Lawyer and philosopher Ruth Chang explains to her listeners how to make hard choices. People often consider alternatives to be difficult because sometimes they do not believe that one is actually better than the other (if there are two alternatives). The first thing that the talk teaches people is that many of us simply take the easy option when faced with hard choices, as we think that there is less to do when we do make that choice. The second major insight that she reveals is that our reasoning is often based on the fact that we look at our values (such as happiness, security, and other values) on the same level as the scientific values (such as mass, length, width and other numerical values. Thus we see two choices as being either better than, inferior to, or equal to the other choice. Finally, she emphasizes this new framework of thinking: that alternatives should be at par with one another. When one is able to look at the alternatives as being at par with one another, we no longer listen to the reasons offered by others, but rather, we listen to our own thinking and to our own reasoning. She asks us to look at what we stand for, and who we are, in order to make that hard choice.
These lessons are important for career choices in life because in making the hard decisions, we often give way to the temptation to listen to the experiences of others and what advise they would normally provide. Hard choices are reasons for the individual to celebrate his own identity and what he stands for. The power is actually within us to make these hard choices based on our own beliefs and identities. This is very important in the selection of one’s life career. What does one stand for? What causes does one want to celebrate? By changing one’s thinking about hard choices, there actually will be no hard choices at all.
Works Cited
TED Talks. How to Make Hard Choices. 2014. Accessed from: https://www.ted.com/talks/ruth_chang_how_to_make_hard_choices?language=en#t-843939
