Will Wilkinson - Latest Comments in Regrettable Prudence

Re: Regrettable Prudence

Scott Wood — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:22:19 -0000

It's worth noting, of course, that people who feel these regrets (and I count myself among them) are not really in a position to know what would have happened in their lives had they partied more and studied less.

Re: Regrettable Prudence

alan — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:22:56 -0000

isn't there a selection bias here? the people who have real bad regrets might be too dead to talk about it, eh?

Re: Regrettable Prudence

Matt — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:51:37 -0000

Seneca says somewhere (one of his letters, I think) that everything should be done in moderation, including over-indulgence. That's not quite the same thing the article seems to be on to, but an important truth along the same lines, I think.

Re: Regrettable Prudence

Dain — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:27:46 -0000

Nah, stay in America and have a fling with a fellow seminar student at a classical liberal foundation function . Cheaper, and might very well be from Europe anyway.

Re: Regrettable Prudence

GilM — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:23:05 -0000

Yeah, that's what I meant by the "probabilities of outcomes". I suspect that it's pretty common to overestimate the probabilities of good outcomes and underestimate the probabilities of bad outcomes when we consider alternative histories.

Re: Regrettable Prudence

jfcote87 — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:13:05 -0000

More than just mistaken costs and benefits, its very easy to create unreal alternatives. I would have loved to travel to Europe and have a fling with S____ over my sophomore winter break. Neither were real alternatives, but the regrets remain.

Re: Regrettable Prudence

GilM — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:37:34 -0000

I think measuring regrets about the past tells us more about the sorts of things that people tend to regret than it does about the sorts of things people would be better off choosing. People aren't necessarily good at estimating the costs and benefits and probabilities of outomes in alternative histories in an unbiased manner.

But, I agree with the conclusion that having a planner deciding for everyone would be even worse.

Re: Regrettable Prudence

Kevin B. O'Reilly — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:01:41 -0000

I don't want to live in a world designed to eliminate regrets. The emotion is indivisible from freedom.

Re: Regrettable Prudence

Agree with Study — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:31:03 -0000

My greatest regret concerning college was that I didn't party enough. Everyone always went out, while I always said I'd join them "next week, as soon as I get over this organic chemistry to physics or something else hurdle." By the time I graduated, I wondered where the four years went. I'm only in my late 20s, and am a pretty happy med student, but I feel a bit like I squandered my youth. And I'll continue squandering it until I finish the end of my residency in my early to mid- thirities. My advice to anyone considering a career that requires a lot of formal education: think about how short life is, and whether or not you could be happy in a job that requires less training, yet provide similar fulfillment (PA or nurse practitioner for med students).