3 years later I face a different form of stagnancy. I have agency but it exists towards nothing. I lack a sense of conviction. I lack purpose or a true north star. So now I make high energy, unique and independent decisions but to no road. In many ways this is as unfulfilling, if not more, than no agency at all.

I realize my life decisions can no longer be boiled down to binaries like my original framework which used very simple heuristics on how to keep moving but little on how to enter new levels within life and how to move forward with purpose.

A few years ago I made a decision making framework Life Heuristics: Making good life decisions & handling decision anxiety . It was a very tactical framework on how to make day to day decisions to give me momentum in my life. It was extremely effective in breaking me from a perpetual loop of lack of agency.

I no longer need tactical decision making but rather a clear mindset on how to spot good decisions that allow large jumps into a better and more fulfilled life.

  1. When in doubt choose what’s in front of you and not a hypothetical reality.
  2. When in doubt choose the decision that increases the variety of lived experience at the end of your life time.
  3. When in doubt run a new experiment.
  4. When in doubt move with speed not accuracy.
  5. Suffering is unavoidable. No option will bring more suffering or less suffering. If there is not a clear objection or appraisal, then the suffering can’t be anticipated.

Here are additional principles and reminders

  1. Accuracy matters most in high conviction, high leverage and pivotal moments. Otherwise momentum matters most.
  2. You are not a philosopher. Do not try and make decisions on a new evolved framework. You are not all knowing. Go with the masses when throughly stuck in between. Contrarianism is only valuable with conviction.
  3. When in doubt take the route that poses the most difficult to revisit (aligns with maximizing versions lived)
  4. A lot of my choices are made in scarcity to escape suffering. Suffering is unavoidable. Do not factor in future suffering in decision making. Suffering is unavoidable and uncontrollable.
  5. Choose with intentionality but not accuracy. Intentionality is choosing what is within reason of satisfaction and what is within reason of non deterministic suffering. Accuracy is unrequited alignment with expectations.
  6. Re-routing is always possible but it will take time to reprogram the GPS. When a new perspective is made the time to results is NOT immediate. Give yourself time to get there. Do not pursue accuracy in the meantime. Do not rush to achieve perfection he new goal.
  7. Do not seek nobility or alignment in every decision. Decide which types of decision matters. Decide what you are high conviction with. Apply values judgment in each decision thereafter but defaulting to status quo, reputation, survivalism and prestige is within reason if there is not direct harm to your goals and values and if there is no conviction on the decision.
  8. Agency only materializes with purpose. Where there is no purpose submit to the default.