Chapter 12

Games Against Yourself

I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?

—Yogi Berra

And now, in this final chapter we will tackle the most difficult opponent that most of us will ever face in our lifetimes, the opponent that it is impossible to keep secrets from and seems to have our best interests at heart, and yet this opponent continues to make choices that harm us in many ways. Of course, this opponent is yourself!

In the first chapter of this book, I discussed how we normally assume that people make rational choices. The main reason for this is that it is impossible to have a reasonable discussion ...

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