Why the same people always win
Here's why those who know this town-square reality (and do what's good for themselves) always triumph
Do you remember the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes?
“Listen to the voice of the child!” exclaimed his father. What the child had said was whispered from one to another. “But he has nothing at all on!” at last cried out all the people. The Emperor was upset, for he knew that the people were right. However, he thought the procession must go on now! The lords of the bedchamber took greater pains than ever, to appear holding up a train, although, in reality, there was no train to hold, and the Emperor walked on in his underwear.”
-Hans Christian Andersen, 1837.
I don’t think the Emperor is alone in this.
I was at a coffee shop the other day and got to talking with the barista. He was in his early 30s. He started to share about how it takes him 40-minutes to get out of bed. It went something like this.
Barista: I know I should just get up. But I can’t help it. Same thing with eating healthy. I’m OK with certain things. But certain other things, just … No way.
Thalia: Yeah, I get it. You mean like working out, and all that?
Barista: Exactly. Don’t know. Why is it so hard to do stuff that’s good for you?
He had a point.
Why is it harder to do things we know are good for us? Much harder than caving in. Junk food. Procrastination. Not sleeping. Or in the Emperor’s case, preferring to be schmoozed than to hear the blunt truth.
The odd thing is, we know that they’re awful. But we still let them encrust our decisions.
It’s almost like,
Choice is the battlefield between better and worse versions of ourselves.
Mapping our Brain Town Square: Deconstructing the choices we make
For me, this becomes really obvious when I’m in a physical space. Like a food hall. Especially when everything looks good, and yet you know you can only inhale so much.
Maybe this is the reason why “dinner buffets” were invented.
Or as Jerry Seinfeld puts it, dinner buffet is where I’d …
“build these death row, last meal wish list … It’s like a working model of all … emotional issues and personal needs.”
Jerry’s right, though.
It’s easy to say that making choices is as simple as looking at an A to Z menu.
It’s not.
Because our senses are inputting things simultaneously. In noisy disorder. And it’s really up to us how exactly it’ll be sorted in our head.
Same thing when I’m in public squares, too. A good town square has everything.
In places like these, we could just get lost in the back alleys. Which can actually be fun.
Try picking which corner of these Alexandria City Hall you’d rather curl up to.
Food. History. Entertainment. Civic duty. Leisure. Public use. Activity. Education. Farmer’s Market. Glutton. Pandemonium. The list goes on.
Oddly, when we’re presented with all these at the same time, you’ll notice something. We start to self-sort. Based on our reaction to the chaos. Usually into different categories of people.
Of course, we can talk about a range of reasons that also made self-sorting happen. And I’m not saying they don’t affect our choices. But essentially,
We are constantly creating Brain Town Square in our minds. A battlefield map where our choices can be layered into both the concrete and the visual.
Let’s first take a look at the main categories of what we can turn into, when we’re faced with all our choices.
4 types of people and the choices they make
Category 1: The Future-self Culinarian
These are the street performers, musicians, and artists whose rock-hard body and sun-kissed faces I often envy. I never had their rock-hard body. But something about them reminds me that wisdom can be both savage and soft.
Category 2: The Active Trader
These are the tireless folks who walk into any place looking and smelling soapy good. And deservedly strive to remain that way. Especially since they rain hard-earned money on hungry vendors.
Category 3: The Odyssey Evangelist
These are the experience hunter-gatherers, whose photographs of any town squares they travel to, will paint epic tales that bring out our dormant seaworthiness. And yes, even prompting us to eat a salad, make friends with our alarm clock, and rip through our to-do list like we own them.
Category 4: The Mental Landscapist
These are those beautiful souls who know exactly when to slow down, take their time, and just sit on the bench for hours.
As if life and death are old friends.
If anyone knows how to make this our default mode, get with me. I’ll be your best friend.
If you have to pick, though, which one do you think you’re most like?
I’d probably be a toss-up between the Mental Landscapist and the Odyssey Evangelist.
Looking deeper though, I probably have been all four at different points of my life.
How could you not be?
And perhaps that’s the blunt beauty of the Brain Town Square—the internal battlefield where our choices are made.
We can be and do all of them. Just not all at the same time. The trouble is when we expect all our choices to line up neatly in front of our eyes. Brick and mortar and all. Side by side. Like a panoramic view of an idealized Town Square.
Perhaps this is why the same people keep winning in life.
Not that winning should be the only and ultimate goal.
The Index Panorama: Why the same people always win
Those who keep winning, seem to know what’s good for them. And they understand that it comes down to what I call mastery of the Index Panorama.
It’s about the discipline of indexing through the full panorama of our choices.
And then making choices, before they are made for us—enveloping us. Sealing us shut.
I used to think that the tale of the Three Wise Monkeys was a bed-time story meant to shut children’s mouths.
If you’re unfamiliar with this story, here’s a quick summary.
“Small statuettes of three monkeys, one covering his eyes, another his ears, and another his mouth, have been popular in Britain since (probably) the 1900s; they are known to have been carried as lucky charms by soldiers in the First World War. They are identified with a proverbial saying, ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’, first recorded in 1926 … The Wise Monkeys originated in Japan, where they have been known since the 16th century.”
Wolfgang Mieder, Tradition and Innovation in Folk Literature (1987), 157–77; A. W. Smith, Folklore 104 (1993), 144–50.
But I was wrong. This story is not much about turning away from the call to stand up and face reality.
It’s about the monkeys facing their Brain Town Square, and going through their current Index Panorama.
They were choosing what to say, listen to, pay attention to, and by extension, what NOT to pay attention to—BEFORE they’re forced upon. And doing them at the times of their choosing.
I think this is great. Because it means that we’re in much more control of our outcomes than we originally expect.
But all we need now, is to enjoy the fun of indexing through the panorama of choices in front of us. How?
I’ll dive into this some more next few weeks. As the great Eleanor Roosevelt once said,
“In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.”
Next week: Upcoming
Next week, I’ll be covering our gladiatorial affair with the checklist system.
And what (not) to do with all our to-do lists.
Can’t wait to share it with you.
-Thalia
PS: Just a heads up that next week’s post will be available for paid-subscribers. If you want access to it, you can upgrade your subscription option.