Quotes About Decision-making

One of the things I have tried to do with this book and with all of them really is avoid that simple, easy, reductionist view of motivation and to show we do things for a complex net of reasons, a real braid of reasons.

I was a pretty good kid, but I also knew when it was worth breaking the rules. I don't think that makes you a rebel, though, because that's still exercising some type of caution.

A lot of times, people find themselves in a meeting where the primary purpose is to receive information, and that's a poor use of people's time. Those meetings can be easily dispensed with and can be an email instead that people read in their own time.

You have to be able to analyse things well. Before I receive a pass, I always look to see what options I have.

And I argued with that intelligence estimate and I think it is a responsibility of policymakers to use their best judgment on the basis of the intelligence they've received.

Within 24 hours of my departure from Everton, I had already received the first offer. Then they kept coming, but I keep it all away from me.

Between calculated risk and reckless decision-making lies the dividing line between profit and loss.

Managers used to say, 'I have a gut feeling.' Do you know what a gut feeling is for a professional manager? It's a pattern that they recognize. But if your system can recognize that pattern, if it's not just a couple of managers who know that pattern, then the system's gut feeling can tell you which way to go. That's really liberating.

I used to believe that you have to say yes to every opportunity that comes your way in order to succeed in life. Now I realize that the rarely-talked-about secret to success (and sanity) is recognizing when it makes more sense to say no.

If you watch most quarterbacks in the league, if you take more than two hitches, there's a good chance you'll be sacked. By recognizing things, it allows you to get to your fourth or fifth read on your second hitch and get the ball out of your hand.

The Facebook way is that you sit at the table and you state your opinion, back it up with data, and make a recommendation.

We shouldn't limit the idea of 'policy recommendations' to regulators. On the Internet, all of us are, in a sense, policymakers.

When I was working in the Pentagon, I had to own the recommendations I made up the chain of command.

You go through periods of times where bands are calling the shots, and then sometimes, you've got the record companies calling the shots. I think it has to be a bit of both to make the thing work.

When you get to a point where you're not beholden to a record company, then it's up to you to say, 'OK, enough knob-turning. We're done.'

Education was a given, only because of the way I was raised. Truth be told, I thought, at 15 years old, I should go and get a record deal and drop out of school, and my parents would have had none of that. I'm grateful now that my parents were pushing me in that way, because I wasn't mature enough on so many levels to do that.

Now, when an American has an idea, he directly seeks a second American to share it. If there be three, they elect a president and two secretaries. Given four, they name a keeper of records, and the office is ready for work; five, they convene a general meeting, and the club is fully constituted.

Elections aren't about records, they're about plans and choices.

A lot of coaches say to me, 'We're kind of hesitant to recruit you because you're going to BYU.' I tell them, 'I'm keeping my mind open. BYU is a nice place, but I could go anywhere.

I'm a wonderful editor. That's what I do best. I know exactly what I want. If I have to decide whether to wear the red dress or the blue dress or what should I have said, I am constantly changing my mind.

Redistricting is one of the purest actions a legislative body can take.

We like being private because when there is a downturn, as in 2001 and 2008, we do not reduce people. Also, we have flat decision-making. It's quick. We don't have to meet quarterly numbers, and it's all about excellence of work for the client.

NSW is always guided by the experts. It's not for politicians to decide how we manage hazard reduction or back burning operations.

With devotion at the center of your awareness, you don't have to refer to your past in order to make a choice of how to respond or react in any given situation.