The Decision Strategist

In What am I doing with my life?, I went over a fairly simple method called Pros-Cons-Fix that you can use to make decisions between several different options. I generally like that method, but sometimes I think it leaves something important out: values.

Often times when we are choosing between several different options, whether it is about what kind of car to buy or clothes to wear or what career to pursue, we aren’t making a decision based on the options themselves, but on the image and emotions that each option gives us.

emotions and images are so strong because a lot of our thinking is associative in nature. This can lead to problems like making incorrect associations, but also lets us evaluate complex decisions quickly.

When making long term decisions, I find it helpful to explicitly acknowledge the values that we use to pick something. It’s a simple exercise to sit down with each option and list the emotions and values that come to mind. This, in combination with your primary goals, can help you to see which decision is the right one.

Here are the four options I am considering and the values I associate with each one:

• Education: intensity, learning, executive, geek, studying
• Peace Corps: adventure, change, laughing, doing good work, social responsibility
• Ycombinator: high pressure, high stakes, extreme learning, amazing experience, all or nothing, high roller
• Status Quo: mundane, safe, relaxed

The first thing I noticed after doing this is that it was much easier for me to come up with words for the Peace Corps and the Ycombinator options, which are the more exciting options. The other two were more difficult. I think this points to how easy it is for us to imagine things when we are excited or invested in them. From this exercise alone I can tell that I’m not really interested in Education or the Status Quo.

The second thing I noticed is that out of six phrases for Ycombinator, three of them started with the word “high”. I think this illustrates how much of a gamble I consider this option to be. Either way I expect it to be a great experience, but I in my head I imagine a hard core gambler working around the clock to try and make a fortune. It reminds me of a day trader.

This exercise is really useful, and fleshes out the Pros-Cons-Fix method used earlier. It’s also a more intuitive and comfortable decision making technique. It doesn’t surprise me that I am more at home making a choice based on what I listed above than on the results of the Pros-Cons-Fix method. It is easier for us to make decisions based on feelings than based on reasoning.

I’m not saying that the results of one are any better or worse than the other. It’s important to consider both the emotional/imaginative aspects and the reasoning/logical aspects of big decisions like this.

-zot

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 8:19 am and is filed under Goals, Life Purpose.