Brian Klaas

They're explaining them with these really neat and tidy models.

There's like five variables.

Or you get a self-help book and it says, if you just do these three things, your life will be better.

I don't think that's true.

I think it's a lie.

And I think it's important for us to recognize that because it makes us smarter when we are making decisions in the face of uncertainty to not just simply regurgitate this simplified model of

a fake version of reality in which we can control everything.

And instead, you know, we influence everything and we control nothing.

I think that's a very important but nuanced shift in the way we see the world.

I personally don't believe everything happens for a reason.

I think that if you're a believer, that might make sense, right?

So if you have a sort of mentality that God is in control and so on, then I can understand the nature of that viewpoint.

But there's a lot of stuff scientifically that we look at.

I mean, the asteroid that hit the dinosaurs and made them extinct.

If that had been delayed by a second, the dinosaurs likely would not have gone extinct, mammals would not have risen, and it's unlikely humans would exist, right?

And the best scientific evidence suggests that that asteroid was caused by a brief oscillation in a place called the Oort Cloud in the distant reaches of space.

And that's, you know, it's an idea called contingency, where if this one thing had been different, everything would be different.

And I think when you look back at the history of how humans emerge, for example, or how our lives are built, it's just contingency upon contingency upon contingency.

Now, our brains have evolved to see reasons behind everything.

And that's because it helps us survive, right?