Making decisions, fast and slow
Sometimes, the first answer that comes to mind is the best one you could have at that moment depending on your previous knowledge on this subject.
Sometimes, longer thinking is better before making a final decision on something you don’t know enough of logically. Otherwise you may make your decision emotionally. Making quick decisions in those cases might not be the best action.
As they say, we buy on emotion and we justify with logic. This has been my default consumer behaviour for as long as I can remember and I wish to change this. I tend to buy too fast for my own good. In these cases, I would benefit from waiting a bit after I get the “inspiration” and let this sit for a few days, and find out more about what I wish to buy to get be able to make a more informed decision.
For example, I wish to buy a new camera to film events so, of course, I found a few that could answer this prayer but that’s a lot of money: from 1000 to 5000$.
If I rethink this, I don’t actually “need” a new camera until a few months from now so I can simply wait for a better deal or a newer model that could make the older one a bit cheaper. That can be a solution.
When an answer is needed quickly on the other hand, letting this marinate for a bit might not be helpful. This is another aspect of my life that I want to shift around.
If for example I have a problem to fix, and the quickest way to correct this is not elegant but it can work, if time is of the essence then that should be my default “go to” and execute, and then later on come up with a better solution. Waiting too long to fix something because you want the “perfect” way of solving this is quite simply a sign of procrastination: you fear committing and settling for a choice even though in many cases those are not necessarily critical and can often be changed or adjusted after.
As you can see, there’s a time for each type of thinking. To find which one to use is key.
The way I see it is as long as we don’t purely go one way or the other, we should be able to find a middle ground and help ourselves in choosing what’s right, and take the time to make an informed decision when needed.
And if that doesn’t work? Well, that’s ok too!