We all live in different situations in this world. The situations are a mixture of external factors and the decisions and actions we took in response to them. While we have only very limited control over the external factors, we do have the power to decide how we react to them.
As Daniel Kahnemann writes in his book "Thinking fast and slow", we have two systems in our nervous system: On the one hand the fast and archaic reflex-based systems is required for fast reactions like blinking with the eye to protect ourselves. Since this system is reflex-based, we do not have control over it. On the other hand the more powerful, but slower system allows us to reason about our responses to events. With great power comes great responsibility and therefore, the second system holds great responsibility for where where we are today and where we will be tomorrow. In this setting we could say that we are the sum of our responses to external events.
Of course every person has a different situation as starting point: some are healthier than others, some are wealthier than others, some are more talented that others and so on. These are all examples of external factors that are beyond our control. But wherever we start, we choose at least to some part in which way we walk. At every crossing we have to make a decision that can improve our situation or worsen it. When two people start at the same position, but make different decisions, they will soon find themselves in different situations.
Everyone has a choice
Everyone has a choice, no matter which situation we live in. A common argument is that some people do not have any choice, because the external factors are so suppressive. Often this is an excuse to take the burden of responsibility for ones own life away. This can not be true and we have some impressive testimonials of people living in extremely dangerous and suppressive situations and still making their own decisions. One example is Victor Frankl, who survived the concentration camp in Nazi Germany. He later wrote down his psychological observations of himself and other prisoners around him in the book "Man's search for meaning". He states that what saved him was the focus on his inner freedom that none of the guards could take away from him. While he was forced to bear many physical burdens, he still had the freedom to think and choose how to emotionally react to the horrors around him. By focussing on this inner save heaven he could stay positive enough to keep going.
Numerous self-help books emphasize the importance of our mental attitude towards external factors. Some examples I know of include:
- "The Alchemist" by Paolo Coelho
- "Think and grow rich" by Napoleon Hill,
- "12 Rules for life" by Jordan B. Peterson
- "Rich dad, poor dad" by Robert Kiyosaki
- "From 0 to 1" by Peter Thiel (see also this blog article)
- "The seven habits of highly successful people" by Stephan Covey
- "The Four hour work week" by Tim Ferriss
An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied. (Arnold H. Glasow)
Decisions in distributed systems
All the observations we have made so far do not only hold for individuals, but also for companies and societies.A successful company is able to make good decisions fast. Wether a company is more successful than a competitor depends largely on the overall quality of all the small and large decisions made by people in behalf of the company. Therefore the COO of a company is concerned with the quality and quantity of decision making in the company.
If a society is generating more wealth and a higher standard of living is determined by all the small and large decisions made by citizens, politicians and other actors in the society. The average of all values acted out through their day to day decisions determines how well challenges can be solved. The societies believes are reflected in the politics and therefore in the laws and regulations, which in turn are external factors for the decisions made by actors in the society like companies and individuals.
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