In order to make good decisions there are several things to be aware of.
Emotions are the root of most bad decisions. Emotions add urgency to decision making. Evolutionary forces would have made this a good thing. Fear of falling off a cliff keeps you from venturing too close. Fear of being eaten by a lion motivates you to run away. Lust motivates you to reproduce with a mate.
However, fear must be tempered by weighing options. Are you so afraid of that lion that you are willing to jump into a volcano? Maybe you’d be better off fighting the lion? Is that mate really the best choice or will they be trouble in the future?
Social fears can be quite damaging in our modern world. Are you really so afraid of what your friends and neighbors will think that you will make poor decisions? Do you buy that shiny new Mercedes because of fear that your neighbors look down on you for driving an old reliable Honda?
Okay, so Mr. Spock, now that you are completely logical and not letting your emotions rule you, how are you going to make good decisions?
Now we have a three step process:
1) Learning
2) Consider the long term consequences
3) Deciding
Far too often we learn a little, make a decision and then cherry pick more data to support our decision to comfort us that we haven’t made the wrong decision.
We must avoid rushing learning. Learning involves considering opposing viewpoints.
Before deciding, ask yourself if you are still learning. We can never, or should never, stop learning, but we must at some point accept that we have learned enough to make the current decision. We may learn more in the future which may help us correct for a poor decision, but we can’t let learning completely cripple us and completely prevent making decisions.
Thus consider if there is more harm from doing additional learning (missing opportunities) than risking a bad decision.
The second step is very commonly ignored or skipped. We look at the short term, make a decision, and only later realize it was a poor decision for the long term. Biden as president will hand me a bunch of “free money”. Sounds good, vote Biden. Oops, all that free money has created extremely damaging inflation that is going to hurt me for the rest of my life.
Hmm… I decide to buy an ice cream cone. I can afford it, and it’s delicious and it will make me happy. But oops, I’ve forgotten that it’s going to add calories and that extra weight is undesirable and really difficult to get rid of. Also I’ve overlooked the long term potential of taking that same amount of money and investing it so I can enjoy a nice retirement full of ice cream cones.
To recap, in order to make good decisions:
Set aside emotion (or at least suppress it well). Learn, especially by listening to opposing viewpoints. Finally consider secondary and tertiary outcomes. Is this the best decision for the future, not just for the present?
Good decisions are to save yer money, stay out of debt, and screw skool.
Benjamin Franklin attended school for two years, and his schooling ended when he was ten.
This is Ben Franklin (as Silence Dogood) at age 16 :
“…I reflected in my Mind on the extreme Folly of those Parents, who, blind to their Childrens Dullness, and insensible of the Solidity of their Skulls, because they think their Purses can afford it, will need send them to the Temple of Learning, where, for want of a suitable Genius, they learn little more than how to carry themselves handsomely, and enter a Room genteely, (which might as well be acquir’d at a Dancing-School,) and from whence they return, after Abundance of Trouble and Charge, as great Blockheads as ever, only more proud and self-conceited.
…[and] he, without much Study, presently interpreted it, assuring me, That it was a lively Representation of HARVARD COLLEGE, Etcetera. I remain, Sir, Your Humble Servant,
Silence Dogood, (No. 4)
Printed in The New-England Courant, May 14, 1722.
https://thefederalistpapers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Letters-of-Silence-Dogood.pdf