The Diary
of
Anne Ku

24 November 2000 Friday

LEARNERS AND ABDICATORS

Yesterday while having lunch at the Savoy in the Strand, I pointed out that we were either learners or abdicators. According to my marketing professor friend, buyers either want to know about the details (learners) or pay someone else to figure it out.

Expanding this further, we can be learners in certain situations and abdicators in others. When it comes to most matters, I'm a learner. But when it comes to my computer problems, I'd rather have someone else fix it. Not so, said my lunch companion. He's an abdicator in all respects, except when it comes to computers. He would rather fix it himself.

Thinking back, I really shouldn't have applied my learner approach to so many trivial one-off tasks. I allowed my builders to explain what was required and the details of what was involved. Perhaps it was the way I listened that made them want to elaborate.

Unfortunately, so many decisions these days are way too complicated. We can't just pay someone else to choose for us. So we read consumer reports, find people who have gone thru the decision making process, and then make up our minds.

I would argue, though, that sometimes ignorance is bliss. Had I known everything about what was involved in building web sites, I would have never started analyticalQ.

Yesterday

Tomorrow

Decision Analysis