One Way To Navigate Uncertainties

Here’s a piece of advice to guide you amidst the cruellest type of uncertainties.

“When you are confronted with choices amidst uncertainties, say yes to as many options as you can. Since you are uncertain, what you should be optimizing for is regret minimisation, not efficiency optimization. And minimising regrets comes with knowing that you did attempt all that you could.

There should never be if I’d done that, I might have this option now. You would take comfort in the fact that you said yes to all options possible.”

It does not apply to all uncertain situations but watch out for situations when it is applicable and it will be your saving grace.

One prevalent example of this in my world is venture investing. A highly uncertain environment where 1% of what you said yes to tends to determine your outcome.

Another application is about your work. Many times, we aren’t even sure of what we want from work. And while the temptations might be there to optimise for certain types of experiences, a more sustainable strategy is to take as much and diverse experiences as possible. Broaden then narrow.