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Fadeway comments on Open Thread, January 1-15, 2013 - Less Wrong
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I have an important choice to make in a few months (about what type of education to pursue). I have changed my mind once already, and after hearing a presentation where the presenter clearly favored my old choice, I'm about to revert my decision - in fact, introspection tells me that my decision was already changed at some point during the presentation. In regards to my original change of mind, I may also have been affected by the friend who gave me the idea.
All of this worries me, and I've started making a list of everything I know as far as pros/cons go of each choice. I want to weigh the options objectively and make a decision. I fear that, already favoring one of the two choices, I won't be objective.
How do I decrease my bias and get myself as close as possible to that awesome point at the start of a discussion where you can list pros and cons and describe the options without having yet gotten attached to any position?
Harder Choices Matter Less. Unless you expect that there is a way of improving your understanding of the problem at a reasonable cost (such as discussing the actual object level problem), the choice is now less important, specifically because of the difficulty in choosing.
From rereading the article, which I swear I stumbled upon recently, I took away that I shouldn't take too long to decide after I've written my list, lest I spend the extra time conjuring extra points and rationalizations to match my bias.
As for the meat of the post, I don't think it applies as much due to the importance of the decision. I could go out and gather more information, but I believe I have enough, and now it's just a matter of weighing all the factors; for which purpose, I think, some agonizing and bias removal is worth the pain.
Hopefully I can get somewhere with the bias removal step, as opposed to getting stuck on it. (And, considering that I just learned something, I guess this can be labeled "progress"! Thanks :))