Humans can’t beat computers at chess anymore. That’s old news, I know, but do you know why?
Simply put, a powerful enough computer has access to all played games in the history of chess and can also calculate all endgame outcomes of every possible move on the chessboard.
For us and our lives, that would be like having all experiences of all previous people and being able to see how our life plays out for every decision we could possibly make.
Wouldn’t that be handy for our everyday decision-making?
Unfortunately, life isn’t a finite rules game, like chess, and we don’t have the brain-power to calculate the outcomes of every decision we’ll ever make.
Instead, we try to strategize, to find the right answer based on bits of information we have at hand. Informed guessing basically.
Some data is provided by the situation we are in, some comes from previous experiences. But no mater how much information we process, there is no way to predict an uncertain future and find THE ONE right decision.
Even looking back after the fact, there is no way to determine if one decision was THE BEST.
Because there is no way to put all possible decisions against each other.
Now, some have more experience than others, are well-informed and are might be better than others at guessing.
But no mater how well-prepared and lucky you are, learn to live with your choices and don’t ever let decision-making uncertainty stop you from taking action.