I've had two options last time I negotiated, and I couldn't really tell which project would be better. It's really hard to tell from the outside when the people

I've had two options last time I negotiated, and I couldn't really tell which project would be better. It's really hard to tell from the outside when the people giving you answers about the good and bad aspects of the job are the people trying to hire you. So in the end I just chose using the money. The not-so-surprising part is that the project is not as good as it was described. The surprising-but-unsurprising part is that the negative aspects are not at all what I would have predicted. Sure, I could have gone with the other company for less money; the odds are, I would have still had no idea beforehand w.r.t. what I'm getting into. Unless one of the teams/offers is obviously better, it's a crapshoot and the money is literally your only reliable data point. If you have to bail in a year (which I never had to do so far), at least you get more out of it.