We See the World Through Actions and Outcomes

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The behaviorists were right about something very fundamental to our human behavior: We act based on what we imagine is the outcome of our behavior. The outcome. The narrative. The action.

You do something because you believe that the action will lead to a certain outcome. You believe in something because you’re convinced that the belief leads to a certain outcome. It’s all about *forums for action, and we see the world through actions*, most fundamentally speaking.

So whenever you connect a certain behavior with a certain outcome, you are tapping into something very fundamental regarding the structure of how we see and operate in the world. You touch a button and it gives you a zap? You connect the action of touching the button with the outcome of getting a painful zap.

And let’s generalize this to something cool like the legal system: The only reason why a judge sides with one side over the other is because they like the outcome that one argument will lead to, over the other. They like the argument because they’ve simulated that argument leading to a certain outcome that they prefer over the opposing argument, even if they don’t remember the outcome they once simulated.

We ultimately see the world in terms of actions and outcomes, therefore. That’s why things like narratives are so meaningful to us: They show us how certain paths of action can lead to certain desirable or undesirable outcomes. They show us that acting arrogant and disagreeably can lead to the outcome of everyone hating us, for example. And this is how behavior is ultimately shaped: through our learning of which actions will lead to which outcomes.