A lottery ticket and a sure thing of equal expected value feel nothing alike — and the reason why cuts deeper than psychology. The philosopher John Dewey argued that human beings don't experience situations as they are, but as ongoing transactions between the self and the world, each moment colored by what we've staked on the outcome. This maps surprisingly well onto what economists call 'loss aversion,' but Dewey's version adds something Kahneman's doesn't: it's not just that losses sting more than gains feel good — it's that the moment you commit to something, your identity quietly merges with it. The option you didn't choose stops being a neutral alternative; it becomes a small judgment on who you are. So on a Friday, heading into a weekend of plans and possibilities: the reason it's hard to cancel something you've already said yes to isn't stubbornness. It's that you've already started becoming the person who does that thing.

Name one thing on your schedule this weekend you'd quietly prefer to cancel — and ask yourself when exactly it stopped feeling like a choice.

Drawing from Pragmatism — John Dewey