Recommended soundtrack to listen to as you read: 1) Supertramp, “The Logical Song”, the lead single to their 1979 blockbuster Breakfast In America. 2) Jefferson Airplane, “White Rabbit”, the penultimate track on their 1967 sophomore album Surrealistic Pillow. 3) Yes, “I’ve Seen All Good People”, the opening track to side two of their 1973 breakthrough The Yes Album. 4) Depeche Mode, “Get The Balance Right!”, their seventh single, released January 1983.
When Reason Meets Emotion
September 18, 2024
I am pulled out of sleep by the ringing of my alarm clock. Faint rays of sunshine peek out from under the horizon as dawn breaks in, but I am surprisingly alert. And then I remember: I am on the West Coast, three hours behind my circadian home-time where morning is well underway.
The year is 2000 and I am attending my very first CCA Annual Meeting in hot and sunny Palm Springs, California. I had set my alarm to catch an early morning ride in a hot air balloon before the hot desert weather makes that unbearable.* (Plus, there are Annual Meeting sessions I need to go to later!)
As we lift off the ground, I feel some anxiety brewing inside me. I must be nervous. The walls of the basket look fairly low, there are some wind gusts in the air, and did I just see the hot air balloon pilot drink a glass of champagne?** I am getting a bad feeling about this adventure.
As our altitude climbs, I can see our shadow on the desert plains far below, and my rising anxiety and apprehension turn into a panic. Oh no!
But then hot air balloon’s "younger brother" flies overhead. And I reason – I was just on such an airplane traveling to Palm Springs. Was I scared of the high altitude then? I was not. And suddenly I felt more at ease. If I was okay flying on a plane at an altitude much higher than our present height, why be scared now.
In this situation I was able to use logic (perhaps somewhat flawed logic, but nonetheless) to overcome my fears and emotions.
We often think that there are two types of people: those who favor the hard cold logic of the intellect and those who prefer to rely on the emotion-laden pathways used by intuition.
So which is the better approach? This is an age-old debate to be sure, and I won’t get into the philosophical perspectives of Plato and Plotinus (the father of Neoplatonism) except to note that there are different interpretations of what their thoughts and feelings are on this topic. Rather, let’s see what the modern-day chess world has to say about this.*** Now chess is a game, perhaps the ultimate game, that we think of as rewarding logic and calculation. Yet, Magnus Carlson, Norwegian chess grandmaster, considered by many as the greatest of all time, often mentions how he is not the greatest “calculator” but rather relies on intuition.**** On the other hand, players who are considered great “calculators”, while certainly of high ranking, cannot encroach on the top players. Or to put it in Star Trek terms, there is a reason why Captain Kirk is captain and Mr. Spock is not.*****
As actuaries, we often think that we lean towards logic and calculation. However, this way of thinking can make us vulnerable to undetected bias. While we assume that emotions inherently have bias, there can also be bias in our logic, where it is often more difficult to detect, especially if we are not looking for it. In reality, we are not just pure logicians, but use a mixture of reason and intuition: our intuition is informed by logic, and it is logical to reflect our intuition and account for our emotions.
So what is the right answer to this age-old question? That will be different for each person. We are at our best when we allow space for both to interplay – where reason meets emotion – in proper proportions. Our greatest challenge then is to get the balance right!
*For those interested in the history of flight and in the earliest attempts at ballooning, see my blog post from last month “Where Have All The Polymaths Gone?”.
**There is indeed a long association between ballooning and champagne; however, that tradition does not include the pilot drinking champagne before safely landing us!
***For a clever take using chess as a metaphor for life, watch the episode “Checkmate” from Patrick McGoohan’s 1967 masterpiece, The Prisoner; and for more on The Prisoner, see my June 3, 2024 blog post “ The Space Between”. For a lyrical metaphor, listen to the third song on my “recommended soundtrack” above (Yes, “I’ve Seen All Good People”).
****For an interesting read on this, see blogger Roaring Pawn’s article, “Carlsen, Tal, Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, All in Unison: Chess is About Intuition”, dated August 3, 2020 (retrieved September 17, 2024 from chess.com).
*****This becomes readily apparent in episodes where Spock takes over as captain in Kirk’s absence.
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