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Episode 38: We are All Just a Little Delusional

Jan 12

6 min read




There have been a few times in my life where I found myself briefly [00:00:30] thinking or believing something that upon further reflection was absolutely ridiculous. The thing that prompted this thought was earlier today. I started thinking that I should try to memorize who won every major sports championship over the last 20 years, so that should the need arise, I'd be able to make money quickly in the betting markets.


I have no idea where this idea came from, and I have no idea why in that [00:01:00] moment the idea of time travel seemed like a possibility. Not only a possibility, but a possibility. A foregone conclusion that it would be available, but it did. And I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in my delusions, but thankfully most of us come around, if you give us a minute or two, it makes me wonder what it would be like without other people around us to help us stay grounded.


I think we recognize on some level that we need other people to stay grounded. [00:01:30] This is why even the most introverted of people are compelled to talk with other people when they're struggling with something. When I'm upset, I often end up relying on other people to hear me out. I can do some amount of self regulation, but I only think I'm capable of doing that because I've relied so heavily on other people throughout my life to stay grounded.


The most reclusive people I know are also some of the least grounded people I know. I [00:02:00] can remember a few other times that I had these ridiculous thoughts, but, uh, there's one that comes to mind that happened at some point in my college years. Pretty sure I had just broken up with a girl or I might have gotten rejected by one that I liked.


And I can't really remember in perfect clarity, but what I do remember is that I'd been reading about Taylor Swift on and off and her revolving door of romantic interests. And for some reason, I decided that I was going to date her. [00:02:30] There was momentarily no doubt in my mind that I would date Taylor Swift.


It was just a matter of figuring out how to introduce myself. And I think I thought, well, she'll date anyone. So why not give it a try? I don't understand why we can be so prone to these kinds of delusions, but the mind is a fascinating thing. I like to think about AI these days. It's obviously a hot topic and I'm no expert, just a casual observer, but my [00:03:00] usage of it is pretty much.


limited to recipe ideas. That's pretty much where it starts and about where it ends, but it's still incredible how well it performs for some tasks. If you've ever used it for anything creative, you've probably noticed how devoid it can be of any soul. It can do creative tasks, but the output at this point is so generic and bland, it's hard to appreciate.


[00:03:30] Now, the tech companies are under a lot of pressure to keep these things from saying anything that isn't politically correct. So, I think that they probably do a lot of serious doctoring behind the scenes to keep these things from happening. as non confrontational and bland as possible because boring is safe.


But I wonder if we got the undoctored versions of these AIs, if they would start getting as wacky as us people do. The very fact that they're designed to mimic human minds seems to make them [00:04:00] susceptible to human like problems. And ironically, the kind of regulation that they're subjected to probably also keeps them from being truly creative.


Similar to creativity, our delusions may be close enough to reality to actually be useful and to inspire us. But if they get too far from reality, they're about as useful as static noise. Creativity really seems to thrive in this Goldilocks zone. Not too hot, not too cold. It's this [00:04:30] place where the thing that's being created is similar enough to something familiar that we don't outright reject it.


And on the other hand, if it's too similar, then we won't. I remember reading a Malcolm Gladwell book where he talked about radio stations. I can't remember which one it was, but he mentioned that they have certain songs that they call sticky. That people just stay tuned to, even if they're super familiar with it.


And [00:05:00] even if they don't particularly like the song, for some reason these people will just stay tuned to these songs. But if the radio stations stick too closely to those songs, people do eventually get bored of them. And begin to lose interest in the, in the radio channel altogether. So what they have to do is to regularly bring on new music, but people don't generally stay tuned to new music for very long.


Apparently they think they want it. And maybe even when they hear it, they like it, but for some reason they [00:05:30] will switch off of it. Shortly after they've heard it for the first time. So to work against this dilemma that they have, what they'll do in bringing new songs in is that they'll sandwich them between two quote, sticky songs to help get people interested.


So in a way creativity, that's worth anything. Lives on the edge of the known and the unknown. And people seem to benefit the most when they can find a way to straddle that same divide between being [00:06:00] sane and delusional. With that in mind, I think it could be said that creative people are a little more than people with the ability to be usefully delusional.


So I suppose it's alright to be a little delusional, because it's our delusions that propel us forward. Will I ever date Taylor Swift? Probably not. And I doubt she'd be a good fit for me anyway, but if I was delusional enough to actually believe that I could, it's a whole lot more likely to happen.[00:06:30] 


Sometimes making our delusions a reality is just a matter of becoming the person that fits that reality. Time travel may be a stretch. Becoming the President of the United States is also a stretch. And so is just about every delusion anyone has ever had. But when you make changes to become a kind of person that could actually accomplish that reality, it stops being such an impossible thing.


So maybe there's a space where we can both embrace our [00:07:00] delusions and accept our reality. There's a line from the movie Dumb and Dumber. that I kind of like. Now, I've never actually watched this movie all the way through, but the line gets quoted enough in clips and whatnot that I think most people probably recognize it.


Jim Carrey's character approaches this beautiful woman and he asks her what her chances are to end up with her. And she politely avoids answering the question until he [00:07:30] keeps on pressuring her. And, uh, eventually she says, well, not good. And he follows up with, you mean like, not good like one out of a hundred?


And she says, more like one out of a million. To which his response is, so you're telling me there's a chance? I cringe a little when people say, believe in yourself. Maybe it's my pragmatic side that just recognizes it for a mostly empty [00:08:00] phrase. Because obviously it takes a whole lot more than a belief to make something happen.


But maybe the better approach is to believe it's within the realm of possibility. If you want to be a basketball star, and you're only five foot, it's going to be a very, very slim window of possibility. And it may not even be possible at all. But it will certainly never happen. If you don't think it can.


Even then, I would hate to encourage a guy that's [00:08:30] 5 foot to pursue a career in the NBA. So I think just like useful creativity, we need one foot in the familiar and one foot in the unknown. Otherwise, we're just making noise in a sense. Just like pure creativity is effectively static noise, delusion with absolutely no tie to reality is likewise useless.


The real trick is figuring out how far you can push that delusion. toward reality. That pragmatic part of me says I should [00:09:00] follow a delusion that will still bring me closer to where I want to be in life even if I fail to fulfill that delusion. Someone that aspires to be president may do all of the things likely to get them there and still fall short, but in the process it isn't unlikely that they end up as a politician.


Which still isn't a bad place to be. Politicians are incredibly powerful. I love my delusions. I love the places that they've brought me and the [00:09:30] places that they'll take me. We're all just a little delusional. But it's not so far out of reach to make those delusions work in our favor. I think the world would be much worse without delusional people.

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Skipping Stones podcast with Seth Roberts explores diverse topics to uncover principles and stories that aim to help you improve your life with perspective and purpose. If you find any perspectives helpful, you can thank the countless individuals who have passed on ideas that matter for generations. Influences include Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, Jesus, Robinson Crusoe, Thomas Jefferson, and countless other books, historical figures, and thinkers.

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