Page 114 - Psychology of Money - Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness-Harriman House Limited (2020)

doctors, and certainly no drug company views fever as anything but a
misfortune that should be eliminated.
COBACOBA

These views do not match the known science. One study was blunt:
“Treatment of fever is common in the ICU setting and likely related to

standard dogma rather than evidence-based practice.”³⁶ Howard Markel,
director of the Center for the History of Medicine, once said of fever

phobia: “These are cultural practices that spread just as widely as the

infectious diseases that are behind them.”³⁷

Why does this happen? If fevers are beneficial, why do we fight them so
universally?

I don’t think it’s complicated: Fevers hurt. And people don’t want to hurt.

That’s it.

A doctor’s goal is not just to cure disease. It’s to cure disease within the
confines of what’s reasonable and tolerable to the patient. Fevers can have
marginal benefits in fighting infection, but they hurt. And I go to the doctor
to stop hurting. I don’t care about double-blind studies when I’m shivering
under a blanket. If you have a pill that can make a fever stop, give it to me
now.

It may be rational to want a fever if you have an infection. But it’s not
reasonable.

That philosophy—aiming to be reasonable instead of rational—is one more
people should consider when making decisions with their money.

Academic finance is devoted to finding the mathematically optimal
investment strategies. My own theory is that, in the real world, people do
not want the mathematically optimal strategy. They want the strategy that
maximizes for how well they sleep at night.