Best decisions of your life

In my entire life? Too hard to say. A lot of the things I've done have turned out to be great, but frankly the degree to which they were "decisions" and not "things that happened to me that I didn't put a great deal of conscious effort into effecting" is very debatable. There's a "famous" problem in philosophy called the Gettier problem; since learning about it, I've been struck at how the vast majority of decisions I've made seem to fall into this category of "knowledge". Did I really "know" that doing a Physics degree at Imperial (rather than Engineering at a different uni, say) would help me land a really great job after uni? Did I really "know" that the flat I bought would rise in value so much, or that interest rates would stay low for so long? Did I really "know" any of the things that I claimed to have based my decisions on? I've always maintained that the majority of "success" in my life has been down to sheer dumb luck.

Probably the best wholly conscious decision I ever made was to buy a Roomba.
 
Oh, one of those robot vacuum cleaners?

I thought about getting one. But my cleaning lady told me they're no good. (Which might, of course, not be entirely unbiased information.)

Are they any good?
 
Mise said:
In my entire life? Too hard to say. A lot of the things I've done have turned out to be great, but frankly the degree to which they were "decisions" and not "things that happened to me that I didn't put a great deal of conscious effort into effecting" is very debatable. There's a "famous" problem in philosophy called the Gettier problem; since learning about it, I've been struck at how the vast majority of decisions I've made seem to fall into this category of "knowledge". Did I really "know" that doing a Physics degree at Imperial (rather than Engineering at a different uni, say) would help me land a really great job after uni? Did I really "know" that the flat I bought would rise in value so much, or that interest rates would stay low for so long? Did I really "know" any of the things that I claimed to have based my decisions on? I've always maintained that the majority of "success" in my life has been down to sheer dumb luck.

Probably the best wholly conscious decision I ever made was to buy a Roomba.
Click to expand...

I know exactly what you mean, and I feel the same way about a lot of my success.

I'd say getting married has worked out really well, but hey, there was a ton of luck involved there too!
 
Mise said:
In my entire life? Too hard to say. A lot of the things I've done have turned out to be great, but frankly the degree to which they were "decisions" and not "things that happened to me that I didn't put a great deal of conscious effort into effecting" is very debatable. There's a "famous" problem in philosophy called the Gettier problem; since learning about it, I've been struck at how the vast majority of decisions I've made seem to fall into this category of "knowledge". Did I really "know" that doing a Physics degree at Imperial (rather than Engineering at a different uni, say) would help me land a really great job after uni? Did I really "know" that the flat I bought would rise in value so much, or that interest rates would stay low for so long? Did I really "know" any of the things that I claimed to have based my decisions on? I've always maintained that the majority of "success" in my life has been down to sheer dumb luck.

Probably the best wholly conscious decision I ever made was to buy a Roomba.
Click to expand...

Completely agreed, including the Roomba, excepting the school in the UK (Canada instead, and math degree) and buying a flat (stocks instead).

Though really, almost everything I've purchased has turned out to be a good decision.
 
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"
so to me it's all luck
some bad, some good, but I've mainly had good luck, the few decisions I've made have mainly been due to unexpected opportunities presenting themselves, quite out of the blue, even there not buying a house in the country, when I stopped to change driving with my partner, which she fell in love with as soon as she saw the for sale sign, was only good in hindsight. (it burnt down in the bushfires as I found out last year).
 
I didn't make a single good life decision in my life, apart from applying for Syrian scholarship and this small scholarship in Caen. Some were mixed ones, with many good sides and many bad sides, some were purely bad.
 
I remember the first day of orientation at law school, I came home from a run to find my answering machine blinking. An answering machine is this thing we used to have back before voicemail that allowed people to call you on a landline and leave a message if you weren't there. Some of you may have read about them in books or seen them in old, old movies. Like from the '90s.

Anyway, it was a message from Southern Cal asking me if I wanted to come off the wait list and enroll that fall. Having just started at Alabama, leased an apartment for the year and literally just come home from the first day I decided that I just couldn't see starting at USC instead as a practical decision -- moving everything across the country, breaking the lease, finding a new place, etc. I know USC started later but I can't remember by how much. Maybe a couple of weeks.

Anyway, I called the guy back and told him no thanks, and I remember how offended and really rude he was about it. To me a guy left me a message so I called him back, but to him my calling him back to say 'no' meant that his acceptance numbers were worse. That didn't occur to me before I called.

So back to the point, it was the best decision of my life because I finished school with so little debt I wasn't restricted in what I chose to do afterwards, as I would have been if I had attended USC, a private school with private school tuition. I've made lots of other good decisions, but they weren't counterintuitive like that one, so I guess it's the only one that should really count . . .
 
Squonk said:
I didn't make a single good life decision in my life, apart from applying for Syrian scholarship and this small scholarship in Caen. Some were mixed ones, with many good sides and many bad sides, some were purely bad.
Click to expand...

And you also made some of the best CivII scenarios around ;)
 
Mango Elephant said:
Why? I'm interested in computer science.
Click to expand...

The way its teached at uni is very limited and limiting. I'm still in for the overall experience, though getting the degree is not my end in itself, if it ever was.
 
Accepting I am a socialist. Not exactly given since I was brought up in a very liberal family. Suddenly things made sense for me. Why I should work. Why I should question. Why I should be uncomfortable. Why I should care and why I should be a better man.
 
Smellincoffee said:
I went from 400 to 200 lbs in half a year, saw my medication reduced 90%, and am now strong-legged and at a healthy weight.
Click to expand...
That's amazing, congrats!

Mise said:
In my entire life? Too hard to say. A lot of the things I've done have turned out to be great, but frankly the degree to which they were "decisions" and not "things that happened to me that I didn't put a great deal of conscious effort into effecting" is very debatable. There's a "famous" problem in philosophy called the Gettier problem; since learning about it, I've been struck at how the vast majority of decisions I've made seem to fall into this category of "knowledge". Did I really "know" that doing a Physics degree at Imperial (rather than Engineering at a different uni, say) would help me land a really great job after uni? Did I really "know" that the flat I bought would rise in value so much, or that interest rates would stay low for so long? Did I really "know" any of the things that I claimed to have based my decisions on? I've always maintained that the majority of "success" in my life has been down to sheer dumb luck.
Click to expand...
I think much of my "success" has been luck too. I can't really pinpoint many "amazing" decisions, overall though, the decision to be more social & more confident has netted me many benefits. In general, decisions where I put up with abusive people or situations out of inertia or fear of worse situations I regret. It's taken a long time but I pretty much have a 1-strike (1 serious moral violation) & you're out policy when it comes to social/romantic relationships & it's improved my life quite a bit. Knowing I have the skills to find new friends/lovers/work helps me attract more quality people/places/vocations/situations.

Mise said:
Probably the best wholly conscious decision I ever made was to buy a Roomba.
Click to expand...
That's an astounding claim! What makes them so much better than a broom & mop?

Zelig said:
Though really, almost everything I've purchased has turned out to be a good decision.
Click to expand...
Impressive. Most of my purchasing decisions (I'd say 75+%) have been rather poor. I've gotten much better in the last two years to the point where I'd say about 90% of my purchasing decisions are wise. In general I've also been spending less money & saving more.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

amadeus
What was the first big news story you remember?
2 3
Replies
40
Views
2K
caketastydelish
caketastydelish
Xefjord
I appreciate that this site has been around pretty much my entire Civ life-span
Replies
2
Views
267
Lord_Hill
L
bene_legionary
Moments of Spontaneity
Replies
1
Views
535
warpus
warpus
Birdjaguar
Being a Tourist in Italy
13 14 15
Replies
298
Views
8K
EnglishEdward
EnglishEdward
Birdjaguar
Best Posts of the Day: One
Replies
12
Views
740
Broken_Erika
Broken_Erika
Back
Top Bottom