Although I had a busy weekend (participated in the Elizabethtown Improv Festival on Friday and Saturday, attended a choir concert on Saturday night), I just wanted to mention one incident that I think is worthy of some reflection. I didn't have a ticket for the choir concert, so when I got back from the improv festival at 7:30 pm on Saturday night, I quickly scarfed down the dinner I picked up from Wendy's and got to Zoellner (Lehigh's arts center, the location of the performance) at 7:50 pm, 10 minutes before showtime. Now, I wasn't too worried about getting a ticket, since I was going by myself, but there was a line for the ticket office. Not even a minute after I got into line, an usher came by, waving a single ticket in the air and offering it for free to any who needed it. I was the first to accept the offer and found myself in the center of the orchestra area, only two rows away from the stage.
What this lucky occurrence made me think of was, how our choices can have so many unpredictable effects. If I had chosen to skip dinner and go straight to Zoellner, I would have bought a ticket before getting this free offer. If I had arrived a few minutes later, someone else would have snapped up the free ticket before I got there. But by arriving exactly when I did, I got a free ticket, even though it would have been a better "a priori" choice to arrive early and ensure that I got a good seat (of whatever was remaining). And yes, feel free to call me pretentious for using the phrase "a priori".
So what does this mean for how we should make choices in life, if the consequences of our choices can't be predicted? Well, for me, it's about risk minimization (in this case, minimizing the risk of not getting a good seat) and benefit maximization (in this case, getting the best seat possible). And since I couldn't have known that I would get a free ticket in a good location by arriving late, I should have arrived earlier to ensure that I got a good seat. I just happened to get lucky this time.
I was not so lucky Sunday night, when I went to an event that was giving out tickets to see Barack Obama at a local college. I arrived at that 10 minutes before that started, and I was greeted with a building full of other people who got there before me. I was tempted to try to pull some strings to skip up to the front of the line (the group giving out the tickets was one with which I've volunteered), but that seemed unfair to all the others who had to stand in line. Instead, I accepted my poor anticipation of the turnout for this opportunity and returned empty-handed to my apartment. It was kind of nice that my luck didn't repeat itself, because it reminded me that everything doesn't come easy and that most of the time, you have to take appropriate measures to achieve a desired outcome.
But that's just one conclusion that you could draw, and it's the one I took. Anyone have any different insights to contribute?
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