Ep38 – Opportunity Cost is Screwing Up Your Life

What you don’t see is as important as what you do see. Opportunity costs, costs that you don’t see, lurk in every decision. In this episode of Mentally Unscripted, Paul and Scott explain why missing those costs screws up your decision-making.ResourcesTK News by Matt TaibiAaron MateHow 'do your own research' hurts America's Covid responseThese four words are helping spread vaccine misinformationLex Fridman Podcast #221 – Douglas LenatYou’ll Make Better Decisions When You Understand Opportunity CostsConfirmation Bias: Why your decisions suck and you fight with your friendsTradeoffs: The Currency of Decision MakingHow (Supposedly) Rational People Make DecisionsAmerica Doesn't Have Enough Hospital Beds To Fight the Coronavirus. Protectionist Health Care Regulations Are One Reason Why.How Many Hospital Beds?Why Melinda Gates Spends Time ‘Letting My Heart Break’“We Hadn’t Really Thought Through the Economic Impacts” ~ Melinda GatesTop TakeawaysOpportunity cost is the benefit we lose by choosing one option over another. It’s a second-order thinking technique that helps gives our decisions more context so we can make better, more informed decisions.We often fail to fully account for the costs of our choices because some of the costs are implicit, or unseen, costs. When we make decisions without accounting for those unseen costs, we’re making decisions with limited information.We have limited resources. It’s because of this scarcity that every decision we make has tradeoffs. We must somehow reconcile limited resources and unlimited wants. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mentallyunscripted.com