The flip side of this is tradeoff bias (a term I just made up—it’s related to false dichotomies). Assuming you have to give up something to get a desired goal, and that costs always equal rewards is a mistake. Some people CAN get all As, excel at sports, and have a satisfying social life. Those people should absolutely do so.
I think the post has good underlying advice: don’t beat yourself up or make bad tradeoffs if you CAN’T have it all. Experimenting to understand tradeoffs, and making reasoned choices about what you really value is necessary. But don’t give up things you CAN get, just because you assume there’s a cost you can’t identify.
I may have been misleading, but my point is not about tradeoffs, but about not pursuing things that you don’t actually care about upon reflection.
Thanks for bringing this up. I believe explicitly stating tradeoffs is important because you may then realize that you actually don’t care about them. For example, I don’t actually care about being “enlightened” or reaching stage 10 in TMI (though I thought I did). I would have come to a better conclusion and had better meditation sessions earlier if I made the metrics I care about explicit.
[Though, this isn’t true for looking cool dancing or eating new foods because I don’t know if I like them until it happens]
The flip side of this is tradeoff bias (a term I just made up—it’s related to false dichotomies). Assuming you have to give up something to get a desired goal, and that costs always equal rewards is a mistake. Some people CAN get all As, excel at sports, and have a satisfying social life. Those people should absolutely do so.
I think the post has good underlying advice: don’t beat yourself up or make bad tradeoffs if you CAN’T have it all. Experimenting to understand tradeoffs, and making reasoned choices about what you really value is necessary. But don’t give up things you CAN get, just because you assume there’s a cost you can’t identify.
I may have been misleading, but my point is not about tradeoffs, but about not pursuing things that you don’t actually care about upon reflection.
Thanks for bringing this up. I believe explicitly stating tradeoffs is important because you may then realize that you actually don’t care about them. For example, I don’t actually care about being “enlightened” or reaching stage 10 in TMI (though I thought I did). I would have come to a better conclusion and had better meditation sessions earlier if I made the metrics I care about explicit.
[Though, this isn’t true for looking cool dancing or eating new foods because I don’t know if I like them until it happens]