Who's the Fool?

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard P Feynman, Nobel Prize-winning physicist.

It seems like such a simple principle: Do not fool yourself. But we all know it's so easy to fool yourself. Again and again. I did it just this week.

In my defense, I did consider the risk involved and I was comfortable with the risk. Still, it didn't make up for the frustration it caused me.

Whether it's a personal goal, a project or politics (especially politics!) we are so gullible to our own foolery. As humans, we supposedly have a bias towards the negative as a natural defense mechanism - I read that somewhere but can't vouch for the science behind it.

If this is true, it doesn't protect us from ourselves. I'm sure there is a psychological explantation for it. I didn't research it.

I did however do a bit of thinking and came up with a surprising long list of incidents where I allowed myself to be fooled by me. In fact, as I write this, I realize I just did it again. I chuckled at my own foolishness.

I find little solace in the fact that I'm not the only one prone to this self-foolery.

Marketers exploit this inherent flaw of the human condition.  I don't blame them, it's our own fault.  We're such easy targets because we fool ourselves so easily.

Why so many of us allow politicians to exploit this weakness, is beyond me.  Shame on us.

I'm not even sure how to improve my success rate against myself.  I hope the new-found awareness of my condition helps.  I'm determined to raise my game against myself.

When we fail or falter, we're quick to look for reasons beyond ourselves.  Perhaps our first port of call should be to check if we fooled ourselves along the way.

Fool me once, shame on you, except when it was me who fooled me.  Fool me twice and thrice and all the other times, shame, shame, shame on me.