Coin flip

I recently couldn’t decide between two tasks that I needed to work on. I was wasting what I felt was too much time making the choice, so I went to Google and did a virtual coin flip to make the decision for me. Could there have been a more reason-based way to make this choice? Probably. But the amount of time it would have taken me to figure out the right data to use to make the choice probably would have taken longer than the task itself, so the coin flip seemed like the right choice.

It makes me wonder how much of life is spent on making decisions that might not matter much in the long run. What feels like a big decision at the time, might be more inconsequential than you’d think. Of course, the inverse is also true - small decisions we take for granted add up to big consequences over time.

Maybe life is like a system that takes inputs and produces outputs. Our daily choices, like whether or not to exercise, write, or spend time with family, are the inputs, and the outputs are the benefits we receive or costs we incur based on those choices. But then there are the choices like in my coin flip scenario. Two tasks that both need to be done, assuming one of them isn’t obviously more urgent than the other? Pick one and move on with your life, because you and the universe aren’t going to care much about it later.