+1 #957: When the Facts Change

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another optimize +1, saving the longer philosophical chat about economic theories. Today we're going to chat about a brilliant line from one of history's most influential economists, John Maynard Keynes. He once brilliantly said, I change my mind when the facts change. What do you do? Before we proceed, let's pause and take a moment to reflect on that question. Imagine facts changing in your life. Whether those facts are related to your energy or work or love, the facts change. What do you do? The wisest and healthiest among us? Change our minds. Interestingly, as you may have noticed, this is considerably easier said than done, which is why this theme is echoed across the wisdom literature. In fact, we just talked about it the other day when we referenced Nietzsche, which Regarding Mr. Skin Shedding Lizard, who told us, shedding one's skin, the snake that cannot shed its skin perishes. So do the spirits who are prevented from changing their opinions. They cease to be spirit. Emerson echoed the same thing when he told us the other terror that scares us from self trust is our consistency, a reverence for our past act or word. Because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loathe to disappoint them. But why, he says, should you keep your head over your shoulder? Why drag about this corpse of your memory, lest you contradict something you have stated in this or that public place? Suppose you should contradict yourself. What then? It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but to bring the past for judgment into the thousand eyed present and live ever in a new day. Little note there, that's from self reliance. And the next paragraph is all about not being a hobgoblin. I'm tempted to share it again here, and I can't resist. Here's that paragraph. It's so worth repeating. I quote a foolish consistency, Emerson tells us, is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines with consistency. A great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today. Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood. Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood. And Socrates and Jesus and Luther and Copernicus and Galileo and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh to be great is to be misunderstood. Now let's bring it back to today and to modern psychologists. Remember our whole chat about the power of agency? Well those guys are the ones who recently rekindled my love for that Keynes quote. Here's how they put it. I quote to have full agency you need to adjust and update your beliefs periodically and that requires a willingness to differentiate what's real and what's not real. John Maynard Keynes, one of the most influential economists of all time said it quite plainly, I change my mind when the facts change. What do you do today's plus one? Do you need to make any adjustments and or updates to your beliefs? Let's quit dragging around dead corpses as we shed the skin that needs to be shed and have the courage to live what we believe to be true today while maintaining that flexibility as new data comes in tomorrow without having so little consistency that we devolve into chaos. Of course.