Given two paths, of equal length, between where one is and where one wishes to be, the path that can offer the traveler the perception of making comparatively superior progress toward their final destination goal is the path that will more often than not be chosen.

It was an episode of introspection, in which I wondered at my preference for one path over another that can be taken between two workplace locations, that led to my settling on the opening declaration. A representative bird’s-eye view depiction:

Having traversed these paths daily for weeks, I couldn’t deny a preference for the blue path when traveling from point A to B and for the red path when traveling opposite. It was not merely force of habit, for it didn’t yield to conscious effort on those inquisitive occasions when such effort was made to perhaps try the alternate route, and instead confronted the effort with a visceral resistance.

In applying a directional dependence to them as I have, the routes share this trait: with respect to the other, each path offers the traveler the more expedient exit from their current space, or equivalently, the more expedient entry to their subsequent space. This myopic measure of progress enjoys, by virtue of its proximity to the here & now, an outsized influence on overall progress perception, thus rendering the illusion of one path being paradoxically shorter than its equal-length alternate.

Indulging the illusion represents a loss for the rational mind, which knows better. One wonders whether losses sustained by the rational mind with respect to navigating the spatial dimension have the potential to weaken it’s influence on judgements in other domains.