I watched a video this morning, and I find the ideas expressed there quite interesting.

In essence, it’s about not agonizing over choices available and trying to maximize outcomes, because if the choices are similar enough for you to actually have to spend time on analysis, it’s likely that the outcomes of both choices will be identical, and you’re never getting back the time you wasted on trying to figure out which is the best.

I think I could find issues with this concept in spiritual and ethical matters, where choices actually have important consequences. However, I keep seeing people who agonize over all kinds of equipment – what do I get, is this the best, or should I get the other one?

I’ll tell you an example of how I solve those problems. Once I was trying to buy headphones, and since I didn’t know anything about those, I went online and tried to figure it out. Of course, it was a mess, because everybody has their favourites, so I basically found two mid-range models that people bitterly argue over back and forth, and bought one of those that I found in the local store. My logic was that if one was clearly better than the other, there wouldn’t be any arguments about it, so they are both obviously similar enough that whichever I get, it will be fine. So I bought the headphones and they worked great, and I still have them.

So, instead of trying to maximise the outcome by investing more time in trying to discern minute details between two almost identical options, I always choose to just be done with it and continue living my life. Essentially, the harder to discern which is better, the less it matters in any meaningful way, because if one was actually better, the choice would be easy.