About a year ago, I decided to take an AP Economics class. At first, I just took it for the sake of having another AP class. But as the school year went on, I found myself enjoying the class more and more. Fast forward to present day, and I have started my college career with the intention of majoring in economics. It wasn’t until recently, though, that I realized why I loved it so much.
Economics, in very crude terms, is essentially the study of perfectly rational human beings and the actions that they take based on the notion that they are, indeed, perfectly rational. In part due to how I was raised, and partially because of my personality, I have always tried to live my life through rational principles and thinking. Naturally, then, economics is a field of study that makes a great deal of sense to me.
Living a life strictly based on rational principles is not something I would recommend for anyone. In fact, I try to make it a point to forget the rationality from time to time. Having said this—rational thought should not overcrowd our lives, but in my opinion, it needs to start holding a greater presence.
Being an economics major, I feel like I am constantly frustrated when I see people making incredibly irrational decisions. Many people will read this and call me cynical, but I strongly believe in the benefits of rational thinking. To put these benefits into perspective, I’ll go over some examples that I have encountered during my short 2 weeks in college.
Every weekday night, I pass the same group of people sitting in the common room. Laptops out, and apparently studying, the same six people crowd around a table and discuss various topics.
At first glance, it could very well seem like these people are simply studying together as a group. Perhaps they are working on a group project, or working through a tough set of problems. I would probably believe any of these theories, but I can’t help but notice that every time I walk past this same group of people, all I can hear are discussions about their days and other people.
To me, this doesn’t make any sense. Don’t get me wrong—I understand the value and necessity of socializing with others, ESPECIALLY during college. I understand that it is an exciting time, and everyone is just now beginning to form connections with their peers. But what I don’t understand, and what I’ll NEVER understand, is why these students consistently sit down to do work together and end up socializing instead. Indeed, it would probably take these individual students much less time to complete their work if they did it alone instead. And afterwards, they could focus on strictly socializing.
It seems like irrational decisions like these are made every day. A poor decision is made when a student decides to procrastinate on a very important assignment. Poor decisions are made when people choose to throw punches and get into fights. Poor choices are rampant.
To clarify—I did not write this to shame people for socializing, and I did not write this to put myself on a pedestal. I wrote this to remind others that an easier life is one mostly based on rational decisions. Granted, an easy life can quickly turn into a miserable one if we don’t take time to relax and embrace irrational thinking. But ultimately, rational thinking can help us be proactive and successful human beings.
