Adam Grant

You haven't bought it, but you're looking like you're looking at this wardrobe from every angle and you're admiring everything that's great about it.

And then you find something you don't like about it.

And then you try on a new wardrobe and the whole thing starts over.

Okay.

What does that mean?

I think it means that you, I mean, I'm not going to say anything you don't already know, but you experience things in order to decide about them.

You do something that most people don't do.

Yes.

The part that's unusual about this is a lot of people decide, a lot of people make big decisions by imagining how they would feel in the future.

And they're doing a Gilbert and Wilson style affective forecasting exercise.

Which you wrote about in Atlas of the Heart and how bad we are at it.

Very.

And terrible at it.

And so what you're doing is you're solving that problem.

So most of the time, I think the mistake that a lot of people make is they trust the affective forecast.

And they say, okay, you know, I love the thought of this new neighborhood and I can see raising my kids there.

And so I'm going to move there and be really happy.

And then they show up and they realize, oh, I'm on a main road and there's a ton of noise.

And I didn't really think about that because I love the house.

And it's also doubled my commute.