Pigweed
Too Much Emphasis on Results
by Pigweed on 14 May 2009
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and even Vietnam have me thinking about decision making and assessment of that decision. It seems that opinions regarding the rightness of the decision to go to war is often determined down the road by the outcome. But is that really how we should judge a decision we make?
I’m not talking here just about geopolitical decisions but also personal ones. Case A: Before switching jobs you do all the research, make a list of pros and cons and discuss it with your spouse and others. You determine it is a good decision. Shortly after there is a shake up at the new company and it turns out to be a disaster.
Or B: You might switch jobs for some lame reason like the secretary is hot or you get to wear jeans on Fridays. Someone quits, you are promoted and you love the job even though you didn’t know much about the company when you took the job.
Was A a bad decision or a good decision with unfortunate results? Was B good or bad and just lucky?
If you measure your decisions by the results you will just make a lot of decisions willy nilly and then cross your fingers. You also end up regretting perfectly wise choices that turned out poorly.
While it may not always be the case, decisions are generally right or wrong at the time they are made.
2009-05-14 » Pigweed
14 May 2009 @ 4:20 pm
As they say, hindsight is 20-20.
You can only make decisions based on what you know, but somebody (or yourself) will come along later and blame you for what you should have known.
14 May 2009 @ 6:55 pm
“You acted unwisely,” I cried, ” as you see
By the outcome.” He calmly eyed me:
“When choosing the course of my action,” said he,
“I had not the outcome to guide me.”
A Lacking Factor, Ambrose Bierce
14 May 2009 @ 9:53 pm
I agree. There have been choices I’ve made that I did a complete about-face on when I gained one new piece of information or one thing slightly changed, but for some of them at least, I don’t in the least regret the initial choice or think that it would have been “wrong.” It was the right decision to make at the time, knowing what I knew. (This is assuming that what I knew was limited by circumstance, not by my not bothering to check things out or think thing through.)
14 May 2009 @ 9:55 pm
And yeah, with the choice A, that’s literally happened to my husband. But it WAS the right choice at the time, given the equipment he had to make the decision.