Elephantstrunk

Tyler Cowen has seven ways to diminish regret. Playing Hamurabi, am I supposed to be maximising welfare based on prior expectations or for a population well versed in the yoga of regret management?

Marginal Revolution: Trudie on kids and career
1. Practice major life shifts, so you get used to regret and thus can bear it more easily. In other words, try to make the costs of regret smaller.

2. Hire eminent psychotherapists to administer electric shocks every time you feel regret. Try to make the costs of regret higher, so that you won’t regret so much.

3. Drink yourself senseless after making life commitments. Attack your memory.

4. Have so many kids there will be no time or energy for regret. One should suffice.

5. Hire someone to force the choice upon you, whether by posting a bond with a friendly blogger or approaching the Russian Mafia. Or, once you get pregnant, do something unpardonable and post it on YouTube, being sure to alert your blogger enemies.

6. Realize that you value control more than any of these options for overcoming regret, so live with the regret and enjoy that sense of control for all it is worth.

7. Get over #6 by studying Leibniz, Holbach, and other determinists.