h190 asked...
Asked by h190 - 08/09/09 at 06:09 pmHow do you make decisions if you do not have enough information to make them ?
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September 8th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
When I have a decision to make and don’t have enough information to know which is a better decision, I feel around to see if I’ve got a good feeling on one or another.
If there is, I go with that one.
If not, I pick one to get the decision out of the way. For the vast majority of decisions, this works out well. Occasionally it will turn that my decision could have been better. Even in these rare situations I can usually adjust so no real harm is done.
If you’re interested in how decision making works, check out Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink. It’s an easy to read introduction to critical decision making that is totally aligned with the research available at it’s time of writing.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
I suppose the key is to go in search of the information, either through your own endeavor, or by relying on the expertise and experiences of others.
In this day and age much information is readily available through technological gateways such as the internet, and traditional resources like books. Outside of being informed, we always have instinct to fall back on, and combining this with common sense and a level headed approach may well be the most reliable option we have in the absence of information.
Of course, ultimately the answer comes down to what the decision might be, there is much old knowledge traditionally passed down through the generations, that has long been lost yet may hold the key to making correct decisions now and in the future, we should be more careful what we let ourselves forget.
September 10th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
In society we talk about making informed decisions or giving informed consent. Can we ever be certain we have access to all the information available to make those decisions?
On a personal level it’s likely we research an idea carefully before taking a decision then accept the consequences.
The difficulty arises when other people in a position of influence make ill informed decisions on our behalf over which we have no control. This may be on a political level, in the workplace or maybe during childhood.
Challenging those decisions can be very difficult and in reality most of us only do that when we feel very strongly about an issue.
September 26th, 2009 at 10:05 am
You can not. And you, we, I do it all the time. In fact, were we to decide only upon having ‘all the information’ it would be the very end of deciding. This process (how) is called human behavior.