Dr. Ellen Langer

So I go and I buy as many stockings as they had, because these were expensive, right?

Now they were like half price.

a week after i got home pantyhose had come out now this is probably for a man i don't know so the stockings were no longer useful oh man now um i'm skiing and i finally decide okay what i'm going to do is invest in ski boots that are comfortable that are warm

I do that and then I end up spending winters in Mexico, so I never go skiing again.

You don't know.

You can't predict.

You really can't predict.

You think you can, but you can't.

If you can't predict, making decisions makes no sense.

If the way you make a decision is to do a cost-benefit analysis, if the costs and benefits are only limited by the way you think about things, that's not going to get you anywhere.

So the point is, rather than try to make the right decision, which you can never make.

Let me, one more little piece.

Do you want A or B?

They're psychologically the same.

Whenever you can't make a decision, it's because the alternatives are psychologically the same.

Then you pull in information to make them different.

So let's say you find out A is $100 and B is $1,000.

There's no decision.

right?

It follows mechanically.