The complex and the curious

We live in an extremely complex world. It is no longer 350 B.C. where it was possible for a single person to master every discipline there is to master. Aristotle is known to have mastered philosophy, science, cooking, chainsaw juggling, lawn bowling, and mathematics.

The desire to understand the world had always kept me poking around, dabbling in many different subjects; physics, psychology, philosophy, art, and women.

Science helped me understand the physical laws of the world. Teachings of philosophy helped me understand different views on values of life, and how a life is ought to be lived. The funny thing about our world was that neither of these seemed to matter, buried deep within apathy and indifference of modern men.

The world of art, on the other hand, has done a bit more for me. The seeming lack of practicality, the lack of convenient descriptions arising from subjective interpretations; these qualities paralleled how I viewed this complex world full of crazy and irrational people. It was comforting to know that these artists were just as anxious of the modern society as was I.

Even the soup world is complicated. Artworks by Andy Warhol. Photo Credit: © Tjeerd Wiersma (Creative Commons Some Rights Reserved)

Dissonance between our actions and our morals

We all feel like we are compassionate beings. Well, maybe not all, but many of us; on a good day. At least I felt that way (on a good day). I always felt that sense of injustice with inequality, indifference, and intolerance. So I sat down in front of my computer, and did nothing about it, just like my fellow armchair philosophers.

We wish for more compassionate society. Many of us feel better about ourselves by just wishing so, and self-qualifies as being a compassionate person without really acting upon it. Or… maybe we can come up with some examples of the actions. Perhaps you did some volunteer work, or remember that time you helped a friend in need? What else?

I did, too, some cool things. I once gave a homeless man food, water, and some cash, and we chatted all the way through a 45 minute bus ride and I listened to his stories. It was a public holiday, and we were heading northerly, I visiting my parents, and he his sister who did have a home, but didn’t have a room for him.

There was that one night I was mugged by two guys around a dark alley. I happened to be carrying a lot of cash that night and they took it all, and there was a moment where my body was physically restrained with my back to the wall, but was eventually let go unharmed. It only took me a good night’s sleep to mentally regain my composure, and I truly wished those two would find peace and become a contributing members of the society.

I have also silently cut ties with some friends because they were… boring. Shunned a guy at work because his choice of deodorant was terrible. Yelled at my father that time for having different values with me and forcing it upon me. There are also really dark things I may or may not have done that I won’t admit here in public. We suffer from these inconsistencies in character.

What really bothered me though, was that I would be selectively compassionate. Likability of a person would heavily affect my behaviours. People of the opposing political views would, more often than not, be made fun of within my closed bubble of friends.

Ecstatic clicking noise of the jigsaw pieces

I work for a small startup business. Started out as a developer a few years back, and soon I was forced into examining growth and marketing strategies. In my mind back then, marketing was for people who sold their souls, just like how graphic designers are soulless painters.

Some researches later, I stumbled upon Rory Sutherland, who is the Executive Creative Director of OgilvyOne. He is brilliant.

Rory Sutherland at TEDx. He is full of amazing ideas, and he is entertaining. Above video is 18minutes, so watch later.

Rory Sutherland utilises psychological studies to understand human behaviours and apply it to marketing. Behavioural economics was the term coined for this type of studies, and it explained how our minds work far beyond economic consequences and consumeristic behaviours.

The rabbit hole eventually led me to Dan Ariely and Daniel Kahneman, psychologists who have done extensive studies on behavioural economics. Ariely published Predictably Irrational, exactly 9 years ago today. Kahneman published Thinking, Fast and Slow in 2011.

The stars have aligned! This pops up the day I decide to publish my blog post.

These books delve into various human cognitive biases and pitfalls. Dan Ariely named his book as such because we constantly make irrational decisions, and through experiments, have found that the irrationality can be explained and predicted.

One of the examples in Predictably Irrational is of the pricing model of The Economist magazine. The magazine was offering three of the following annual subscription options:

A. Digital only $60

B. Print and digital $100

C. Print only $100

It was clear to anyone that B was better than C. Ariely conducted experiments with his students to find out why a magazine proud of economic prowess would come up with such a weird pricing model.

He quickly found out that the majority chose option B and a small number picked A, while nobody picked C. He then did an experiment with only the options A and B. Clearly, C was not doing anything. Right?

The result was strikingly different now that a lot more people picked option A instead of B. Although option C was not being chosen, it was influencing people’s choices by making B look like a great deal. This example describes how we often judge things in relative terms and it is very difficult to determine absolute values of things when there is nothing to compare to.

Here is a funny story Rory Sutherland tells in one of his talks. A man is on a plane. A flight attendant comes to him and asks, ‘Would you like fish or chicken for your meal sir?’ The man decides to go with a relatively healthy option and asks for fish. After a minute, the FA comes back and says ‘We also have beef. Would you like to change your order?’ The man replies ‘Oh in that case, I will have the chicken, thanks.’ The addition of the beef made the chicken seem like a healthy option.

Ironically, as of the time of my writing, The Economist magazine changed its pricing as follows.

Digital $60

Print $105

Digital + Print $145

Looks like somebody didn’t look into the research behind the original pricing.

Their studies also describe hindsight bias, loss aversion, our limited bandwidth in attention and energy, and many other interesting concepts that describe our flaws in decision making and how we think in general.

Every irrationality of the universe started making sense. One by one they clicked like jigsaw pieces that revealed to be a picture of a chaos and it was a chaos of randomness that gave me a strange pleasure.

I was starting to finally understand and feel for all the stupid people around me. I realised I was doing just as much stupid things and through no fault of anyone. I understood and accepted what was going through the minds of Trump voters.

Dancing the unending dance of virtues

With behavioural economics, I understood both others and my own behaviours better. The understanding naturally leads one to compassion and also to self-compassion. It was a consequence that I was not expecting, but a grateful one. Now, attaining this new perspective shouldn’t be the end.

Below is a beautiful passage from Justice by Michael Sandel:

[B]ecoming virtuous is like learning to play the flute. No one learns how to play a musical instrument by reading a book or listening to a lecture. You have to practice. And it helps to listen to accomplished musicians, and hear how they play. You can’t become a violinist without fiddling. So it is with moral virtue: “we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”

Putting to action our beliefs on what is the right thing to do, and doing it over and over, is the only way we can climb up that ladder of virtues.

It’s just a tool, dude

We live in an extremely complex world where simplified analogies are not only useful but necessary. At the same time, such simplifications must be used to help us reach the underlying complexity, not as an end in itself on how we view this world.

Don’t be this guy.

Behavioural economics is an effective tool in understanding consumer behaviours, but it can also help us make better decisions ourselves, and create systems that can benefit all parties involved. For me, it is a communication tool, that helps us understand one another in multitude of scenarios. After all, every decision we make is an economic one, of time, love, and our attention, on top of the obvious monetary motivations.

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