How to Avoid Counterintuitive Stepping Stones in Decision Making

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The speaker believes that ideas that make too much sense are not exciting enough because they are likely to be followed by someone else. Instead, they prefer counterintuitive ideas that initially seem strange and don't make sense. These ideas are more likely to lead to something revolutionary. The notion that to achieve our highest goals, we should be willing to abandon them also initially sounds nonsensical but can make sense in hindsight. The speaker finds these unconventional ideas more exciting because they are less likely to be pursued by others.

Artificial intelligence researcher and author Kenneth Stanley has argued that “as soon as you create an objective, you ruin your ability to reach it.” So what should you consider when thinking about your objectives, and what will set you up for success? On this episode Stanley discusses how to set the right objectives for your life, why we’re too tied to accomplishments, what role accountability plays in our education system, the value of peer review, why transformative innovations are always counter intuitive, and so much more. Stanley is the co–author of Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective, as well as the former Head of Core AI Research at Uber AI and the Open-Endedness Team Leader at OpenAI. He has also served as the Charles Millican Professor in Computer Science at University of Central Florida.

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