Automatic behaviors and post hoc rationalization

We as human beings tend to behave first and then rationalize later. We tell a story about why we did a certain thing, but in reality those stories don’t accurately represent all the myriad and mysterious forces that were in play at the time of an action. These stories are just images, brief snapshots of reality. Nothing wrong with images or stories until we start mistaking them for reality itself. The truth is that we are not that far off from animals in our behavior. We look at famous people (the top of the hierarchy) and then we copy them. You can see this in fashion whether that fashion happens to be the clothes we wear or the appropriate opinions we share at the dinner party. But the story we tell ourselves usually goes something like this: “I believe this very astute thing because I came to the rational understanding based on my own intelligence and will” When in reality we were subconsciously making decisions based on what other people were doing like those monkeys we think are below us. The above audio is a small clip from my longer episode with Jim O’Shaugnessy. Get full access to Crazy Wisdom Newsletter at stewartalsop.substack.com/subscribe