Brian Klaas

I would say that you don't have good information about what's going to happen, right?

And I think there's a lot of examples of this where a woman who's going to a conference in New York City gives a tie as a gift to her coworker.

And he decides to go back to his hotel room to change and put the new tie on to show his appreciation because it clashes with his old shirt or whatever.

And she goes up to the conference and it turns out to be on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center on 9-11 and she dies and he survives, right?

Now, this is a random act of kindness that ultimately causes her own death and saves the life of a coworker.

She could never foresee that, right?

But I think that there's a lot of stuff when we think about, you know, you look at politics, you look at economics, you look at anytime you turn on the TV and people are explaining why things happen.

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 it'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.