Choice - The Art of Doing Everything While Doing Nothing by Brian

Choice - The Art of Doing Everything While Doing Nothing by Brian - August 2017 Scholarship Essay

It is often the case that the most interesting classes are not the ones related to our major, but the ones so off the beaten path, that they leave you fixated on a single question hours after class ends. What better class than one that focuses on the art of deciding? Think back to your childhood for a second: every one of us has experienced a time when our parent's asked, "why did you do that?". This isn't a fascinating question, but what went through our minds at that time directly prior to chooses an action is a topic of unlimited discussion. Few, if any, could truly answer that question in a way your parents would understand. Yet, here we are, making decisions every day and weighing our options as we make them.

In our everyday lives, choice dictates every decision that we make. From opening our eyes in the morning to getting dresses to eating food to sleeping, all of our actions are dictated by choice. How our brain processes choices, rationalizes the best approach, and ultimately decides on an action is a part of choice. For scientists, the choice is regulated by our neuro-synapses firing. This definition, although comical to some is but one of the many approaches to viewing the topic of choice. Choice is the art of thinking, the art of decision, and the art of rationalizing.

In our everyday lives, we are asked to make constant choices. Indecision is perhaps the most fascinating of all choices as it is inability of our brain to reach a conclusion. Most people in fact would rather have someone else make a choice for them than do it themselves. The easiest way to understand this is that they are deferring to an authority they consider to have better mental capabilities to tackle the problem at hand. This too is a choice. Indecision tell us not that we are incapable of choice, but that our brain has reviewed all the available information and is unable to come to a conclusion. There is nothing wrong with indecision. Our current society is simply an accumulation of choices of our ancestors. Choice is perhaps the most interesting topic to me because it directly applicable to every subject in college. The US Constitution, the bill of rights, scientific research, philosophy, medicine, and sports all deal with the topic of choice without anyone every giving it credit.

One might ask: Fundamentally, what exactly does a professor of choice teach? The simply answer: confidence that you are part of your own decision making process. Consider this for a second: someone gives you the option to eat chocolate ice-cream or chocolate cake. He presents the two options in front of you and you are left to make a choice. In the nano-seconds it takes our computer like brain to process two choices, rationalize them, make a decision, and then act, nothing has happened outwardly. That is to say, the person giving you a choice cannot see any profound difference between the "you" prior to the question and the "you" after the question; to him, you were just thinking. However, for you something momentous has occurred. Regardless of the choice (or lack of choice) you have made, your brain has just processed the visual cues of the choice, the cost-benefit ratio of each choice, the drawbacks, and gone through a slew of other comparison. You are therefore a completely different person now that you have made a choice. You have done everything necessary to be content while eating either cake or ice-cream. In this way, you have done everything while doing nothing.

This topic is so interesting because one could easily see how choice and the ability to choose has influenced all of our life decisions. For instance, I made the choice to write an essay today rather than mow our family lawn. This choice may have repercussions, but I'll be happy if it turns into a scholarship. I would love to teach this class if I were a college professor.