64. Propensity of people to offer "simple" and "obvious" decisions
in difficult situations—not having thought them though

We all know this happens. It is followed up by a persistence, defending the decision through argument, and resistance to considering other options. H.L. Mencken said, “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” Yudkowsky writes in detail about the importance of a time interval between the moment of appearance of a question and the moment in which a human being makes a definitive choice in favor of an answer is the interval in which any real thinking happens, and it may be quite short, even a few seconds. Norman R.F. Maier wrote, “Do not propose any solutions until the problem has been discussed as thoroughly as possible without suggesting any.” It is psychologically difficult for someone to change their mind once they have proposed a solution and begun to take a liking to it, partially because in every human society, spending too much time considering solutions is seen as weakness. Once someone is seen as advocating a solution publicly, it becomes a subject of dispute that they get emotionally attached to, which represents them, and they feel the need to defend it, either consciously or subconsciously.