I fear a loss more than I want the same gain
💎CORE ARGUMENT
Losing a hundred euros hurts me about twice as much as finding a hundred pleases me, and the measurement is always taken from wherever I happen to be standing and never from zero. That asymmetry is the best explanation I have for why spending from the sabbatical fund feels like a loss even though being spent is the entire purpose of the fund.
🧱BUILT FROM
🌍WHY IT MATTERS
Not much yet. When a choice feels heavy I try saying it twice, once as what I would lose and once as what I would gain, and notice which version I believe.
☑️NEXT STEPS
- Say the next heavy choice twice, once as a loss and once as a gain
- List the numbers and the feelings about the flat in separate columns
- Ask Jonas which of my fund worries are arithmetic and which are fear
A paper on how people actually weigh risky choices: by gains and losses from where they stand, with losses counting for more.
Both neighbours are about stopping: 💎 Good enough is a rational stopping rule and 💎 Enough is a number I have to choose. This one may explain why stopping is hard.
Outcomes are felt as changes from a reference point, and a loss weighs more than a gain of the same size. Once the fund's balance became my reference point, every withdrawal registered as a loss, whatever it bought.
Perhaps it is not a bias at all. For someone without much margin a loss really is worse than the same gain is good, and my caution with the fund may be plain arithmetic about rent.
I used the framing in the pricing workshop two days before writing this down, and it sits under the question of the flat, where the numbers and the feelings are listed separately for this reason.