I have no idea about the point of your supposed "stable and familiar" versus "new and unknown" scale. If you're going to make a choice, you should consider the consequences, then finitely recurse until you reach a good one. There's not much else to say here.
"established specific preference" or a more "open preference"?
I'm not sure I understand the distinction. Are you saying you might pick which color you'll wear each weekday or choose a favorite clock in advance to avoid decisions?
All day; every day of our lives we are presented with choice moments; What to eat; which way to turn; which clock to look at to best tell the time, what colour clothing to wear, where to walk; what to say, which words to say it with; how to respond.
I have a little gnome in the back of my mind that makes these very small choices for me on autopilot and my body automatically does what it says without thinking about it. The bulk of my consciousness is otherwise occupied or offline daydreaming and generally I don't even remember making these insignificant choices or remembering which choice I made.
This usually works out fine, except for sometimes the gnome made the wrong choice and once I notice I have to correct it. Is that not the usual setup?
I'm not sure I understand the distinction.
Most people seem to have an "established specific preference" with respect to coffee or tea. They have a standard order at Starbucks/whatever, or morning coffee is always made the same way. (And I must say, pre-caffeine is an optimal time not to need to think about things.) Most people have more "open" preferences with respect to restaurants. They will try different things on the menu, rather than ordering the same thing every time. "What am I in the mood for today?"
I have a little gnome in the back of my mind...
This sounds like an atypical experience, depending on your scope of "insignificant," although others in these sorts of discussions have mentioned feeling like they were passive observers of choices being made, rather than actively making choices.
What do you consider a significant choice? I don't spend much time thinking about clothing after I buy it, for example, but I know others who will spend several minutes picking out outfits every morning. They consider that a significant decision. Similarly, many people spend a lot of time thinking about "what to say" and "which words to say it with," some to the point of having trouble communicating because of obsessing over how to communicate; at the other extreme, there are people with absolutely no internal monologue who do not know what they are going to say until it comes out of their mouths.
I am wondering; and the answer seems unclear to me.
All day; every day of our lives we are presented with choice moments; What to eat; which way to turn; which clock to look at to best tell the time, what colour clothing to wear, where to walk; what to say, which words to say it with; how to respond.
Is it better to have an "established specific preference" or a more "open preference"? Why? Or which places is one better than the other and vice versa?
some factors might include:
Mental energy: Mental energy is exerted by having to make choices regularly; but with existing preferences you can simplify indecisive moments, save time; save mental energy; which can lead to bad choices and akrasia-like habits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_fatigue
Lost opportunity: When walking well worn pathways; you are unlikely to encounter as many new opportunities as you might have otherwise encountered if exploring new experiences or trying new choices.
Establishing stability: From a scientific standpoint; establishing stable norms could allow you to better measure variations and their cause/effect on your life, (i.e. food eaten and your mood). As many of us are growing, measuring and observing the world around us and our relationship with it; perhaps its better to establish stable choice for more areas.
I assume that once a choice is established; it would take an amount of activation energy to justify changing that choice, so would be partially fixed. (not to mention all the biases which would convince you that it was a good choice)
If the choice was made: Imagine if someone else made the choice for you. Would it be easier? Is this a good measure as to whether this choice should be pre-decided?
Would it be a productive exercise to make a list of daily choices and make pre-defined decisions for yourself so that you don't have to make them as they come up; but rather look at an existing choice list? Would this help with decisions? For example dieting should be easier when you have your dietary choice already established. Of course in the real world decisions can change; as life moves rapidly; but maybe it can help to have an existing default.
Is there a place in your life that you find having a pre-defined choice to be effective/ineffective? One example might be a shopping list; where you can shop faster with a list of specific products rather than wander round the supermarket asking yourself; "Do I want this; do I need this?" Does anyone find a shopping list like this to be ineffective?
(I realised that "better" is not a useful term for defining something because there are many directions of betterness, but I leave that up to the responder to describe in which ways having a choice in certain areas are better) (there are several questions in this piece, feel free to answer some, all, or none) (I will be trying to make a poll shortly)
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Possible experimental test:
1. Spend 10 minutes making a list of all the choice moments that you experienced yesterday/over the past two days, including the choices you made and possible other options.
2. Consider better choices for each of these "choice moments" (10mins)
3. Make a list of all the choices you expect to make tomorrow (spend 10 mins), and the choices you will make in each.
4. Consider alternative choices to the ones chosen (10mins), and pick a final choice that you are going to make.
5. Write a list (as a cheat-sheet) for ease of taking it with you.
6. Carry out a day of pre-chosen choices.
7. Report back.