Regret . . . how the Universe works . . .

Advice to myself:

Imagine you have a choice between two courses of action, two plans . . . two lives: one carries a higher risk, but it also has the potential for greater reward. One choice is "safe." The other choice is "risky." How do you choose?

An interesting article appeared in this summer's Nature Neuroscience, as reported in Scientific American Mind: Brain Region Tied to Regret Identified. It turns out if you make a choice, and it's the "safe" one and then you're informed of the more rewarding outcome of the "risky" choice, this knowledge elicited strong activation in a particular area of medial orbitofrontal cortex. Making the opposite choice did not. What's fascinating is that the level of activity observed in medial orbitofrontal cortex has previously been correlated with the intensity of the experience of regret.

While the study didn't test choosing to play it safe (i.e., you also know you're playing it safe, i.e., you knew the other choice was more risky, but you choose to play it safe, or at least safer, anyway), I'm betting you would see the same region of the brain "light up" after making the "safe" choice. Interestingly, if the choice was made for the subjects, i.e., the outcome was not in their control, they felt bad, presumably, but no activity was observed in the OFC, suggesting a feeling of personal responsibility helps govern OFC activity in addition to feelings of regret.

So . . . we're hardwired to feel regret, when we don't take a chance, when we don't take a risk, when we play it safe.

Why would we have evolved that way? Why would the Universe have "built" us that way?

Maybe because it pays to take a chance.

Maybe we're born to take risks because that's how the Universe works -- taking chances works: to "do" what we're meant to "do" in the Universe, in life (on stage), we need to take a chance, we need to risk. . .