Decisions, Decisions...

You can't get away from them, can you? Like deciding to write this post, for example. You make decisions every moment of every day, some consciously, others unconsciously. Even a decision to not decide is still a decision. I can't speak for everybody, but I am not fond of decisions - and I suspect quite a lot of us think the world would be a better place without the need for them (According to my extremely limited understanding of quantum physics, the world wouldn't exist without decisions being made - but that's another story).

These days, the amount of information we have, literally, at our fingertips is incredible, courtesy Google and its lesser brethren. You'd think with all that easily accessible data, making a decision would be a cinch. Think again. Earlier today, I decided I needed a simple article - a clear hard sheet of plastic. The obvious place to look was on the Internet, on ebay and Amazon. The moment I typed in my requirement, I was faced with page after page of results. All with slightly different specifications, and remarkably different prices. While the decision on what to pay was easy (my dad used to decide what to eat at a restaurant by looking at the right-hand side of the menu - you get the picture), I spent almost half an hour trying to picture the difference between a thickness of 2mm and one of 3mm, converting inches into centimetres and vice versa, and researching whether "perspex" was clear enough, hard enough or good enough for me.

The point is, there was a time (yes, I'm old enough to remember thepre-internet world) when all that information wasn't available. Decisions had to be made using whatever limited information there was - and made right. And guess what - I made the right decisions at least as often as I do now.

So - does more data necessarily mean better decisions? Logic would say so. And so would pretty much everybody tasked with making a decision. However, I suspect the one misleads and the other shirks. Think about it this way - for millions of years, before the light of intelligence dawned on us, our ancestors basically had one of two decisions to make - fight or flight. And those weren't decisions that could be made while scratching your head thoughtfully. Even afterwards, for most of our existence as humans, our lives usually depended on swift decisions using the evidence of our eyes and our intuitions. And given that we are the most successful species ever, that worked for us. In other words, we've evolved to make quick decisions based on limited data, and not conclusions based on lengthy logical analyses.

That isn't to say that there are no cases where decisions shouldn't be made painstakingly. After all, nuclear physics and libel laws didn't exist for most of mankind's history. But for everyday, non-life-or-death decisions, we're probably better off trusting our intuitive reactions to things, compounded perhaps with a little common sense. You'll know what I mean if you've ever bought a house or a car. Both are important decisions, among the most important you'll ever make. But no matter how much you list the pros and cons, research the neighbourhood or look on vehicle owner forums, you only really make the decision when you've set foot in the house and decided "it feels right" or taken that test drive and thrilled to that deep-throated growl when you floor the accelerator.

Have no doubt, you will regret some decisions. But you're as likely to regret an over-analysed decision as a rash one - so think about what you're about to do - but only a little. You're meant to spend your life benefiting from the decisions you made, not making them. And remember - some decisions only look bad when you compare them to those made by others - they may be the right decision on their own merit. It isn't about keeping up with the Joneses - it's about your own satisfaction.