1. Forum
  2. FidoNet
  3. rec.arts.sf.written

  • Re: Habits

    From Paul S Person@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, March 05, 2026 09:13:15
    On 4 Mar 2026 18:47:38 GMT, ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) wrote:

    William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote or quoted:
    :I met one of my friends, a very liberal Texan, in San Francisco where
    he
    :had been sent to do some work for the DoD. He liked everything about
    :the city, better beer, better gyms, public transit, but when I
    suggested
    :he might stay on he just shook his head. Texas was where he wanted to
    be.

    Recent research supports the idea that people just stick with
    what they've done a lot before, what they're used to, even if
    other options are better.

    It depends on what the criteria for "better" are.

    If they are relevant to the person's goals, then change is possible.

    If they are /not/ relevant to the person's goals, then change is
    pointless unless it involves something that has worn out and the
    replacements all are "better" in irrelevant ways.

    This, of course, is based on the core principle:

    something that /works/ is better than something that is /snazzy/.

    "Action repetition biases choice in context-dependent decision-making" >(2025-11-26) - Ben J. Wagner et al. in "Communications Psychology"

    |I know what I like,
    |and I like what I know.
    a lawn-mower in 1974

    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From William Hyde@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, March 05, 2026 17:01:46
    Stefan Ram wrote:
    William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote or quoted:
    :I met one of my friends, a very liberal Texan, in San Francisco where he :had been sent to do some work for the DoD. He liked everything about
    :the city, better beer, better gyms, public transit, but when I suggested
    :he might stay on he just shook his head. Texas was where he wanted to be.

    Recent research supports the idea that people just stick with
    what they've done a lot before, what they're used to, even if
    other options are better.

    This is not implausible.

    But in the rare cases when I look at what a study of this kind calls
    "better", I often find that it would not be better for me.

    We still tend to think that the map is the territory.

    William Hyde



    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)