#5 - The Art of Decision Making

23 snips

Jan 4, 2024

Guest Mark Alexander, Producer of Art of Accomplishment's Great Decisions course, joins Lulie and David to discuss competing wants, non-coercive morality, subconscious processes in decision making, mental blocks, and getting back to a creatively problem-solving state of mind.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Two Meanings of "Should"

"Should" can represent a proposed solution or a conflict between desires and perceived obligations.
The latter meaning can indicate flawed moral thinking, creating an internal struggle.

INSIGHT

Morality and Creativity

Morality is not an external layer of "shoulds" but an inherent part of creativity.
It helps resolve conflicting wants and drives our desires, not the other way around.

ANECDOTE

Needle Phobia Example

The needle phobia illustrates conflicting wants: wanting the vaccination but also wanting to avoid the needle.
Changing perspective can help resolve such conflicts by reframing the problem.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Lulie and David are joined by guest Mark Alexander, the Producer of Art of Accomplishment's Great Decisions course, to do a deeper dive into how decisions are made.

They discuss having competing wants, Popperian problem-solving, the difference between 'shoulds' and a non-coercive (fun!) version of morality, emotion, and the participation of different subconscious processes in decision making.

Mark asks "What are 'hangups'?", and David discusses mental blocks and how to get back to a creatively problem-solving state of mind. Lulie shares a problem she has with getting back to that creative place, namely: when do you go into your resisted feelings, and when do you analyse the problem?

00:00 Introducing: Lulie, David and Mark!
00:33 Competing wants vs 'shoulds'
02:23 Morality: coercive vs non-coercive
04:35 Why would we need the word 'should'?
05:55 Wants rest on morality!
06:51 Needle phobia example (of conflicting wants)
09:05 💩 Decision Theory, utilities, game theory
12:01 What guides creative decision-making?
12:54 What is a hangup?
14:58 Hangups, emotions, inexplicit vs explicit
21:12 Problems are pleasurable, fun
24:31 Feeling the feels unblocks creativity
25:45 Step #1: Feel better.
30:57 Lulie's struggle between emotion vs analysis
34:25 David interjects. "All things inside the mind worth calling 'mind' are creative."
35:50 ... What about the voice in the head?
41:00 What draws us forwards, towards good explanations?
42:42 Frustration
44:52 Do we ever have to suffer?
46:39 Hobgoblins, anti-rational memes
48:40 Details for the How to Make Great Decisions course by Art of Accomplishment

Memes article by David Deutsch: The Evolution of Culture

If you're looking to improve your relationship with decisions in 2024, Art of Accomplishment is offering its once-a-year Decisions course starting January 11th. (Sign-ups close this Monday January 8th.)

Discount code for $100 off:
LULIE100

I'll be a participant this year too, so this is a chance to do it alongside me as I share my own deep-dive journey there. Hope you'll join me!