How To Make The Most Optimal Decision (2134)

In today’s episode of Next Level University, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros talk about the idea of making optimal decisions and how having clear goals changes everything. From taxes to nachos to ChatGPT, they share real-life examples and personal stories that show how better choices come from learning, reflecting, and aiming for what matters most. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about getting better, step by step. Whether you're curious about how AI helps with decisions or why some of your past choices didn’t turn out well, this episode will leave you thinking differently about how you choose your next move.

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Show notes:
(3:06) ChatGPT and smarter decisions
(4:15) The problem with “just right” timing
(6:01) Goals define what’s optimal
(8:42) Wisdom comes from mistakes
(9:51) At NLU, your success is our purpose. Join our Monthly Meet-up every first Thursday of the month for tools, insight, and the spark to move forward. https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/NzwOxCMxTDyRJg4CLJS1qg
(13:03) Optimizing money based on priorities
(15:05) Short-term comfort destroys long-term belief
(17:16) Outro

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Chapters

• 3:06 ChatGPT and smarter decisions
• 4:15 The problem with “just right” timing
• 6:01 Goals define what’s optimal
• 8:42 Wisdom comes from mistakes
• 9:51 At NLU, your success is our purpose. Join our Monthly Meet-up every first Thursday of the month for tools, insight, and the spark to move forward.
• 13:03 Optimizing money based on priorities
• 15:05 Short-term comfort destroys long-term belief
• 17:16 Outro

Transcript

Alan Lazaros

(0:00) I am best friends with ChatGPT. (0:03) We hang out daily, we talk about stuff, and I have learned a ton, and I think it has helped me really understand that almost every single time, and maybe you'll push back on this and say almost, there is a decision that is optimal. (0:17) There is a decision that is the best.(0:20) It is the combination code that you are looking for. (0:22) That's what we're talking about today. (0:24) I was a big math and science geek early in life, and the reason I adored math and science is because I had a really hard time in my upbringing with my social life.(0:36) My birth father died when I was two, my stepfather left when I was 14, and to me, math and science gave me certainty, because in mathematics, there's only one right answer, and I loved that. (0:49) You could get to the same right answer 500 different ways, but there's only one right answer. (0:55) Gravity is 9.8 meters per second squared. (0:57) Yes, I'm a nerd. (0:58) Apparently it's 9.81, apparently, to one of my AP Calc teaching clients. (1:03) The point that I'm making is there is an optimal choice, but you kind of always get closer and closer and closer, and you never get there.(1:11) Welcome to Next Level University. (1:14) I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri, and I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus. (1:19) At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven, but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.(1:25) Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love, health, and wealth. (1:32) We bring you a new episode every single day on topics like confidence, self-belief, self-worth, self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits, and defining your own unique version of success. (1:48) Self-improvement in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free.(1:54) Welcome to Next Level University. (1:59) Next Level Nation today for episode number 2,134. (2:04) If you just sat through the longest cold open in the long, strange history of cold opens, we appreciate you.(2:09) How to make the most optimal... (2:11) How dare you. (2:12) ...decision. You know I had to call it out. (2:14) You don't think that length was optimal? (2:15) It was running. (2:16) It was running.(2:16) It was run-on. (2:18) Alan and I, so Alan joined the room today where we're doing this recording, and I said, I got something for your, for your bitch-ass. (2:25) Pardon, pardon the low...(2:26) Quick shout-out to Heather. (2:27) Okay. (2:28) Quick shout-out to Heather.(2:29) All right. (2:30) And then you can tell me what you got for me. (2:31) You told me you were going to do it.(2:32) I didn't know it was going to be the very, the very beginning. (2:34) Okay, here we go. (2:35) Huge shout-out to Heather.(2:36) She's in group 19. (2:37) I just wanted to say thank you for sharing the Next Level Dreamliner. (2:40) We appreciate you, and thank you to Amy for having Heather get the Dreamliner.(2:45) It will make you more productive. (2:46) Yeah. (2:47) Boom.(2:47) All right. (2:48) I got something for your bitch-ass, I said, as you joined the room, and you said, what is it? (2:53) And I said, so how many details do you want to...(2:56) Hey, I'm going to give all the details. (2:57) I owe money on my taxes. (3:01) We just got them done.(3:02) We filed for an extension. (3:03) I think I owe like $2,000. (3:04) All things considered, that's good.

Kevin Palmieri

(3:06) Awesome.

Alan Lazaros

(3:06) Yeah, strong one. (3:07) And I was like, I did a lot. (3:08) Alan, I did some research.(3:09) I did some chachapiting. (3:11) You can like do a payment plan for your taxes. (3:13) Of course.(3:14) And it's like very small interest. (3:17) Should we just do that instead of just paying it all off? (3:20) Because we could probably do better with that money and grow the business and all that stuff.(3:25) And he's like, dude, that's the way to my heart. (3:28) Just tell me the numbers. (3:29) Tell me the numbers.(3:31) Chachapiting, whatever you think of it, I know AI is scary and all that, I understand, has helped me make way more optimal decisions. (3:39) Because if you give it... (3:42) So my camera probably looks different in this episode.(3:44) I haven't found the optimal settings yet. (3:47) But I'm working on it every day, trying to figure out what are the optimal settings. (3:50) I don't know.(3:51) I haven't figured it out. (3:52) I'm not a professional camera guy. (3:54) I know a lot about cameras, but there's too many uncertainties.(3:58) I haven't found the optimal answer yet. (4:00) There is an optimal answer. (4:03) How do you find it?(4:04) Good sir. (4:06) Well, I wanted to ask you something, but how do you find... (4:09) The optimal stopping problem is life, in my opinion.(4:15) We all have to make choices. (4:18) And I shared this in book club, I'm going to share it here. (4:23) There is a cost value analysis that we all do every day without knowing it.(4:29) Our subconscious and unconscious mind is always analyzing what we should and shouldn't do based on our values, based on our goals, based on our beliefs, based on our thoughts and what we say, think, do, feel, believe. (4:42) Okay. (4:42) Awesome.(4:44) Optimal stopping problem. (4:45) You put the nachos in for three and a half minutes and they're burnt. (4:50) You put them in for 30 seconds and the cheese isn't melted.(4:53) And plus it's fat-free cheese that's actually kind of disgusting. (4:57) So it's terrible. (4:57) Yeah.(4:57) It's like plastic. (4:58) Yeah, exactly. (5:00) But you put it in for two and a half minutes and it's perfect.(5:04) That's life, in my opinion. (5:07) So it's the Goldilocks, too much, too little. (5:09) Everything is that way.(5:10) Kev playfully joked about my long, cold open. (5:13) That wasn't optimal. (5:14) It was not optimal.(5:15) One of the hardest things about speaking, dude, is that it feels impossible to find the optimal amount of information. (5:23) You start going down a certain path and then you're like, shit, am I losing people? (5:26) Do I have to get to the fucking point?(5:28) Okay. (5:29) How do you find the optimal decision? (5:31) It all depends on the goal.(5:32) And this is what scares me, if I'm being very honest, about people without goals. (5:40) If I want to gain weight, build muscle, what is optimal is to eat more. (5:47) If I want to burn fat, what is optimal is to eat less.(5:50) So everything you do and don't do, if you don't have a goal, you actually can't find an optimal anything. (5:58) And it all depends what you're optimizing for. (6:00) So if you ask yourself, what are you optimizing for?(6:02) Right now I'm optimizing for teaching an optimal stopping problem and helping this land. (6:07) I told Kev before we hit record, I said, I'm going to try really hard today to do effective communication. (6:13) I have something called the 25 impact points of effective communication, tonality, storytelling, uh, how loud you are, all these different things.(6:26) How do you powerful pauses? (6:28) How do you tell people what's the point of this episode? (6:31) What are we optimizing for on this episode?(6:32) This is a good way to explain it. (6:33) We're optimizing to help everyone leave here with a deeper understanding of themselves, others in the world. (6:38) Why?(6:39) So that you can make more optimal choices. (6:41) Why? (6:41) Because then your future will be brighter.(6:43) Why? (6:43) Because then the whole world gets better. (6:45) Why?(6:45) Because if you lead by example, you inspire, motivate, and educate others. (6:48) Okay. (6:48) Why?(6:50) Dude, we used to put, we used to put leeches on our skin to cure illness. (6:54) We used to love that smoke because it was so ignorant brother. (7:00) There are so many ignorant choices we've made in history.(7:05) I'm reading a book right now called sapiens. (7:07) It is insane how ignorant we were. (7:11) We thought the earth was flat.(7:13) We literally thought you were going to fall off the earth. (7:17) If you sail too far, you'll fall off the earth. (7:23) There's countless other ignorant.(7:25) And how ignorant are we now? (7:27) Hopefully less ignorant than ever, but probably not. (7:30) No, it is less ignorant than ever.(7:32) For sure. (7:33) Statistically. (7:33) Just because we know more.(7:34) Yeah, we know more. (7:35) It's the accumulation of knowledge over time. (7:37) What is the point of this podcast?(7:39) If you leave here without getting smarter, this, we are wasting your time. (7:42) In my honest opinion, I'm not joking. (7:44) If you don't leave here motivated or more educated, we are wasting your fucking time.(7:48) I don't even care about the motivated part, honestly. (7:51) Okay. (7:51) Well, well, okay.(7:53) Let's all think, and I do this in audiences. (7:56) I say, everyone think of a dumb choice that you made in high school. (8:01) I lost my virginity when I was 16 to a 19 year old girl.(8:05) And it was, I had, we didn't know each other well enough to do that. (8:10) Let's just say that. (8:11) And it was dumb.(8:13) Fortunately, there were no long term consequences and I was safe enough. (8:17) Not, not as much as I should have been, but safe enough. (8:21) The reason we all do dumb shit in high school is because we don't know how to make a choice.(8:26) Because we're all very ignorant. (8:29) We just don't know better. (8:31) You can't do better when you don't know better.(8:33) You don't have a lot of data. (8:35) Exactly. (8:35) You have no, and you don't have a lot of experience.(8:38) Very little. (8:39) So it's, you're a lot of stuff. (8:41) It's let's, would you put it this way?(8:42) It's almost impossible to do something optimally the first time you do it. (8:48) Yes. (8:48) And unless yeah, you, no way.(8:52) Right. (8:52) Let's just get like GPT is good at helping you decide better is because someone chat GPT is gathering the experiences and the data and the knowledge of the whole internet. (9:05) At one point, the internet didn't even exist 50 years ago.(9:08) There was no internet. (9:09) So we were so ignorant. (9:11) We just didn't know it.(9:11) That's actually one of the reasons why the quality of life has gone up statistically is because now we, we used to have libraries and encyclopedias and you used to have to go to the library to learn. (9:20) Now you can just Google it or chat GPT or whatever. (9:23) You have podcasts.(9:25) This StreamYard didn't exist. (9:26) Like if we just went through the companies that didn't exist 30 years ago, it would blow everyone's mind. (9:33) Google didn't exist.(9:35) Twitter didn't exist. (9:36) Instagram didn't exist. (9:37) X didn't exist.(9:38) Facebook didn't exist. (9:41) StreamYard didn't exist. (9:42) Podcasting didn't exist.(9:47) iPhones didn't exist. (9:52) NLU listener, what is happening? (9:54) I just wanted to jump in here and let you know, if you want to get to the next level faster, we have a free virtual monthly meetup at the first Thursday of every month.(10:03) You can connect with like-minded people and become a bigger part of this amazing global community. (10:08) The link to register will be in the show notes. (10:13) Everything we use every day is basically brand new in the history of humanity.(10:20) And so you asked me to explain optimal stopping problem. (10:23) An optimal stopping problem and how do you find out what's optimal? (10:27) You have to understand that you're never really going to find the optimal decision and it's a spectrum.(10:38) So let's say zero to 10. (10:40) 10 is optimal and or no, let's call five optimal. (10:44) 10 is too much and zero is too little.(10:45) This is the drive to five Kevin and I've been talking about for years. (10:49) Let's say I'm in high school and let's say I start talking to this girl from Rhode Island. (10:55) Hypothetically.(10:56) Hypothetically. (10:56) Of course. (10:57) And let's say she wants to hang out.(10:59) And so I drive to Johnston, Rhode Island, hypothetically, hypothetically, and we meet up and I lose my virginity. (11:08) And let's say, hypothetically, I am too reckless. (11:14) That's too reckless.(11:15) So maybe I'm at an eight. (11:17) Well, never taking any chances would be a two. (11:21) It's good to get socialized and to learn how to be intimate and learn about sex and learn how to be an adult.(11:27) And, you know, that's obviously a, uh, a thing that young men like to do. (11:33) So I learned from that experience, knowledge plus experience, plus reflection equals wisdom. (11:39) So I became more wise.(11:41) And this is the irony. (11:42) The only way you become more wise is usually after doing something really fucking stupid. (11:46) And so you basically spend your entire existence trying to figure out the optimal decision while knowing you pretty much never make the optimal decision.(11:59) And I think that's a duality we all have to live in at all times. (12:03) And it all depends on your goals and your values and your beliefs and your circumstances and your genetics. (12:08) What's the simplest form of the equation?(12:11) Goals. (12:13) Yeah. (12:14) Goals are what you're aiming for.(12:17) It's just what is the, what are the ingredients in the recipe? (12:23) And there's better and better and better and better ingredients, but you're never going to make the perfect meal. (12:30) Yep.(12:30) But you can make it better and better and better and better and better forever. (12:35) So it's leading, going to my example that I started with. (12:40) It would be optimal to not have to, and again, we could do it, but again, it's not optimal based on goal.(12:48) That's why it's so weird. (12:50) I could pay my taxes right now, but it wouldn't be optimal based on some other goals that we have. (12:56) But if those goals weren't the goals that we have, it would be optimal to just pay it.(13:00) Why, why pay interest on something you don't have to pay interest on? (13:03) That's why the goal changes everything. (13:06) Well, the circumstances do too, because we have other interest that is higher percentage than that.(13:11) So therefore it makes less sense. (13:14) And that's one of the things that, and this is why I'm so misunderstood. (13:19) If you don't know the mathematics of it, you kind of can't decide what's optimal.(13:24) This is the reason people are afraid of AI. (13:26) AI is smarter than them. (13:29) Well, Bill Gates just recently said, it's going to take at least a hundred years for AI to be able to program.(13:35) I don't agree with that. (13:36) I think it'll be probably 60, but computer programmers, you're good. (13:42) You guys are going to be great.

Kevin Palmieri

(13:43) For this lifetime.

Alan Lazaros

(13:44) Yes. (13:44) Yeah. (13:45) Exactly.(13:46) And, but this is the thing, anyone out there who's afraid of AI, we're all in the same boat. (13:53) We're all human beings. (13:54) And we all, we all have to deal with this.(13:57) So you're not alone. (13:58) It's not like only your job is going to get taken. (14:00) It's everyone's job is going to get taken and we're going to have to invent new jobs.(14:03) And so just make sure you're learning a ton because you're competing with other humans. (14:07) Yes. (14:08) You're competing with AI, but not really because there's 8 billion human beings.(14:11) We're not, we're not all just going to sit around doing nothing. (14:12) Some people will, unfortunately, but the optimal stopping problem piece, and this is why it's so hard to explain, brother, the decisions that we've made that we made seven years ago, that made no sense to you are now starting to make sense to you now. (14:29) And they'll make even more sense five years from now.(14:34) And they'll make even more sense 10 years from now. (14:36) And the reason why is because I was calculating all this based on a long trajectory. (14:40) And so what most people are optimizing for, I know we get a jump is having high self-esteem, which almost guarantees they have low self-esteem.(14:49) Let me explain. (14:50) If you back in the day, you would always optimize for whatever made you feel better. (14:55) And that's why you ended up in my opinion, having such low self-esteem because all of what gave you short-term pleasure was actually bad for long-term Kevin.(15:05) And eventually long-term Kevin becomes short-term Kevin. (15:08) And now all of a sudden, Kevin doesn't have self-respect because he's been optimizing for the short-term. (15:13) And this is sort of the conundrum of if you don't believe in yourself, why would you optimize for something 10 years from now?(15:19) But if you don't optimize for something 10 years from now, you're not actually going to build that much belief. (15:24) And that's called being stuck. (15:25) And that's why a lot of people are suffering.(15:27) And they feel like there's no way out because I was very fortunate to have big goals, very young, which forced me to build belief. (15:35) And that just expanded my life, expanded my life, expanded my life, expanded my life. (15:38) And I had a lot of really fucking dark moments, but overall, I always had a bright future that I could look forward to.(15:44) And I still do. (15:44) And I'm very grateful for that. (15:46) And so if nothing else, I hope everyone out there watching or listening is contemplating their future and contemplating the decisions you're making now that do ripple into your future, whether you're aware of it or not.(15:57) So the thing that goes directly, the thing that is directly opposite of your goals is the least optimal. (16:02) And then it moves in a positive direction from there, essentially, assuming you have the right goals. (16:07) And yes, but let's assume a day long seminar on this, but yeah, let's assume you do have the right goals.(16:11) And you're like, these are the goals I want. (16:13) I'm certain that I'm fuck. (16:13) Yeah, I love them.(16:14) Cool. (16:15) I really wish that you saw Star Trek because the films I think are good. (16:20) Spock and Captain Kirk are very much you and I, which one of my Spock?(16:25) No, hey, no. (16:27) Yeah. (16:27) I'm the captain with Spock is basic.(16:29) Yeah. (16:30) Spock is basically a chat GPT like, yeah, but I'm a captain. (16:36) I, I captained the ship.(16:39) Yes. (16:40) Good for Captain Kirk. (16:42) He's a handsome, handsome fellow as well.(16:44) Doesn't Spock have like giant ears? (16:46) Yeah. (16:48) Interesting.(16:48) Well, except that was the point I was trying to make. (16:51) Yeah. (16:51) That's what I was trying to make is that you're the captain and I have giant ears.

Kevin Palmieri

(16:54) Yeah.

Alan Lazaros

(16:54) At least I know. (16:55) I know enough contextually to add value to it. (16:57) All right, cool.(16:58) All right. (16:58) We're going to hop as Alan mentioned in the beginning, number one, shout out to Heather for the post about the next level dreamliner. (17:04) If you are looking to sustainably journal your way to your dreams, the dreamliner is the way to do it.(17:09) And we have a Facebook group called next level nation every day, a little bit better 0.1%. That's it. (17:15) That's what it's all about. (17:16) As always, we love you.(17:17) We appreciate you. (17:17) Grateful for each and every one of you in an NLU. (17:19) We don't have fans.(17:20) We have family. (17:21) We'll talk to you all tomorrow. (17:22) Keep it next level.(17:23) Next level nation. (17:26) Thanks for joining us for another episode of next level university. (17:30) We love connecting with the next level family.(17:33) We mean it when we say family. (17:35) If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. (17:38) Everything you need to get ahold of us is in the show notes.(17:42) Thank you again. (17:43) And we will talk to you tomorrow.