Who Should You Trust In This World?
One of the very fundamental questions that a person has to ask themself is how to decide who to trust.
It is very common for two experts in a particular field to have widely varying opinions.
You might go to a doctor and receive bad news. You go to another for a second opinion and the second doctor overturns what the first doctor said.
You go to a third, and their diagnosis is a far cry from those of the other two.
I'll give you another example that is near and dear to my heart.
I spent many years, let's call it 8, studying economics.
It was my principal hobby, and I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that I spent an average of one hour per day, every day, for 8 years, reading textbooks and popular literature on the topic of economics.
And I'll tell you something interesting.
There isn't universal agreement amongst economists as to what economics even is in the first place.
This revelation struck me as very strange once it finally crystalized in my mind.
So many important policy decisions are based on a science that, at its roots, hasn't been well defined by the people who engage in it.
Some practitioners think that the purpose of economics is to understand how the economy works and describe it.
This requires studying how real people act in the real world, on a grass roots level, and seeing how decisions and actions affect outcomes.
Others attempt to engage in sophisticated statistical analysis to discover trends in data which can be used by traders on wall street when making investment decisions or by politicians when crafting policy.
So, who is right?
Which school of thought should you buy into?
My brother Brian used to fall asleep when I got to talking about economics. He said that I had chosen the world's most boring hobby.
Maybe he was right.
But it did give me a good understanding about how human beings interact with each other.
Long story short, almost everybody attempts to act in a way that benefits them.
And cooperation almost always provides the best benefit.
As such, most human beings pursue peace and coordination in their daily life.
This is just about everybody's default setting, which is a good thing to know. It has helped me to maintain a positive and optimistic viewpoint towards humanity in general.
Anyhow, back to the topic at hand.
Who we choose to believe makes a big impact on our life.
We all make decisions based on the information that we believe to be correct, and wrong decisions often lead to detrimental outcomes.
Here is what got me to thinking about this.
I know of a little boy with a very loving grandma and a very stern uncle.
The grandma dotes on the little boy because she loves him, and the boy is mostly a good kid, worthy of doting most of the time, even though he is stubborn as a mule and shiftier than a back country carny when it comes to obtaining sweets.
Grandma and the little boy took a trip together to the uncle's house one afternoon.
Uncle lives out in the country, on a big, beautiful piece of land surrounded by pines and eucalyptus trees, which in that neck of the woods, have pale grey bark, and purple, green leaves.
It smells like menthol and pine needles out there and at the far end of the property, Uncle's land runs up against a good sized, strong flowing river.
The plan for the day was to hike along the river to the nearest town, which was about 4 miles away.
They could have driven, but it was a nice day, and the country was spectacular, and the sound of the river rushing, breaking over rocks, and gushing onto the shore was therapeutic for the grandma.
When they made it to town, a sleepy little town on the outskirts of the forest, they ate lunch at uncle's favorite place, a small, austere restaurant with a minimalist menu.
After eating, they strolled around town and the boy's sweet tooth began to throb. He got it in his head that he wanted ice cream.
"Grandma, can you get me some ice cream? Pretty please?"
He started blinking his long eyelashes at her and she was won over immediately.
"Why of course you can sweetheart. Honey, where is the nearest ice cream place?"
Grandma directed her question, and her term of endearment, towards her son, the boy's uncle.
Uncle looked over at grandma and the little boy with an exceedingly dour face and shook his head.
"The only place that's open at this time is a place you shouldn't go to."
"What do you mean?" asked grandma.
"The good place for ice cream won't be open for another couple of hours yet. They open in the evening. The folks at the place that's open right now don't keep it clean enough and a lot of people get sick after eating ice cream there."
"How can they stay in business?" asked grandma.
"It's a general store that also sells ice cream. But most people around here know that you shouldn't eat their ice cream."
The boy listened impatiently and decided straight away to ignore his uncle's advice.
Uncle had left a pair of boots with the town cobbler to be resoled, and he walked away to go pick them up.
This was the boy's opportunity.
"Grandma? Let's go get ice cream anyways. Please? We came all this way. Can we?"
The boy gave his most charming smile and started blinking his long eyelashes in overdrive.
Grandma's heart just about melted.
"Oh alright. But don't tell your uncle. I'm sure one scoop of ice cream won't hurt you," said grandma.
"Can we do two scoops grandma?" asked the boy.
He was shameless when it came to ice cream.
"Ok. Fine. But we have to hurry now. Let's go."
Grandma and the boy walked through the small town to the store.
The boy guzzled down his two scoops in a hurry and then he and grandma returned to the spot where uncle had last seen them.
The three walked back through the forest and about halfway home, the boy threw up in the river.
He threw up again on uncle's porch and again in grandma's car on the way home.
When grandma dropped the boy back off with his mother, he smelled rancid, and his eyes were a bleary bloodshot red.
"What happened?" shrieked the mother when she saw him.
Before grandma could say anything, the boy spoke a few words in a sickly voice.
"Uncle was right. I should have listened to him."
Then he closed his eyes, collapsed into his mother's arms, and fell asleep on the spot.
This is a modified version of a true story that happened to people I know fairly well.
I've been out to the uncle's property a time or two.
This family's takeaway was that even though uncle isn't the cuddliest person in the world, he is as honest as the mountains are tall, and he doesn't open his mouth unless he knows what he's talking about.
He is a reliable source.
He ought to be believed.
Many of the people who have helped me to improve some aspect of my life over the years gave me their advice straight and hard.
I didn't necessarily like what I was hearing, but I had to accede to its truthfulness.
It is a good policy to take truth wherever you can find it, even if you aren't crazy about the delivery vehicle.
Thank you so much for your time today.
I hope that you have a truly blessed day.
Adam
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