would you rather: philosophical edition [video]

I lost my voice.

I think it's because I've been singing in the car more than usual.

I go through phases where sometimes I'm really singing in the car and I'm really taking

it seriously.

It's almost like I'm trying to get good at it.

Like that's how seriously I take it sometimes.

I have phases where driving is simultaneously singing lessons for me.

Self-taught, self-taught, but it's like singing lessons for me.

I'm trying to hit every note.

I'm like replaying a song from the beginning if I didn't hit the note right.

And my voice is gone.

I'm also on my period.

And it's not one of those months where it's like, oh, I'm on my period.

It's okay.

It's not one of those months.

I'm in a lot of pain.

I'm in a lot of pain.

I'm really cramping up.

Yeah, I'm falling apart, but I'm here and I'm happy to be here.

I am.

I'm happy to be here.

I'm happy to be talking to you today.

I'm happy to be hanging out with you today.

And it turns out, despite all that I'm going through, I'm ready to use my brain today.

Not like my entire brain, but I'm in the mood to use like 75% of my brain.

I decided I wanted to play a little game of Would You Rather, philosophical edition.

A lot of times, would you rather questions are like, would you rather eat an eyeball

or all of your fingernails?

That's fun.

But I wanted to play Would You Rather in a way that really uses that 75% of my brain.

So I went online and I found some vaguely philosophical would you rather questions.

I think we're going to have fun today.

Would you rather have an exciting but dangerous life or a boring but meaningful life?

I would probably prefer to have a boring but meaningful life because I don't like danger.

Okay?

I really don't.

I'm not somebody that enjoys the thrill of things.

Like some people love rock climbing on the side of a cliff or jumping off of a bridge

into the water or skydiving or paragliding or competitive skiing.

Like you know what I mean?

There's some people who love the rush.

I'm not that type of person.

I have no interest in those types of activities.

I couldn't have less of an interest.

I don't like adrenaline like that.

I don't care.

I don't crave an adrenaline rush.

I'm craving the opposite of an adrenaline rush.

I'm literally craving a stable heart rate.

You know what I mean?

That's what I'm craving on a daily basis.

So I would prefer a boring but meaningful life because I just don't like danger.

I've had chapters of my life that have been very boring but still very meaningful and

fulfilling and I am not afraid of that lifestyle.

Don't get me wrong.

I like feeling excited.

I like feeling exhilarated to an extent but not in a dangerous way.

So I would prefer to have a boring but meaningful life because I don't think boring is actually

always bad.

I really don't.

Boring can be bad but it doesn't have to be bad.

For years my life was boring especially for a 20 something year old, right?

Like for years I didn't go out and party.

I didn't have a lot of hobbies.

I didn't have a lot of friends and it was somewhat boring but I was very focused on

myself at that time.

I was really focused on understanding myself in a way, learning to understand myself better

and yeah, it was a really valuable time and it was boring but it was important and it

was meaningful and it was somewhat fulfilling as well.

I'm not opposed to a boring life.

Would you rather be infamous in history books or be forgotten after your death?

This question is actually disturbing to me because the fact that this question exists

means that some people would rather be infamous in history books just so that they wouldn't

be forgotten instead of just being a good person and being okay with that being your

small and maybe forgotten legacy.

I think everybody has a little desire in them to be remembered.

That's natural but the question here is how badly do you want to be remembered?

Do you want to be remembered so badly that you would rather be infamous for doing bad

things than just simply be forgotten?

For me, this is obvious.

I would rather be forgotten after my death because being a bad person when you're alive

on this planet is not a fun experience.

That's not a fulfilling experience and I don't know what happens after I die and so I don't

care if I'm remembered or not.

Being infamous in history books, what a terrible legacy.

I think in order to choose that over being forgotten, you have to value power and fame

more than being morally good and that's disturbing to me to be quite honest.

So, I would rather be forgotten after my death because to be honest, that doesn't really

bother me.

I'm just trying to do my best right now on this planet to be a good person and to make

people's days a little better whenever I can.

But if all that gets forgotten after I die, whatever, I'm dead.

Once I'm dead, I just won't care about anything.

I feel nothing.

I'm dead.

But what really matters is what you do while you're on the planet and you're alive.

That's all you can control and that's all you know for sure that you get to experience

and I think it should be everyone's goal to do their best to be good.

So I would rather be forgotten after my death.

Would you rather be stronger than the average or smarter than the average?

I would rather be smarter than the average, but I don't want to be too smart.

This question, I need more information before I answer this question because I would never

want to be an Einstein.

That is not appealing to me.

Being a genius like that sounds like a nightmare to me.

It sounds like a nightmare.

When you're that intelligent, oh my God, it just, I can't imagine how overwhelming

it would be to know that much and to understand that much and to just have this natural inclination

to sort of hyperanalyze everything at all times and to constantly feel alienated by

the fact that most normal people don't understand the way your brain works.

Being a genius is not appealing to me.

Being smarter than the average is appealing to me.

I mean, I think being smart, that's a valuable trait to have.

It can enhance life in a lot of ways and it can be a tool that you can use to help make

the world a better place.

You know, intelligence has been crucial in creating technology, creating medicine, etc. etc.

Being smart is not just something that you get to brag about.

You can also use your smarts to make the world a better place.

I'd prefer to be smart.

Do I want to be a genius?

No.

I think the smarter you are, the more often you probably have an existential crisis.

That's my assumption and I already have enough existential crises.

But to address the other half of this question, I don't really care about being strong.

Don't get me wrong, I exercise frequently and I definitely like to improve my strength

and it's exciting to me when I do, but I don't feel too excited about the idea of being stronger

than the average.

Like, I'm cool with being average strong.

That's fine with me.

There's something appealing about the idea of being really strong and dedicating myself

to a sport in an alternate universe.

Maybe I did that because I could see myself weirdly enjoying that, but I value intelligence

over strength any day.

So I'd rather be smarter than average.

Would you rather only be able to live in a small city your entire life or only be able

to live in a big city your entire life?

I have lived in a big city for five years.

Prior to that, I lived in somewhat of a big city.

It was medium-sized.

I lived close to San Francisco, but I was not in San Francisco.

I was quite a bit south in a much more normal, medium-sized town.

I've never lived in a small town.

I romanticize the idea of what it'd be like to live in a small town, but I know, I know

deep down, I wouldn't like it.

I love visiting a small town.

Oh my god, amazing.

To slow down for a week or two, go to the same general store for groceries and a new

tube of toothpaste and a cup of coffee and breakfast, and then going on a walk for six

hours because there's nothing better to do.

I love a small town, but only for a week or two.

I love a big city.

I also hate a big city, but I love a big city.

I would rather live in a big city for my entire life.

Would you rather eat a piece of food that was really healthy for you, but tasted horrible?

Or eat something that tasted great, but was bad for you?

I mean, I guess it depends how good for you this one thing is and how bad for you this

other thing is.

If we're talking about an exaggerated reality where we're talking about a piece of food

that tastes really bad, but will cure disease versus a poisonous fruit that tastes so delicious

that you wouldn't believe it, but it's going to make you sick for six months, I'm obviously

going to choose the food that's healthy, but tastes disgusting.

It depends on how dangerous the stakes are.

But I would say my philosophy in general about healthy activities versus unhealthy activities

is that it's obviously important to prioritize your health and to make choices that will

keep your health intact as often as possible, but that must be balanced with enjoyable and

unhealthy habits as well.

But it's all about finding a balance.

You know what I mean?

It's like eating really nutritious, healthy foods and exercising on a frequent basis and

smoking a cigarette every once in a while.

It's like something's got to give, right?

Something's got to give.

Or it's like going out and partying on the weekends, having drinks, doing all that.

But then during the week, you go to bed at 8 p.m. and you exercise and you see what I'm

saying?

We can't do it all.

We're fucking human.

So I would probably eat something that tasted great but was bad for me because chances are

my body would be fine.

Like you can have bad things every once in a while and be fine.

That's my opinion.

That's why it was so hard for me to quit the vape because I was like my nicotine vape.

Okay, that's what I'm talking about.

It was so hard for me to quit the vape because I was like everything else I do, I'm so healthy

otherwise.

I exercise.

I eat super nutritious foods.

I'm always like, you know, I'm really into that and I really take care of my body physically.

I go to bed early.

Can I just fucking have my vape?

Like that's how I felt.

But that's not the best philosophy because I was using the vape every day whereas now

I don't.

Although I have hit a vape a few times.

I'm sorry.

I'm going to admit it.

I'm going to admit it here.

I have hit a vape a few times.

Not my own, but other people have had a vape and I'm like, you have to just let me have

one little hit of the vape.

I'm not proud of it, but it's just this is my healing process.

This is my quitting process.

But I haven't gone out and bought myself a new one and that's a success to me.

Would you rather have people admire you for your good deeds or respect you for your power?

This one's obvious for me.

I would rather have people admire me for my good deeds.

I personally don't have any interest in having power.

I want people to respect me because that's just the kind thing to do.

It's kind for us to respect each other, right?

So I would like to be respected by people, but I don't need to be powerful.

I don't know.

I don't really care about that and I never have.

I don't mind being around people who are more powerful than me.

I'm like, okay.

Power to me is an illusion.

It's not real.

It's all sort of imaginary and it can feel really real because when everyone is treating

a powerful person in a certain type of way, it can feel like, yeah, this person is really

powerful.

Everybody around them is behaving as so, therefore it's real.

But power could go away tomorrow and that person would be left with nothing.

Whereas doing good deeds and putting goodwill out into the world, that goes beyond power

to me because that's how you build community.

That's how you attract people that will always have your back.

That's how you create genuine relationships and friendships.

That's how you make the world a better place.

So I would rather people admire me for my good deeds.

Sue me.

Would you rather have a peaceful existence where you never had to worry about the troubles

of life or live a more normal life full of risk and challenge?

Of course, there's something appealing about the idea of a peaceful existence where there

aren't many struggles.

There aren't many extreme emotions.

It's just sort of peaceful.

But I wouldn't choose to live that life, I don't think.

I would much rather live a more normal life full of risk and challenge because as much

as risk and challenge is uncomfortable and heartbreaking at times, I really do think

it makes life so much richer to deal with risk and challenge.

When you live a more peaceful, quiet life, the range of emotions that you feel on a daily

basis are much narrower.

You probably won't experience extreme sadness, but you also probably won't experience extreme

joy because there's something about a stagnant life that brings this sort of emotional plateau.

I don't know.

And as reliable and relaxing as that may be, I think it may be a little bit too understimulating

for me personally.

I actually really enjoy the challenges of life in a lot of ways.

I love working through a challenge and coming out the other side with a new piece of wisdom.

That is so rewarding.

I've gotten to a place now where a lot of the challenges that I experience in my life

don't feel as bad in the moment anymore because I always know I'm going to learn something

from this.

And so even if it hurts, I remember this is going to make me a better person in some way.

And it always does.

It always makes me a better person, a wiser person, and it always ends up being such a

valuable experience.

I like the ups and downs.

I think one day I'm going to want to retire and really cool things off, you know, chill

things out.

But I would say if I had to choose one or the other to experience for my whole life,

I would choose life full of risk and challenge.

Would you rather live in a world where everyone ignores you or in a world where everyone is

mean to you?

Well, this one, like truly neither.

Truly neither.

But I think I would prefer to just be ignored because that would be a lot less upsetting.

It'd be much easier to get used to.

It feels so bad when people are just mean to you.

You know, if every interaction was that way, I mean, I would end up just staying home alone

all the time.

Anyway, I'd rather be able to at least go out in the world and people watch and just

be ignored than to have everyone be mean to me.

Would you rather live in a world where there's no crime or no privacy?

I honestly, no privacy would be really tough.

How do you have sex ever?

Like everyone can just watch that?

That's my nightmare.

What about when I'm pooping?

I don't want anyone to see that.

I think I'd rather live in a world where there's no crime, to be honest, because even though

I value my privacy more than anything, crime is bad.

Like crime is really bad, but it would be really bad to be constantly surveillanced.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Although if it was just like the government watching me poop and the government watching

me have sex, okay, I don't care.

But if like anyone could access a live stream of me at all times, like I would be fine if

there was like a handful of government officials at all times watching me.

I don't want that.

I prefer to not have that.

But I would put up with that for there to be no crime, because crime is really unfortunate

and terrifying.

I'm going to go with no crime, assuming that it's just a few government officials watching

me poop and have sex.

Okay, that's it.

Would you rather live another 100 years with your body in a state of perfect health or

just age normally?

See this is hard, because I don't necessarily know if I want to live for another 100 years.

Not to be totally depressing and sad, but I don't really need to live longer than I'm

going to live.

I'm okay with dying as an old person.

That doesn't really bother me.

Being alive is exhausting, and I'm grateful to be here, and I'm going to make the fucking

most out of it, I'll tell you that.

But I don't feel any desire to push it longer than it needs to go.

I will say, though, it's a pretty good deal to live another 100 years with my body in

a state of perfect health, and I don't know if I can pass that up, because with aging

does come a lot of bodily struggles, and there's nothing I can do to prevent that.

That's going to happen.

But in this mystical world of would you rather, I think I'd rather live another 100 years

with my body in a state of perfect health, because that is just too good of an offer

to pass up.

If it was 200 years, I would probably just age normally.

But 100 years, I could do another 100.

Would you rather never be rejected ever again or never fail ever again?

I would probably prefer to never be rejected ever again, because I feel like I learn a

lot less from being rejected, whereas I learn a lot from failing.

I don't learn as much by being rejected.

I mean, yeah, there is a lot to learn when rejected, but it's just less deep for some

reason.

Like, when I like someone and they don't like me back, the most I learn from that experience

is, okay, I just have to remind myself that I'm still a great person, even though there

are some people who just don't like me that much, you know what I mean?

But like, failing can teach you so much, you know?

Going on an endeavor, failing, and then getting back up and trying again, I don't know.

There's just so much more growth there for me.

There's so much more growth in that for me.

It teaches you perseverance.

It forces you to think outside the box and try things differently the next time.

It forces you to reflect on yourself in a lot of ways.

Like, rejection doesn't always have something to do with you.

Sometimes you can be rejected because an employer isn't looking for an employee like you at

the moment, or a potential significant other actually doesn't want to get into a serious

relationship right now.

It can have nothing to do with you, with rejection, in which case it just kind of hurts, but you

don't really learn that much.

It makes your resilience grow a little bit, but I don't know.

Failure just comes with a lot more lessons.

Would you rather never take the easy way out of anything ever again, or stop procrastinating?

Well, it'd be really nice to not do either.

And the funny thing about this one is that both of these are somewhat in your control.

I'd probably choose to never take the easy way out ever again, because every single time

I've taken the easy way out in life, I have regretted it.

Or not regretted it, necessarily, but paid a big price.

And it's come and bite me in the ass later, without fail, every single time.

Which is why now, I refuse to take the easy way out.

I will do everything in my power to not take the easy way out, because it always bites

me in the ass.

Procrastinating bites me in the ass, but I always manage to get the stuff done that I

need to get done.

It's fine.

Procrastinating is less damaging, for the most part, than taking the easy way out in

life.

Cutting corners?

No.

I'm traumatized, personally, by my experiences trying to cut corners.

You can't do it.

You just can't.

You will pay the price.

It will come back to bite you.

Whereas procrastinating, you do pay a price, which is that you have a lot to do in a short

amount of time, and you might fail to deliver.

But you pay that price in the moment.

It's all linear.

It's like, okay, I don't get my work done, now I pay a price immediately.

Whereas, taking the easy way out, you never know when that's going to bite you in the

ass, and you never know how, and it's usually a lot more painful for some reason.

So I'd rather never take the easy way out ever again.

Would you rather spend a week with somebody you really admire, or spend a week with someone

whose company you really enjoy?

I would rather spend a week with someone whose company I really enjoy, because you can really

admire somebody, and you can really look up to somebody, and you can really try to emulate

what they do in ways to better your own life, while still not enjoying that person's company.

There are people that I admire that I actually weirdly have no interest in hanging out with,

and I don't feel like I need to hang out with them in order to learn from them, necessarily.

It's weird how you can admire somebody and not necessarily want to spend time with them,

but it's so true, for me anyway.

As much as you might learn from being around someone you admire for a week, I would probably

prefer to spend a week with somebody whose company I really enjoy, because at the end

of the day, being social is most enjoyable when it's just fun.

I would rather spend a week having fun than spend a week with somebody who I admire who

maybe is challenging me to be better.

I don't know.

Don't get me wrong.

There's so much value in spending a week with somebody who you admire.

There's so much you can learn.

There's so much that you can discover about yourself through that experience, but when

it comes to what I would rather do, of course I'd rather spend time with somebody whose

company I enjoy, because I want to have fun as much as I can in this life, and I'm constantly

being faced with challenges that are forcing me to grow and be a better version of myself.

That's great.

I love doing that.

That's important.

We have to do that.

But when it comes to what I would rather do with my time, I'd probably rather spend a

week with somebody who I enjoy, because that would be fun, and I love having fun.

On a day-to-day basis, I'm already looking at people that I admire and trying to take

pieces of what they do and make it my own and integrate it in my own life.

I don't need to spend a week with those people to benefit from them in that way, although

a lot of the people whose company I enjoy, I admire in some ways.

There aren't many people I hang out with that I don't admire at least one way.

Would you rather be liked by everyone you've ever met or have everything you've ever wanted?

This is basically choosing between social interaction and material objects.

That's kind of how I'm reading it.

I would prefer to be liked by everyone I've ever met, because I'm at a place right now

where I'm realizing how truly valuable other people are.

I'm realizing that that is what makes life feel fulfilling in a lot of ways, connections

with other people.

That is what brings the most happiness to my life, more than material possessions ever could.

Don't get me wrong, I am so grateful for every material possession I have.

There's not one item that I own that I don't cherish.

I take care of my belongings, I cherish my belongings, I'm grateful for my belongings,

and there are a lot of my belongings that do bring me a level of happiness and joy.

My clothes bring me a lot of joy because I enjoy expressing myself through clothing.

My house, I am so grateful for my house because it feels so personal to me.

It's also weirdly a form of personal expression, except it's a little different because instead

of it being something that is an expression of me that is used to sort of demonstrate

who I am to others, it's more of a form of expression that I enjoy on a personal level.

I love being in my home because it feels so me and everywhere I look there's a little

trinket or piece of furniture or object that makes me smile and makes me feel warm and

fuzzy and I really cherish that because I'm at home a lot and I really just cherish my

home.

Don't get me wrong.

So I do find joy in some material possessions to an extent.

I can't lie about that, but nothing fills my soul like being around other people and

connecting with other people.

That's what gets me up in the morning.

So I'd rather be liked by everyone I've ever met because that would just mean I get to

have even more friendships and even more relationships in my life that are fulfilling.

Would you rather be the center of attention or go unnoticed?

I don't necessarily care to be the center of attention.

Like when I walk in a room, I don't need to be the center of attention and at times I

don't really want to be.

I don't necessarily like being the center of attention because it can be sort of exhausting.

I also don't necessarily mind being the center of attention though.

It does definitely happen at times and when it does, it can be fun.

Like if I'm telling a story or people are curious about my unique life circumstances

and that sort of makes me the center of attention for a time being.

I don't mind being the center of attention, but I'm also not hungry for it.

But when it comes to going unnoticed, I don't necessarily crave that either.

I mean, I crave it at times for sure where I just kind of want to be alone and to be

left alone and yeah, I crave that at times.

But I also really, really enjoy being social and talking to people.

And if I was somebody who just kind of went unnoticed, I would have less social experiences

in my life and that's not necessarily appealing to me because I really do love when people

come up to me and want to talk to me and there's a lot of joy in that for me.

This one's tough because there are times when I'd rather be the center of attention just

because that means that I get to be social and talk to people.

But there are also times when I would rather be unnoticed and be able to just be sort of

a fly on the wall.

I enjoy both depending on the day and what mood I'm in, et cetera.

But I would say for the most part, I'd probably rather be the center of attention and that

sounds narcissistic, but the reason for that being, I just really enjoy conversation and

I don't mind being the center of attention sometimes.

I don't think there's anything wrong with it either.

Like there are a lot of times when there's one person who's sort of dominating the social

situation at a given moment and I love when there's someone else who's the center of attention

because it's like, ooh, we're asking this person questions.

They're telling stories and we're listening.

It's great.

You know, like it's fun.

It's interesting.

It's, it can be really exciting to sort of dedicate a social situation to one person

at times.

I don't always see that as a negative thing.

I think it can be toxic when you always have to be the center of attention, right?

That's not good because you're not leaving room for anyone else to have their moment,

but I don't mind when I get my moment too.

Like that's cool, but I don't care when it happens or if it doesn't happen for months

and months.

But at this phase in my life, I think I would prefer to be the center of attention than

to go completely unnoticed because I'm in a phase where I'm really enjoying being social

and I don't mind telling stories and being the center of attention.

It can be fun.

Would you rather be one of the world's leading experts in a single field or be the most well-rounded

and versatile in the world?

I think there is something weirdly intriguing to me about being an expert in one field.

There's something satisfying about understanding a topic better than anyone else.

There's something about that that is really appealing to me.

But at the same time, there's something really appealing to me about being the most well-rounded

and versatile person in the world.

This one's actually really hard for me.

I sort of love the idea of dedicating myself to one thing.

There's something about that that inspires me, weirdly enough, even though there are

limitations, right?

There are limitations there.

However, there's something weirdly inspiring about zoning in on one thing and really becoming

the master, becoming the leader, becoming the expert.

There's something almost comforting about that rather than being incredibly versatile

and well-rounded where you can just kind of like do a little bit of everything.

That's nice, but that's much more chaotic in a way.

If you're really well-rounded and you're really versatile, how do you ever have the

time or the energy to really zoom into one thing and get better at one thing?

You can be the most well-rounded, versatile person in the world, but if you're kind of

good at everything, you'll never really be that good at one thing.

You can be good, but you'll never be like the expert.

I think that my final answer is I'd rather be the most well-rounded and versatile person

in the world because as much as I close my eyes and feel comforted by the idea of dedicating

my life to one subject, one topic, I do think that the flexibility that being well-rounded

gives you allows for maybe a more stimulating life in a way, in some ways.