I think motivated reasoning is mostly bad, but there is some value to having some regularization towards consistency with past decisions. for example, there are often two almost-equally good choices you can make, but you need to commit to one instead of indefinitely waffling between the two, which is way worse than either option. having some delusional confidence via motivated reasoning can help you commit to one of the options and see it through. I’ve personally found that my unwillingness to accept motivated reasoning also has the side effect that I spend a lot more time in decision paralysis.
I think motivated reasoning is mostly bad, but there is some value to having some regularization towards consistency with past decisions. for example, there are often two almost-equally good choices you can make, but you need to commit to one instead of indefinitely waffling between the two, which is way worse than either option. having some delusional confidence via motivated reasoning can help you commit to one of the options and see it through. I’ve personally found that my unwillingness to accept motivated reasoning also has the side effect that I spend a lot more time in decision paralysis.