Osthanes Talks About Philosophy and Nietzsche

Why Philosophy

All life attempts to maintain homeostasis
The more complex the life, the more complex the homeostasis that has to be maintained
People are extraordinarily complex creatures and they have to maintain an extremely complex homeostasis
In order to maintain homeostasis, there needs to be a balance between two approaches:
- Exploit existing resources
- Find new resources
Philosophy is about deciding how and when to go to new places vs. continue to exploit existing resources

Nietzsche thought that society had over-optimized towards preserving value rather than seeking out new value
Nietzsche wanted to encourage people to explore on their own
He wanted more people to "go out into the wilderness" and find new sources of value for themselves and society
Nietzsche recognized that ancient society had valorized people who went out and "heroically" found value
Modern society no longer did this - people valued serving and optimizing existing sources of value
Nietzsche felt like the pendulum had swung too far in the direction of stability and wanted to push people to explore in all dimensions
Moreover, this tendency made society weaker - when people are not able to "explore", the society that they're in can't handle shocks and unexpected events
Society is forgetting how to explore - people don't remember how much preparation is required to go out into the wilds

Local maxima exist at all levels, including at the level of everyday life
You should look at your own life and think about how your activities are working for you
Think about how you're gaining value from how you relate to other people
Think about whether moving to a different way of relating to people is a worthwhile risk, in order to gain a better local optimum
It's impossible to get a better global optimum by iteratively improving on a local maximum
In order for society to progress, we need people who are willing to go out and explore
But exploration requires preparation - you can't just decide to abandon your stable source of value on a whim
Prepare both mentally and materially
- You need to have the knowledge of the limits of your field
- You need to have the material resources to take time and resources to go and explore a new field