| > isn't necessarily irrational I used to say this to justify buying 20 tickets twice a week. It's not irrational I can afford it, right? And the purchase gives me the psychological reward of dreaming about a big win. But then after every draw I'd check my numbers and suffer a twinge of buyer's remorse. For me, that (small) regret more than offset any positive psychological benefit. It was a minor addiction that did more harm than good. So now I've cured my addiction by turning Buyers Remorse into whatever the opposite of that is. I have a cron job that generates 20 picks twice a week before each Mega Millions (US) draw. I never buy these numbers -- the script just saves them in a Google Doc so there's evidence of the numbers and the timestamp when they were chosen. Then after the draw, it checks them against the winning numbers, and emails me the results. Now twice a week I get the (small) psychological benefit of realizing I didn't waste $40. Maybe the opposite of Buyers Remorse is "Decliners Delight". |