"Human beings are deliberative creatures. We weigh things up all the time. At its most basic level, we weigh up what we enjoy. You open the fridge at dinner time and think, "Hey, I'm in a pasta kind of mood tonight." You turn on Netflix and scroll through hundreds of movies before choosing one that suits. This thing will give me more satisfaction and pleasure than that thing."
"It will look at the act itself or an individual event and ask, "Does this single thing make me happier, better, healthier, or whatever?" The problem is that every behavior has a before and after, and when it comes to weighing up, there are no time limits. We do not - or should not - say, "Let's measure how much pleasure this will give me in the next ten minutes only." A good, rational, intelligent deliberation will try to consider the knock-on effects."
Human decision-making involves continual deliberation about immediate enjoyment and longer-term consequences. Individual choices often produce ripples before and after the act, amplifying or diminishing net well-being. Short-term indulgence can cause later pain, and anticipatory dread can reduce prior enjoyment. A conceptual error called the cold-plunge fallacy arises when evaluation focuses only on the isolated event and ignores before-and-after effects. Rational deliberation should incorporate foreseeable knock-on effects and time-extended consequences to determine whether actions truly increase overall welfare. Examples include choosing a meal, entertainment, or remaining in a disliked job where temporal costs diverge from immediate pleasure.
Read at Big Think
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