Rationality vs Omniscience

Had to make a very difficult decision today. Actually, I made a decision yesterday and changed it today. Ok, I cannot change it back anymore. It's very true that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. After I made my initial decision yesterday, I felt a little regret. After giving it a lot more thoughts, I changed my decision. Now, I kinda regret again. So, I think it must be because the two options have almost equal pros and cons.

Ok, I shall not make this a mystery. It is whether to go for internship with Standard Chartered Bank in this school term. When I started NUS, I was very keen to do internship for one semester. I even overloaded one extra module in each semester to offset the lesser MC obtainable in the internship semester. But, as each semester passed, I started to question this disposition. Many ppl choose to go for internship during holiday which is 3 months long. What is the point of giving up one semester of study (at the same time taking in a lot of module scheduling conflicts) to do internship? Nevertheless, I was still quite firm with my attitude . . . at least until the opportunity presents itself.

If this opportunity came before the school started in January, I would not have given much thought and would have just taken it. But, when the person I was corresponding with did not reply my emails in time, I was forced to register for modules. As I did, I was also force to plan for next year modules as well. As I planned, I realized that the number of year 4 modules I can choose are quite limited.

Things would have just gone smoothly if the reply email did not come. But, it did and it did just in time. Sometimes, I wish things are not that flexible. It just make decisions harder when things are too flexible. If the person from SCB did not offer me remote work and holiday internship possibility, I would not need to think too much. If the school said it is too late to go for internship (now is 2nd week of school), I would not need to think too much. If the person from SCB replied just a little earlier (or later), I would not need to think too much. If it is impossible to re-schedule my modules such that I can graudate in time, I would not need to think too much (now it is possible if I am willing to take quite a bit of risks and willing to choose modules I don't really like). If the internship pay is a bit higher :P, I would not need to think too much.

Now that things are just too flexible, it all boiled down to chooing six months internship + unpleasant final year (vs) 3 months internship (probably) + smooth-sail final year. Of course, apart from module choice problem, I am also bothered by the fact that if I do internship this semester, I will be out-of-sync with my friends and very likely even out-of-sync with everyone I have acquainted with in School of Computing. I don't mind making new friends but the idea of not knowing anyone in every class I take makes me uncomfortable. Well, I know things might not turn out to be this bad; I might enjoy the final year even with these conditions after all. If that is the case, how about choosing holiday internship? It might not be inferior to six months internship after all. I swayed from one decision to another. Every time I swayed, I regret choosing one over the other. Finally, I tossed coin. Call me superstitious or childish. All the rock-scissor-paper games and coin tosses (including the final one I made up my mind to obey) consistently suggested me not to go. So, I finally chose not to go.

Ok, eventually, one choice will turn out to be better than the other. But, I remember my first AI lecture. Rationality is not omniscience. A path chosen rationally with limited viewpoint of the environment might be inferior to one made with complete knowledge of everything (omniscience) but it is still the rational choice one should follow. So, I have chosen a path "rationally" by tossing a coin. It might turn out to be a bad choice or a good one. But, one thing for sure is that I can't know it at this moment.

I might have made a wrong choice in your opinion. If so, please do not comment for I can't change my decision anymore and I don't want to be remorseful.