Ask HN: Life as optimization problem
I asked this question a while ago on both Quora and Ask MetaFilter, but many of the answers were hung up on the metaphors. ("Don't think of your life as a decision tree" was one popular response). I think HN readers are more likely to appreciate the structure. I'm not trying to write a system of equations and solve for happiness. But I do find the following formulations a useful way to approach a set of very big questions:
-How can I engineer my life to maximize happiness, financial security, and independence?
-How can I reconstruct as much of my decision tree as possible before making big decisions?
-What choices did you make that locked you into a suboptimal outcome in these areas, and how could you have avoided them?
-In your experience, what small actions or decisions offer the greatest marginal returns on these categories?
-Of the decisions I face now (or soon), which will have the greatest impact on future branches of the tree (i.e. eliminate or open up future paths or options)?
7 comments
[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 35.3 ms ] threadBy the data to date, there is only one animal in the Galaxy dangerous to man--man himself. So he must supply his own indispensable competition. He has no enemy to help him.
Men are more sentimental than women. It blurs their thinking.
Certainly the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you; if you don’t bet, you can’t win.
Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.
Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done and why. Then do it!
Get a shot off fast. This upsets him long enough to let you make your second shot perfect.
There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is no evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know. So why fret about it?
If it can’t be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion.
It has long been known that one horse can run faster than another--but which one? Differences are crucial.
A fake fortune teller can be tolerated. But an authentic soothsayer should be shot on sight. Cassandra did not get half the kicking around she deserved .
Delusions are often functional. A mother’s opinions about her children’s beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth.
Most “scientists” are bottle washers and button sorters.
A “pacifist male” is a contradiction in terms. Most self-described “pacifists” are not pacific; they simply assume false colors. When the wind changes, they hoist the Jolly Roger.
Nursing does not diminish the beauty of a woman’s breasts; it enhances their charm by making them look lived in and happy.
A generation which ignores history has no past—and no future.
A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.
http://www.bwater.com/Uploads/FileManager/Principles/Bridgew...
Both changed my life
Good luck
http://lesswrong.com/lw/4su/the_science_of_happiness/
http://lesswrong.com/lw/bq0/be_happier/
I think part of your question is rooted in this false assumption and therefore not answarable. Life is chaotic and the biggest effects will come from rare, lucky, unforeseeable, "unkown unknown" type coincidences. These are positive/negative Black Swans in Taleb's terminology. Eg. a life-long-friend from a conference, your future wife in a party etc..
What you can do is maximize your surface to these positive Black Swans(eg. hoarding options, meet peoples) and minimize possible negative outcomes(leverage contracts, debts, anything that tides you down).
Reinterpreting your question these types of heuristics/practices are what worth doing, but they are usually not specific decisions.
Books listing similar heuristics are Reed's Suceeding, Munger's Almanach and of course Taleb's Fooled by Randomness and Black Swan. Wonderful books, hope it helps.