Slaves to our motivations

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We’re slaves to our motivations. We do as they compel us to do although different motivations, or different clusters of motivations, may conflict with others. Ultimately, we go in accordance with the stronger force.

Pete really wants something in a shop, this motivation has a certain force, and if he can afford that something then there’s unlikely to be any significant opposition to him satisfying that motivation. If he doesn’t have the money stealing that something is an option. That's a path to successfully satisfying that motivation given the resources, or lack of, he has. However, he may have moral qualms pushing back against that stealing option and so feel shame/pain if he did so. Then, what if he got caught and family etc found out? Yikes, that loss of respect/status may well also add a significant amount of pain. Then there’s the laws of the land to consider. If he got caught the society will inflict pain upon him in one form or another.

So there’s a cluster of competing motivations pushing back against the stealing option. He weighs them up and decides in favour of the more powerful force. Effectively, albeit depending on how one defines ‘decides’, he doesn’t really decide anything, he’s just automatically acting in line with the equilibrium of motivations that currently exist within him. Our operating system is the same as Petes which, given we're the same species, may not come as any surprise. What decision have you ever made that didn't have a motivation behind it? That our brains may not know the motivation is there, doesn't mean it's not.

Pete does have choice regarding the range of options he believes are available to him. The more knowledgeable he is, and the more flexible he is, the more fruitful his scanning for alternative, viable options will tend to be. We cannot select that which we do not know exists. Yet, the motivation to learn that relevant knowledge, and to become more flexible, must firstly exist and be powerful enough to overcome resisting motivations.

Of course, if he didn’t have the motivation for that thing, or if it was much less powerful, he’d not have to go through this juggling routine at all. There is no lack - pain - if we do not have what we do not want and there’s no pleasure having what we don’t want either.

Almost certainly, we’re the only species, on this planet anyway, that has the intelligence to manage their own motivations thereby being in control of what they’re feeling. Our brain can understand our operating system thus wrestle back the controls of it from the hands of others. Obviously, this firstly requires getting the installed programming out.

The objective of life is to learn to enjoy the passage of time

And learning to prolong that time.

Quote 2025 from Dr Huberman, Professor Neurobiology, Psychiatry and Behavioural science at Stanford medical school. Also host of the excellent 'Huberman Lab' podcast which is the no1 health an fitness podcast on Apple and Spotify and typically in the top ten of all podcasts globally.

It's pretty obvious all we're doing is experiencing and ,yes, we experience our thoughts. All we really have are moments which can be experienced and when it’s over it’s over. Dust to dust. Even if we believe there’s a potential eternal Heaven awaiting us then access to that Heaven is still access to pleasure and avoidance of pain. Heaven is a reality where we lack nothing, thus all our motivations are sated simultaneously. The conflicts, and compromises, we must negotiate here on earth presumably are non existent there. If there is a Heaven and Hell, the nature of it, and how one qualifies for either/or is hotly debated and way above my ability to discern. I have no idea. As of yet, no clues have come to me.

I will say that religious beliefs tend to be very useful in numerous ways, but especially because they give the group values has much more oomph. Those values coming from God, not just concocted by other humans seems to help make religious societies happier and more durable. The, new on the scene, atheist societies seem to easily splinter, turning against themselves, which is what one would expect to happen.

Individuals raised within numerous competing hierarchies of values, thus no strong consistent set, often latch on to ideology, of one form or another. Makes sense given we're wired up to be part of a group and not just any group, but 'the' best and noble group. That feels good and, from the evolutionary perspective, should feel good. Groups that survived the very precarious past weren't more 'right' or 'good' - all groups think they're right and good and they are, as self defined - but the more cohesive, hard to splinter, groups. Those characteristics survived and reproduced and here we are.

Again though, beliefs and values translate into motivations, but they’re obviously subjective and therefore just recipes which we judge by the resulting taste. Ideally, we’re not tasting the labels and meanings the individual ingredients composing the recipe conjures up in us. Not pre-selecting via a rigid, installed template.

Over intellectualisation leads to us consuming the menu

Instead of the actual dish. Allan Watts

If the set menu is fine, then all is good. If not, we need to put it down, decide what we actually want and place our order directly.

Many beliefs and values can be scientifically dubious but still positive and useful. For example; Pete believes his wife is the most amazing woman in the world. Define ‘amazing’, and the chances of her actually being number one out of the billion contenders is very, very slim. But so what? it’s a positive, useful belief for Pete to have in his recipe. Split hairs enough and all of our beliefs are wrong, at least in the sense that model is not complete therefore not completely accurate. Write down ‘who I am’ and how complete and accurate will the resulting bullet points be? Who, or what, has the ability to stamp ‘true’ or ‘false’ on it, and how can we know they know?

Similarly, if Pete is religious and those beliefs add to his quality of life/ happiness then they are also very valuable beliefs and values, thus right for him. Here though, our focus is on this life thingy we’re experiencing at the moment. If it is just an experience we wouldn’t want to teach slaves this.. We want them to want to spend their moments working and being productive.

Imagine a slave coming up to his master in the morning and saying; ‘ Master, I’m not really feeling the work hard vibe today so I’m going to the river for a swim, bit of a sunbath, then going to visit some friends. Like you always say;' this life thing is just many moments and all we can do is enjoy them or not'. Bye, see you tomorrow.. maybe’. Awkward; the harvest is not going to harvest itself. The master might well decide he needs to change the curriculum, at least that which is taught to his slaves.

Of course, groups need to be productive and teach their young to be productive. We all want to thrive and that requires work. Someone has to keep the lights on and the trains running. If our group couldn’t manage that we’d be uncompetitive and soon displaced by those that can manage such things. Sure, but do we live to work or work to live? The issue is some get so heavily programmed from the years of schooling that they actually see themselves as some kind of worker bee and continue being one long after they have enough honey. That’s deep in a rut, it might be a very common rut, but it’s a rut nevertheless.

Even if you win the rat race, you’re still a rat.

We’re all ‘rats’ in that we’re also scurrying through the environment seeking to satisfy our motivations. The distinction we’re trying to make here is between happy rats, and unhappy rats, and to show we can decide which category we’re destined for by gaining control over what is relevant; what we’re feeling.

Given the motivations currently active in Pete, and the balance of power between them, he’s seeking a, d,h, t, v and z. Those motivations will exist in some kind of hierarchy - some stronger than others, some aligned with others - but he’s got his shopping list in hand and scurries through the environment seeking to satisfy them. He chooses his path from those he’s aware is available and according to his beliefs regarding how fruitful they will be in the short term, intermediate term, and long term. He’s aware he’ll also experience future moments so it’s not all about instant gratification.

His motivations, and his options, are obviously heavily influenced by the beliefs and values already installed - they themselves are motivations.

Typically, we just try and hunt down from the environment that which we want. He wants d,h,t,v, and z so prepares and hunts for d,h,t,v and z. Leaving aside the length of his shopping list, how many of them are his innate motivations, and contradictions between his motivations, his task is simply to build a reality that has the bulk of what he enjoys, and little of what he doesn’t enjoy, as he currently experiences that to be.

Yet, aside from just trying to shape reality to fit his motivations there’s another ‘lever’ he can pull. He can also change his motivations to better get that delightful match.

If he changes his motivations to d,h,and k, what he’s now seeking has changed. T and V are now irrelevant and if a d,h and k abundant reality is more readily accessible/ buildable a high level of happiness is more readily accessible.

Don’t move the mountain

Move yourself.

Our ability to move the mountain/reality is limited. The reason we don’t like the mountain is because our motivations don’t like it thus they’re currently pouring ugly flavours into our cocktail. Ok, we can change our reality, to some degree, limiting that pollution, but we can also change our motivations thereby changing how we’re experiencing that exact same reality. We can adjust column A, but also column B. We can mix and match, and when we can do this we’ve got our own controls in our own hands.

But, if we identify with d,h,t,v and z, if we deem them us and are invested in them, then that recipe, that shopping list is frozen solid. Then we are indeed limited to moving the mountain so it becomes how we want it to be. Good luck with that strategy.

Logically, it would seem we should run a comb through our motivations before we pick up a shovel and start adjusting that mountain.