argonz

Recently had a strange decision circumstance, I had to choose if I would go for a weekend course or not. There were reasons for why I would really go, but also wariness that it could go wrong and I would be stuck there. It was not the classical choosing among endless alternatives case, but as a maximizer the emotional state was very similar. The same creeping uneasiness, the relentless scanning for any possible detail/hints how it would go. This numbing feeling that I somewhat perhaps could do better, but all of this without the actual alternatives, indeed more like staying with the default.

What I would be interested is what others found useful in this situation, what had worked for you? What kind of thinking ends you up with a state, where you are content and satisfied with your decision? (I'm actually not fan of the numerical/utility/probability idea, I'm more into what would be a mental process, step-step framing and processing the alternatives/context, I'm just not sure how)

Taleb had a quote about this which I really like, he said that if we have more than one reasons to do something, it's quite probable that we are trying to convince ourselves to do that thing, and deep down we probably have some reserves. If the case is that we need to be robust to error, eg. deciding to marrying someone, it's better to just not do it. But in my case it's obviusly not this kind of big decision, and indeed probably a good source of learning experience, but also exactly the "convincing myself" case, so how one decides? http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/715415-if-you-have-more-than-one-reason-to-do-something