Wise valuation

In this piece, we contemplate the wisdom in valuation of resources, which will help us consider the values of our daily lives, and ultimately, our lives.

Introduction to Wise Valuation

In the last piece, we were determined to believe that a wise decision is the one that is motivated to best love ourselves and love our loved ones. A wise decision is nothing but the entire process (decision-making process, execution of decision, and decision's expected outcomes) best align with the direction of truly loving oneself and one's loved ones. Making any decision requires making a judgment of the relative values of resources and the benefits of the decision.

Whether we are wise or not, at every decision point, we simulate the outcome and assign values to resources and benefits of each options to some degree. Regardless of how short or long the process decision-making process is, we value costs and benefits of each option.

Some decisions require a clearer valuation of costs and benefits; hence, the theory of wise valuation is at the heart of wisdom. To make a wise decision, our valuation of costs and benefits must be wise - which means we must be able to translate the resources we use for each decision into outcomes that best love ourselves and our loved ones.

Pursuing a wiser valuation is a wise endeavor, as it will help us handle complex problems that require the valuation of several resources and consequences. That's why we focus on wise valuation in this piece.

Resources and Fundamental Resources of Life

If a decision is costless in its process and execution, then a wise choice must be easy to make - just as we decide on whichever choice that the expected outcome is most well-aligned with loving ourselves and our loved ones.

Wisdom is most useful when the decision is difficult to make - when its process and execution are both very costly, where our valued resources are consumed and handed off. The most valuable resources of all are fundamental resources of life which all humanity share in common, throughout time and setting. You and I have four fundamental resources of life, which we expend for every moment of our lives. They are time, body, mind, and wealth. While we may face different environments, we have a sense of endowment and freedom to use those at our disposal. One can think of other kinds of resources in lives, but other resources can be made relevant in the context of fundamental resources, and often they can be summarized and translated in terms of fundamental resources.

Exchanging Daily Life for Fundamental Resources

Living a day is equivalent to making a series of decisions of trading the fundamental resources of life I possess for that day for something in return. Living a day as joyfully as possible means spending my time, physical strength, wealth, and mental energy within the freedom I have, to live the day in the happiest way possible. This is the worldview most common, and everyone is naturally inclined to do so, until the concept of wisdom arises. Let us say that living a day wisely means living a day where we choose to trade the fundamental resources of life to best love myself and love my loved ones.

Wise valuation

A valuation is a system which assigns value. Wise valuation is valuation that gives higher value to things that is more aligned with truly loving myself and my loved ones. Wise valuation of a decision among choices is valuing costs, process, execution and expected outcomes of choices, and deciding on a choice that is best aligned with truly loving myself and my loved ones.

Proposition 1: Fundamental resources are finite.

All fundamental resources are finite. It is quite easy to show this. Nobody has infinite time. Nobody has infinite physical and mental energy. No one, there are only finite assets, commodities, and services at any point in time.

[There is a great deal of wisdom to be studied in the wise definition of health, and wise management of fundamental resources of life which will be discussed in another piece.]

Now, we derive some useful facts about the valuation of resources and value of life.

Suppose I am from a person of any walks of life, and I am free to choose whatever I wanted to do with my fundamental resources of life.

Proposition 2: Fundamental resources are valuable.

It is almost trivial to show this. Time, body, mind, and wealth are all fundamental resources of lives which I use to love myself and my loved ones, and all else. They are resources that my loved ones and anyone use to love themselves and their loved ones. If I am wise, I must assign high value to these finite resources.

Proposition 3: If I actively choose something and it makes me happy, then it is because the value something must be greater than the value of the fundamental resources I trade for it.

Proposition 4: If I actively choose something wisely, then the value of something must be greater than the value of fundamental resources I trade for it.

These statements almost do not need exposition. If the value of fundamental resources consumed is more than the value of the choice, then we will not be happy, and we will rather use fundamental resources to choose something else. If the value of fundamental resource consumed is more than the value of wise choice, then the choice cannot be wise because fundamental resources must be the best choice that is aligned with truly loving myself and my loved ones. In summary, both active choices that make me happy and active choices I made wisely will be more valuable than resources used.

Proposition 5: If I actively choose something wisely, then the choice must be equally or more valuable than any choices any other choices.

This proposition pays respect to the axiom of wisdom we talked about in the last piece. Suppose that we find any choice which is strictly more valuable than my wise choice, then such a choice is not the choice that is best aligned with loving myself and loving my loved ones. Then it violates the axiom of wisdom because our foundation to determine a good decision was to align the decision to best love myself and my loved ones. Making a decision that is not best-aligned with loving myself and loving my loved ones is unwise. It must follow that unwise choice is less valuable.

Corollary 1: If I actively choose how to spend the daily allotment of time, body, mind, and wealth, then the value of my day must be more valuable than all four resources consumed.

Corollary 2: If I actively choose how to spend the entire life allotment of time, body, mind, and wealth, then the value of my life must be more valuable than all of my fundamental resources of life.

Following Corollary 1, this is easy to see. Add up all days, then you have the entire life. If each value of actively chosen day exceeds the value of daily exhausted fundamental resources of life, then the value of life must be greater than the entire endowment of fundamental resources of life.

Corollary 3: If I actively choose to be wise for the entire remaining life, then the value of my remaining life must be greater than value of my remaining fundamental resources of life.

Active choice that makes me happy is equally or less valuable than wise choice. Therefore, living remaining life wisely is more valuable relative to any other path of lives.

Corollary 4: If I am walking the path of wisdom each day, then there is no other path which I will make my life more valuable.

We arrived at several results by using three tools - introspection, common sense and axiom of wisdom.

It is always wise to live the remaining life wisely because doing so is more valuable than any other paths of life. [A future piece will cover someone's past is relevant and irrelevant in the context of wisdom.]

The maximum value of my life is nothing but the value of life in which I exhaust all my time, body, mind, and wealth to love myself and all my loved ones at each decision point, each day I live. In other words, the wise path is equivalent to exchanging the entire stock of fundamental resources for the truest version of love.

Keywords: Wise valuation, fundamental resources of life, value of each day, value of life.

Suggested previous piece: Foundation of Wisdom

Suggested next piece: Theory of self-love