I wake up in the morning and there’s four things I could do-
- Get someone pregnant and otherwise prepare for raising happy and healthy babies.
- Spend my money on hookers and blow at a rate that maximizes some utility over a given lifespan.
- Put a bullet in my head.
- None of the above, but continue to exist in a day to day fashion.
Does anyone have a suggestion for how I might weigh the costs and benefits of these courses of action? They’re mostly exclusive (especially #3) and time is limited, so I have to pick one and only one (at least for today).
The key to answering this question of course depends on your values. Do you value parental satisfaction, short-term pleasure, the immediate cessation of difficulty and pain, or just avoiding decisions entirely? No one can answer this for you, and there’s no moral framework. Because your existence is a given, and time moves forward, you are here and you must decide what to do.
Once you have a goal there are many useful heuristics can help you achieve it, but the picking comes first. Or as my old scoutmaster might say, a compass can get you home, but only you know which home to walk towards.
Sweet Talk 