Eigenmumbles

I had several meetings over the past couple weeks with the undergraduate students that I advise. For the most part, they asked me straightforward questions about classes, scheduling, petitions, and the wisdom of applying for a master’s degree. But every once in a while, someone throws a curveball, usually something involving a choice between several grand plans for the future. And what can I say about these? We can try to make well-informed guesses, but few of us can say with any confidence what will happen next week, let alone a few months or years down the line. So I point out that win-win decisions are known to be hard, partly because we seem to fear regret over lost opportunities more than we fear the eventualities that will actually bring us loss. And there’s not a whole lot I know how to do about it except to hope for the best, make rational backup plans in case the best doesn’t work out, and keep moving forward. So this is what I say. The odd thing is how often this seems to come across as something insightful. I’m never quite sure whether that’s because I’ve actually said something that constituted reasonable advice or insight, or if it’s simply that I said something in a calm tone of voice when a calm tone of voice was needed.