What I've Been Thinking About
🤷 Our default mode for decision making is to satisfice
We typically think we have sophisticated methods for making decisions, but our default mode of decision-making is fairly simplistic. We simply aim to satisfice. We cycle through options one at a time. And once we come across an option with actions that fit all of our criteria, we immediately choose that option and fail to evaluate any further options.
In order for us to do a comparative evaluation, where we simply don't stop at the first "suitable" choice that's "good enough", there must be an external pressure upon us where we may have to explain ourselves.
Secretly, we know if we were to explain to others that we simply stopped at the first solution that fit, it wouldn't be adequate. But we trick ourselves into over-confidence and backward rationalize that this first solution wasn't just the first, but the best. This lack of self-awareness can get us into trouble.
What's interesting is that you can take all of the different cognitive biases and heuristics that cause our cognitive failures, and most of them come from our strong desire to satisfice. It's simply the default mode of how our brains work.
If we make a decision in this manner, we should understand that this is very likely not the best solution, and we shouldn't be overly attached to our initial choice.
When it comes to corporate decision making, and why it tends to be so bureaucratic, is because it's largely a system in which we must prove to each other that we didn't just go with the first option that was good enough.
Going with the first choice that appears to be good enough is a very reasonable strategy that serves us well. It's the most time-efficient way to make decisions. So the goal isn't to remove this tool from our toolbox, it's to realize when we're using the tool in the first place, to know the limitations of the tool, and to catch ourselves before we use it inappropriately.