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Do you get decision paralysis when deciding what home to buy or what apartment to live in?

Yes! Doesn’t everyone to some degree? That’s a huge decision that takes me days to decide.

Just make a choice, and you can make a different one later.

If we’re going with a housing analogy, this is pretty terrible advice. But I don’t think the housing analogy really applies. Where someone lives says (in my mind) a lot less about them - but is also a much more important personal decision.

You’ve implied a few times in this thread that complaints about Mastodon are because people are somehow accustomed to being told what to do by corporations. That is quite hyperbolic, and I also don’t really think it’s true.

I don’t see how caring about what a public choice appears to say about me has anything to do with that.



Decisions can be big but still easily reversible. And it makes sense to not hesitate with those, I think.

That is indeed something I've applied to buying an apartment in the past. I bought an apartment and ended up not liking it too much, so I sold it and bought a different one a few years later. Now I'm thinking about selling it again and buying something in a different part of the world. I don't see why making a choice and making a different one later is bad advice here.

Of course, there are choices that are difficult to reverse. Then some hesitation makes sense in my opinion.


Exactly. Think hard about marriage or a tattoo. A mastodon server? Who has time to stress about that. Pick anything and pick another one later.


That would be easier, of course, if your name followed you.

Mastodon could probably use a directory service independent of the network service.


When you move mastodon servers your followers and follows go with you to your new username so yous name kind of does follow you.

It is a bit like snail mail forwarding address.

I agree a directory server is probably a good call. It proved to be useful in Matrix.


I drove to the bay area on a Friday, looked at three apartments on a Saturday, and moved in Monday.

When I was ready to buy a home, I looked at one, made an offer, and bought it.

Life is a lot easier when you know your practical success criteria and are decisive when something meets it.

I truly think most people today are too accustomed to letting algorithms live their lives for them.




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