My Pi-spective on Choice

(A pi-spective is when you talk about something with only 314 words)

Choice. Something we want, in principle. Something we avoid more often than we'd like to admit. And we avoid more choice than we're aware.

We lack choice in the areas that we think we have the most choice. The opposite applies. The way we frame things takes out the real choices. Narrow framing makes the choice for us.

Welcome those who enlarge the topic if you like choice. If you don't like choice, welcome those who provide certainty around the right choice.

If you like to win, then reduce choice. If you like to learn, then increase choice.

Choice is an action. It involves selecting from alternatives. This is an area where we have less choice than we think. Because we often skew the alternatives, use sham alternatives or put forward 'do nothing' as an option.

Do nothing is a just a down vote to a proposition. There's no choice involved. Keeping things the way they are is not an exercise in free will. It's easy for us to kid ourselves on this. Do so if you like certainty.

Choice emerges from personal power. Power in the sense of having control, of being able to do something. We have less power of choice than we like to think. And this isn't about other people.

We take our choice away from ourselves every day. Our brains filter out information that disagrees with our world view. And we aren't even aware of it.

But we can do something about it. We can be deliberate about it. Cultivate a capacity for opposing our own perspective. Think about what you might be missing. About how you might be wrong. About who might have a better perspective.

This is about growing our power to choose. To help ourselves to see with clarity. To exercise our free will.

To choose is to express our humanity. To not is to sleep.