What if We Always Chose the more Interesting Option?
Where you have ended up today is the result of hundreds of thousands of discrete choices compounded over time. As a thought experiment I wondered what would happen if we always chose the more interesting branch. In the space of most inconsequential decisions, only a small life direction shift would be noticeable.
Risky or Risk Averse
Boring choices may lead to extremely interesting opportunities later on, but this thought riff is about always choosing what is more intriguing to us at the time. For the sake of survival we have developed a healthy fear of self destructive behaviors which may conflict with interesting. Always choosing a more interesting path could quickly end in one's demise or other non viable long term lifestyles, so it appears a flawed decision making criteria. But what if there were an optimal interest decision tree just shy of immediate self extinction or self destruction?
My hypothesis is that many of us err on the side of saftey and security by choosing what is known all too often. This form of decision making leads to an over paranoid life style, along with a false sense of security. Life isn't safe. Each of us has a limited duration that will likely end outside of our control. You won't see me hopping on a motorbike or taking life destroying chemicals too often (the downside is a cliff). But I'm pretty certain I won't be on my deathbed looking back thinking I wished I lived a safer life.
Take a walk on the wild side. Give a good friend a bear hug :). There's gotta be a correlation between the people we feel comfortable bear hugging and our joy.