đĄCurious Friday : Warren Buffet and Epictetus on real wealth and money, Understanding real Wisdom and how to win without talent or luck.
Episode 08 - What can evolution and democracy tell us about the wisdom in our own personal lives?
Today at a Glance
One Quote : Warren Buffet and Epictetus talking on Real Wealth and money.
One Article : What is Wisdom and what does the evolution of mankind tell us about it.
One life changing Tweet :Â Sahil Bloom on how to win without talent or luck.
One Quote :Â
âWealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.â - Epictetus
âI will tell you the secret to getting rich on Wall Street. You try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when others are greedy.â - Warren Buffet.
Wealth is not measured or earned by how much we have but by how less we want or desire. Wealth is actually what you donât see. If someone possesses greater money, it doesnât necessarily mean that he/she is richer than you are.Â
If you have enough and if youâre fulfilled by what you have then that counts as real wealth.
One ArticleÂ
What Evolution tells us?Â
Ducks with a big beak are able to eat more than ducks with little beaks, therefore big-beaked ducks survive and reproduce and the little-beaked Spoonbill Ducks die off. This is how evolution is generally taught in high school.
But most of the time evolution is not that simple. For Example : Imagine that any species/organisms is either 100% violent or 100% non-violent. But itâs more likely to be optimal for 40% of a population to be violent and 60% to be non-violent. This is because the balance and interplay between the traits, that is the violent and non-violent, actually produces the better outcome when the species was only one way around or the other. This is known as, what Iâve studied so far - âEmotionally stable Strategiesâ
This is with Humans as well. If every human was extremely extraverted, that would probably be bad (nobody would ever shut the fuck up). But if every human was highly introverted, that would also be bad. By generating a population of a nice spectrum of introverted/extraverted people, we end up with a more functional, well-rounded society. You can make this same case for tons of human traits. We need people who are both uptight/relaxed, both logical/creative, both compassionate/dispassionate, etc.
The Genius of DemocracyÂ
To survive in this competitive world and to be reluctant on what we do and how we do, we need the democratic society. This, in a nutshell, is the genius of democracy: itâs built to accentuate rather than suppress diversity. And not just diversity of race, gender, or religion, but diversity of personality, interests, philosophies, and worldly pursuits.
Democratic systems let the wisdom of evolutionary processes play out in the social realm. This is why democratic societies tend to be more economically innovative, culturally dynamic, and physically safer than the alternatives.
This is the price of Diversity that we all need to pay after all.
Paradoxically, the price of diversity is basic stress, arguments and anxiety. Diversity means different and different means conflict - thus arguments, stress and anxiety. Highly extraverted people annoy highly introverted people and vice versa. Highly religious people offend highly non-religious people and vice versa. People from rural and urban areas have different life experiences and different values. People with differing beliefs yell at each other, fight, and complain about how awful everyone else is.
But, the fact that the diversity of characters in Humans is so annoying to everyone demonstrates that the system is very much working. Itâs not a bug, itâs a feature.Â
Our internal belief
If the diversity of traits causes resentment and if itâs not comfortable or comfortable to everyone, I would like to argue on the fact that possessing a diversity of values, perspectives, and inclinations as an individual is optimal (yet uncomfortable) for our psychology.
For example, letâs say youâre walking down the street and you see a homeless guy acting erratically. On the one hand, you value compassion to some extent. You want to help people who are suffering. Yet, you also kind of value personal accountabilityâi.e., you have some sense that people ought to be responsible for their own problems. On top of that, you also value your personal safetyâi.e., you donât want to get attacked by a homeless man in the midst of a psychotic episode.
You also have various thoughts and impulses like the fact that you canât help someone who doesnât want to be helped, that youâre a bad/selfish person for ignoring this manâs plight, that youâre busy and late to something important and donât have time for this, that your mayor is a piece of shit for letting this happen in the first place, etc.
As you pass the homeless man, these values and thoughts tug at each other within your mind. You feel bad and want to stop and help but youâre also scared. You pity the man but youâre also a bit angry and indignant that such a prosperous society could let this sort of thing happen. You simultaneously feel that acknowledging this manâs struggle is both something worth doing and something not worth doing.
 A wise man
In this way, a wise personâs mind is like a democracy. You have political parties going on within your own mindâyou have the âhelp everyone in needâ party, and theyâre constantly arguing with the âitâs not my problemâ party.
And, of course, thereâs the always-present âbut what about our safety?â and âleave it to the authoritiesâ interest groups that must be placated.
This is wisdom. This is understanding trade-offs and consequences and accountability. This is allowing the various aspects of yourself to vote on the outcomes of your identity.
Therefore, the goal isnât to quieten or relieve yourself of your internal discord, itâs to learn to live with it. Itâs not to rid yourself of anxiety or second-guessing, but to become comfortable with it. Itâs not to develop full confidence in everything you do, but to become confident in the fact that you probably donât know what youâre doing.
This is an internal democracy, the allowance of evolutionary stable strategies of the mind.
This is wisdom.
One Life changing TweetÂ
In the above thread, Sahil gleaned us the amazing principles and lessons for how we can become rich without any talent or luck. It consists of extremely valuable and precious ways to become rich that you should read right now. Itâs worth reading.Â
Thatâs it for todayâs Newsletter. I hope that you have learned something valuable and useful today. Till then, stay curious my friends.
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