Interfluidity: Rational regret

Suppose that you have a career choice to make:

  1. There is a “safe bet” available to you, which will yield a discounted lifetime income of $1,000,000.
  2. Alternatively, there is a risky bet, which will yield a discounted lifetime income of $100,000,000 with 10% probability, or a $200,000 lifetime income with 90% probability.

The expected value of Option 1 is $1,000,000. The expected value of Option 2 is (0.1 × $100,000,000) + (0.9 × $200,000) = $10,180,000. For a rational, risk-neutral agent, Option 2 is the right choice by a long-shot.

.. At a macro level, I do worry that we are evolving into a society where many, many people will experience painful regret in self-perception — and also judgments of failure in others’ eyes — for making choices that ex ante were quite reasonable and wise, but that simply didn’t work out.