There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis.
Truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.
We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for.
The great accomplishment of Jobs's life is how effectively he put his idiosyncrasies - his petulance, his narcissism, and his rudeness - in the service of perfection.
It would be interesting to find out what goes on in that moment when someone looks at you and comes to all sorts of conclusions.
-- Malcolm Gladwell
We all judge. It is part of our nature to protect ourselves so we judge people and everything else around us first, for their potential to do us harm. Snakes, spiders, scorpions, people with weapons, cars that might run over us and, for the more paranoid, spaceships that might scoop us up for testing. We also judge the people, animals and things around us for those that can do us good - a lost dollar on the ground, a cute girl or boy, a sign indicating a 50% reduction on price for something or a taxi cab on a lonely street in New York.
But sometimes those judgments lead us into making bad decisions. And at other times, those judgments that seem to make no sense are the perfect answer to our problem. Deliberate, analytical decisions are not always the best because we seldom have all of the facts. Or, perhaps I should rephrase that to say, all of the facts that we have were not obtained through our analysis but our brain is responding with further information which we may call instinct or inspiration.
So how do we judge appropriately? How do we make decisions about things in the best way possible? As suggested by one of the quotes above, there needs to be a balance in our lives for considering what we don't know and other sources where information can be obtained from, both our instincts and inspirations. Don't rely simply on the available facts but consider what else your mind is telling you. Sometimes we call it our gut feeling about something. Also, consider what spiritual information you may have, especially if you have sought for additional guidance from spiritual sources. Those, too, can be very powerful guides to making the best decisions, especially for one's personal life.
Mr. Gladwell tells the story of David and Goliath. From the perspective of the Monday morning quarterback there are many indicators that would tell us that this fight was not as one-sided as it seems. But remember that David did not have all of the information that Mr. Gladwell has. But he did have a different skill and the courage to use it in a way that went against the norms of the time and he probably had some guidance from inspiration, knowing what we do of his later life.
Malcom Gladwell's interesting account of David and Goliath is posted below.
Truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.
We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for.
The great accomplishment of Jobs's life is how effectively he put his idiosyncrasies - his petulance, his narcissism, and his rudeness - in the service of perfection.
It would be interesting to find out what goes on in that moment when someone looks at you and comes to all sorts of conclusions.
-- Malcolm Gladwell
We all judge. It is part of our nature to protect ourselves so we judge people and everything else around us first, for their potential to do us harm. Snakes, spiders, scorpions, people with weapons, cars that might run over us and, for the more paranoid, spaceships that might scoop us up for testing. We also judge the people, animals and things around us for those that can do us good - a lost dollar on the ground, a cute girl or boy, a sign indicating a 50% reduction on price for something or a taxi cab on a lonely street in New York.
But sometimes those judgments lead us into making bad decisions. And at other times, those judgments that seem to make no sense are the perfect answer to our problem. Deliberate, analytical decisions are not always the best because we seldom have all of the facts. Or, perhaps I should rephrase that to say, all of the facts that we have were not obtained through our analysis but our brain is responding with further information which we may call instinct or inspiration.
So how do we judge appropriately? How do we make decisions about things in the best way possible? As suggested by one of the quotes above, there needs to be a balance in our lives for considering what we don't know and other sources where information can be obtained from, both our instincts and inspirations. Don't rely simply on the available facts but consider what else your mind is telling you. Sometimes we call it our gut feeling about something. Also, consider what spiritual information you may have, especially if you have sought for additional guidance from spiritual sources. Those, too, can be very powerful guides to making the best decisions, especially for one's personal life.
Mr. Gladwell tells the story of David and Goliath. From the perspective of the Monday morning quarterback there are many indicators that would tell us that this fight was not as one-sided as it seems. But remember that David did not have all of the information that Mr. Gladwell has. But he did have a different skill and the courage to use it in a way that went against the norms of the time and he probably had some guidance from inspiration, knowing what we do of his later life.
Malcom Gladwell's interesting account of David and Goliath is posted below.
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