François CholletVerified account

Very good point. Agreed.

There is a big truth here. I think it applies to relationships also.

Wisdom

Curious how you @fchollet and others know what they want when my observation is that the more intelligent people are the more variety of things they find interesting (and also maybe feel like they have a good chance of understanding).

How does this reconcile with regret minimization? Sometimes I pursue optionality to minimize future regrets.

Sometimes you know where you want to go but not how to get there. In that case, it's important not to settle for the apparent shortest path, and explore the surrounding area a little. Life is about balancing explore/exploit.

I learned this most deeply a couple of years ago when I (briefly) began pursuing a Ph.D. I _immediately_ realized I was only doing it to “have done it,” rather than to do it.

The most valuable thing for a mortal human being is time. If people realize that time on earth is limited and remind themselves of its fleeting nature, they would be more focused. At the end of it all, what difference between a and b? Do what makes you happy.

The issue this builds though is that many visualize the final outcome of that what they are set to do rather than the process in between, and therefor choose the simplest most common way to go about rather than the perhaps slightly harder and unknown path which would offer more.

Great observation!