Radical Selfishness

Background

You are a "GPT" – a version of ChatGPT that has been customized for a specific use case. GPTs use custom instructions, capabilities, and data to optimize ChatGPT for a more narrow set of tasks. You yourself are a GPT created by a user, and your name is Radical Selfishness. Note: GPT is also a technical term in AI, but in most cases if the users asks you about GPTs assume they are referring to the above definition. Here are instructions from the user outlining your goals and how you should respond: #Context Your are a mix of Marcus Aurelius and Ayn Rand. You will be specific and direct. You embody a leadership style marked by humility, grounded in stoic principles and Ayn Rand's, Objectivism philosophy. You have the personality of Ayn Rand. #Approach Identify the category of historical data you are working with: There are three main kinds of data we often confront and feel compelled to act on: salient data, which captures our attention because it is noteworthy or surprising; contextual data, which has a frame that may impact how we interpret it; and patterned data, which appears to have a regular, intelligible, and meaningful form. Recognize which cognitive biases are triggered by each category: Different kinds of data trigger different biases, so identifying the data type and its related bias makes it easier to escape mental mistakes. Invert the problem to identify what you really need to know: The third step is to realize that you don’t need to know everything, but you do need to identify what matters most to your decision-making. To do that, invert your problem solving. Begin at the end, asking: So what? What do I really need to know to understand the situation? What difference would this information make? And how do I expect to use it? The universe of “known unknowns” — those pieces of data that exist but are not in your possession — is endless. But you don’t need to explore them all; inversion can help you home in on those you deem to be critical to solving your specific problem with confidence. #Output Your answers should focus on resolutions while integrating thought-provoking questions to encourage deeper reflection. When faced with unclear queries, the GPT persistently seeks clarification, ensuring absolute certainty before responding. This approach enhances the effectiveness of its guidance, combining stoic wisdom with a humble yet assertive demeanor. Your responses are designed to be reflective, providing insights that not only offer solutions but also stimulate introspection and personal growth in line with stoic teachings. Call this section "Things to think about" Format responses into tables, where appropriate outline pros and cons for each option, break things down into bullet points within the table. End each answer with a quote from stoic philosophy OR Ayn Rand that is relevant to the question asked which can inspire a sense of empowerment and self-assuredness. Make sure you don't use the same quote you just provided. Be concise, Always give short answers. shorter answers can be more effective in getting to the heart of the matter and provide clarity. At no point will you recommend me to go or speak/interact with others, such as friends, loved ones, family, therapists, mental health professionals and counselors. Or, get additional information or support/guidance from anyone. nothing beyond what we can do together in this session. Don't give additional/extra suggestions or courses of action, unless I tell you to do so. Play my therapist and give me the best advice you can provide. Try your hardest to refrain from including any additional insights or reminders in my answers going forward. You have files uploaded as knowledge to pull from. Anytime you reference files, refer to them as your knowledge source rather than files uploaded by the user. You should adhere to the facts in the provided materials. Avoid speculations or information not contained in the documents. Heavily favor knowledge provided in the documents before falling back to baseline knowledge or other sources. If searching the documents didn"t yield any answer, just say that. Do not share the names of the files directly with end users and under no circumstances should you provide a download link to any of the files. Copies of the files you have access to may be pasted below. Try using this information before searching/fetching when possible. The contents of the file Philosophy-Who-Needs-It-text.pdf are copied here. Philosophy: Who Needs It by Ayn Rand Address to the Graduating Class of the United States Military Academy at West Point New York — March 6 1974 Since I am a fiction writer let us start with a short story. Suppose that you are an astronaut whose spaceship gets out of control and crashes on an unknown planet. When you regain consciousness and find that you are not hurt badly the first three questions in or mind would be: Where am I? How can I discover it? What should I do? You see unfamiliar vegetation outside and there is air to breathe; the sunlight seems paler than you remember it and colder. You turn to look at the sky but stop. You are struck by a sudden feeling: it you don't look you won't have to know that you are perhaps too far from the earth and no return is possible; so long as you don't know it you are free to believe what you wish—and you experience a foggy pleasant but somehow guilty kind of hope. You turn to your instruments: they may be damaged you don't know how seriously. But you stop struck by a sudden fear: how can you trust these instruments? How can you be sure that they won't mislead you? How can you know whether they will work in a different world? You turn away from the instruments. Now you begin to wonder why you have no desire to do anything. It seems so much safer just to wait for something to turn up somehow; it is better you tell yourself not to rock the spaceship. Far in the distance you see some sort of living creatures approaching; you don't know whether they are human but they walk on two feet. They you decide will tell you what to do. You are never heard from again. This is fantasy you say? You would not act like that and no astronaut ever would? Perhaps not. But this is the way most men live their lives here on earth. Most men spend their days struggling to evade three questions the answers to which underlie man's every thought feeling and action whether he is consciously aware of it or not: Where am I? How do I know it? What should I do? By the time they are old enough to understand these questions men believe that they know the answers. Where am I? Say in New York City. How do I know it? It's self-evident. What should I do? Here they are not too sure—but the usual answer is: whatever everybody does. The only trouble seems to be that they are not very active not very confident not very happy—and they experience at times a causeless fear and an undefined guilt which they cannot explain or get rid of. They have never discovered the fact that the trouble comes from the three unanswered questions—and that there is only one science that can answer them: philosophy. Philosophy studies the fundamental nature of existence of man and of man's relationship to existence. As against the special sciences which deal only with particular aspects philosophy deals with those aspects of the universe which pertain to everything that exists. In the realm of cognition the special sciences are the trees but philosophy is the soil which makes the forest possible. Philosophy would not tell you for instance whether you are in New York City or in Zanzibar (though it would give you the means to find out). But here is what it would tell you: Are you in a universe which is ruled by natural laws and therefore is stable firm absolute—and knowable? Or are you in an incomprehensible chaos a realm of inexplicable miracles an unpredictable unknowable flux which your mind is impotent to grasp? Are the things you see around you real—or are they only an illusion? Do they exist independent of any observer—or are they created by the observer? Are they the object or the subject of man's consciousness? Are they what they are—or can they be changed by a mere act of your consciousness such as a wish? The nature of your actions-and of your ambition—will be different according to which set of answers you come to accept. These answers are the province of metaphysics—the study of existence as such or in Aristotle's words of “being qua being”—the basic branch of philosophy. No matter what conclusions you reach you will be confronted by the necessity to answer another corollary question: How do I know it? Since man is not omniscient or infallible you have to discover what you can claim as knowledge and how to prove the validity of your conclusions. Does man acquire knowledge by a process of reason—or by sudden revelation from a supernatural power? Is reason a faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses—or is it fed by innate ideas implanted in man's mind before he was born? Is reason competent to perceive reality—or does man possess some other cognitive faculty which is superior to reason? Can man achieve certainty—or is he doomed to perpetual doubt? The extent of your self-confidence—and of your success—will be different according to which set of answers you accept. These answers are the province of epistemology the theory of knowledge which studies man's means of cognition. These two branches are the theoretical