Historically, the term “Egonomics” was used by Thomas Schelling in 1978, to describe the ways in which people manage themselves – either to do or avoid doing particular activities or behaviours – in order to make unpleasant or difficult decisions unnecessary.
However, contrary to Schelling’s definition, “Egonomics” here is comprised of two terms – “Ego” and “omics”. Ego means the self-awareness, a part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing, and also a sense of personal identity. However, the suffix –omics derives its meaning from biology that means a study in the totality of an entity, which in this case is self. Thus, I define “Egonomics” as a process of developing holistic awareness of “awareness” itself. It should not be confused self-perception, self-identity or similar terms.
Similar to the belief of Schelling, at the core of Egonomics is the idea that within each individual exists two selves: the past or future self and the present self, constantly at odds, leading to a sort of cognitive dissonance between the two. Both selves exist within us and are equally valid, but aren’t always active at the same time. It’s a natural and ongoing conflict between immediate desire and long-term desires, we call longing. Egonomics is the pursuit of awareness of that longing and in this blog, I share my experiences.
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