How Much Do You Value Your Life?

Daniel Kahneman's final decision feels almost like an elegant conclusion to one of his many research papers—deliberate, just, the product of his famously meticulous mind.

Last month we learned that the Israeli Nobel laureate chose to end his life in Switzerland at the age of 90. He wasn't terminally ill. He could still visit the Pompidou in Paris, savor chocolate mousse in some corner cafe on rue Vieille-du-Temple, engage intellectually. But on March 27, 2024, he exited on his terms, writing that he wanted to "forestall natural decline" he'd witnessed in loved ones.

Kahneman's choice crystallizes a question I've been wrestling with for some time now: why do some people fight desperately to extend life while others accept its natural end with relative ease?

Is it an unwillingness to let go? A fear of the void? Regrets that haunt?

Whatever it is, I …