Jelly Burger

According to an article I read recently, human beings don't do very well at making big, complicated decisions. It was a while ago, but I think the article mentioned picking a college and choosing a mate as examples, and I assume my careerist ponderings would fit the bill.

The point, as I understood it, was that the rational parts of our brains, all too often ignored in any case, are limited in their processing power. Decisions with too many factors just overwhelm them. So, all of those things that go into a college "fit," like location and prestige and cost and whatever else... apparently our brains can only process a handful of those at any one time.

So we can either make the decision rationally but ignoring the vast majority of the factors. Or we can make it based on intuition, and use our rational parts to justify that decision after the fact. The second one is obviously way more fun and also way more popular. But actually, we don't necessarily notice that we've shut down the rational process.

So once you read this article, you have to ask yourself what the heck you're thinking, trying to design a rational process for making a decision about what to do with your working life. It's not like designing a training program so you can run a marathon... apparently it's more like designing a training program so you can run to the moon.

Anyway, I've been asking everyone for their thoughts on the topic of "people who make a difference / make the world a better place / whatever," and I might as well ask you, too, Dear Internet. What job or career plan would you recommend to someone who, for the sake of discussion, is only concerned with making the most positive difference possible?

Now that we've got all that out of the way, it's time for the real point of the post:



The Purple Cow


I never saw a PURPLE COW,
I never HOPE to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather SEE than BE one!



The Purple Cow: Suite


Ah, yes, I wrote the "Purple Cow"--
I'm Sorry, now, I wrote it;
But I can tell you Anyhow
I'll Kill you if you Quote it!


Gelett Burgess
(1866-1951)