When in Doubt, Choose the Hardest Option

When you're faced with two choices and can't decide which one to pick, and they seem pretty much the same, what should you do?

I'll give you a few directions to help you make a judgment.

First, choose the one with a higher ceiling; Second, choose the more difficult one; Third, choose the more positive one.

The first two are mainly about choosing between things, while the last one is about choosing beliefs.

Let's talk about the first two situations of choosing things.

If you're facing two things, two jobs, two positions, two projects, or two directions, and you really can't make up your mind because they seem similar. At this time, try to choose the one with a higher ceiling. That way, you're more likely to achieve great results.

For example, if the ceiling is 100, even if you reach 10% of it, you only get 10. But if the ceiling is 100 million, 10% of it is 10 million. Of course, you need to assess your own ability to see if you have a chance to reach that level.

If you think you can't do it, it means this option actually doesn't exist, and there won't be a dilemma.

Choose the more difficult one because there are barriers. Difficulty means a high threshold, which means fewer people will participate.

There's a saying, "Choose the difficult but right thing." Usually, the right choice is relatively harder to make.

If you want to surpass most people, you have to do things that ordinary people can't do, and that's bound to be more difficult.

Consumption behaviors like eating, drinking, and having fun are relatively simple and easy to do, but it's quite difficult to achieve results in this field. The difficulty lies in the foundation.

For example, AI is really convenient these days and can help us do a lot of things. But at the same time, there's a problem. It makes us not have to do some basic things, and even reduces the necessity of doing basic work.

This has a drawback. If you don't practice and master some basic things, when you want to develop to a higher level, you'll encounter a relatively big bottleneck.

It's like a quick fix. If your foundation is not solid, you'll stop progressing at a certain stage. At this time, you either stay where you are or go back to supplement the basics.

This is the case with AI programming and AI writing.

If a person starts using AI when they're not very good at writing, they can indeed get AI to generate a decent piece of content by asking questions and making modifications.

But at this time, their own writing ability, writing thinking, writing habits, and output volume haven't been formed yet.

When they need to express themselves without the help of AI, such as making videos, doing live broadcasts, giving offline speeches, or having offline conversations, they'll easily get stuck and don't know what to say.

And if you don't understand writing and content yourself, it's hard to judge whether the content AI gives you is right or good.

It's like hiring an assistant to do something for you, but you don't understand the thing at all. Then it's hard for you to tell if the assistant is doing a good job or just敷衍 you.

The last point, choose the positive one. This is a passage I saw while scrolling through videos today.

When facing two choices, two sentences, two beliefs, or two directions, try to choose the more positive one.

I have to say that this era is full of a lot of negative ideological information. All kinds of criticisms make sense. After all, for a seemingly correct view, the opposite view often also has its correctness. That's the difficult part - both views make sense, so how do you choose?

When you're not firm enough, choose the more positive one. At least it will make you feel better and is also good for your life.

For example, you definitely don't want the people you know, like your friends and relatives, to be full of negative energy. You hope they're full of positive energy, in a good mood, and positive, rather than being full of negative energy, very aggressive, and making people feel like they'll bring bad luck.

Let me tell you a phenomenon.

Some people who are short of money want to find a rich partner; some people who lack a sense of security want to find someone who can give them a sense of security; and some people who are impatient, have a bad temper, and are easily in a low mood or get entangled and confused want to find a patient person.

But actually, this is quite unreasonable. Expecting the other person to have what you don't have is not real complementarity.

Real complementarity is that you have what the other person doesn't have, and the other person has what you don't have. In this way, you need each other, and that's what complementarity means.

A person full of negative energy expecting to find a person full of positive energy is actually a kind of emotional violence.

In this world, except for the objectively existing things in the physical reality, everything else is determined by thoughts and cognition.

For example, your mood, state, and inner turmoil.

They completely depend on your personal thoughts, that is, how you think, how you see things, and how you choose.

Sometimes, a single thought can lead to completely different endings.

So this is the last point. If you have to make a choice, choose the most positive choice or belief.

Daily Reading & Writing by Xiaolu 2025.05.31【day635】