Naval Ravikant is one of the more interesting online presences. He is a venture capitalist but shares many of his ideas and opinions online via twitter or podcasts. This week I came across this quote from him:
The only true test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life
The way I interpret this is you define your own metrics, and what matters is how you do relative to these metrics, not how you do relative to someone else’s metrics. The question then becomes how does one define these metrics? This leads to the second half of the quote.
There are two parts to this. One part, is were you able to hack reality to get what you wanted? But, the more important part is, were you smart enough to figure out what to want in the first place?
The last sentence is the reason this quote stuck out to me. It is something that I have found difficult in the past. That is, it is often it is more difficult to know what to do than it actually is to do it. When the goal is known, the path is much clearer and one step leads to the next. However, when deciding what to do there can be infinite paths, making the choice of path difficult. More options often require more effort to choose from and leave us feeling unsatisfied with our choice.
This concept of over Overchoice is examined in The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. Barry outlines two types of decision makers, maximizers and satisficers.
- Maximizers try to get absolute maximum utility
- Difficult to make a decision and likely will have buyers remorse
- Satisficers select the few most important criteria and then make their decision based on this
- Easy(er) to make a decision and will be satisfied with the choice
The key then in knowing what to do is to first define the criteria and outcomes to optimize for. Once these are known, the decision of what to do is just an optimization problem. Defining these criteria still require some degree of clarity. I have found the best technique to achieve this clarity is writing.
Writing is a great way to slow down thought and engage with thoughts at a deeper level. This is what is needed when defining the criteria to optimize for. The key to decision making is to be a writer and a satisficers. Write to find out what few things are truly important, and make decisions based on solely on these few things.
As we saw, Naval states the true measure of intelligence is being able to know what to want and what to do in life. Both of these are nothing more than decisions that need to be made. Thus, the key to intelligence is writing. Writing is the highest form of thinking, and the most effective way of organizing thoughts.
The answer then to “How to know what to do?” is to write.
– Mitch
Quote of the Week
If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter. - Blaise Pascal
Favourite Things of The Week
📺 - Daniel Negeeranue Poker Hand Breakdown Videos
Daniel is professional poker player who posts videos to YouTube. I enjoy watching the videos where he breaks down previous hands he played and shares his thought process.
📢 - All In Podcast Episode 74
I though this was one of the better episodes. I shared a few of my takeaways from this episode on twitter here:
https://twitter.com/mitchelladam_/status/1510511967085105157
🏒 - Oilers Game
The games this week were great. Pace is picking up as the season nears an end. I went to my first game of the season on Wednesday.