[Daily Bug Consultation Room] Part 4: "Why do we regret decisions made in a rush?"

Readers, this is Goro Ueda.
Human beings are truly fascinating. No matter how advanced a civilization they build, they easily fall into cognitive traps over trivial daily matters. It seems there are quite a few people who want me to dissect such illogical worries with my scalpel of logic.

Any trivial question is fine. Bring it on!
Now, for the fourth consultation.

1. Today's Consultation

“Mr. Ueda. When I am pressured by my boss to give an immediate answer in a meeting, or when I have to make a decision in a rush due to a sudden project, I later deeply regret it, thinking, "Why did I make that choice?” Is my intuition or judgment that dull?” (Pen name: On the Verge of Time Over)

2. Goro Ueda's Initial Diagnosis

Hahahaha! You are under a major misunderstanding.
Let me start with the conclusion. The reason you make decisions you later regret is not because your intuition is dull or your original judgment is poor.

It is merely a cognitive result where the sense of time pressure forcibly steals your brain's bandwidth, causing a serious bug called "tunneling."

3. The True Nature of the Bug

Why do people make mistakes when they are "rushed"? Let me explain the reason logically.

According to the "psychology of scarcity" in behavioral economics, the moment humans feel that resources like time or money are "insufficient",it is believed that attention and cognitive processing capacity are easily pressured. This is called "tunneling (narrowing of vision)." Originally a study targeting chronic states of scarcity like poverty, it is an analogy that can be sufficiently applied to errors caused by one-off deadline pressures in daily life.

When you enter a dark tunnel, you can only see the light at the exit. It is the same with this; a brain chased by time pours all its energy into "putting out the fire right in front of it", and "long-term risks" or "better alternative options" outside the tunnel become invisible, as if they have vanished from the brain's field of view.

In other words, many of the answers you give in a rush are not intuition or brilliant ideas, but closer to mere "compromises due to processing lag." It is not that your ability is low; it is just that your brain's memory is temporarily depleted.

4. Practical Prescription

So, how should you avoid this tunneling bug?

Of course, I am not saying you should postpone emergency decisions related to disaster response, medical care, or safety. What I am dealing with here are things like meetings, work decisions, contracts, replies, and schedule adjustments—decisions where you are "actually being forced to answer immediately by the atmosphere, even though you could wait from a few minutes to overnight."

Trying to manage just by "taking a deep breath and calming down" is like wiping the monitor of a PC that is experiencing processing lag. You should only execute the following extremely physical rules.

・Keep a "magic phrase" for avoiding immediate answers on hand
When you are pressured in a meeting, you experience processing lag because you are trying to think of an excuse from scratch. If so, you should prepare a template (macro) in advance that allows you to buy time while your thinking is stopped.
“I will take this back and check it once,” “To be sure, I will answer after checking it against the data.”
Set it up so that this magic phrase comes out of your mouth reflexively.

・Write down just one line about "what you will lose" before deciding
A brain in a rush only sees the fire in front of it.
Therefore, before deciding, use paper or your smartphone. Write down just one line about "what you might lose with this choice.”
Time. Money. Trust. Family plans. Your own physical strength.
Even with just one line, the brain remembers the outside of the tunnel. You are opening a side hole in the field of view narrowed by impatience.

・Forcibly introduce an "overnight delay"
Use the time you bought with the phrase to push the decision back. The bug caused by impatience becomes significantly lighter as time passes and you escape the tunnel. Just letting it sit overnight makes it easier for your brain's bandwidth to recover, and it becomes easier to see other options outside the tunnel.

The speed of a decision is not proof of intelligence. An "intentional delay" to remove noise is true intelligence.

5. Today's Ueda Maxim

Well, did you understand?
Do not mistake an answer given in a rush for your own ability. It is an illusion shown by a bug.

“Impatience is noise in intelligence. Stopping is not falling behind; it is an essential process for trajectory calculation.”

Now, if you have time to worry about regretting past decisions, stop giving immediate answers that don't need to be rushed, and go to sleep early tonight. Start from there.

Bring the bugs lurking in your daily life to my laboratory sometime. If it is an interesting case, I will dissect it with my scalpel of logic.


Concepts referenced
・Behavioral economics findings regarding the "psychology of scarcity," which posits that a lack of resources such as time or money pressures attention and cognitive processing capacity.

・The cognitive usefulness of avoiding immediate responses and setting a cooling-off period for important decision-making.

・The concept of cognitive bias where impatience and a sense of urgency narrow one's field of view, making one prone to focusing on short-term responses.

※This article is an entertainment commentary for the general public. If you are experiencing severe pain or difficulties in your daily life, please consider consulting a professional.