Optimize for Wisdom

Why does it feel like I am getting dumber as I age? Why do I often read something smart I once said or made and feel like I am rediscovering it, as if I forgot or never knew it? Since I am in my early 30s I suspect that old age and early-stage dementia is not to blame.

My hypothesis is that continuous entertainment, high pace work environment and consumerism have hacked my mind. They turned me into a none reflecting entity that is always looking for the next dopamine hit. I am functioning with the operational intelligence of a busy bee. From the moment I open my eyes till the moment I close them, I am either solving problems or filling my mind with mindless entertainment. My monkey brain finds a lot of joy in solving problems and low-level thoughts like shiny objects, dumb videos, music and sex, so I spend most of my day stuck consuming it. If 99.9% of information I process is solving daily problems or junk, how do I expect to grow in wisdom and make better decisions?

Without wisdom to help me self-correct, I become a ball in a pinball machine where other people get to press the buttons, and my attention and aspirations are directed by the strongest forces. I become a tool of my boss, partner and companies constantly attempting to gain my attention, and direct the ball where they want it to go. I might be solving problems but there is no mechanism to verify that I am solving the right problems. Mindfulness and self-reflection allow me to interrupt the ball, stop the game and ask, is this how I want to spend my life? I become the ball in the pinball machine where the handles broke and can no longer influence me, free to choose where I want to go, deepening my understanding of what I value every day.

Wisdom needs to be optimized for. In the same way that you wouldn’t expect to get fitter without going to the gym, you should not expect to get wiser without explicit practice. Self-reflection and mindfulness are the equivalent of weights in a gym, they are tools you can use to grow your wisdom. Pick them up more often and practice! When you identify waste in your life cut it out. Unless you prioritize it you will lead an unexamined life at the end of which you will reflect and ask yourself what the fuck did I do? Where did my time on this Earth go?

In the moments of weakness, you will tell yourself that you are too busy, that you don’t have time. Remember that this is the equivalent of a 350-pound man telling himself he doesn’t have time to exercise, while driving 30 min to get to McDonald’s. Bullshit you don’t have time, and you know it. Don’t allow you addictions, even if they seem benign like Instagram, unhealthy food and mindless problem solving to take over and control you, take back the control over your life, and step back into the wisdom gym already.