Step 1 Wrap Up
If this is your first time systematically thinking through what you believe about the world, you have been given a huge amount of information to process. We recommend setting aside specific periods of time in your day to mull through it all—such as while you are taking a shower or when you are about to fall asleep. Better yet, if you are reading this book with a friend or a group, take some time to discuss these ideas with them, perhaps while on a walk or in some other circumstances in which you have a clear head.
After thinking through specifically what you think has (and/or does not have) intrinsic value in the world and identifying your personal proclivities, define your objective function. An objective function can be structured however you want it to be, for example: “after achieving a specific happiness threshold, I want to dedicate my life to maximizing the speed of technological development.” Whenever you must make a decision in life, whether it be your choice of college, spouse, pastimes, or friends, reference your objective function and the decision will often become obvious.
While you only have one objective function, that function may have many components. These components can include multiple proclivities and the maximization of multiple things you believe to have intrinsic value. Each of these various components should contain a modifier that describes how it will relate to the other components. This modifier can be anything from a threshold (I have to have X amount of happiness before I focus on other elements of my objective function) to a percent (I will dedicate X% of my time resources and income to distributing happiness and Y% to maximizing personal lucidity). Once you have built your objective function, you will have an easy reference for the efficacy of any decision you make on achieving your objective function in life.