Only because we have no idea what the impact of our actions (or inactions) will be (until it’s too late). If we knew the outcomes ahead of time — even if only a day from now — I guarantee you we all would act much differently; differently is indifferent to being simply “good” or “bad”, because there will always be people out there ready to take advantage of every situation.
fun fact, the initial attack on franz ferdinand failed. it was only after he went to the hospital to see the injured staffers, left the hospital, took a wrong turn somewhere–which just happened to be the street gavrilo princip was hanging out on–that he was shot and killed
a lot of people say wwi was inevitable anyway, but crazy to think the spark that kicked it off was due to a driver making a wrong turn, down exactly the street where the assassin was
I think the point is more along the line of “if we accept small actions could make a big difference to the future in the past, we also have to accept they could make a big difference to what it would have been if you hadn’t.”
I’m not saying I think you’re wrong in any of your reasoning for why those things would happen, just to be clear, and I think you’re right. To me, theyre not talking about acting “much differently.”
I get that. For me, at least, I often suffer from analysis paralysis:
is this the right decision?
Will this work?
If I fail, what is the cost to me (financial, effort, emotional, etc)?
Will other people be negatively affected?
And to simply say something like “shit or get off the pot” doesn’t really help either. So sometimes the only thing I can do is to do nothing. Which sucks. A lot.
I’ve been there and that sucks. Still am sometimes tbh.
I’ve been trying to practice turning my over analysis on my over analysis. It isn’t easy and it isn’t a cure or anything but I’ve found that the part of me doesn’t hold up to the same level of scrutiny as it expects from the rest of me. Trying that helped me a bit. I hope it might help you a bit too.
Yeah. I keep trying to tell myself to break those mountains down into mole hills. And when I start seeing the sea of mole hills, I try to remind myself to just pick one and start.
And then there’s the perfectionism. Or at least the make it decent enough that it won’t break when I look at it.
Some days are better than others. I have learned to accept that and not give myself such a hard time about it.
I went to my first protest this year. It was even out of state. Huge win in my book.
Decision paralysis is tricky. Some good advice I got is just try to make the best choice you can in the moment and keep moving forwards. Something which isn’t great but is a step in the right direction now is often better than the perfect option days or weeks later.
We do know the outcome of many things based on what we can do today though don’t we?
Climate change, voting, smoking, drinking, speeding, touching the hot stove, eating the boiling magma hot pizza right out of the box, so on. Don’t we know the likely outcome of these things? Don’t we get told all the time w bad thing will happen if we do x and we still do them?
Only because we have no idea what the impact of our actions (or inactions) will be (until it’s too late). If we knew the outcomes ahead of time — even if only a day from now — I guarantee you we all would act much differently; differently is indifferent to being simply “good” or “bad”, because there will always be people out there ready to take advantage of every situation.
fun fact, the initial attack on franz ferdinand failed. it was only after he went to the hospital to see the injured staffers, left the hospital, took a wrong turn somewhere–which just happened to be the street gavrilo princip was hanging out on–that he was shot and killed
a lot of people say wwi was inevitable anyway, but crazy to think the spark that kicked it off was due to a driver making a wrong turn, down exactly the street where the assassin was
edit: more info https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/people-politics/the-nearly-botched-assassination-of-franz-ferdinand/
see: The Good Place
I think the point is more along the line of “if we accept small actions could make a big difference to the future in the past, we also have to accept they could make a big difference to what it would have been if you hadn’t.”
I’m not saying I think you’re wrong in any of your reasoning for why those things would happen, just to be clear, and I think you’re right. To me, theyre not talking about acting “much differently.”
I get that. For me, at least, I often suffer from analysis paralysis:
And to simply say something like “shit or get off the pot” doesn’t really help either. So sometimes the only thing I can do is to do nothing. Which sucks. A lot.
I’ve been there and that sucks. Still am sometimes tbh.
I’ve been trying to practice turning my over analysis on my over analysis. It isn’t easy and it isn’t a cure or anything but I’ve found that the part of me doesn’t hold up to the same level of scrutiny as it expects from the rest of me. Trying that helped me a bit. I hope it might help you a bit too.
Yeah. I keep trying to tell myself to break those mountains down into mole hills. And when I start seeing the sea of mole hills, I try to remind myself to just pick one and start.
And then there’s the perfectionism. Or at least the make it decent enough that it won’t break when I look at it.
Some days are better than others. I have learned to accept that and not give myself such a hard time about it.
I went to my first protest this year. It was even out of state. Huge win in my book.
~Not world changing. But it did change me.~
Decision paralysis is tricky. Some good advice I got is just try to make the best choice you can in the moment and keep moving forwards. Something which isn’t great but is a step in the right direction now is often better than the perfect option days or weeks later.
We do know the outcome of many things based on what we can do today though don’t we?
Climate change, voting, smoking, drinking, speeding, touching the hot stove, eating the boiling magma hot pizza right out of the box, so on. Don’t we know the likely outcome of these things? Don’t we get told all the time w bad thing will happen if we do x and we still do them?