<p>I now think things I didn't think before</p>
TED Talks are great, and Barry Schwartz’s talk on Our loss of Wisdom is well worth the 20 minutes it takes to watch it. He has single-handedly explained wisdom, which I have found difficult to understand, but also talked about a rather major problem in society today. In fact, it’s changed one of my core beliefs.
You could say it’s changed my perception of reality.
You probably want to read my (no longer held) core belief first, because it’s going to seem silly after hearing the talk. It’s about game mechanics, and is pretty much summed up in Tom Slee’s No one makes you shop at walmart. It basically goes like this:
When put up against a system (or a game if you will), all reasonable individuals will make choices so as to optimise their success in that system (or win the game). More simply stated, “don't hate tha playa”.
Now, similarly to the (often misunderstood) Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, this may be interpreted by people to mean that I “play to win” or that I justify my actions based on their success, that I am an amoral individual. However, this is not the case. My ideal is to codify the morality into a system which incentivises the right behaviours.
My mistake has simply been not realising that the morality pre-dates the codification. Additionally, it’s been in missing the realisation that a codified moral system retards our sense of morality. While I’m not in a position to take advantage of this new found sensibility, I can still apply this knowledge. POWAAAHHHH!!!!