Why People Do the Things They Do
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I recently finished a fascinating book called Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by philosopher and historian Yuval Noah Harari. It was a great read, and I highly recommend it. But it got my brain spinning. About people. And why they do the things they do. Until, of course, it spun out to its obvious conclusion, and how kinda futile the question is.
There are infinite reasons why people do the things they do, so the answer to why people do the things they do is a definition of infinity.
You will never stop chasing this answer. It’s our biggest illusion that we could ever know or predict. We will get it right sometimes due to chance. But we will never find any book or equation that will tell us 100 percent of the time.
For example, say you have 100 people in a room. If you have good data on previous randomized trials, you can predict how people will behave with shocking accuracy. (This techinque is used by most mediums to “cold read” a room by the way). You have probably heard of the birthday paradox? Using probability, you can predict how many people in 100 have the same birthday. You can be pretty sure two people in your room will be born on the same day. But you will never (at least in this point in time), find an equation that will tell you which two people.
This is why I love mathematics. Forget astrology. Mathematics is the truest form of fortune-telling ever created. Everything else is up to us.
