Mike Carruthers

She's author of the book, How to Decide, Simple Tools for Making Better Choices.

Oh, I know this game.

So Annie, I find often in making decisions where you speculate, like if I did this, then this could happen, or that could happen, that none of those could happens ever happen.

That it's always something else, and it may be good, may be bad, but you spend a lot of time imagining the possibilities, and it seems like almost never do those possibilities materialize.

But it seems that also that your temperament has something to do with what those outcomes are.

That if you're a pessimist, you're going to be looking at the worst case scenario.

If you're an optimist, you're going to be that everything works out.

It doesn't really matter.

Well, I mean, that is so apparent when you look at somebody who's struggling with a decision, struggling with a problem.

And to you, the answer is so clear.

But when you have something similar, that same kind of problem, you struggle as much as they did because it's you.

It's you on the line.

You know, I can think of decisions I've made, and I'm sure other people have this experience, that at the time you're making the decision, you think, like, this is it.

Like, there's no going back.

But so many of the decisions that we make, we can undo them later if they didn't turn out right.

Right?

Oh, I would say, you know, wish I'd done that earlier.

Well, as I listen to you talk, I can think of several decisions, many decisions that I've made in my life that seemed really so important at the time but have had no lasting effect on my life or my happiness or anything.

And I think that's so important to keep in mind that so many of the decisions that we make, that we agonize over, just don't really matter that much.

I've been speaking with Annie Duke.