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Wild problems — a mental model for deciding on the big questions of life
Who should I marry? What education would be best? Should I try to live abroad?
These are life decisions that are REALLY challenging to decide on and are called wild problems in Ross Roberts book “Wild problems: A guide to the decisions that define us”. He describes real and humorous stories of how great thinkers like Charles Darwin tried to analyze if he should get married or not (he did marry). In contrast to tame problems, Roberts argue that wild problems are nearly impossible to grapple with cost-benefit analysis, pros and cons lists, and other structured methods. At best, you have uncovered the factors influencing your decision, but you are most likely not closer to a rational decision because there is no such rational decision — there simply is no clear choice among the available options. Furthermore, Roberts propose that attempting to analyze wild problems may lure you into a false sense of progress on the decision. Instead, he recommends that readers “privilege their principles” and base one’s choices on “what kind of person you want to be and who you might want to become.” Ultimately, Ross Roberts suggests to view ourselves and our lives less as a problem to be solved and more as a mystery to be experienced and life as a journey to appreciate.
