Maintain a contradictory lifestyle.

Maintain a contradictory lifestyle.


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Happiness comes more when it is unpredictable, and unhappiness is more tolerable when it is unpredictable.


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Happiness comes when you get something that exceeds your expectations in an unexpected and unpredictable situation. If you can already predict the future, happiness will inevitably be halved when expectations are gone. Happiness is not proportional to the size of the reward, but rather comes from the difference from expectations. So, if you could know the future, happiness would disappear.



On the other hand, if misfortune could be known in advance, its magnitude would be enormous. When we do not know that misfortune is coming, we endure and endure in the end, but the misfortune foretold becomes the beginning of a greater misfortune at that moment.


In other words, because the future is unpredictable, happiness becomes greater and unhappiness becomes more manageable.


Superstitions and jinxes begin with the desire to control the future, but you must know that controlling the future will never bring you happiness. Life is an exciting and bearable expedition because the future is unpredictable.


What is important is the 'attitude of life'.


How about learning the attitude toward life as a skeptic that many scientists have been aiming for?


A skeptical attitude in life is an attitude of not believing anything easily and trying to think about the relationship between cause and effect. It means making judgments based on evidence and always having an open attitude that you could be wrong.


Many scientists who changed the world were skeptics.


Scientific thinking begins with the ability to distinguish between what they experienced, anecdotes, such as those experienced by the person next to them, and statistics that are actually occurring repeatedly in the society. The attitude that something actually happens repeatedly and that it only exists when the probability that it will happen is understood. it's departure


An event, experience, or anecdote should not be taken directly as evidence, and coincidences should not be overly meaningful.


The relationship between cause and effect should be clarified. Many factors influence social phenomena, and the world does not operate so simply.



I think we need an exquisite balance between two conflicting desires. In other words, I think we need to scrutinize all the hypotheses set before us with extreme skepticism, and at the same time be very open to new ideas.


If you just doubt abput everything, you won't come up with any new ideas. You will be an old wacky old man who learns nothing new and is convinced that ignorance rules the world.


On the other hand, if you're too open-minded to the point of deafening, and you don't have enough skepticism, you won't be able to tell the difference between worthy thoughts and worthless thoughts. If all your thoughts were equally valid, you would be lost. In the end, no idea will ever make sense.


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- Carl Sagan, 'The Burden of the Skeptic', Pasadena Lecture, 1987


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Life requires both attitudes that seem contradictory.


One is the attitude of not easily believing any hypothesis and thoroughly doubting it. Nevertheless, such a skeptical attitude should not be the folly of turning away from the truth. The world requires an open mind that anything can happen and that it is actually possible. The attitude of making assumptions from the beginning and not accepting anything runs the risk of falling into a dogma that ignores the truth.



People with this attitude lead themselves to a mature life. You can accept new ideas, look at the world calmly, without being preoccupied with stereotypes and without prejudice.


It is an attitude that everyone should have in life, to carefully doubt and at the same time maintain an open attitude that anything is possible.

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