You can assume, fairly simply, that the things I retrospectively consciously endorse were actually good for me.
I think you’re confusing regret or lack of it with “actually good for me”. Certainly, the future-you can evaluate the consequences of some action better than the past-you, but he’s still only future-you, not an arbiter of what is “actually good” and what is not.
I think there is another issue at play here, namely whether it is worthwhile to evaluate the consequences of decision or actions, or the process of making the decision and taking the action. I believe that improving the process is what is important, not the outcome, as focusing on the outcome often leads to outcome bias. We can only control the process, after all, not the outcome, and it’s important to focus on what we have in our locus of control.
There’s no confusion here if we use a naturalistic definition of “actually good”. If we use a nonnaturalistic definition, then of course the question becomes bloody nonsense. I would hope you’d have the charity not to automatically interpret what my question nonsensically!
I think you’re confusing regret or lack of it with “actually good for me”. Certainly, the future-you can evaluate the consequences of some action better than the past-you, but he’s still only future-you, not an arbiter of what is “actually good” and what is not.
I think there is another issue at play here, namely whether it is worthwhile to evaluate the consequences of decision or actions, or the process of making the decision and taking the action. I believe that improving the process is what is important, not the outcome, as focusing on the outcome often leads to outcome bias. We can only control the process, after all, not the outcome, and it’s important to focus on what we have in our locus of control.
There’s no confusion here if we use a naturalistic definition of “actually good”. If we use a nonnaturalistic definition, then of course the question becomes bloody nonsense. I would hope you’d have the charity not to automatically interpret what my question nonsensically!
I have no idea what a naturalistic definition of “actually good” would be.