2022. I couldn’t figure out why I was burned out from everything. “Why are my emotions so irrational?”
Socializing was failing, women I liked weren’t responding, and setting boundaries was somehow creating even more conflict. Taking actions had risks!
I thought my bottleneck was burnout. It was actually a solution to another bottleneck.
If taking actions is risky, then one way to avoid downside is to… avoid actions.
Once the feelings that made interaction feel risky got unlearned, I haven’t needed the burnout since.
A different way of understanding suffering
Any longstanding bottleneck can be understood from two different POVs:
Classical view: Past experiences ‘caused’ the present state: “My burnout is a consequence of previous bad experiences or trauma, so I don’t have control over it now.”
Locally Optimal view: My current state is being incentivized by what my nervous system is presently acting to avoid. Burnout is a strategy.
In the classical view, you survey backwards: past events caused the present bottleneck, and the past can’t be changed… so rest in pieces I guess.
In the locally optimal view, you survey forward: your present state is being shaped by the futures you want to avoid and the futures you want to achieve.1
The locally optimal view is a hopeful view: your suffering is functional.
My burnout sucked—it was not globally optimal. Even so, it appears to have been the best strategy available at the time — Locally optimal!
So, “why were my emotions so irrational?” Well…
Locally Optimal
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It’s like the efficient market hypothesis, but for lifelong bottlenecks: “If there were zero downsides to improving this, then why hasn’t that happened already?”
Adler?
Very cool insight. I came up with a similar idea after I had worked in psychiatry for some years. I think that's exactly what happens to many people that are stuck in depression, anxiety, addiction etc. ...and you are right, realizing that is not just a comforting explanation (like the classical explanation is, at least in the beginning) but brings hopefulness with it, too. Finding the new way of seeing, thinking, and doing can be quite a challenge, though.