“Who is to blame that men have the habit, which they cannot shake off, of acting not only according to what reason permits, but also according to what it does not permit?”Feodor Dostoievski · Însemnări din subterană · 1864 · Partea I, capitolul 7
Man is no calculator: sometimes he wants what harms him, just to prove he chooses freely.
The underground narrator attacks the rationalist utopia of his age, which believed that enlightened man would always choose calculated good. The mechanism is empirical observation: we sometimes want precisely what harms us, out of pride, boredom, or the desire to prove our freedom. The classic example is the person who ruins a good relationship just so nothing is imposed on them, or borrows for a luxury they cannot afford.
Why it matters It explains why rational policies and advice fail: budgets, diets, habits. It reminds us to design for real people, not for calculating ones.