I would like all of us to think about
one question and in the end of this talk
we’re going to do a small exercise with
that and I would like to think here
about whom would you like to spend your
last day with who are the people you
would like to see on your very last day
on earth now today I’m going to talk
about decisions about making decisions
about making good decisions bad
decisions and about making it easy for
us to take decisions why that last year
I had a very impressive challenging an
amazing year at the same time and I took
quite a few difficult decisions so I
always wanted to become a politician
when I was 16 I joined the Vilnius
liberal Youth Organization they asked me
why I came I said because I believe in
legalization of prostitution marijuana
and gay marriage and I still I still
hold the same views so this is how my
political life started and when I was 18
I left lasagna I went to study to Berlin
and I lived in many different countries
within Europe and outside of Europe as
well and it was very difficult for me to
continue with my political career in the
country in which I actually don’t live
so 10 years later I returned to
Lithuania and I’m living my dream I’m
running to become a member of the
Lithuanian Parliament I was actually I
was actually I actually had my own
constituency was malaria and share
windows and there I started my very
first political campaign and I had to
quit it or I decided to quit it earlier
than the elections took place why
because of a big corruption scandal the
liberal movement had I wasn’t sure
anymore if I really know the people I’m
running with then later that summer I
decided not to divorce my husband our
marriage was at the point
where we thought that we cannot go on
with that and that we will not find a
solution but in the end I asked myself
some questions and I decided not to do
that finally two months later after that
I decided to quit my job I had a very
secure well-paid job I was leading the
office of member of the European
Parliament Antanas quagga two offices
actually one in brazilís one in
Lithuania I could do whatever I want it
was a great job and I decided to leave
it without any idea what I’m going to do
afterwards and all these decisions were
not easy to take and therefore I started
to do some research and to learn what is
is it so difficult about taking
decisions so first of all our day starts
out with a decision probably the first
one we make is right after the alarm
clock rings and we’re like ah County see
five more minutes in bed or do you have
to jump and straight out of it and go to
the shower then we try to decide what
we’re going to wear that day what we’ll
have for breakfast which route are we
going to take to school or to work and
this is how even before we start working
we already took a lot of decisions so
the research shows that generally we
take on average thirty five thousand
decisions every day in comparison to
that a child takes three thousand
decisions the word decide itself shares
a route with the word homicide and the
Latin word for the side means to cut
down or to kill now we see that this is
already entrenched in the word itself
what’s so special about homosapiens
about humans if we compare them to other
animals so first of all we have
unproportional II large brain and for
this unfortunately a large brain we also
need a lot of energy that means
everything that involves brainpower
makes
is very very tired there is a term for
this decision fatigue it was coined by a
famous social psychologist Roy
Baumeister
and I find that this picture / is a
perfect illustration for that it’s a
painting by a famous Lithuanian painter
Sharon Asuka and it kind of shows how I
feel every time when I have to go to a
supermarket to do grocery shopping now
you might find yourself and in this
situation where when you have to decide
what you’re going to do this weekend
many of you are already facing the
decision what you will study after
school will you continue living in
Lithuania will you move somewhere else
maybe you will decide not to study at
all many people feel like that when they
are shopping so what what does decision
fatigue the scientists found out that
the part of our brain that makes
decisions actually works like a muscle
and we all know what happens with our
muscles when they are tired so two weeks
ago I start I started learning climbing
I did my very first climbing lesson I
climbed up the world two times for the
third time I couldn’t hold myself
anymore in the middle of the wall very
embarrassing I fell I mean I didn’t hurt
myself but I just couldn’t go on so when
our muscles are tired we just stop doing
the activity we are doing now it’s not
like that with our brain because our
brain doesn’t signal doesn’t tell us
that that this decision taking muscle
became tired so what we do we actually
do two things one of them is we take bad
decisions we take decisions that are not
based on any rational choice we take
impulsive decisions the other thing we
do we decide not to take any decision at
all right we become we just try to close
ourselves and not to go on with this
decision-making process now I love the
saying the best decision is to postpone
the decision however it’s only true for
very certain cases so normally the
situation gets much worse if a decision
is not taken and even the experts are
affected by this
I have famous experiment conducted in
Israel I took a look at 1001 judgments
over a period of one time and these were
the judgments where a prisoner appears
in front of a judge and asks for parole
and professional judges who are doing
this everyday were either granting them
a parole or not it turned out that if
you appeared before a judge in the
morning there is a 70% chance that you
will get a parole however if you
appeared before a judge in the late
afternoon there was only a 10% chance
why the judges brain like everyone
else’s brain just got tired during the
day and in order to avoid the decision
the judge takes an easier option to
leave the status quo to not change the
situation that way he or she kind of has
less responsibility after that this is
shocking because we believe in experts
we believe in people who are exercising
their professions every day and we think
that during the whole day they can take
decisions based on what they learned and
based on their experience however it
turned out this is not exactly true now
after I did all of this research I would
like to share with you three lessons
three rules that might help you to take
decisions in your life
first of all embrace the routine now we
associate routine with something boring
and in this world where we are all the
time reminded that
have to live an exciting life you’re
full of new experiences we think that
routine is not something we wish to deal
with every day however these two
gentlemen have some routines and they
try to limit the number of decisions
they take every day in in one of the
interviews Obama actually acknowledged
that he is not deciding two days two
things in his day one of them is what he
is going to wear the other one is what
he is going to eat so he’s saving his
energy in order to make decisions on
behalf of the United States United
States when he was the president of the
country now Mark Zuckerberg CEO of a
company that has 1 billion users always
appears wearing this ugly t-shirt why he
wants to save his energy for taking
decisions for a Facebook and we might
think okay it’s easy for guys they
always wear the same thing anyway now
here is Matilde Cal and Matilde Cal is
our director of one of the most famous
New York creating advertising agencies
and she did an experiment she was
wearing the same outfit every day for
three years in a row and this is this
beautiful outfit here so while having a
profession that kind of brings her
together with very creative people who
quite often demonstrate their creativity
through their clothes she was wearing
the same thing every day so have some
routines and save some of your precious
brain muscle for important decisions
rule number two is not to overthink so
one way or faced with a difficult
decision
we think or tend to think the more we
the more time we spend thinking about
alternatives the better the better this
decision will be and we think that we
are
actually involved in this activity
portrayed on on your left and so nicely
showed by a beautiful sculpture the
thinker by Hoda but actually what
happens with our brain is portrayed on
the right it just becomes a huge mess
so obviously before taking an important
decision you have to do your research
you have to go to experts or your
friends and talk about that but set
yourself a time limit there’s nothing in
the world that cannot be decided within
one month and you will probably only
face one or two decisions like that in
your life normally for even very
important decisions three days up to one
week are enough so just tell yourself
okay I’m going to think about this but
when the time comes I’m going to take
the decision and guess what the outcome
of this decision is going to be based on
how much effort you put in order to make
that work so in the end there are not so
many right and wrong decisions it’s just
sticking to the decision you make and
trying to make that work and if that it
doesn’t work then you change it right so
don’t overthink and finally this is the
one of the final scenes from a beautiful
movie melancholia by Lars von Trier the
movies are about the end of the world
and the world actually ends in that
movie and here we see two ladies and a
child sitting there together waiting for
the end of the world to come now when it
comes to a very difficult decision
I can always easily solve it with this
question what if this was the last day
of my life would I still be doing the
job I’m doing if this was the last day
of my life what I still go in your keys
maybe would I still go for us the
subject I chose to study if this was the
last day of my life would I go studying
at all if this was the last day of my
life maybe I would like to remember
myself as a traveler as an explorer as
someone who aspired to become the
greatest
cook in the world or the greatest dancer
or the greatest photographer and was not
following the path someone else told me
to follow and now we all know that we
can only learn when we exercise that
it’s not enough to see the material so I
would like to do a small exercise with
you now I at the beginning of my talk I
asked you to think about the person or a
few persons you would like to spend your
last day with now I would like to take
your you your phone I’m going to take my
phone myself and send the message to
this person and exciting things will
happen afterwards so I’m here on this
stage and then you can just say hey I
just want you to let you know if this
was the last day of my life I would like
to spend you it with you actually the
person I was going to about to text is
calling me right now he probably also
now I have sent my message some of you
might need a bit more time some of you
will not send this message at all so I
just wanted to do a quick survey who
have you have sent a message actually
yeah just just it’s okay yeah yeah okay
we see a few here a few people here so
you will see amazing things will happen
afterwards but besides that I think that
the more the easier you can send this
message to a person you would like to
spend your last day with the easier
you’re going to make the decisions in
your life based on this question and
thank you for being part of this miracle
we created here as sending some good
energy for the rest of the world and I
wish you not to forget these three rules
and I wish you a lot of easy and good
decisions in your life
thank you so much [Applause]
one question and in the end of this talk
we’re going to do a small exercise with
that and I would like to think here
about whom would you like to spend your
last day with who are the people you
would like to see on your very last day
on earth now today I’m going to talk
about decisions about making decisions
about making good decisions bad
decisions and about making it easy for
us to take decisions why that last year
I had a very impressive challenging an
amazing year at the same time and I took
quite a few difficult decisions so I
always wanted to become a politician
when I was 16 I joined the Vilnius
liberal Youth Organization they asked me
why I came I said because I believe in
legalization of prostitution marijuana
and gay marriage and I still I still
hold the same views so this is how my
political life started and when I was 18
I left lasagna I went to study to Berlin
and I lived in many different countries
within Europe and outside of Europe as
well and it was very difficult for me to
continue with my political career in the
country in which I actually don’t live
so 10 years later I returned to
Lithuania and I’m living my dream I’m
running to become a member of the
Lithuanian Parliament I was actually I
was actually I actually had my own
constituency was malaria and share
windows and there I started my very
first political campaign and I had to
quit it or I decided to quit it earlier
than the elections took place why
because of a big corruption scandal the
liberal movement had I wasn’t sure
anymore if I really know the people I’m
running with then later that summer I
decided not to divorce my husband our
marriage was at the point
where we thought that we cannot go on
with that and that we will not find a
solution but in the end I asked myself
some questions and I decided not to do
that finally two months later after that
I decided to quit my job I had a very
secure well-paid job I was leading the
office of member of the European
Parliament Antanas quagga two offices
actually one in brazilís one in
Lithuania I could do whatever I want it
was a great job and I decided to leave
it without any idea what I’m going to do
afterwards and all these decisions were
not easy to take and therefore I started
to do some research and to learn what is
is it so difficult about taking
decisions so first of all our day starts
out with a decision probably the first
one we make is right after the alarm
clock rings and we’re like ah County see
five more minutes in bed or do you have
to jump and straight out of it and go to
the shower then we try to decide what
we’re going to wear that day what we’ll
have for breakfast which route are we
going to take to school or to work and
this is how even before we start working
we already took a lot of decisions so
the research shows that generally we
take on average thirty five thousand
decisions every day in comparison to
that a child takes three thousand
decisions the word decide itself shares
a route with the word homicide and the
Latin word for the side means to cut
down or to kill now we see that this is
already entrenched in the word itself
what’s so special about homosapiens
about humans if we compare them to other
animals so first of all we have
unproportional II large brain and for
this unfortunately a large brain we also
need a lot of energy that means
everything that involves brainpower
makes
is very very tired there is a term for
this decision fatigue it was coined by a
famous social psychologist Roy
Baumeister
and I find that this picture / is a
perfect illustration for that it’s a
painting by a famous Lithuanian painter
Sharon Asuka and it kind of shows how I
feel every time when I have to go to a
supermarket to do grocery shopping now
you might find yourself and in this
situation where when you have to decide
what you’re going to do this weekend
many of you are already facing the
decision what you will study after
school will you continue living in
Lithuania will you move somewhere else
maybe you will decide not to study at
all many people feel like that when they
are shopping so what what does decision
fatigue the scientists found out that
the part of our brain that makes
decisions actually works like a muscle
and we all know what happens with our
muscles when they are tired so two weeks
ago I start I started learning climbing
I did my very first climbing lesson I
climbed up the world two times for the
third time I couldn’t hold myself
anymore in the middle of the wall very
embarrassing I fell I mean I didn’t hurt
myself but I just couldn’t go on so when
our muscles are tired we just stop doing
the activity we are doing now it’s not
like that with our brain because our
brain doesn’t signal doesn’t tell us
that that this decision taking muscle
became tired so what we do we actually
do two things one of them is we take bad
decisions we take decisions that are not
based on any rational choice we take
impulsive decisions the other thing we
do we decide not to take any decision at
all right we become we just try to close
ourselves and not to go on with this
decision-making process now I love the
saying the best decision is to postpone
the decision however it’s only true for
very certain cases so normally the
situation gets much worse if a decision
is not taken and even the experts are
affected by this
I have famous experiment conducted in
Israel I took a look at 1001 judgments
over a period of one time and these were
the judgments where a prisoner appears
in front of a judge and asks for parole
and professional judges who are doing
this everyday were either granting them
a parole or not it turned out that if
you appeared before a judge in the
morning there is a 70% chance that you
will get a parole however if you
appeared before a judge in the late
afternoon there was only a 10% chance
why the judges brain like everyone
else’s brain just got tired during the
day and in order to avoid the decision
the judge takes an easier option to
leave the status quo to not change the
situation that way he or she kind of has
less responsibility after that this is
shocking because we believe in experts
we believe in people who are exercising
their professions every day and we think
that during the whole day they can take
decisions based on what they learned and
based on their experience however it
turned out this is not exactly true now
after I did all of this research I would
like to share with you three lessons
three rules that might help you to take
decisions in your life
first of all embrace the routine now we
associate routine with something boring
and in this world where we are all the
time reminded that
have to live an exciting life you’re
full of new experiences we think that
routine is not something we wish to deal
with every day however these two
gentlemen have some routines and they
try to limit the number of decisions
they take every day in in one of the
interviews Obama actually acknowledged
that he is not deciding two days two
things in his day one of them is what he
is going to wear the other one is what
he is going to eat so he’s saving his
energy in order to make decisions on
behalf of the United States United
States when he was the president of the
country now Mark Zuckerberg CEO of a
company that has 1 billion users always
appears wearing this ugly t-shirt why he
wants to save his energy for taking
decisions for a Facebook and we might
think okay it’s easy for guys they
always wear the same thing anyway now
here is Matilde Cal and Matilde Cal is
our director of one of the most famous
New York creating advertising agencies
and she did an experiment she was
wearing the same outfit every day for
three years in a row and this is this
beautiful outfit here so while having a
profession that kind of brings her
together with very creative people who
quite often demonstrate their creativity
through their clothes she was wearing
the same thing every day so have some
routines and save some of your precious
brain muscle for important decisions
rule number two is not to overthink so
one way or faced with a difficult
decision
we think or tend to think the more we
the more time we spend thinking about
alternatives the better the better this
decision will be and we think that we
are
actually involved in this activity
portrayed on on your left and so nicely
showed by a beautiful sculpture the
thinker by Hoda but actually what
happens with our brain is portrayed on
the right it just becomes a huge mess
so obviously before taking an important
decision you have to do your research
you have to go to experts or your
friends and talk about that but set
yourself a time limit there’s nothing in
the world that cannot be decided within
one month and you will probably only
face one or two decisions like that in
your life normally for even very
important decisions three days up to one
week are enough so just tell yourself
okay I’m going to think about this but
when the time comes I’m going to take
the decision and guess what the outcome
of this decision is going to be based on
how much effort you put in order to make
that work so in the end there are not so
many right and wrong decisions it’s just
sticking to the decision you make and
trying to make that work and if that it
doesn’t work then you change it right so
don’t overthink and finally this is the
one of the final scenes from a beautiful
movie melancholia by Lars von Trier the
movies are about the end of the world
and the world actually ends in that
movie and here we see two ladies and a
child sitting there together waiting for
the end of the world to come now when it
comes to a very difficult decision
I can always easily solve it with this
question what if this was the last day
of my life would I still be doing the
job I’m doing if this was the last day
of my life what I still go in your keys
maybe would I still go for us the
subject I chose to study if this was the
last day of my life would I go studying
at all if this was the last day of my
life maybe I would like to remember
myself as a traveler as an explorer as
someone who aspired to become the
greatest
cook in the world or the greatest dancer
or the greatest photographer and was not
following the path someone else told me
to follow and now we all know that we
can only learn when we exercise that
it’s not enough to see the material so I
would like to do a small exercise with
you now I at the beginning of my talk I
asked you to think about the person or a
few persons you would like to spend your
last day with now I would like to take
your you your phone I’m going to take my
phone myself and send the message to
this person and exciting things will
happen afterwards so I’m here on this
stage and then you can just say hey I
just want you to let you know if this
was the last day of my life I would like
to spend you it with you actually the
person I was going to about to text is
calling me right now he probably also
now I have sent my message some of you
might need a bit more time some of you
will not send this message at all so I
just wanted to do a quick survey who
have you have sent a message actually
yeah just just it’s okay yeah yeah okay
we see a few here a few people here so
you will see amazing things will happen
afterwards but besides that I think that
the more the easier you can send this
message to a person you would like to
spend your last day with the easier
you’re going to make the decisions in
your life based on this question and
thank you for being part of this miracle
we created here as sending some good
energy for the rest of the world and I
wish you not to forget these three rules
and I wish you a lot of easy and good
decisions in your life
thank you so much [Applause]
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