Why Following your Heart is Bullshit

Dreams are not a valid compass

When I was a kid I wanted to be a helicopter pilot. Then I found out that you need good eyesight for that, so I wanted to become a soldier. Then I wanted to be a cop. Then a Neuroscientist. Now? Who knows.

I have dreams, I have plans. But I very much recognize that my heart is fickle, it changes. Sometimes daily.

My heart is also the thing that tells that I can do another shot, or have that burger, or buy that shiny item. The heart wants to make you happy now, and damn the consequences.

The brain is what keeps you alive. The brain is what makes sure that you will survive to the next day. That job used to belong to the heart, the heart would tell you that there is something following you. And the brain would figure out the escape route. The heart would tell you that that cave was scary. But we have evolved beyond hunter gatherer days. The heart is nonetheless faithfully doing the job that is has for thousands of years.

But we are no longer in the hunter-gatherer age. Now the brain needs to make our decisions. Things are too complicated to listen to the heart all the time.

The heart is what leads to obesity, ironically death by heart attack, being broke, drugs, alcoholism, and living without thought for the future. The heart simply does not understand the complicated world we live in. It can’t think far enough ahead.