Why You Knew Better and Did It Anyway

We usually explain regret as knowing better but lacking discipline. This episode argues something more useful: in a hot state, the values on your internal scoreboard change.

I connect Epictetus with hot-cold empathy gaps, self-control replication research and implementation intentions. Then I give you a four-minute handover note: one specific if-then plan, written while you can still see clearly, for the version of you who will not realise their judgement has changed.

Sources and further reading:

- Epictetus, Discourses 1.28
- Seneca, Letters 76.34-35
- George Loewenstein, “Hot-Cold Empathy Gaps and Medical Decision Making” (2005)
- Hagger et al., “A Multilab Preregistered Replication of the Ego-Depletion Effect” (2016)
- Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran, “Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement” (2006)
- Keith Stanovich, Richard West and Maggie Toplak, work on myside bias and rational thinking