Where do our biases come from?
“I just need 1 more year, father. I am so close to breaking into the film industry as their next rising star. But if I age any more, I am going to start getting wrinkles. I am already pulling out a strand of white hair every time I look into the dreaded mirror!”
The slender woman was desperately clawing at her elderly father’s left leg. Streams of bitter tears and black mascara dripped down her cheeks. And the mass of ruffled feathers around the collar of her haute couture dress made her appear more like a caged vulture than a young aspiring actor.
“Sarah, you know I love you. I have already given you so many years of my life. I am now almost 70; yet most of my friends have barely crested their 50’s. I am afraid I may not have many more years left in this frail body of mine. Maybe, it’s time to give up and find something else to do with your life, my dear.” The tired old man croaked these words as he tenderly wiped the tears from his daughter’s face.
“Just 1 more year, Daddy….. just 1 more year…” pleaded the daughter as she stared intensely at the old man.
“Fine… just 1 more year…. What is 1 more year worth to an old man like me?” Whispered the man with a defeated sigh.
As the chronologists strapped the old man back into his neon glowing cryo-chamber and stabbed him with dozens of needles and tubes, time and age was violently sucked from his body. As he lay there exhausted and gasping laboriously for air, his daughter emerged from her chamber feeling 1 year younger and more invigorated.
Even though the old man lost only 1 more year of his life, his vision felt blurrier and his mind felt foggier. And every time his daughter visited him, he began to have a harder time recalling what she looked like. What her name was. What was his name was. All he remembered repeating was the same old phrase. “Yes, you may have 1 more year.” Until, one day he met the same fate as his wife. He passed away while giving the last ounce of his life to his daughter.
The reason why gambling, investing, and relationships can be so dangerous, is that the more invested we are into it, the harder it is to view each of these situations as objectively as before.
