Nothing but feelings.

 

I have been writing about how we make decisions for about 5 years now.  One of my main goals is to be confident about how we process information and how we work through our decisions.  This confidence will then allow us to live with our decisions.  It is not about getting everything right.  One will never get every thing right.  I would like us to be confident in our decisions regardless of the outcomes.  Sometimes things go awry despite our sound understanding of the issues and our tactical approach to the problem.  Sometimes we blunder blindly and land on our feet.  What is the saying "even a blind squirrel finds a nut".  A decision does not need to be complex to be difficult.  Sometimes logic and tactics are not applicable to a particular decision.

Just to be clear I am not talking about emotional aspects that may influence a decision, such as a automobile purchase.  We all envision ourselves driving that new convertible along the Pacific coast highway with the top down and our hair blowing in the breeze.  Truthfully, all decisions have an emotional aspect to them.  Whether that decision is a homeowner purchasing an appliance for their kitchen or a corporation investing in a new IT system.  One tactic is to eliminate any of these emotional aspects and focus on the logical ones.  I had the opportunity to have formal sales training and one of the foundations of that training was that "people buy for emotional reasons and rationalize with logic.  So as we drive down the PCH with the top down we tell our friends about the great gas milage our convertible gets.

It may be a misnomer to label these "decisions".  After all don't decisions end with an outcome and wouldn't that outcome be compared to what was desired?  I decided to invest money in a specific way (bonds, ETF's, index funds, individual stocks, etc.).  I estimate a certain return.  If I exceed the estimate I consider myself smart and lucky.  If I meet the return estimate I appear smart and if I do not meet my estimated return I was unlucky.  Or it was someone else's fault.  Poor results are never my fault (lol). What about a decision that has no measurable outcome?

The simplest example I can think of is quite simple.  You are cleaning a room and you come across old photos in a shoe box.  You have not seen these photos for a number of years (or even decades). You have not been searching for these particular photos, in fact, you did not even know they existed. You may or may not immediately recognize the people in the photos.  The photo's setting may be familiar but nothing special to you.  They are simply old photos.  What does one do with them?  As one could imagine the basic decision is whether or not to keep the photos.  If we decide to not keep them they are discarded (usually the trash).  If we keep them they go back into the shoebox.  What else would we do with any item that means little or nothing to us?

If you are like most, you put them back in the shoe box and put the shoe box back where you found it.  The photos remain hidden for another 5 years.  Then the photos are rediscovered again and the process is repeated.  Why is it difficult to make a decision regarding an old photo.  As I said the photo has very little to do with you personally.  It is likely that some people have never discarded a photo.  I also acknowledge that this argument has different nuances due to digital storage.  To some extent digital storage can exacerbate the issue.  With our phones we can take thousands of photos and store them digitally at very little cost.  We no longer find old photos in shoeboxes, we discover digital folders labeled "old photos" or "misc."  However, the same situation applies.  Why not delete some of the "old photos"?  Maybe AI can look at our galleries and create a folder called "useless/meaningless photos"  Maybe then we might be more likely to delete them.

As I delve into this topic I find myself constantly coming across decluttering sites.  I am not looking at this from a "clutter" perspective.  Decluttering does involve emotional angles but in the end it is a rational assessment of our possessions.  One thing I did come across is the Konmari method.  Basically, it asks us to assess an object by whether or not it sparks instant joy.  If it does not then we should discard it.  We keep things that bring us happiness and discard everything else.  I have come across this type of technique a couple times in the past.  One such book (The year of less) on minimalist lifestyles has you take all items in a room and place them in a pile in the center.  Then go through each one.  If an object brings joy keep it if it doesn't discard it.  In the end you have decluttered the room.

The problem with the Konmari method is the discarding step.  This is the step derails us.  Why do we keep objects that have very little or no utility.  I think the biggest reason is the unknown.  I have emphasized that these decisions involve items that have very little sentimental value to us.  They have no monetary value, provide no emotional comfort,  they are clutter.  If discarded we will never need them nor will we ever think of them.  I also feel that these methods a very one sided.  Keep what invokes joy and discard everything else.  The lack of a "middle ground" tends to make us uneasy.  After all don't we usually assess outcomes on some type of scale.  If I invest money and expect a 10% return and only get a 9.5% return, do I label my investment decision an abject failure?  Chances our I would not.

This is one of those things that defies logic.  We may have to make a decision and learn to live with it.