Last year, I had to choose what I would research in my honours year of my Computer Science degree. I actually remember thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to use all of the techniques I have learned from LW’. I sat down for several hours, carefully analysing my situation, and came to the conclusion, I should research A. It is the superior option on every non-trivial metric I can think of. This is the rational decision.
But then, I chose to research B, because I would have been embarrassed to have to explain my choice of A to my family. And that was it.
An interesting subset is the bad decisions you made that you knew at the time were bad, not just in retrospect, but did it anyway.
Last year, I had to choose what I would research in my honours year of my Computer Science degree. I actually remember thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to use all of the techniques I have learned from LW’. I sat down for several hours, carefully analysing my situation, and came to the conclusion, I should research A. It is the superior option on every non-trivial metric I can think of. This is the rational decision.
But then, I chose to research B, because I would have been embarrassed to have to explain my choice of A to my family. And that was it.