Ep. 15: I Almost Ruined My Life Using Reasoning to Make Decisions, But You Don't Have To!
So it turns out reasoning isn't a good way to make decisions. Wait, what? In this episode I delve into a fascinating theory that reasoning didn't evolve to help us increase our understanding and make better decisions, but to help us win arguments. You'll hear more about my painful PhD journey, my resulting decision paralysis, and how I regained my faith in myself to make smart decisions. I discuss how flaws of reasoning, like confirmation bias and the sunk cost fallacy, are actually features of reasoning, which makes them virtually impossible to avoid. So how can we make good decisions for ourselves? Listen to find out! This episode will be helpful for anyone feeling like they're in a rut they can't seem to reason themselves out of, or like they try very hard to make good decisions for themselves but things never turn out as they planned. Don't despair! I offer an alternative perspective here that will get you thinking about things in a different way. And sometimes that's all it takes!
This episode's accompanying blog post can be found here.
A copy of the paper I discuss can be found here.
Transcript