Brian Klaas

And we just basically don't – we basically ignore chaos theory when we think about change in our own lives or in our own societies.

I think it's a mistake.

When we tend to think about the way the world works, we tend to ascribe, and this is part of a bias that we have in how we think about things, we tend to ascribe straightforward reasons, right?

I mean, economics runs on models which say, here's how the world works.

You know, when we sort of look back at our life stories, we have a sort of narrative that we have about why things happened.

If you accept that there's a lot more chance, a lot more chaos involved, then there's a few implications for how you should live slightly differently.

The first one is that you should experiment more.

Because if you're certain about things, then you optimize.

But if you're uncertain, then you experiment.

And there's a lot of evidence that shows that experimentation in the face of uncertainty is much better for us.

It also helps us solve problems in our societies as well.

And additionally, on top of that, I think it also is something where you can have a philosophical shift from a worldview in which lots of people sort of obsess about control to one where you give up control but accept influence.

And I think that's the lesson of chaos theory taken seriously is that everything we do has a ripple effect.

We might not know what it is, but it means that we should think about our lives as meaningful, even on the small stuff.

Because the sort of mentality of the squished bug or the conversation that shifts history, this sort of stuff, it's not some parlor game.

It's the way that reality actually functions.

And I think it's a very empowering thought to internalize when we think about our daily life.

Yeah, I mean, so I think this is definitely true.

There's a huge amount of things around success that are out of our control, right?

I didn't choose who my parents were.