I think that when you get dressed in the morning sometimes you're really making a decision about your behavior for the day. Like if you put on flipflops you're saying: 'Hope I don't get chased today.' 'Be nice to people in sneakers.'
No one ever pretended that shopping for anything is a rational experience. If it were would there be Fluffernutter? Laceless sneakers? Porkpie hats? Would the Chia Pet even exist?
The only protection as a historian is to institute a process of research and writing that minimizes the possibility of error. And that I have tried to do aided by modern technology which enables me having long since moved beyond longhand to use a computer for both organizing and taking notes.