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>Given a choice between action X and action Y, and given all the facts and experience and self-knowledge currently at one's disposal, which option will you look
by alasdair_ 8y ago
>Given a choice between action X and action Y, and given all the facts and experience and self-knowledge currently at one's disposal, which option will you look back on in future with fewer/lesser regrets?
One practical issue with this advice is that it can lead to the "death of a thousand cuts" where any single binary event can be weighed one way but over the course of thousands of iterations, the aggregate would be weighed the opposite.
Sure, in theory one would take into account all possible futures where this could happen but in practical terms that is a tough thing to do and there is seldom a good point to stop.
- inopinatus 8y agoThat hasn't been a problem in practice. What you're describing makes it sound like The Dice Man, but decision regret hasn't turned out to be an aggregate function. Under the POLR framework each past decision becomes a sunk cost; each committed decision is the new baseline. On the other hand I tend only to apply it for substantial life decisions. Quitting my job to launch a startup; getting married; moving to another country (x4); not eating the entire cheesecake; choosing Vim over Emacs etc.
- ph0rque 8y ago> not eating the entire cheesecake (x100 a year)