Everything does NOT happen for a reason | Brian Klaas

About the video: “We control nothing but influence everything.” Political scientist Brian Klaas on how every decision we make - both massive and miniscule - shapes our futures.

How does your entire life change when you decide, one morning, to hit the snooze button? How did one vacation to a Japanese city prevent it from a national attack?

Political scientist Brian Klass explains what is commonly known as “the butterfly effect,” the idea that tiny changes divert the trajectory of our entire lives.

These “ripples” show us that while nothing happens “for a reason,” every single thing we do matters. One random choice has the power to alter the course of history. These invisible “flukes” influence our lives, societies, and the world as we know it.

0:00 The vacation
1:33 The noise
1:57 Everything doesn’t happen for a reason
2:20 Contingency vs. Convergence
3:00 The Snooze Button effect
4:35 The interconnectedness of life
6:20 Cosmic purpose vs. accident

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About Brian Klaas:

Dr. Brian Klaas is an Associate Professor in Global Politics at University College London, an affiliate researcher at the University of Oxford, and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He is also the author five books, including Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters (2024) and Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us (2021). Klaas writes the popular The Garden of Forking Paths Substack and created the award-winning Power Corrupts podcast, which has been downloaded roughly three million times.

[psychclone]

There’s a big difference between “everything happens for a reason” and “we can find meaning in anything/everything that happens”. We are meaning-making machines as a result of evolution and the survival benefits of pattern recognition, but that also means we see patterns and causality where there is none. The vast majority of what we think “happens for a reason”, is just our brain projecting meaning and illusory patterns on random chaos.

[jeremyfarley]

Years ago I was really diving deep into Buddhism. I was paying close attention to everyones behavior and had noticed that everything we had a cookout, all the couples were stressed out and arguing about who's turn it is to watch their child. I decided to do an experiment and decided this time I would just hang out with all the kids. Keep them occupied, had lots of activities, and pretty much played the role of fun babysitter. It was amazing watching how that change affected the whole vibe of the party. How the couples interacted with themselves and others. The stress was gone. Not one argument that I noticed and everyone had a great time. Years later some of them remembered what a great party we had that day. I've often wondered how those ripples manifested after the party. Did maybe someone's relationship get a little bit better? Was someone a bit nicer to that gas station cashier who then after having a good day at work decided to help that person with a flat tire? I tend to look on the positive side and think, in general the outcomes probably are positive but not necessarily so. What if after the party one couple ended up fighting over things that came to light during the party. Comparing themselves to other couples that seem happier. Comparing their husband to this guy who is great with kids and seemingly puts them first. Maybe that gas station cashier stopped to help a killer. As far as I know nothing of the sort happened but it has amazed me ever since, the profound effect that one person's actions can have. It's overused but we really are all floating in a sea and all of our actions create ripples that make our neighbors bobb up and down in the waves. I've never told anyone about my little experiments. Figured for them to work, no one can know that I'm manipulating them. Imagine the kind of impact I could make if I wasn't so lazy and it wasn't so exhausting? 😅

[MissBlueEyeliner]

I’ve been obsessed with this concept since I was old enough to see my face in the mirror above the sink in the bathroom. I obviously didn’t have words for it but I would stare at myself and marvel at my existence and how bizarre it is to exist at all. It gradually grew to drive me a little mad. Now I find it soothing.

[driesverhaag]

I love the people you get on these videos, almost always very interesting, passionate and well spoken guests. But I the comments on these videos are just so weird most of the time. Anyway, great video

[sw]

Right up there with “everything happens for a reason” is “god never sends you more than you can handle.” Every day, everywhere we see alcoholics, drug addicts, and suicides because people received more trouble than they could deal with. My least favorite is after something goes horribly wrong and things finally begin to turn in a more positive direction, people say “god has your back.” If god had your best interests at heart, you wouldn’t have been in that miserable circumstance in the first place. Life is full of unplanned events, how you respond to them is genetic and based on your prior experience. What’s causing so many problems is that we aren’t taught how to articulate our needs and boundaries, in the US guns are a quick fix. How much better if these gunmen would just talk to the rest of us-and no incels this doesn’t mean you only talk to the hotties, it means you talk to everyone like they’re a human being.

[RealDealy]

I learned this when I was younger, and started puffing herb, I noticed it was the small things I didn't plan that changed my life towards the goals I wanted BUT, it was all based on me making quick decisions. It felt like it was me being tested cause when I made poor choices, my life got HARD, but because it got hard I learned what NOT to do after that

I used to think I was put here for a purpose, but as I got older I realized it was ME who was creating these purposes. I think people want to believe they were born with a purpose cause it takes the responsibility of their choices off of them

[frogery]

the best thing i ever did for myself was to stop worrying about these questions. i can only control my own actions and reactions, and whatever happens was meant to happen.

[SachiJones]

The statement “everything happens for a reason” can be interpreted more than one way. It seems like it's most often interpreted something like, "This unfortunate event occurred but some good will come from it, " which seems to be about finding meaning. But I also hear it this way: "This unfortunate event occurred because of these preceding events." I think in this context everything probably does happen for a reason, by which I mean that for every thing there is a reason, a preceding cause, for its occurrence. And every thing in turn will cause an effect.

[dennistucker]

Love this video. Brian is talking about time and how things change over time. I did a thought experiment on this. I thought what if I could go back in time and undo a mistake. After some considerations, I came to the conclusion that it would most likely change or remove every good thing in my life.

[mpv]

Sitting here on my patio watching this, next to my butterfly garden, full of monarch, gulf fritillary, swallowtails etc in their various stages... just doing my small part to save them, our planet, and allll 8B of us 🙏💚🦋 ♾

[Zedxp]

I think we, as humans, just always want to see connections and meanings of things to make ourselves feel better that's why it is often told that everything happens for a reason

[amandanorth]

Beautiful model:elegant and useful. I think we experience "meaning" as a function of how deeply an experience resonates in our brains, how many connections we make to previous experience (conscious and subconscious) and to our current worldview - our expectations, hopes, dreams and fears.

[jaquessiemasz]

"It's just a ride" - Bill Hicks 1992

[desiree.s]

I was with him until I realized we’re just in the middle of him on his journey of finding purpose and him not tangibly realizing it yet. Please remember, teachers are on their own path and can only teach from their experience as of the moment they’re speaking. He’ll come to different conclusions the further he goes into his journey. I definitely believe in his beginning thoughts though. ✨

[bitofwizdomb]

I’ve always thought like this . Always been fascinated with the intricate interplay of cause and effect down to the smallest atoms, awareness, ripple effect etc. Buddhism philosophy/psychology teaches about this

[locaterobin]

"Everything happens for a reason" is a way to reframe/reinterpret events - which have already happened, and their consequences are beyond our control - in a less distressful way. It's a coping mechanism.

Also, it's a leap from "we don't have a cosmic purpose" to "I am free to enjoy life!". Our life comes at a cost to others as we consume to live, and consumption causes suffering (sometimes direct, sometimes a few steps removed). The least we can do is to ascribe a meaning to our lives, by helping those who can't help themselves.

[know]

Fate is our current circumstances in the present moment, free will is how we respond to our fate, and our destiny is a result of those choices.

Our future is an ever-changing potentiality from the present moment, and our past is an ever-changing integration from the present moment. Time converges through healing (the past) and surrender (the future) in the timeless, eternal now.

[FizzySplash]

The fact that people exist thinking that life is just a random series of events that they are born into and from there they can do whatever they want until they die and whatever happens afterwards doesn't matter is ridiculous. So many awful things continue to happen today because people in the past set a precedent and other people continued it because they learned that was what they should do from the people who thought a world of shitty experiences for everyone but "clearly the best person that deserves better than everyone else" along with their friends was the best way to act and passed on that thought process.

[Penwiggle]

Just bought your audiobook. Can’t wait to start listening to it.

[DarkoNomad]

I enjoy listening to Brian and perspective of the world that he is exploring