Picture eighty-year-old you watching this decision. They’re not worried about looking cool.

Picture somebody eighty years old looking back at the decision in front of you now. They have no interest in whether it looked cool, who was watching, or what the group chat said, because none of that survived the trip. What they care about is whether you were brave and whether you were decent, which are the two things that keep mattering.

Run the next awkward choice past that person. Their advice is usually obvious and slightly inconvenient, and usually right.