Decision Making

There is a hot chick in the coffee shop giving you the looks n smiles and there is a presentation to be made to higher management in half an hour and you are running out of time to make the slides. What do you do?

I often wonder how many decisions man makes in a lifetime. Taking into account the fact that 'change of mind' occurs in a matter of seconds, it can be comfortably be said that man takes more decisions in a lifetime than the number of minutes he spends on this planet. Indeed, decision making, which is inherent in us, is just as crucial for life as breathing. Decision making forms a major chunk of research work in psychology and abnormalities in a person's decision making ability leads to severe psychic disorders.

How tough a decision is not only depends on the type of choices but also on the person who has to take the decision. People at the top management of any company take prompt and confident decisions. In fact, management is all a game of decision making. On the other hand, there are people who take hours to decide on a birthday gift for a two year old kid who gets amused at just anything. It is because of these people that you see lots of crowd in shopping malls. These are the people who keep changing their decision every instant.

I am a master of indecision.

Yeah, yeah. When it comes to taking a decision, I am miserable. I mean, why can't someone have everything in life? Bigger question -why can't life take its course? A teacher in secondary school had once told me that there are two or more roads at any juncture on the face of this planet and in the life of a person. One road is always better than the others. "So how do we know which road to take?" I had asked him. Any B-school professor will tell you rate your options, look at your constraints and priorities, take your experience into consideration etc. The teacher in secondary had said that you never know which path is best for you! So follow the path your heart says.

We Indians are very passionate about our heart. 'mere dil ki awaaz suno' 'aap mere dil ke mehmaan ho gaye' and 'aap kyun mere dil mein permanently baith gaye?'. A whole lucrative film industry runs on the concept of dil aka heart. Frankly, everyone talks about following the heart here but I doubt anyone must be doing that. One can't just divorce oneself from the head sitting over the torso that interferes in each and every physiological and psychological function. My head rules the land, leaving an inconsequential pumping activity to the heart.

The teacher did make sense. At least better than the business gurus who discourse their opinion so confidently that you get convinced they can show you the path to neverland. I have often felt an impulsive zeal to do something but could never really get down to doing it. Few days back, I was facing a serious career related dilemma and believe me it made me very miserable. Unlike a majority of people in this country and in the world, I draw a decent salary, have good food, have access to many sources of entertainment and live among intellectually competent people. Still I am not happy. One major reason for this, I think, is the fact that I am really bad at taking decisions and have a bad habit of moaning over past decisions.

I guess you think this crap is getting too serious for my blog. Fine, no more of it. From the moment I started typing this entry till now, I have managed to take one good decision -that I will avoid taking decisions as much as possible. But then, you can't just avoid every decision in life. Some are simple:

What type of girl would you prefer: Whitey, Latino, black, Indian or Chinese? I know beggars can't be choosers, but if given a choice (even though I never am gonna get that lucky) I will go for Latino.

You are going to face death. Would you prefer a). a hungry tiger b). a hungry crocodile and c). a bunch of hungry rats?

On the contrary some are real tough:

If given a choice, who would you prefer tohang out with: a). a Bengali b). a Sardar and c). a south indian who doesn't know Hindi. You keep wondering whose company will be least tortuous.