 Logic is the art of resolving contradictions, it's the art of non-contradictory, thinking it's going and figuring out where the contradictions and getting rid of them, resolving them, find out what's fundamental and what's secondary, what's a side issue, what's important, try to simplify problems. To think, think facts, context, integrate, facts, context, integrate. And then remember that emotions are not tools of cognition. Emotions might tell you something about you, about how you respond to things, about what you see as threats or benefits or so on, but they're not tools of cognition, they're not telling you anything about the world. They're telling you something about your response to the world. So in making decisions, it is reason, logic, that are the methods to follow, not emotions, intuitions, gut feelings. Now you don't ignore those. What you try to do is understand your emotions, understand your intuitions, and if you have time, understand your gut reactions, so that if there is any information embedded, then there may be about your priorities or maybe about something you've missed, you can take those into account. Constantly in important decisions, constantly reexamine assumptions and conclusions, constantly reevaluate, make sure you're making the right conclusion, getting to the right things, have the right facts. But at the end of the day, at some point, you can't paralyze yourself. You can't paralyze yourself by, you know, people talk about overthinking. Now there's no such thing as overthinking really, but there is this thing as obsessing and not letting go and not having the courage to come to conclusions. Again, conclusions might not be pleasant. Conclusion might not be easy. About an employee, you have to lay off or fire. About a product, you might have to kill. But at some point you have to come to conclusion, you can't say, well, I need more evidence and I need more facts and I need more. At some point, and it's hard to tell when, there is enough information to make a decision and to act on that decision and to judge based on that decision. Or you could come to the conclusion that you can't. And then you have to assess. Can't I because the information I need is not attainable, cannot be achieved. Can't I because I don't have the time to get the information? Can't I because there's some something in the way? Can I get rid of what's in the way? So some things you walk away from where you can't make a decision. But most things, you should be able to get enough facts. Most things in life require judgment, require decision making, and require action. So don't paralyze yourself. Reason is not there to paralyze yourself from acting. I know so many people who want to think about this and want to think about that and want to think about this through and that through and maybe this will happen, maybe that, and they never act, they never do anything because they're constantly considering another fact, another possibility and at some point action is necessary. At some point the purpose of thinking is to act. The purpose of thinking is to achieve something. The purpose of thinking is to attain goals. Now you can get a lot more depth into this by reading Lena Pigov. Lena Pigov has a number of courses that on YouTube on morality, on rationality, and then of course he has OPPA, Objectives on the Philosophy of an Amen, that has a long section on rationality, what it means, how to do it, the purpose and highly, highly recommend if you really want to get an in-depth philosophical understanding of what it means to be rational, which is essential I think to all human beings because this is the way we live or this is the way we should live and indeed if you think about your failures in life, most of our failures in life are consequences of not thinking, of consequences of letting emotions get in the way, are consequences of not taking into account all the relevant facts, are consequences of evading certain facts. So most of our failures, you know, put aside the failures that are the result of things that are outside of our control, although even there there's a lot more in your control than you think. Failures, in a sense you are responsible for them, they're always consequence of failures in your own thinking. There are always consequences of not doing the thinking right, of not going through, thinking things through, of not looking at all the facts, examining all the facts, evaluating all the facts, integrating all the facts, taking context into account. This is life and death. This is the way in which we survive. This is the tool that evolution has given us to survive. The trick is none of it is automatic. None of it just happens. None of it is just, oh, it just happens. You have to choose it. You have to initiate it. You have to engage with it. You have to actually exert energy in order to make it happen. Thinking is not automatic. It is the fundamental activity the choice is required for. When Hamlet says to be or not to be, the essential thing he's saying is to think or not to think. Now, Hamlet is the type, for those of you who've read Hamlet, who can't decide, who's totally obsessed by more information, more information. He knows the truth. He's got enough information for the truth, but he evades it. He doesn't want to recognize it. He doesn't want to acknowledge it. That his father's brother killed his father and married his mother. It shakes me after all. It's complicated, right? But he doesn't want to acknowledge that. He wants, he purposely evades it. He is a man of inaction. He is a man who doesn't take his reason seriously. He broods instead of thinking and acting. And as a consequence, he dies and everybody of value to him dies. He can't handle the truth. And therefore he evades it. And the one thing in objectivism, you have to take from this is the truth matters. The truth is the only thing in the sense that matters to your life. And that you must learn to handle the truth. You must only deal with truth. I mean, one of the things you should be careful of is dealing with rumour, dealing with indian innuendo, dealing with half truths, half facts, half information. To be selfish means to be a truth seeker. It means that I'm committed to the facts. I'm committed to reality. I'm committed to the truth. I won't accept anything short of the truth. I won't accept anything short than reality. And I won't evade it. I won't ignore it. I won't turn my back to it. That is what it means to live a good life. That is the objectivist morality in a nutshell. Because as we'll see, every other virtue, every other universal human virtue is a derivative, is an application, is an aspect of this first one. It's an aspect of be rational. If you had a boil of the objectivist ethics into one idea, it's be rational. Think, think, think. That's what life commands of you. Commands is a wrong word, of course. That's what life requires of you. That's what being human means. It means that thinking is required for your survival, for your existence. What we need today, what I call the new intellectual, would be any man or woman who is willing to think. Meaning any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason, by the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, wins, or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of despair, cynicism, and impotence and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist roads. All right. Before we go on, reminder, please like the show. We've got 163 live listeners right now, 30 likes. That should be at least 100. I figure at least 100 of you actually like the show. Maybe they're like 60 of the Matthews out there who hate it. But at least the people who like it, you know, I want to see a thumbs up. There you go. Start liking it. I want to see that go to 100. All it takes is a click of a thing, whether you're looking at this. And you know, the likes matter. It's not an issue of my ego. It's an issue of the algorithm. The more you like something, the more the algorithm likes it. So, you know, if you don't like the show, give it a thumbs down. Let's see your actual views being reflected in the likes. But if you like it, don't just sit there, help get the show promoted. Of course, you should also share and you can support the show at your own book show.com slash support on Patreon or subscribe star or locals and show your support for all, for the work, for the value, hopefully you're receiving from this. And of course, don't forget, if you're not a subscriber, even if you even if you just come here to troll, or even if you're here like Matthew to defend Marx, then you should subscribe because that way you'll know when to show up. You'll know what shows are on when they're on, you'll get notified. 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