Intuitive Decision Making

All decision making is intuitive. Anyone who claims that we decide, one way or the other, based on reason or rationality alone is not thinking clearly.

There is no free-will. You will make the decision you make regardless of any ‘deliberate’ act of reason. When you think you are being reasonable or rational, what is actually happening is, that facts and reasons and how you feel about their validity are just welling up into your consciousness. It’s the illusion of intellectual deliberation.

When a toddler cries because they are tired, the reason they will give is that they dropped the maraca toy. It’s the wrong reason. It’s bad reasoning. Adults do this as well. The reason is that they are tired.

Your reasons are bad. They are biased to the core. Reasons, no matter how good they sound are almost always self-serving or impulsive. Reason and rationalizing are post-hoc explanations for why you do things, when you really don’t know why, because you need to feel in control. Deeply ingrained drives and motivations direct your actions and require you to find plausible rationalizations that look as noble as possible. You must recognize the compulsion to lie to yourself about why you are acting, and begin to see decision making simply as the discovery of answers. Intuition is not free choice, but rather and unburdened, less biased state of deciding.

So how does one decide, one way or the other, given the truths of the matter? There is no freedom, there is no reason, there is no meaning, you are here; Being. For starters, you have already ‘decided’ to Be – so carrying on with all the vigour that Nature gave you is a first step.

This sentence is the influence that will propel you towards better answers.

In order to make intuitive decisions optimally you have to be in the best shape of your life. Nature is a fact. It is wholly objective and so one can find out the nature of Nature. This can be done with science. One needs as many facts as possible in order to have the best chance of intuiting correctly.

You need a healthy body. A healthy body promotes a healthy mind. (The mind and its contents, like nature, are wholly objective as well, and can be understood.) A healthy mind will receive intuitively, the commands from Nature that will promote a positive direction. Try to have as many facts as can be acquired (study ought to be ubiquitous in life), and as much health as one can sustain.

Get plenty of sleep and rest. Eat well. Lots of vegetables, lean protein, fats, lots of water, no sugar. Exercise vigorously and often. No intoxicants. No 2D sex. Practice self-control at every opportunity (it’s good for the PFC.) Study. Practice active meditation at all times.

This should put you into the sublime state of Being. You should be happy and vigorous, and see things more beautifully. There still is no intrinsic meaning in any of this, and that is okay, don’t worry.

This advice, above all other factors, is going to contribute to good deliberative outcomes. When a person neglects their health they will make bad decisions. To be unrested, under the influence of intoxicants, spiking your blood glucose levels, carried by a need for instant gratification, and ruminating on the past, all contribute to failures of ‘choice.’

You can now follow Nature where it leads; toward the beautiful blond with the unbelievable eyes, or any of a number of projects that just happen to make themselves apparent to your awareness. Find out what is the right thing to do.

In order not to make impulsive and maniac decisions, it is important to exercise self-control. There is no real ‘self-control’, but the habit of default scepticism towards every belief and action can create a kind of self-control. Just as the impulse to decide appears to you, the skeptical corrective appears. It is wholly intuitive.

The only way to decide most correctly on any decision is to give yourself the best chance at good intuition. Optimal health and the luck to have accumulated as many relevant facts and tools as possible. Ultimately it is out of your control. This text may have influenced a positive course correction in you.

Advanced AI algorithms are trying to give us what we want. Clear your mind. Live in truth. We may not even have to ask the question soon. How is that for intuitive decision making?