When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before. — Mae West

When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before.

Author: Mae West

Insight: There's a kind of dark wisdom in Mae West's throwaway line that actually mirrors how we make decisions in real life. Most of us face situations where every option feels like a compromise—staying late at work or disappointing your team, calling your critical parent or letting resentment build, taking a job you're skeptical about or staying stuck. We're not choosing between good and evil so much as picking our poison. West's joke suggests that if you're stuck choosing the lesser bad option anyway, you might as well get something out of it: new information. This actually cuts against our usual instinct, which is to pick the devil we know. We assume familiarity equals safety, so we repeat the same mistakes, the same failed arguments with partners, the same self-sabotaging patterns. But West flips it: maybe the real risk isn't trying something new, it's assuming the familiar failure will somehow work differently this time. The unknown evil, at least, teaches you something. You learn what doesn't work for you, you gather data, you move forward wiser instead of just frustrated. Of course, this works best when your choices are actually limited and you're being honest about that. It's not a recipe for recklessness. But it's a reminder that sometimes "trying something different" isn't actually the risky option—it's the pragmatic one.