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Think of a hard choice
you'll face in the near future.

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It might be between two careers --

3
00:00:06,236 --> 00:00:07,683
artist and accountant --

4
00:00:08,286 --> 00:00:10,734
or places to live --
the city or the country --

5
00:00:11,123 --> 00:00:12,997
or even between two people to marry --

6
00:00:13,021 --> 00:00:15,969
you could marry Betty
or you could marry Lolita.

7
00:00:16,572 --> 00:00:19,565
Or it might be a choice
about whether to have children,

8
00:00:19,589 --> 00:00:21,936
to have an ailing parent move in with you,

9
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to raise your child in a religion
that your partner lives by

10
00:00:25,201 --> 00:00:26,593
but leaves you cold.

11
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Or whether to donate
your life savings to charity.

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Chances are, the hard choice
you thought of was something big,

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something momentous,
something that matters to you.

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Hard choices seem to be occasions

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for agonizing, hand-wringing,
the gnashing of teeth.

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But I think we've
misunderstood hard choices

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and the role they play in our lives.

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Understanding hard choices

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uncovers a hidden power
each of us possesses.

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What makes a choice hard
is the way the alternatives relate.

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In any easy choice,

22
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one alternative is better than the other.

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In a hard choice,

24
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one alternative is better in some ways,

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the other alternative
is better in other ways,

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and neither is better
than the other overall.

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You agonize over whether to stay
in your current job in the city

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or uproot your life
for more challenging work in the country,

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because staying is better in some ways,

30
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moving is better in others,

31
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and neither is better
than the other overall.

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We shouldn't think
that all hard choices are big.

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Let's say you're deciding
what to have for breakfast.

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You could have high fiber bran cereal

35
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or a chocolate donut.

36
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Suppose what matters in the choice
is tastiness and healthfulness.

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The cereal is better for you,

38
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the donut tastes way better,

39
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but neither is better
than the other overall,

40
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a hard choice.

41
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Realizing that small choices
can also be hard,

42
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may make big hard choices
seem less intractable.

43
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After all, we manage to figure out
what to have for breakfast,

44
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so maybe we can figure out
whether to stay in the city

45
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or uproot for the new job in the country.

46
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We also shouldn't think
that hard choices are hard

47
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because we are stupid.

48
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When I graduated from college,

49
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I couldn't decide between two careers,
philosophy and law.

50
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I really loved philosophy.

51
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There are amazing things
you can learn as a philosopher,

52
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and all from the comfort of an armchair.

53
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But I came from a modest immigrant family

54
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where my idea of luxury

55
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was having a pork tongue
and jelly sandwich

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in my school lunchbox,

57
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so the thought of spending my whole life

58
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sitting around in armchairs
just thinking ...

59
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Well, that struck me as the height
of extravagance and frivolity.

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So I got out my yellow pad,

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I drew a line down the middle,

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and I tried my best
to think of the reasons

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for and against each alternative.

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I remember thinking to myself,

65
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if only I knew what my life
in each career would be like.

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If only God or Netflix would send me a DVD
of my two possible future careers,

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I'd be set.

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I'd compare them side by side,

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I'd see that one was better,

70
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and the choice would be easy.

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But I got no DVD,

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and because I couldn't
figure out which was better,

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I did what many of us do in hard choices:

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I took the safest option.

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Fear of being an unemployed philosopher
led me to become a lawyer,

76
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and as I discovered,
lawyering didn't quite fit.

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It wasn't who I was.

78
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So now I'm a philosopher,

79
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and I study hard choices,

80
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and I can tell you,
that fear of the unknown,

81
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while a common motivational default
in dealing with hard choices,

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rests on a misconception of them.

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It's a mistake to think
that in hard choices,

84
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one alternative
really is better than the other,

85
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but we're too stupid to know which,

86
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and since we don't know which,

87
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we might as well take
the least risky option.

88
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Even taking two alternatives side by side

89
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with full information,
a choice can still be hard.

90
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Hard choices are hard
not because of us or our ignorance;

91
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they're hard because there
is no best option.

92
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Now, if there's no best option,

93
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if the scales don't tip in favor
of one alternative over another,

94
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then surely the alternatives
must be equally good.

95
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So maybe the right thing
to say in hard choices

96
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is that they're
between equally good options.

97
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But that can't be right.

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If alternatives are equally good,
you should just flip a coin between them,

99
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and it seems a mistake to think,

100
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here's how you should
decide between careers,

101
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places to live, people to marry:

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Flip a coin.

103
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There's another reason for thinking

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that hard choices aren't choices
between equally good options.

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Suppose you have a choice
between two jobs:

106
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you could be an investment banker

107
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or a graphic artist.

108
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There are a variety of things
that matter in such a choice,

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like the excitement of the work,

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achieving financial security,

111
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having time to raise a family, and so on.

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Maybe the artist's career
puts you on the cutting edge

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of new forms of pictorial expression.

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Maybe the banking career
puts you on the cutting edge

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of new forms of financial manipulation.

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(Laughter)

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Imagine the two jobs however you like,

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so that neither is better than the other.

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Now suppose we improve one of them, a bit.

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Suppose the bank, wooing you,

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adds 500 dollars a month to your salary.

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Does the extra money

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now make the banking job
better than the artist one?

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Not necessarily.

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A higher salary makes the banking job
better than it was before,

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but it might not be enough

127
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to make being a banker
better than being an artist.

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But if an improvement in one of the jobs
doesn't make it better than the other,

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then the two original jobs
could not have been equally good.

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If you start with two things
that are equally good,

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and you improve one of them,

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it now must be better than the other.

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That's not the case
with options in hard choices.

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So now we've got a puzzle.

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We've got two jobs.

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Neither is better than the other,
nor are they equally good.

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So how are we supposed to choose?

138
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Something seems to have gone wrong here.

139
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Maybe the choice itself is problematic,
and comparison is impossible.

140
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But that can't be right.

141
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It's not like we're trying to choose
between two things that can't be compared.

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We're weighing the merits
of two jobs, after all,

143
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not the merits of the number nine
and a plate of fried eggs.

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A comparison of the overall
merits of two jobs

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is something we can make,

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and one we often do make.

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I think the puzzle arises

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because of an unreflective assumption
we make about value.

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We unwittingly assume that values
like justice, beauty, kindness,

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are akin to scientific quantities,
like length, mass and weight.

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Take any comparative question
not involving value,

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such as which of two suitcases is heavier.

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There are only three possibilities.

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The weight of one is greater, lesser
or equal to the weight of the other.

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Properties like weight can be
represented by real numbers --

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one, two, three and so on --

157
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and there are only
three possible comparisons

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between any two real numbers.

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One number is greater, lesser,
or equal to the other.

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Not so with values.

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As post-Enlightenment creatures,

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we tend to assume

163
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that scientific thinking holds the key
to everything of importance in our world,

164
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but the world of value
is different from the world of science.

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The stuff of the one world
can be quantified by real numbers.

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The stuff of the other world can't.

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We shouldn't assume that the world of is,
of lengths and weights,

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has the same structure
as the world of ought,

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of what we should do.

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So if what matters to us --

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a child's delight, the love
you have for your partner —

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can't be represented by real numbers,

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then there's no reason to believe

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that in choice, there are only
three possibilities --

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that one alternative is better,
worse or equal to the other.

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We need to introduce
a new, fourth relation

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beyond being better, worse or equal,

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that describes what's going on
in hard choices.

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I like to say that
the alternatives are "on a par."

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When alternatives are on a par,

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it may matter very much which you choose,

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but one alternative
isn't better than the other.

183
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Rather, the alternatives are
in the same neighborhood of value,

184
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in the same league of value,

185
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while at the same time
being very different in kind of value.

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That's why the choice is hard.

187
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Understanding hard choices in this way

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uncovers something
about ourselves we didn't know.

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Each of us has the power
to create reasons.

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Imagine a world
in which every choice you face

191
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is an easy choice,

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that is, there's always
a best alternative.

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If there's a best alternative,
then that's the one you should choose,

194
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because part of being rational

195
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is doing the better thing
rather than the worse thing,

196
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choosing what you have
most reason to choose.

197
00:10:08,567 --> 00:10:10,273
In such a world,

198
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we'd have most reason

199
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to wear black socks instead of pink socks,

200
00:10:15,193 --> 00:10:17,129
to eat cereal instead of donuts,

201
00:10:17,153 --> 00:10:19,207
to live in the city
rather than the country,

202
00:10:19,231 --> 00:10:21,102
to marry Betty instead of Lolita.

203
00:10:21,126 --> 00:10:26,653
A world full of only easy choices
would enslave us to reasons.

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When you think about it,

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(Laughter)

206
00:10:30,504 --> 00:10:35,507
it's nuts to believe
that the reasons given to you

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dictated that you had
most reason to pursue

208
00:10:41,006 --> 00:10:42,904
the exact hobbies you do,

209
00:10:43,952 --> 00:10:46,149
to live in the exact house you do,

210
00:10:46,173 --> 00:10:48,074
to work at the exact job you do.

211
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Instead, you faced alternatives
that were on a par --

212
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hard choices --

213
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and you made reasons for yourself

214
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to choose that hobby,
that house and that job.

215
00:11:03,004 --> 00:11:05,237
When alternatives are on a par,

216
00:11:05,261 --> 00:11:06,789
the reasons given to us,

217
00:11:06,813 --> 00:11:09,769
the ones that determine
whether we're making a mistake,

218
00:11:09,793 --> 00:11:12,084
are silent as to what to do.

219
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It's here, in the space of hard choices,

220
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that we get to exercise
our normative power --

221
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the power to create reasons for yourself,

222
00:11:23,816 --> 00:11:28,202
to make yourself into the kind of person

223
00:11:28,226 --> 00:11:32,130
for whom country living
is preferable to the urban life.

224
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When we choose between options
that are on a par,

225
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we can do something
really rather remarkable.

226
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We can put our very selves
behind an option.

227
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Here's where I stand.

228
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Here's who I am, I am for banking.

229
00:11:50,132 --> 00:11:52,267
I am for chocolate donuts.

230
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(Laughter)

231
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This response in hard choices
is a rational response,

232
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but it's not dictated
by reasons given to us.

233
00:12:01,421 --> 00:12:05,854
Rather, it's supported
by reasons created by us.

234
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When we create reasons for ourselves

235
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to become this kind
of person rather than that,

236
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we wholeheartedly become
the people that we are.

237
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You might say that we become
the authors of our own lives.

238
00:12:23,047 --> 00:12:27,644
So when we face hard choices,
we shouldn't beat our head against a wall

239
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trying to figure out
which alternative is better.

240
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There is no best alternative.

241
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Instead of looking for reasons out there,

242
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we should be looking for reasons in here:

243
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Who am I to be?

244
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You might decide to be
a pink sock-wearing,

245
00:12:43,744 --> 00:12:47,633
cereal-loving, country-living banker,

246
00:12:47,657 --> 00:12:50,849
and I might decide to be
a black sock-wearing,

247
00:12:50,873 --> 00:12:52,917
urban, donut-loving artist.

248
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What we do in hard choices
is very much up to each of us.

249
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Now, people who don't exercise
their normative powers in hard choices

250
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are drifters.

251
00:13:07,513 --> 00:13:09,101
We all know people like that.

252
00:13:09,125 --> 00:13:11,421
I drifted into being a lawyer.

253
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I didn't put my agency behind lawyering.

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I wasn't for lawyering.

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Drifters allow the world
to write the story of their lives.

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They let mechanisms
of reward and punishment --

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pats on the head, fear,
the easiness of an option --

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to determine what they do.

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So the lesson of hard choices:

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reflect on what you can
put your agency behind,

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on what you can be for,

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and through hard choices,

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become that person.

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Far from being sources of agony and dread,

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hard choices are precious opportunities

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for us to celebrate what is special
about the human condition,

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that the reasons that govern
our choices as correct or incorrect

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sometimes run out,

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and it is here, in the space
of hard choices,

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that we have the power
to create reasons for ourselves

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to become the distinctive
people that we are.

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And that's why hard
choices are not a curse

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but a godsend.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)