Monday, October 19, 2009

Inquiring others about foregone options

(and about their lives in general)

I am curious about how people manage their life and make decisions.

Curiousity brings me to wonder about the choices my freinds have taken. Would they fare better had they choosen differently? Would have this freind happier would he marry this women that he left for seemingly stupid reasons, only to take a worse one?

But the very asking would be bad to this person's happiness. If I am right and he was mistaken back then, he can get quite sad about his current situation.

So I cannot ask people about historical choices they have made, lest it make them unhappy.

But I can still post aobut it, and aside from venting, it makes me look like a very considerate person. And who knows, maybe some wiser choices would come my way......

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think there is two kind of people in this world and it is prety much the problem i am facing looking for answers.

One kind are the lay people or commun.

Second one the philosophers.

The firtsones they dont care about truth and philosophy and they are just trying to survive everyday even with out know that they are wrong.

The other people are like you and me, we just care about the truth and we are stubborns.

t. said...

Pardon the appeal to authority, in this case, Kierkegaard, who wrote that life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. As Taleb might counsel, beware the viciousness of borrowed wisdom. But if Kierkegaard is correct, then it seems the most one can do is to examine historical choices to gain understanding; moreover, living is not the same process as understanding. Yet, to anyone who rues his past choices, running counterfactuals about how sweet forgone opportunity, he must also run counterfactuals on how bitter forgone failure. A satisficer might find contentment.

Maya said...

i belive we choose what we are going to choose anyway, our choices are pre-determined by us..