Big problem for me, particularly when I’m uncertain about whether some Bad Thing will happen. It’s like I’m following a decision tree, and I get stuck at the junction—“What if the Bad Thing Happens?”
A solution that helps me is to assume the bad thing happens—what then? Calculate it out. Unstuck. Now calculate out what happens if the Bad Thing doesn’t happen. Then add probabilities of each event, do a weighted sum in the head, and I’m done!
But just uncertainty is a problem. Same solution helps. Got to get past the junction of possible events, and the only way to do it is one at a time.
I have a related issue when there is a Bad Thing I expect to happen, but don’t know when it will happen. Maintaining a state of readiness for the Bad Thing is costly; failing to be in a state of readiness when the Bad Thing finally happens is even more costly. I have irritating decision paralysis when looking at such things too closely...so I put it off. Too much.
(the specific Bad Thing I’m thinking of involved slowly dying relatives located on the other end of expensive travel, and for whom we were responsible for all arrangements. There is only so much time one can take off work continuously before you can’t pay the rent anymore; but making multiple trips is also extremely expensive)
Big problem for me, particularly when I’m uncertain about whether some Bad Thing will happen. It’s like I’m following a decision tree, and I get stuck at the junction—“What if the Bad Thing Happens?”
A solution that helps me is to assume the bad thing happens—what then? Calculate it out. Unstuck. Now calculate out what happens if the Bad Thing doesn’t happen. Then add probabilities of each event, do a weighted sum in the head, and I’m done!
But just uncertainty is a problem. Same solution helps. Got to get past the junction of possible events, and the only way to do it is one at a time.
I have a related issue when there is a Bad Thing I expect to happen, but don’t know when it will happen. Maintaining a state of readiness for the Bad Thing is costly; failing to be in a state of readiness when the Bad Thing finally happens is even more costly. I have irritating decision paralysis when looking at such things too closely...so I put it off. Too much.
(the specific Bad Thing I’m thinking of involved slowly dying relatives located on the other end of expensive travel, and for whom we were responsible for all arrangements. There is only so much time one can take off work continuously before you can’t pay the rent anymore; but making multiple trips is also extremely expensive)