Irrational to Rational
Rational numbers are which can be represented in the form of fraction. Fractions are very important, it helps us see things clearly. Irrational numbers cannot certainly be represented as fraction, though one can try to predict an irrational number by fractions but will never be accurate.
Enough of this number theory! What’s the point? Similar is the behaviour of human beings. How? Answer lies in the decision one takes. Every Decision can be classified as either rational or irrational. In general people who like to think about a situation quite deeply have tendency to take rational decision. I am not saying there is this fixed boundary which divides people because most of our decisions are predictably irrational.
The rational model of Decision making assumes that people will take decisions from which they’ll gain maximum benefits at the lowest cost. For example most people would want to get the smartest phone at the lowest price. First they will judge the benefits of one with respect to other , they will then compare the prices. In general, people will choose that object which will give greatest reward at the lowest cost.
To be fully rational is also not possible. This is because one need perfect information about choice one has to make (When we say everyone in a group is rational it implies everyone knows what everyone knows), there has to be a measure using the data to analyse e.g. we certainly do not have any measure for love: My present girlfriend loves me 56 lover-points more than my previous therefore I’m better off with her! And one need time, cognitive ability and resources to analyse each alternatives with others.
If one can manage to have all these resources then he can lean towards rationality. Rational decisions will always make you profit from a choice if not indifferent to utility. So, it must be very beneficial to be always rational, right? But total rationality comes at a cost.
A person who is rational will not consider factors which cannot be quantified, such as ethical concerns and the values to altruism. One leaves out consideration of personal feelings, loyalties and sense of obligation. If these matter doesn’t concern you then you can surely profit bymaking choices based on reasoning. There are no right or wrong belief; what you believe will be the truth for you.
For e.g. Let’s say we have group of 100 people from a cohort of which you are a part of. Each person of the group is given a task to choose a number between 0-100 of their choice. After choosing the numbers everyone has to predict 2/3 rds of the average value of all the numbers. Every person is isolated and will not know number chosen by other candidates. This information Every person knows that every other person knows and so on (rational in other words). So, what will you predict?
Let’s look at it a rational way. You know that maximum a person can choose is 100. If everyone in the group chooses 100 then it’s avg will also be 100, giving its 2/3rds to be 66.66. Now you know that maximum value of prediction can never be greater than 66.66. So it wouldn’t make sense to guess anything higher than this. If everyone in the game arrived at this conclusion, 66.66 will be the highest average making it’s 2/3rd to be 44.44. Now 44.44 will be the highest prediction. This process will go on infinitely to give you final result tending to zero! But do you think that everyone will choose zero? Ceratainly not! This is why we conclude that everyone cannot be rational at the same time. So what can be concluded? We can conclude that rational choices are not always possible. We must not only tend to become rational but also be irrational when it comes to family and friends. There is no treasure from which if you profit will give you sense of satisfaction, in fact there is a possibility of you becoming greedy and losing all your rationality. Having a balanced life is very crucial, you must know when you should loosen purse’s strings, open your heart and love and when to not. This sense cannot be taught, one should have experience. Try to do all your life’s experiment before your prime age comes to an end; once you turn old you’ll be good for nothing.