The Defect of Freedom

When too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing

When does freedom become limiting?

Above: Neo in the Contsruct

Perhaps this question seems absurd, even paradoxical. By definition, freedom is about the elimination of limits... so how can the pursuit of this goal result in its opposite?

We like to think that freedom is an unequivocally good thing. This value is ubiquitous in our culture, both on a societal level and an individual. On the societal level, the last 100 years (and especially the last 10) have been heavily focused on the promotion of rights and freedoms for minorities. The women’s suffrage movement, the civil rights movement, the ending of apartheid, the gay rights movement, and now the LGBT movement, Black Lives Matter, and more.

On an individual level, we are constantly encouraged to seek out our own unique desires (“Be True to Yourself!”), and corporations are knocking down our doors to provide whatever experience or sensation we could possibly want: personalized Netlflix and Spotify algorithms, 2-day shipping through Amazon, dating apps that serve up endless streams of potential dates.

So the unspoken assumption is: Having more options is always better, right?

Note: While I’m all for γνῶθι σεαυτόν, and Polonius’ advice to Laertes, some of this pap (above) is a bit ridiculous.

Now don’t get me wrong, I will be the first to assert that more freedom and more options are generally good things. I love the optionality of Taleb.

But isn’t it also true that sometimes too much of a good thing is a bad thing? Remember Goldilocks? The story quite simply reminds us that Optimal (in whatever context) is simply a matter of balance. Too little or too much are equally unsatisfying.

Perhaps a more convincing example is Aristotle's Golden Mean. Aristotle pointed out, nearly 2000 years ago, that every attitude or emotion had a particular balance. For example:

1. Courage is the balance of arrogance and humility.

   1. Too little courage is a lack of confidence in our own worth, which leads to cowardice.

   2. But too much courage is an overestimation of our own competency, which leads to rashness and endangerment.

2. Ambition is the balance of desire and contentment.

   1. Too little ambition is laziness and sloth and a lack of development.

   2. But too much ambition is greed and lust, which cause us to hurt others.

3. Honesty is the balance of openness and reservation.

   1. Too little honesty is secrecy and deception and white lies, or merely withholding compliments, or refusing to speak up against injustice.

   2. But too much honesty is loquacity and TMI (Too Much Information), hurting others with unnecessary comments that are better left unsaid.

Of course, there are many more examples, as Aristotle was kinda obsessed with lists, but I’ll spare you the pedantry and assume you are getting the point— even with things that seem like naturally good values, they can become counterproductive when overdone.

Perhaps my favorite application of this principle is to use it upon itself— "Everything in moderation, even moderation." Which means that sometimes you have to let loose and go a little crazy and be excessive.

But in general, we want to follow the Golden Mean, and keep things in balance, because excess is dangerous. While this is obvious with things like eating and alcohol and even exercise, it’s not so obvious with abstract values like the above. Which leaves us with Freedom being something that we never question. We just accept that more is always better.

But so when does freedom become excessive?

There's an old Jewish parable that goes like this: Imagine for a moment God, who is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. He is everywhere at all times, for all time, knows everything that ever was and is and will be, and can do everything. So what does this God lack?

Below: Image of God captured by the James Webb telescope (2023)

This God lacks one thing - Limitation.

Without limitation, there is nowhere to go, nothing to do. This God cannot grow or change or develop. He cannot be surprised, or delighted, because everything always goes according to plan. Everything just IS.

Now the point of this story is not that we can understand God, or that he is boring. We don't really know, and probably never can comprehend God. Instead, the point of the story is that is for beings like us, unlimited freedom is actually quite limiting.

Let’s bring this idea back down to earth.

Consider another imaginary person- a billionaire who has so much money that he can buy anything. Do you think this person is bored? Perhaps not, perhaps most of us imagine that this is the ideal. We envy him. But take a moment to actually imagine what it would be like to live out that life.

Once you have 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 homes, and all the cars you could want, and all the suits and watches and rings, all the coolest gadgets and gizmos, the latest iPhone (every 4 months), all the tiki heads and abstract paintings and Turkish rugs…

…then what? There's no struggle, nothing to earn, nothing that's valuable or novel enough to satisfy for very long.

Perhaps this example still isn't obvious or persuasive enough. You might think that if you were the person in this scenario, you would do things differently. Ok, fine.

Allow me to share a personal example. Now I’ve never had that much money in real life, but I have been that rich in a video game. And though it was just a simulation, I assure you that the impact on my real-life satisfaction and motivation was very real; palpable, even.

Grand Theft Auto V is one of the most popular and successful video games of all time, with nearly 200 million copies shipped and over $6B in revenue. In the game, players can live out their fantasy life in an online world, completing jobs (of questionable legality) to earn money, so they can outfit their in-game avatar with new clothes and cars and homes. It's a really enjoyable and rewarding (even addicting) gameplay loop, but it takes a lot of grinding and hours of dedicated effort to earn the more valuable items in the game.

But what happens when players have so much money that they can buy anything and everything in the game? This actually happened to me, when another player who was cheating just randomly gifted me $1 trillion of in-game currency. So naturally, I did what any reasonable person would do. I stopped doing those tedious jobs and immediately went on a shopping spree. I used my jackpot to buy the nicest and coolest cars in the game, the sweetest penthouse, the most baller outfits.

Not actually my avatar, but pretty close to what I did.

Was it fun? Absolutely!

But not for long. Very quickly, the novelty wore off, because there was nothing really left for me to do. I didn't need to struggle through the jobs, or compete in any way. I also felt a little fake driving around in my gold-plated Bugatti, since I didn’t really earn it. And so I quickly became bored and I haven't picked up the game since.

So it's a cliché, but it's true, that life is really all about the journey, and not the destination. This is equally true in video games as it is in the real world.

But an inherent part of the journey is the necessity of boundaries, boundaries which we strive to overcome as we continue to grow, develop, evolve. Something to struggle against. Without limitation, there is nothing to do, nowhere to go.

So what’s the point? Well this essay is actually the first part in a really robust series of essays on this topic. But suffice it to say for now that we are ultimately going to look at the inverse of this idea— when limits become freeing. And I’ll admit, this is an unconventional idea, but for that very reason, it’s also extremely powerful.

If you're still not convinced, in the next essay, we are going to look at a concrete example, one backed up by the scientific method and loads of experimental evidence. We’ll see how this excessive freedom actually plays out in our individual lives on a day-to-day basis, regardless of whether you are an infinite god, a sybaritic billionaire, or just a regular person.