Reflections on a TED Talk by Ruth Chang
There is a TED Talk I often return to — it’s by Ruth Chang, a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford, and it’s called How to Make Hard Choices.
It’s not focused on careers specifically, but it’s particularly relevant to the kinds of decisions people often face mid-career: situations where the options look quite different — a new field, further study, staying where you are but shifting focus — and yet no single option clearly stands out as the right one.
Chang explains that hard choices aren’t hard because we’re missing information or being indecisive, but that they are hard because the alternatives are, as she puts it, “on a par.” That is, each option has its own kind of value. They can’t be easily ranked, and there may be no obvious best.
Chang suggests that in moments like this, rather than continuing to search externally for the perfect reason to tip the scales, we can instead look inward. We have the capacity to create reasons — to decide which direction reflects who we want to become.
She calls this normative agency: the ability to put yourself behind a decision not because it’s objectively right, but because it’s the one you’re willing to commit to and invest in — the one that becomes right for you through your choice to back it.
This can be a helpful way of thinking about mid-career decisions: if you imagine what each option would ask of you — the energy, time, and choices it would involve — which one do you feel more able or willing to support? Which one are you more likely to shape into something meaningful?
The talk is just under 15 minutes — you can watch it below.
Reference
Chang, R. (2014, June). How to make hard choices [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/ruth_chang_how_to_make_hard_choices
