic part of your brain.
That's where these shortcuts come in.
If I can use a heuristic,
A generalized rule for things,
Then I don't need to make a new decision each time I am faced with a similar situation.
Think of it like this.
When a movie comes out and it has your favorite actor in it,
You think,
They've been in lots of things I like,
Therefore I'll probably like this.
However,
If you don't know the actors,
Then you may say,
I want to watch a trailer first,
A short version of the film.
These are examples of how you try to use shortcuts.
Same goes for clothing brands or food or drink.
And because of this,
Advertisers spend a lot of their money on branding to make sure that you are familiar with their brands,
And when you go to make a decision at the store,
You recognize the brand,
You don't have to think if I should buy it,
You just go,
I've seen this before,
That's good enough for me.
So these brands know this and they are helping your brain make a decision and stick with it for every purchase.
And until such time as they let you down,
You'll probably keep buying the brands you always buy.
We are creatures of habit,
Which is kind of a physical manifestation of these mental shortcuts.
If we do things a certain way and it works,
We're unlikely to change them.
I mean,
Sometimes even when they don't work,
We keep doing things because we prefer a routine.
That's how important shortcuts are to us.
That's how lazy our brain is,
Or I mean,
That's how efficient our brain is.
Think about how many subscriptions you have held onto,
Not because you want the subscription,
But just because you can't be asked to go through the cancellation process.
That's this in a nutshell.
So long story short,
We love a shortcut,
But again,
It's not perfect and sometimes it's downright inaccurate.
For me,
Carrying on our film example,
That is Adam Sandler all over.
When I was young,
He did Happy Gilmore,
Little Nicky and Waterboy.
They were all brilliant.
So when his new films came out,
I thought,
I'm not even going to check,
I'll just go watch them.
And for about 15 years,
I was consistently disappointed at how terrible they were.
So I stopped,
I put them on the bad list.
And then plot twist,
He's now returned in the last few years and has been doing great stuff again,
Like Uncut Gems.
So what's happening here?
Well,
My heuristic that Adam Sandler was in good movies served me for a little while and then was wrong.
And then him being in bad movies,
Well,
That served me and then was wrong.
This is exactly why the Stoics encourage us not to be led by our automatic thoughts.
As Epictetus says,
Don't let the first impression knock you off your feet.
Just say to it,
Hold it for a moment.
Let me see who you are and what you represent.
Let me put you to the test.
Again,
You cannot do this all the time as you just will never get through the day,
But certainly question many of the habits and behaviors that you see as very important.
Things that you do without thinking and that may cause you some hurt in your life.
Look for the things that are not serving you and question whether these are the best way to do things or these are just the automatic or comfortable way that you've done things.
This is the true test.
Does your shortcut help you or hinder you?
Don't simply do things the same way you have always done them because that is a sure way to get to stagnation.
Challenge the way you act and think and see if there's a better way.
I'm willing to guess there is.
Good luck out there.
Now,
If you're looking for a way to get a fresh look at things,
Then consider my New Year's retreat.
Simply message me on InsightTimer to register your interest.
It's limited spaces.
Hope to see you in the DMs.
