In January of 2009 German billionaire Adolf Merckle committed suicide after running up losses of 535 million betting against Volkswagen stock. A pittance to a man ranked as the world’s 94th richest man, personal worth of over 9.2 billion. Yet with the compelling losses were the financial uncertainties of the time along with the helplessness of no longer being able to act; combined to break the titian who chose to end his life instead of letting go to the change.
Last year suicides in the US military hit an all time high of 349; understandably the stress of combat can affect even the most stoic of personalities. How many of them were retirees is obscured by lumping veterans into a single mix; suffice to say, too many for a population who figured out how to survive in a violent-hostile environment; gives credence to winning the war but loosing the peace (of mind).
There is a wicked connection of self-esteem to competence; just as there is adequate research to support the notion where jobs provide a lot of shoring up of a person’s self-respect and self-image, (not the same thing as esteem). For good or ill it is not a case of low or high esteem as much as stable versus fragile high esteem. Research shows that even low self esteem is more resilient than fragile high self esteem. Fragile high self esteem is subject to crashing when external underpinning conditions change; and that’s what, like always? Seen in phenomena of successful men spiraling into depression and taking their own lives after leaving the coveted position of power at work. Most of the reading public reacted with aghast when learning that the German tycoon lost hope after losing a fraction of his wealth. Many still could not fathom why any successful person would not willingly live out their golden years basking in the rewards of their hard work and sacrifice. Very few understand how addicting the chase can be to achievers. We’re wired that way, it’s called satisficing, a portmanteau of satisfy and suffice.
Satisficing is a decision-making strategy that attempts to meet an acceptability threshold. This is contrasted with optimal decision-making, an approach that specifically attempts to find the best option available. A satisficing strategy may often be (near) optimal if the costs of the decision-making process itself takes too much time and we’re willing to accept a less than perfect solution to our problem. The word satisfice was given its current meaning by Herbert A. Simon in 1956, although the idea "was first posited in Administrative Behavior, published in 1947. Simon pointed out that human beings lack the cognitive resources to optimize: we usually do not know the relevant probabilities of outcomes, we can rarely evaluate all outcomes with sufficient precision, and our memories are weak and unreliable. A more realistic approach to rationality takes into account these limitations: This is called bounded rationality. Satisficing solution satisfies some criteria and sacrifices others.
We are psychologically predisposed towards results serving a defined purpose. In short; it is how our species has adapted over evolution to survive. If you stop to think of it, most of the history of mankind ritually faced seasons of famine. As roaming gatherers we would have to face winter after winter of slim pickings. We had to hunker down and hope for the spring to bring us food to continue; some did, the doubters didn’t. So yes, we are the progeny of optimistic folk who framed their efforts towards making it to the next fruitful season. Take the life-drive purpose out of a person’s life coupled with significantly flawed, or inappropriately timed satisficing and you will witness a withering; and in short order. We see it in close long-term married couples when one of the mates dies; it’s common. When we lose our purpose, we lose heart and give in to the ultimate demise of the flesh. How to continue in changing states is to find new purpose. Those who do adapt to the situational change, finding new interest, usually thrive; those that cling to the old matrix of doing things find themselves adrift and wanting for the zest of being who they say they are….or would it be the ghost of who they were?
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