How to Choose the "Right" Values: A Conversation with Spencer Greenberg

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Image above: The cover image of Mark Carney's book Value(s). Although the book is focused on socio-economic commentary, the play-on-words captures the difficulty of pinning down a single definition for the term 'values.'

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Enter Values

I talk a big game when it comes to values - for me, values are the principles that guide your life.

Having an understanding of your values is critical for living a reflective life. And, once you learn to make decisions based on your values, the difficult “forks in the road” get a lot easier to navigate.

But, how do you know which values are the “right” values? Is there such a thing as “good” values?

I recently spoke with Spencer Greenberg about this. Spencer is an entrepreneur and mathematician with a focus on improving human well-being through social science. He coined the term "Valuism” and has been featured on top-ranking podcasts like The One You Feed and Modern Wisdom. He’s the host of the Clearer Thinking podcast.

This post is a brief summary of some of our thinking on values as well as an opportunity to share our conversation with you.

To start, here’s how Spencer describes Valuism:

Many of us struggle at times to know what to do. We are surrounded by conflicting advice about how to live our lives – from our parents, peers, and communities, from ancient philosophers, and from modern gurus and intellectuals. Faced with these conflicting opinions and a limited amount of time until we die, what should we focus our lives on?

I offer one answer to this question: my life philosophy, which I call Valuism. Simply put, if you’re a Valuist, you first work to figure out what you intrinsically value, and then you try to use effective methods to create more of what you intrinsically value.

Note that the phrase “intrinsic value” refers here to something you value for its own sake rather than something you value merely as a means to other ends. Some intrinsic values we are born with, and others we develop through our experiences.

I believe that there are “good” and “bad” values in the sense that if your goal is happiness, there are evidence-based habits that support that goal. In other words, we have an idea of which habits contribute to happiness - it’s not a mystery.

One of the wonders of psychology is that there’s a lot of overlap between what both the Buddhists and Stoics proposed as principles for well-being, and the contemporary research on Positive Psychology.

In our conversation - on the Clearer Thinking podcast - Spencer and I discuss how to define and identify your values, as well as the relationship between schema therapy and values-based living:

I’d also recommend checking out Spencer’s Intrinsic Values Test, for identifying values. It’s a detailed self-assessment and takes some time, but it’s well worth the data and the personalized summary you’ll get at the end.

Let me know what you think - getting clarity on your values takes reflection (and trial and error), but over time, once you gain that clarity, it can be life-changing.