What do you do?

Right now, you could be doing any number of things.

How do you know which of the things to do?

1: Random sampling aka just do a thing

If your choice is between “yes” and “no”, a coin flip will do the trick.

But if your choice is non-binary, things move into dicier territory.

If the single best choice is non-obvious, RNG is a great strategy to keep going. Especially if you’re a chronic overthinker.

But what if you have principles?

2. Top-k, k=1 aka do the best thing

This tweet is funny and true:

Fig: rare example of epistemics and funny aligning (source)

Unfortunately while this works in theory, you need to develop your ear for the inner psyche. This is a Most Important life skill TM, and can be cultivated with patience or peril.

Method A: Touch Grass (6 years)

This is what the Buddha did.

He found a sacred fig tree, set a timer for 189,341,712 seconds on his phone, and sat down.

Method B: Sit Down (30 minutes)

Luckily, you do not need to attain enlightenment to figure out what you should be doing This Very Moment.

You just need to listen to your body.

Deep down, you’re a surfer.

Fig: (waves)

Every heartbeat:

And every breath you take:

A lot of knowing what to do right now is simply listening to your body.

You body knows what your mind cannot explain.

(source)

Mountains are meant to be climbed, but not in the mind.

When you pause, and you sit, and you listen, all of the waves hurtling on your shores reach a consonance.

You have solved the self-alignment problem, if only for a while.

Now so inspired, you will know what it is you must do without any conscious inference.

‘The Way never acts yet nothing is left undone’. - Dao De Jing

In Summary

I believe there is always a single best action for you to take. But you won’t find it in your Chrome tabs, your Things to-do list, or your Slack.

To do the best thing, you need give yourself permission to do nothing.

(source)

Further Reading

This essay is influenced by:

• Big Panda and Tiny Dragon, James Norbury

• Siddhartha, Herman Hesse

• Michael Edward Johnson’s theory of vasocomputation

• Chris Lakin’s theory of human-human alignment

• Theory of resonance

• Buddhism, and mysticism in its myriad flavors

Sponsors

This article is brought to you by Alaska Airlines, by way of them delaying my flight by 2 hours. Thank you.