“When we talk about decision-making, we usually focus just on the immediate payoff of a single decision – and if you treat every decision as if it were your last, then indeed only exploitation makes sense. But over a lifetime, you’re going to make a lot of decisions. And it’s actually rational to emphasize exploration – the new rather than the best, the exciting rather than the safe, the random rather than the considered – for many of those choices, particularly earlier in life.”
