How Complacency is Killing Your Life And What You Can Do About It

The Monkey Argument

TLDR;

We have been programmed evolutionarily to be both lazy and greedy.While it is not straight away mutually exclusive, it can create some really conflicting objectives in our life. In this society, the means and behaviour that satisfy our greed the most just so happens also to be the one that requires us to be lazy the least. This means that while our greed and ambition drove us toward productivity, our laziness and complacency tries slow us down. Our laziness tells us that things are simply normal, ordinary and we should thus accept. Our greed tells us otherwise; we should make, break and change. While evolution had given us this fine dilemma to solve, it had also given us no shortage of tool to use. I think the most important and crucial of which lies below this thick layers of anthropomorphic thinking, inside our monkey mind…

Here’s the full thought experiment:

The monkey was woken up by that damned 7:00AM alarm clock again. He sluggishly pulled himself out of his linen bedsheet, it was full of pain and agony. If it was up to him, he would have stayed in for another couple hours. But he can’t. He had to get up to work in the banana machine factories so he can earn leafy green papers which he can then buy some bananas with. Nothing outrageous, he’s been taught that this his duty as a productive member of the society. Everything seems normal, perhaps quite a bit too normal.

The monkey left his dwelling onto streets with thousands of other monkeys just like him, all busy getting along their life. Or as you would observe, all busy as a tiny cog in one big turning wheel. They have all been through this process, when little monkeys is sent into a big building, where knowledge required for a tiny minute task is laid and piled and smacked into their brain. This comes along with another little perk called “Ordinality”. “Ordinality” tells the little monkey what is normal and what is not.

On the way to work, the monkey saw another monkey selling bananas on the street. But instead of just selling the entire banana, she would cut off both end of the banana, leaving only the tiny bit in the centre. She would then pack that preposterously small piece of banana left into a tiny delicate bag, which is handed to her customers. They are all happy to pay sky high price — so much leafy green papers that it takes them many days to earn— for this tiny piece of banana delicacy. Where does the rest of the banana go? Well, just leave them on the street to rot, who would ever care about that? Everything ordinary, everything normal.

Entering the little factory where he works, our monkey headed straight for his desk. He doesn’t quite like talking to other monkeys, especially not that one that had the darker hair on his back. He thought him as unintelligent and dangerous, despite him being consistently the best performing worker in the factory for years. God forbade he’s just a “cheeky bastard” that cuts corner, thought the monkey, just like everyone around him. It's all normal, just within the ordinary.

After a while, just before its middle day snack time, the monkey beside him stood up to get her stretch. But instead of standing, she fell to the ground, with her limps shaking and her lips shivering. Ah its that disease again. Yet another victim. The monkey didn’t hurry to help her, neither did his colleagues. There is no cure developed by the towns magician for this disease. Anyone who gets it dies. The monkey didn’t want to prolong her misery. After all, its all natural right? Its all within the ordinary; we get sick and die, normal and natural. Right?

“Wrong! Thats BS!” You exclaimed emerging from the void of nothingness where you had been observing this all.

Why not?

You had seen all this from the side. The weird fetish to delicate excessive package, the stupid ranking system basing on the colour of hack hair and the stoicism toward suffering, especially when its others. “This world is sick” you thought to yourself “Its bloody insane!”.

But the monkey doesn’t think so. He accept the world as it is, he think it is normal, HE’S COMPLACENT.

What can you do?

So, how do you convince the monkey that he shouldn’t simply accept things as it is? How do you convince him to change the world to something you see as better? Yelling in his face? Well that won’t work. The monkey is stubborn, averse to change. He likes living in confort. He’s going to choose the simple banana in, banana out lifestyle over the labour needed for changes in the world any days of the week. So what should you do?

Well it is simple. Brutally simple. You got to speak the language of the monkey. The monkeys language is not reason, it is sensation, it is emotion. As you said it, the monkey likes comfort and hates hard work. He hates delayed gratification. He wants it now. Then give him the gratification now.

“But isn’t that exactly what we are trying to avoid?” You questioned. Yes, but not quite. Remember, the monkey not only likes comfort, but many other things. He likes praises, he like the feeling of accomplishment, he likes fun, and most of all, he would always love a good banana. You can definitely incentives him with that.

“And how exactly” you questioned again. As anyhow you wish. Now I am going to reveal to you the real secrete here. You are the god to the monkeys world. What he sees, and hears and felt is all up to you. You can create, arbitrarily, what feels accomplishing, where you get praises, and most crucially where that banana is. If the monkey jump out of the complacency and act on something, you can award him with praises, with accomplishment and with the bananas that he loves. In other word, his world is in your control, all you have to do is to shape his action with incentives that you created.

Now, go shout in the monkeys face. The first step in stepping out of complacency is to see the world as it is. Tell the monkey why this world is bad, show him that it is nothing normal, nothing natural and nothing to be accepted. After all, once the monkey see the appalling reality as it is, hes going to be uncomfortable, disgusted. The monkey speaks the language of emotion, remember? This is going to help getting him started.

After all…

The monkey isn’t satisfied with the world like you and I. It is also greedy for more, greedy for change. It wants more fun, it wants more praise and it wants more bananas. After all, it lives within, and only within your mind. It is your monkey. It is your monkey brain.

Shape your own incentive. Incentivise the first step getting out the door to the gym with a tiny piece of chocolate. When at the gym, start with 5 minutes of only things you found fun at that moment. When your home, make sure to give your family a hug. Don’t delay the gratification, create gratification along the way.

Now tell your self to see the world as it is, this is the first and hardest part. Negotiate, read, watch, whatever that maybe your fancy. If you can take this first step out of complacency, I promise, you will soon be on your jolly way.

Thanks for reading! I’m Henry, a 17 year old tech and longevity enthusiast on a mission to help extend human health span.

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