The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F_ck

Generally, within ten to fifteen minutes each person has
figured out the specific sequence of behaviors required to
net more points. It’s usually something weird like standing
on one foot or memorizing a long sequence of buttons
pressed in a specific amount of time while facing a certain
direction.
But here’s the funny part: the points really are random.
There’s no sequence; there’s no pattern. Just a light that
keeps coming on with a ding, and people doing cartwheels
thinking that what they’re doing is giving them points.
Sadism aside, the point of the experiment is to show how
quickly the human mind is capable of coming up with and
believing in a bunch of bullshit that isn’t real. And it turns
out, we’re all really good at it. Every person leaves that
room convinced that he or she nailed the experiment and
won the game. They all believe that they discovered the
“perfect” sequence of buttons that earned them their
points. But the methods they come up with are as unique as
the individuals themselves. One man came up with a long
sequence of button-pushing that made no sense to anyone
but himself. One girl came to believe that she had to tap the
ceiling a certain number of times to get points. When she
left the room she was exhausted from jumping up and
down.
Our brains are meaning machines. What we understand
as “meaning” is generated by the associations our brain
makes between two or more experiences. We press a
button, then we see a light go on; we assume the button
caused the light to go on. This, at its core, is the basis of
meaning. Button, light; light, button. We see a chair. We
note that it’s gray. Our brain then draws the association
between the color (gray) and the object (chair) and forms
meaning: “The chair is gray.”
Our minds are constantly whirring, generating more and
more associations to help us understand and control the
environment around us. Everything about our experiences,