Do you think that people are predictably irrational because if you do, understanding them will help you be more patient, loving and tolerant?
https://youtu.be/RRSxTlWQHK8
## Predictably Irrational
If you want to understand human behavior, thinking of people as predictably irrational can help a lot. I thought of people for much of my life as logical decision making reasonable human beings.
When I read a book called *"Predictably Irrational,"* it helped me a lot to be more patient and loving and tolerant with people, and understand people's decision making processes, especially my own.
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Frustration comes up when we look around and we see our family members, our friends, people doing things that from our point of view is irrational. It doesn't make sense why they would do that.
When we look at our own behavior, we often will attribute a lot of logic to ourselves like, *"Oh, I'm just making these reasonable decisions."*
What's up *Diego Perez?* Thanks for the like and being the first on the live stream.
According to research, experiments and our own qualitative experiences, often when we make predictably irrational decisions, it gives us a lot of patience and understanding.
For example, with me six years ago, I used to compulsively drink alcohol and at the same time feel like I was deciding to that I had a choice. I thought, *"Well, I want to have fun, have a good time, lighten up and relax."*
From my point of view, it was perfectly logical that I would drink alcohol. If you asked my mother, my wife, my friends, my family, nobody else thought it was perfectly logical because if I was a rational person, I would have never drunk alcohol again after all the bad experiences I had from drinking alcohol, and yet I continued to do it because my behavior was predictably irrational.
Predictably irrational is a mindset where you're not considering all the relevant facts.
This used to frustrate me with trying to date girls. I'd see girls that were in bad relationships and from my point of view, it was so obvious they should just get out of the relationship.
*"Just stop dating him. Clearly he's not good for you and you're not good for him"* and they would keep going back to him, and I would be so frustrated because they weren't interested in me.
I observed this behavior with myself in many different things from drinking alcohol to what I would watch online, to the things I would say to people, to the way I ate my diet, and I'm grateful I've changed a lot of these predictably irrational behaviors because these are the things that really hold us back in life, our own predictably irrational behavior.
For example, with money spending.
Have you looked around at friends and family who often will be super cheap, who will never give you or anybody else any money, and yet they'll have some of these areas of their life where they spend a bunch of money in things that don't seem to do anything for them?
They will spend a bunch of money on shoes or clothing, a boat or fishing sports equipment, go out to the bar and spend a bunch of money and you'll get so frustrated.
Then there'll be broken, not having any money, and from your point of view, you'll look and say, *"Well, you wasted all your money on these stupid things. Now you don't have any."*
It's so obvious to you, and yet to them, it just doesn't make any sense.
Their behavior is predictably irrational.
What's most important is to spot this within yourself and identify any of your predictably irrational behaviors as I've done a lot over the last six years, starting with drinking alcohol, and moving into a lot of different areas of my life from there, especially my predictably irrational thinking.
What's up *Deep?* Thanks for watching on the live stream.
If you'd like to get more into this, the book *"Predictably Irrational"* can help you a lot to understand human psychology and behavior.
When you understand human psychology and behavior, dealing with your fellow human beings won't be so frustrating. You won't get upset so easily at people's driving, at the things people say and at the things people do.
And when you don't get upset so easily at the things people say and people do, it's a lot easier to be loving and supportive, help other people and to be of service.
*Amazing Prime Video*, thanks for being here today. I appreciate you watching this live.
If you'd like to get the full experience, I'll see you on *Jerry banfield.com* and for the next live stream here.
*Diego* says, *"How to get easy money?"*
The easiest way to get easy money is to cut your predictably irrational expenses. I've cut *$3,000* a month in expenses and it's only taken me about *10* or *15* hours of time.
A lot of us are predictably irrational, once we sign up for something, we'll keep spending money on it even when we're not using it.
The easiest way to get money is to cut your expenses first, then make more of the money you've already got. Then, focus on making more money.
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All right, I love you guys.
You're awesome.
I'll see you tomorrow.
Love,
*Jerry Banfield*
Edits from video transcript by *[Michel Gerard](http://www.michelgerardonline.com)*.
Originally published at https://jerrybanfield.com.