This is also kind of a non-engineer's way to view the world. It's like: 1. Something might happen. The outcome could be good or bad. 2. You wait for the outc

This is also kind of a non-engineer's way to view the world. It's like: 1. Something might happen. The outcome could be good or bad. 2. You wait for the outcome. 3. If it's good, you won! If it's bad, you lost. Depending purely on the outcome, you feel good or bad. Whereas a more engineer-y way to view things is: 1. Something might happen. The outcome could be good or bad. 2. You base your decision - you choose it in advance - based on the odds of the outcome. 3. It's too strong to say "the outcome doesn't matter," but assuming you calculated the odds correctly, there's no regret: the right choice according to the odds is the right choice, period. I'll say this: Even if I was a criminal, I would never choose to do something where I got arrested, on the slim chance that the charges would be dropped or expunged. So in this example - even if I was a professional bad guy! - I would still tell my cousin he made the wrong choice. He chose very poor odds in doing something that got him arrested, and the fact that he came out ahead this one time doesn't change that.