Monday, February 27, 2006

Don't Think So Hard

When I was deciding between attending Harvard or MIT for graduate school, the best advice I got on making the decision came from Marty Weitzman. He thought that people spent too much time worrying about this stuff. He advocated what he deemed the "20-second rule." His idea was that, when making a big decision, one should relax and clear one's head for 20 seconds and then go with whatever pops into your head once its over.

While it might seem strange for an economist to not advocate obsessing over the complete set of costs and benefits, I am a fan of the "20 second rule". Psychologists in a recent issue of Science suggest that this approach may be correct. They conclude "that purchases of complex products were viewed more favorably when decisions had been made in the absence of attentive deliberation."

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