An interesting game devised by M.I.T. (click to play before reading on) shows the costs of keeping our options open irrationally. Considering how indecisive I am in most contexts, I imagine I suffer a huge loss for this characteristic. The most obvious loss is wasted time and energy thinking and analyzing the options. Whenever I am being decisive, I know I should make a decision and move on with my life, but I am just so worried about making the wrong decision no matter how inconsequential the decision is. Every major and too many minor decision that has come up in my life has led to a painstaking, annoying (for me and for my poor friends/family who have to listen to me), drawn-out decision between two equals - Harvard or Yale, Cleary or Simpson, etc. Luckily, I don't think I'm too indecisive in love matters. And also, once I do FINALLY make the decision, I rarely look back and am happy with the decision.
I'm going to Berlin in April with a few friends, and I currently have THREE hostel reservations open because I can't commit to any of them. Although there is no penalty for having them open (all allow you to cancel up to one day prior to arriving with no fee), I do think about this decision every couple of days and waste time by reading more reviews or going to their websites. So, in an effort to be more rational, I am going to cancel one of these reservations NOW (no promises when I'll narrow down just to one... let's not get crazy). Closing a door is so hard! I'm literally feeling pain.
(click here and here for the two Times articles on this topic)
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