Brian Klaas

So the moment that a baby is conceived, if there is any millisecond difference in that moment, a different child is born, right? Now we sort of all intuitively understand that, but if you actually think about what that means, it means that on the day of conception, if you stop to have a sip of coffee, or if you don't, you have a different kid.

But that's true for the day before and the day before that and the day before that. All of those things in our lives that culminate in that one moment when the baby is conceived had to be exactly as they were for that child to be born. This is the phrase that I borrow from the social scientist Scott Page, where he says that we control nothing, but we influence everything.

But that's true for the day before and the day before that and the day before that. All of those things in our lives that culminate in that one moment when the baby is conceived had to be exactly as they were for that child to be born. This is the phrase that I borrow from the social scientist Scott Page, where he says that we control nothing, but we influence everything.

But that's true for the day before and the day before that and the day before that. All of those things in our lives that culminate in that one moment when the baby is conceived had to be exactly as they were for that child to be born. This is the phrase that I borrow from the social scientist Scott Page, where he says that we control nothing, but we influence everything.

The way I sometimes describe this is imagine a world of perfect control, right? Where you could pick everything that happened in your life. It would be the most dystopian hellscape you could imagine. If uncertainty was eliminated, imagine that you knew when you were 10 years old exactly who you were going to marry. Imagine if you knew the exact moment of your death, right?

The way I sometimes describe this is imagine a world of perfect control, right? Where you could pick everything that happened in your life. It would be the most dystopian hellscape you could imagine. If uncertainty was eliminated, imagine that you knew when you were 10 years old exactly who you were going to marry. Imagine if you knew the exact moment of your death, right?

The way I sometimes describe this is imagine a world of perfect control, right? Where you could pick everything that happened in your life. It would be the most dystopian hellscape you could imagine. If uncertainty was eliminated, imagine that you knew when you were 10 years old exactly who you were going to marry. Imagine if you knew the exact moment of your death, right?

For a lot of us, it would be incredibly crippling. And the moments of creativity, of serendipity, of joy, I mean, if you think about all those moments in your life that really stuck with you, how many of them were planned beforehand to a T, right?

For a lot of us, it would be incredibly crippling. And the moments of creativity, of serendipity, of joy, I mean, if you think about all those moments in your life that really stuck with you, how many of them were planned beforehand to a T, right?

For a lot of us, it would be incredibly crippling. And the moments of creativity, of serendipity, of joy, I mean, if you think about all those moments in your life that really stuck with you, how many of them were planned beforehand to a T, right?

Even in the planned events that we have, like a celebration, a wedding, a birthday, whatever, often the stuff we remember the most is the unplanned flourish. You know, when the uncle did this unexpected thing on the dance floor or whatever. So we pretend that uncertainty is always bad. And sometimes it is. I mean, a cancer diagnosis is scary and you don't know what's going to happen.

Even in the planned events that we have, like a celebration, a wedding, a birthday, whatever, often the stuff we remember the most is the unplanned flourish. You know, when the uncle did this unexpected thing on the dance floor or whatever. So we pretend that uncertainty is always bad. And sometimes it is. I mean, a cancer diagnosis is scary and you don't know what's going to happen.

Even in the planned events that we have, like a celebration, a wedding, a birthday, whatever, often the stuff we remember the most is the unplanned flourish. You know, when the uncle did this unexpected thing on the dance floor or whatever. So we pretend that uncertainty is always bad. And sometimes it is. I mean, a cancer diagnosis is scary and you don't know what's going to happen.

And I'm not trying to say that that's a good thing. But pure certainty, pure control would cripple everything that's good about being a human. And so it's a mistake to try to stamp out all levels of uncertainty, all levels of chance, and all serendipity from our lives.

And I'm not trying to say that that's a good thing. But pure certainty, pure control would cripple everything that's good about being a human. And so it's a mistake to try to stamp out all levels of uncertainty, all levels of chance, and all serendipity from our lives.

And I'm not trying to say that that's a good thing. But pure certainty, pure control would cripple everything that's good about being a human. And so it's a mistake to try to stamp out all levels of uncertainty, all levels of chance, and all serendipity from our lives.

Yeah, so I think there's an acknowledgement that we have less control. The question is, what do you do about it? The world is uncertain. It's a scary place often. And this is where I think both our social systems and individuals themselves need to focus more on resilience. Resilience is where even if something goes wrong, even if the unexpected befalls you, you're going to be okay.

Yeah, so I think there's an acknowledgement that we have less control. The question is, what do you do about it? The world is uncertain. It's a scary place often. And this is where I think both our social systems and individuals themselves need to focus more on resilience. Resilience is where even if something goes wrong, even if the unexpected befalls you, you're going to be okay.

Yeah, so I think there's an acknowledgement that we have less control. The question is, what do you do about it? The world is uncertain. It's a scary place often. And this is where I think both our social systems and individuals themselves need to focus more on resilience. Resilience is where even if something goes wrong, even if the unexpected befalls you, you're going to be okay.

So when you think about stuff where on a personal level, you don't have control. It's the stuff where it's all about external validation, for example, what other people do in reaction to how you behave. If you have intrinsic motivation, things like passion, things like intellectual discovery, things like exploring the world, it's not contingent on how somebody else reacts to you.