rationality Archives – Decision Fish: Decide For Yourself

Time To Choose Your Health Insurance: Don’t Make A $9,000 Mistake

Brett F. Whysel — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 20:23:42 +0000

Is there any financial decision that we dread more than the annual chore of choosing a health insurance plan? It’s got everything we hate: choice and information overload, time pressure, ambiguity and confusion, consequences worth thousands, uncomfortable scenarios involving disease and injury, inscrutable jargon coming at a time of the year full of other business, ... Read more

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Facts & Logic Can Save Us (Please Let Them!)

Brett F. Whysel — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 21:59:35 +0000

Alternative facts and sloppy thinking. Either one can hijack our efforts to learn the truth and make quality decisions. Increasing political polarization, inequality and mistrust make it harder to reach consensus in politics, business, and society. This can slow human progress and result in catastrophic mistakes. A clear understanding of, and greater emphasis on, the ... Read more

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Health Insurance Enrollment: A Superhuman Decision

Brett F. Whysel — Tue, 06 Dec 2016 00:58:58 +0000

Open enrollment for health insurance began November 16 and the decision isn’t any easier than last year. On the contrary, not only are premiums higher and benefits lower, there’s greater uncertainty about the future of the Obama health care act. On a cold, cloudy Sunday afternoon, I analyzed my health insurance choices. Our choices and ... Read more

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Six Ways to Avoid Regret

Brett F. Whysel — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 12:50:42 +0000

I wish I had picked a different airline or maybe shelled out more money for a better seat. (I’m writing this squeezed into a coach seat near the lavatory on a six-hour flight to attend the Behavioral Finance Symposium in San Francisco.) I wish I had known six months ago that people were much more ... Read more

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Can One Become Great at Decision-Making?

Brett F. Whysel — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 15:59:52 +0000

Our decisions, and the actions they lead to, make us who we are. In that sense, decisions are fundamental to our identities, our humanity and even the future of our planet. But what is a good decision and how do we get great at making them? I want to share with you my answers to ... Read more

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Framing 1, Facts 0?

Brett F. Whysel — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 01:52:13 +0000

When we make decisions, we often take the way they are presented to us at face value. Maybe a sales person offers you a menu of investment options or maybe a single recommendation; either way, you can bet a lot of thought went into the architecture of the choice presented to you. Amos Tversky and Daniel ... Read more

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Decisions into Old Age: The Forecast is Partly Cloudy

Brett F. Whysel — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 01:22:48 +0000

Here’s a question that just about everyone approaching (and passing) middle age will feel ambivalent about: how does getting older affect our ability to make rational decisions? On the one hand, it’s common knowledge that our cognitive abilities begin to decline in our fifties. On the other, as I’ve written before, the accumulation of experience ... Read more

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Future & Present: Where Brains, Math and Ethics Collide

Brett F. Whysel — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 19:00:31 +0000

Many of the most important decisions we make involve trade-offs between the present and future. How much of my income should I save today for my retirement? What costs should governments incur today to reduce the risk of catastrophic climate change in the (hopefully) distant future? How should businesses allocate investments that pay off in ... Read more

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Rationality: Our Humanity, Our Planet

Brett F. Whysel — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 06:37:06 +0000

Rationality is supposed to be integral to our humanity. Indeed, the “sapiens” in homo sapiens is from the new Latin sapere, meaning know, learn and know how. As a matter of fact, our subspecies is actually homo sapiens sapiens. Does this mean we have twice the intellectual capacity of our extinct ancestors from the Pleistocene? ... Read more

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Push the Limits on Rational Decision-Making

Brett F. Whysel — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 07:00:00 +0000

There are three things we need to make wise and rational decisions with confidence: time, information and smarts. Unfortunately, as mere humans, we know that these resources are in short supply. Indeed, the vast range of choices we have to make daily and the overwhelming influx of information and stimuli can limit or confuse all ... Read more

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