Stop Making Logical Decisions

I've always kind of hated Spock.

It's not the pointy ears, the Vulcan salute, or the nerve pinch. It's the logic.

The idea that life's decisions can be boiled down to some equation you can calculate just doesn't sit right with me.

I don't know if it's Spock or Moneyball or whatever other data-driven gospel we've latched onto, but somewhere along the way we've been sold this belief that if we just think rationally enough, run the numbers, and follow the formula, we'll make the "right" choice. We'll succeed. We'll be content. We'll optimize our way to happiness.

And yes, logic works great when problems are well-defined. Designing a bridge that won't collapse? Logic that stuff up. Calculating the trajectory of a Mars lander? Logic and math for days.

But most of life isn't an equation. Try applying clean, rational thinking to your relationships, your creativity, or your parenting decisions, and watch how quickly things get messy. Some of the best decisions of my life were completely illogical. It wasn't logical to quit a stable job during the Great Recession. Or to buy Bitcoin at the beginning of the pandemic. Or to start writing a weekly newsletter that nobody asked for.

Sometimes logic is simply the wrong tool for the job. So what is the opposite of logic? Delusion, my friends. Sweet, sweet delusion.

So this week, let's talk about the power of delusion, why a little crazy might be exactly what you need, and how surprisingly often the delulu is the solulu.

The Rationality Trap

Let’s start with why logic feels so safe: because it comes with charts, spreadsheets, and the comforting illusion that we know what we’re doing.

No one ever got fired for making the wrong choice if they have spreadsheets to back up why they did what they did. But when I think of an over-reliance on logic, I tend to think of Crash Davis from Bull Durham when he's talking about strikeouts:

It's the same with purely data-driven decisions. They are boring. In fact, I believe overly rational decisions lead to a mediocre life.

Here's an example: Several years ago, before kids were in the picture, my wife and I had a series of meetings with a financial advisor. He was great, gave lots of solid advice, most of which we took to heart. But during one meeting we mentioned wanting to visit my sister who was living and working in the Middle East at the time. He coughed uncomfortably, shuffled some papers, and proceeded to explain why that was a terrible idea. If we wanted to buy a house and start a family, if we really wanted to lean into adulting, we couldn't just fly off to Dubai.

And yep, he was absolutely right. Spending thousands of dollars to go to the UAE wasn't a rational decision. But the thing is: we did want kids. And my wife was crystal clear that we weren't going to start trying until we'd seen more of the world first. She understood that when kids come along, your life takes a beautiful but dramatic turn. Travel gets harder, more expensive, more complicated. We both wanted children, but we also wanted to know what life looked like as just the two of us. We wanted to experience different places and cultures together, then have kids and eventually travel with them when they were old enough.

That line of thinking doesn't fit in a financial planning spreadsheet. When you live a fully optimized life, you miss out on the experiences that actually shape you. You wear data-driven decisions like armor and use them as an excuse to avoid taking chances, trying new things, or betting on yourself. An over-reliance on logic is often just cowardice dressed up as smart decision-making.

At the end of the day, logic is just one tool in your toolbelt. And what you need that goes beyond logic is something that can't be measured or quantified. What you need is belief.

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Believing Before It Makes Sense

But not just any belief. The kind of belief you need looks at the same set of facts as everyone else and chooses to interpret them differently. That sees all the logic, math, and reasoning and instead chooses delusion.

I know that sounds backwards, but hear me out. When I say delusion, I don't mean losing all touch with reality. I mean believing in something other people don't believe. Having an idea or a plan that people question or dismiss because it doesn't make sense to them or fit into their version of reality.

Think about it: every breakthrough starts as someone else's delusion. The Wright brothers were delusional about human flight. Steve Jobs was delusional about putting a computer in everyone's pocket. Howard Schultz was delusional about Americans paying $4 for coffee when they could make it at home for pennies.

And the thing about delusion is that everyone around you will try to cure you of it. People will poke holes in your idea, use logic to explain why you shouldn't do it, and see all the ways it could fail much clearer than they can see how it might succeed. They're not being mean, they're just being human. Loss aversion kicks in and suddenly everyone becomes a risk management consultant.

The key is realizing that most advice is autobiography in disguise. When someone lists all the reasons your idea won't work, they're often just telling you why they wouldn't do it themselves. Listen to legitimate concerns about execution, but don't let other people's limitations talk you out of your possibilities. After all, skepticism is easier than belief, and much more socially acceptable.

A lot of the time, the difference between delusion and innovation is just timing, execution, and belief. What looks bonkers today becomes obvious tomorrow, but only after someone was willing to be wrong in public first. Delusion lets you see possibilities that rational thinking filters out. When you're too entrenched in "how things work," you miss "how things could work."

The best kind of delusion isn't about ignoring facts. It's about refusing to let other people's limitations become your limitations. It's about believing in a version of the future that doesn't exist yet, but could if someone was crazy enough to build it.

Calibrating Your Crazy

Most of us have been trained to dismiss the voice that says "this could be amazing" in favor of the one that says "but what if it doesn't work?" We've been conditioned to see excitement as naive and caution as wisdom. But what if we've got it backwards?

Pay attention to what energizes you versus what makes sense on paper. If an opportunity checks all the logical boxes but makes you feel dead inside, that's your soul telling you something your brain refuses to hear. If an idea seems impossible but you can't stop thinking about it, that obsession might be pointing you toward something worth chasing. Your enthusiasm is often a better predictor of success than your projections.

When you're deciding what to pursue, trust the pull over the push. Logic pushes you toward safe choices, reasonable outcomes, defensible decisions. Delusion pulls you toward the thing you can't stop thinking about, the opportunity that makes you slightly nauseous with possibility, the path that looks insane to everyone else but feels inevitable to you.

Logic can be handy for execution, but it's terrible for vision. Once you've decided to chase something that energizes you, then consider bringing in the spreadsheets and timelines and risk assessments. But don't let analysis kill the idea before it has a chance to breathe. Too many people optimize their dreams to death before they ever try to build them.

Before you dismiss your next crazy idea, ask yourself:

• Does this make you feel more alive or more anxious?

• Are you excited about the work itself or just the outcome?

• Would you still do this if you knew it would take twice as long and be twice as hard?

• If you can't get other people to understand why this matters, does that bother you or energize you?

Those answers will tell you whether you're chasing something real or just running from something else.

The people who change things aren't the ones who wait for permission or certainty. They're the ones who move forward with incomplete information and figure it out as they go. They use delusion to get started and logic to figure out the details.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Learning to Live Illogically

So yeah, that's why Spock kinda sucks. It's not his fault, he is who he is. But all too often, we've made Spock the only voice that matters.

We've created a world where being logical is virtuous and being delusional is dangerous. Where having data makes you smart and trusting your instincts makes you reckless. Where the safe choice is always the right choice, even when it slowly kills everything interesting about your life.

But think about the best decisions you've ever made. I'm willing to bet they weren't the ones that made the most sense on paper. They were the ones that made sense to you, in that moment, for reasons you probably couldn't fully explain to anyone else.

That trip my wife and I took to Dubai? Worth every penny. It wasn't financially wise, but we had a blast. We learned things about the world, ourselves, and each other that we wouldn't have learned otherwise. And not long after, we started our family. Before we knew it, we were packing our kids up and flying off to random places with them. Not financially wise, but life smart. And don't worry, we still bought a house, sent the kids to college, and did all the adulting stuff.

I'm not saying you should quit your job tomorrow and head off to clown college (I'm also not not saying that). But maybe, just maybe, you could stop treating every decision like it needs to pass some cosmic logic test. Maybe you could trust that the thing you can't stop thinking about is actually worth thinking about for a reason.

Your life isn't a math problem waiting to be solved. It's an experiment waiting to be run. And the best experiments start with someone crazy enough to wonder "what would happen if..."

After all, nobody ever changed the world by being perfectly reasonable.

As always, thanks for reading,
— Chief Rabbit
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