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Bon Journal

The decision of indecision

Many people tell me that they make decisions intuitively. According to one marketing guru, he doesn't consciously draw a decision tree but he is conscious of the decisions he makes. He "intuitively" knows what he wants. And all his subsequent research and actions justify it.

Being conscious of the need to make a decision often lands me in indecision land. My study of the concept of flexibility taught me to postpone making decisions for as long as possible, for this allows new choices (possibilities) to appear. At the same time, the uncertainty of lack of closure can be quite distressing.

One approach is to minimise regret. The older we get, the more opportunity we have to "regret", for it is only having made a decision that one has the opportunity to regret. Indeed, leaving things status quo has its own regrets.

Decision making takes practice. In a society where you are told what to do from day one, it's hard to know what you want. In such a Confucian society, it's more important to know what's expected of you than to know what you want. Going to the US was a big shock for me. So many choices and not enough decisions.

Why am I so obsessed with how people make decisions? Because I believe there are many ways to make decisions - and the textbooks have not said enough about this subject.

So let me ask my visitors to contribute their two cents worth. How do you make decisions? Some have already replied.

10 November 2001 Saturday

Decision Analysis
How people make decisions