Althouse: "I feel I’ve lived my life well, but it’s a feeling. I’m just reasonably happy with what I’ve done."

April 14, 2025

"I feel I’ve lived my life well, but it’s a feeling. I’m just reasonably happy with what I’ve done."

"I would say if there is an objective point of view, then I’m totally irrelevant to it. If you look at the universe and the complexity of the universe, what I do with my day cannot be relevant."

Said Daniel Kahneman, on March 19, quoted in "There’s a Lesson to Learn From Daniel Kahneman’s Death" (NYT). On March 27th, he followed through with his plan to die by assisted suicide.

Another quote: "I have believed since I was a teenager that the miseries and indignities of the last years of life are superfluous, and I am acting on that belief. I am still active, enjoying many things in life (except the daily news) and will die a happy man. But my kidneys are on their last legs, the frequency of mental lapses is increasing, and I am 90 years old. It is time to go."

Kahneman won the Nobel Prize for his work in "behavioral" economics. You may know his book "Thinking, Fast and Slow."

54 comments:

tcrosse said...: My kidneys are up in arms. My liver hasn't a leg to stand on. My pancreas is off its head.; 4/14/25, 1:11 PM
Aggie said...: This is usually a hot topic for commentary. Personally, I think that anybody should have the right to take their own life, since it is theirs, and nobody else's. All philosophical arguments aside, our life is the one thing that pretty much each of us has agency over, even slaves.

You might have profound reasons for disagreeing with somebody that chooses to take their own life - I can think of many, right off the bat, including for this guy. But somebody who decides to end things has made a courageous decision, one that almost everybody avoids for as long as humanly possible, even when they're unconscious. They're taking action on the basis of their beliefs, whatever they may be, not knowing what comes next - and that takes courage.; 4/14/25, 1:13 PM
Ampersand said...: If you find this topic interesting, the novel SHOULD WE STAY OR SHOULD WE GO by Lionel Shriver covers the topic in a way that is entertaining and structurally original. It plays out multiple scenarios as people in their 80's come to grips with the prospect of geriatric decline.; 4/14/25, 1:18 PM
RideSpaceMountain said...: “It’s not worth the bother of killing yourself since you always kill yourself too late.” – Emil Cioran (The Trouble with Being Born, 1973); 4/14/25, 1:19 PM
Kakistocracy said...: Thinking fast and slow is among the most inspiring books I’ve ever read. Unique research done by Kahnemann, and his importance for behavioral sciences is immense.

He had the insight to ask a very simple question: How do people actually make decisions? Many economists, especially financial economists, still ignore his findings.

It is impossible to overstate the importance that Prospect Theory, cognitive biases and decision heuristics have had on modern thinking.; 4/14/25, 1:21 PM
Readering said...: I wonder what he meant saying his kidneys were on their last legs. During a recent discussion over something else my oncologist cousin volunteered surprise that my dad had rejected going on dialysis at Sloan Kettering. He died soon after. This was some decades ago. Apparently an uncommon patient decision.; 4/14/25, 1:22 PM
MadisonMan said...: I have believed since I was a teenager that the miseries and indignities of the last years of life are superfluous
Following the suggestions/ideas of teenagers is a bad idea IMO.; 4/14/25, 1:23 PM
n.n said...: The issue is not selfie-abortion, but specifically assisted selfie-abortion or Planned Personhood is a progressive path.; 4/14/25, 1:25 PM
Darkisland said...: Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker, Big Short, Moneyball etc) wrote a great book about Kahneman and Taversky called "The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds"

If it had been by anyone else there is no way I would have even looked at it. It sounds deadly dull. But I will read anything by Michael Lewis and this book was as interesting as anything he has written.

John Henry; 4/14/25, 1:26 PM
Readering said...: Taversky died of cancer at 59 in 1996. I imagine Kanheman has thought a lot about that.; 4/14/25, 1:33 PM
Kakistocracy said...: ^^. ‘The Undoing Project’ by Michael Lewis dwells into the professional relationship between Kahneman and Tversky. Amazing how different they were and yet collaborated for 20 years. It’s a must read in its own.

I went to see Penn and Teller in Las Vegas a few years ago, and Penn talked about how Thinking, Fast and Slow had blown his mind because it was such a perfect description of what a magician does. Making an illusion work is all about encouraging the audience to think fast (and jump to incorrect conclusions) rather than think slow(ly) (and carefully).; 4/14/25, 1:37 PM
mikee said...: When depressed in younger years I had to make a conscious decision NOT to end my life. I have yet to regret that choice. Time will tell if it was a correct one, the jury is still out on me.; 4/14/25, 1:44 PM
Kakistocracy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/14/25, 1:53 PM
Breezy said...: I had an acquaintance in college who was determined to commit suicide at age 60, if she even lived that long. I have no idea what happened to her. It was shocking to me that someone would commit to dying at any particular age. What it does to your lifelong decision-making would be corrosive…to me, at least.; 4/14/25, 1:59 PM
Disparity of Cult said...: The slippery slope versus the dim blur of hope.; 4/14/25, 2:08 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: So, somebody who's 90 years old with kidney disease decided to end it all. Ok. I mean, he was lucky to live to 90. And I guess lucky to live 25 years as a "Senior Citizen" and only recently plagued with the "miseries of old age".

we all gotta go sometime. And when you get to 90, you might if you're lucky, live to 95. According to a study its 45/100 you will.; 4/14/25, 2:09 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: As for the Nobel Prize. Paul Krugman won one. Next to the Peace prize and the Literature prize, its probably the most useless NP in the bucket.; 4/14/25, 2:14 PM
Mason G said...: "If you look at the universe and the complexity of the universe, what I do with my day cannot be relevant."

Seems like there's no shortage of people (especially young ones) who are fixated on the idea that they need to use their lives to "Make A Difference™."

So- yeah. I guess.; 4/14/25, 2:18 PM
Josephbleau said...: He was thinking fast, not thinking slow. Otherwise he would have toughed it out.

Killing yourself is largely just a way to punish the people left behind. It’s the ultimate in performance art.; 4/14/25, 2:41 PM
Earnest Prole said...: I’m not going to tell a ninety-year-old how to live his life.; 4/14/25, 2:50 PM
joshbraid said...: "I would say if there is an objective point of view, then I’m totally irrelevant to it. If you look at the universe and the complexity of the universe, what I do with my day cannot be relevant."

Still a Newtonian worldview after over a century of paradigm change. Sad. The world is interconnected, not atomized. What I do "with my day" affects the whole cosmos (as well as everyone else).; 4/14/25, 3:07 PM
wild chicken said...: "It was shocking to me that someone would commit to dying at any particular age."

Easy to be stoical when it's far off in the future.; 4/14/25, 3:18 PM
Josephbleau said...: Kahneman’s Work has been tainted by the social science replication crisis. “In 2017, Kahneman told Retraction Watch: “I placed too much faith in underpowered studies… This was simply an error.” On social priming he later told readers to treat it as a subjective account. The anchoring and prospect theory parts may have been better but p hacking makes it an embarrassment.

So I am not saying he is a bad guy, but just an example of how social science sucks.; 4/14/25, 3:20 PM
Kate said...: "I would say if there is an objective point of view" ...

But what if the point of view is subjective?; 4/14/25, 3:26 PM
Sebastian said...: "my kidneys are on their last legs" Ouch. No comment from Althouse?; 4/14/25, 3:27 PM
Dave Begley said...: The NYT wants to popularize and normalize assisted suicide with its readership. The NYT is a death cult just like Hamas.

So, if you are a 15 year old girl and the State of Nebraska won't let you chop off your healthy breasts then go right ahead and do the assisted suicide thing in NY or Switzerland.

The past CEO of Aetna was ready to do the assisted suicide thing but then there was a treatment that worked for him. He talked about it on CNBC. He has a new health insurance company now.; 4/14/25, 4:22 PM
Lazarus said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/14/25, 4:27 PM
Lazarus said...: It must be tough if you outlive all of your obvious potential kidney donors. And tough too if you reach the age when doctors and hospitals figure surgery life-extending surgery doesn't have much point.

SHOULD WE STAY OR SHOULD WE GO by Lionel Shriver

Was the original title, "Forget About Kevin Already, We Need to Talk About Physician-Assisted Suicide"?; 4/14/25, 4:28 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: Lightswitch thinkers always amuse. There's only two ways of thinking about a problem. Up and down. Right and wrong. Black and white. Light on. Light off.

Context matters. If you can't understand the difference between a 45 y/o and 90 y/o in bad health killing themselves. I don't know what to say.; 4/14/25, 4:34 PM
mccullough said...: His legs were on his last kidneys.; 4/14/25, 4:35 PM
IamDevo said...: Well,... 'bye.; 4/14/25, 4:49 PM
The Vault Dweller said...: @IamDevo
Is that a Tombstone reference?; 4/14/25, 4:51 PM
Alan said...: "Thinking Fast and Slow" is a wonderful book. I don't agree with some of it, I think Kahneman himself has changed his mind about some things, and I still think behavioral economics isn't important. I'd think he had discussed his decision with people he was closest to, and if they accepted it it seems churlish for people who didn't know him to criticize his decision, even if it's one they wouldn't have made the same decision for themselves.; 4/14/25, 5:04 PM
wsw said...: how stylish.; 4/14/25, 5:10 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: If you accept the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics (as I do), it is difficult to reject the concept of quantum immortality. That is, since there is always some possible world where you are alive, and you can’t experience the ones where you are dead, you can never experience death. You can’t even kill yourself, since the gun will misfire, or a meteorite will knock it out of your hand, etc. You will see all your friends die, but you yourself will just get older. And older, and older…; 4/14/25, 5:17 PM
Rabel said...: He should have bought a dog.

Maybe a shih tzu pup - a little bundle of fluff and joy and love and needs.

Would have brightened up his life and given him something to care for and to live for.

Too late now.; 4/14/25, 5:36 PM
Rabel said...: "If you accept the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics (as I do)"

Heavy, man.; 4/14/25, 5:40 PM
Narr said...: Re Rabel's 'get a dog' suggestion.

No. IMO an old, sick person can't give a pup what it needs.

As much as I have loved all my dogs, I won't make myself responsible for another one after this one goes. And I'm not even 90.; 4/14/25, 5:49 PM
Maynard said...: Josephbleau wrote: Kahneman’s Work has been tainted by the social science replication crisis. “In 2017, Kahneman told Retraction Watch: “I placed too much faith in underpowered studies…

Underpowered studies and problems with replication are not quite the same thing. Many popular social psychology studies were not replicable because they were phony science that came up with popular results.

Danny Kahneman and Amos Tversky were two of the best social cognitive psychologists of their time or any time. Some of their studies may have been underpowered, but they were diligent and transparent in their methodology, analysis and interpretations.; 4/14/25, 5:55 PM
Rabel said...: "No. IMO an old, sick person can't give a pup what it needs."

He had some age related problems but he was easily well enough to care for a small dog from what I've read.

Best case would be that he had adopted his new friend years earlier. Maybe he wouldn't have felt that his life was worthless.; 4/14/25, 6:23 PM
Lawcruiter said...: There is something so very profoundly sad about otherwise healthy people making a "rational" decision to end their own lives. The arguments in favor are all very logical, of course; and filled with self-satisfied moral certitude of being able to freely express one's agency. Very smart people can rationalize anything. But, ugh, how awful!
!; 4/14/25, 6:56 PM
Narr said...: There are fine people on both sides of the question.; 4/14/25, 8:19 PM
Josephbleau said...: “Underpowered studies and problems with replication are not quite the same thing. Many popular social psychology studies were not replicable because they were phony science that came up with popular results.“

If you look, what he actually did was p hack, when you make post hoc multiple comparisons you need to make an adjustment to your p value to compensate for that. A .05 p value says you can have a type 1 error once in 20 times. If you compare 20 hypotheses you think you have a significant result when the structure of your study assures you that one hypothesis is going to be indicated as significant. There is a famous xkcd comic on this called green jelly beans cause acne, which explains it well.

In any case I think he was probably a nice guy but he apologized and in direct words retracted the core hypotheses of his book, that just means he probably did not understand the stats or he was very personally invested in the theories. That is why his theories can’t be replicated now, because they are not significant.

But he got a Nobel for it I guess, in part.; 4/14/25, 8:36 PM
Oso Negro said...: What is “relevant” to the galaxy? Not ours to say.; 4/14/25, 9:05 PM
Lem Vibe Banditory said...: "I would say if there is an objective point of view, then I’m totally irrelevant to it. If you look at the universe and the complexity of the universe, what I do with my day cannot be relevant."

YouTube: "We are creatures of finitude"; 4/14/25, 9:09 PM
Josephbleau said...: "I would say if there is an objective point of view, then I’m totally irrelevant to it. If you look at the universe and the complexity of the universe, what I do with my day cannot be relevant."

Perhaps, but that’s no excuse to let yourself go, I’ll keep combing my hair anyway. And the universe may not be that complex, the smallest piece of it follows the same rules as any other piece of it.

The problem with humans is that at first glance the universe appears to be just massive piles of junk careening around at high speed all over the place. We need to calm down and look closer. Solving the simplest dynamics problem gives you a limited sense of control.; 4/14/25, 9:37 PM
Steve Austin Showed Up For Work. said...: The man was 90. I'm not gonna judge. This isn't someone in the 20s having some kind of bullshit psychological crisis. If you aren't P.G. Wodehouse, you won't be doing good work in your 90s.; 4/14/25, 10:55 PM
GrapeApe said...: The only one I would consider offing myself for is ALS.; 4/14/25, 10:55 PM
Rabel said...: I'll call it a tie in the interests of World Peace.; 4/15/25, 12:00 AM
Jeff said...: Some people get very excited about behavioral economics because it shows that, in many cases, people don't actually behave the way standard economic theory says they do. But that misses the point. Economic models explain a great deal about how the world works and make better predictions than other social science models do.

The question is not 'Is my economic model literally true?' but rather 'If I assume my model is correct and crank through it, how accurate are its predictions for things I care about?'. On that score, traditional Chicago-school economics scores much higher than alternative ways of thinking about how people interact.; 4/15/25, 12:41 AM
MarkW said...: "If you look, what he actually did was p hack"

The faulty research cited in Thinking Fast and Slow was not his own work. The problem is that he was too credulous of others' results. Results that, yes, came from p-hacking, the file-drawer problem (effectively distributed p-hacking) and in a couple of cases, outright fraud.; 4/15/25, 5:29 AM
Narr said...: Agreed, Rabel.

Based on the critiques offered by others I guess I can take his book off of my to-read list now.; 4/15/25, 9:52 AM
bagoh20 said...: Most deaths in the hospital or at home with a nurse are assisted. We just don't say so. Our family watched my mother die at home as more and more morphine was provided. Most of us knew what was happening without discussing it, and we thought it a good way to go for someone you love whose time had irreversibly run out.; 4/15/25, 2:11 PM
Bunkypotatohead said...: "In 1998, Kevorkian was arrested and tried for his role in the voluntary euthanasia of a man named Thomas Youk who had Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS. He was convicted of second-degree murder and served eight years of a 10-to-25-year prison sentence. He was released on parole on June 1, 2007, on condition he would not offer advice about, participate in, or be present at the act of any type of euthanasia to any other person, nor that he promote or talk about the procedure of assisted suicide."

Twenty five years ago it was illegal. Today the NYT advocates for it. In another twenty five years it will be required.; 4/15/25, 7:50 PM