Quotes About Decision-making

In the split second from the time the ball leaves the pitcher's hand until it reaches the plate you have to think about your stride, your hip action, your wrist action, determine how much, if any the ball is going to break and then decide whether to swing at it.

I think the special thing about Python is that it's a writers' commune. The writers are in charge. The writers decide what the material is.

but, being unable to decide yes, she decided no.

Let's say that Person 1 thinks their hair dryer is telling them to shoot every redhead who gets on the 9:04 train. And let's say Person 2 thinks their hair dryer is telling them to volunteer twice a week at a homeless shelter. Is it better to volunteer at a homeless shelter than it is to shoot every redhead who gets on the 9:04 train? Of course it is. But you still have a basic problem — which is that you think your hair dryer is talking to you.

Habits make change possible by freeing us from decision making and from using self-control.

For each Tendency, one question matters most: Upholders ask: Should I do this? Questioners ask: Does this make sense? Obligers ask: Does this matter to anyone else? Rebels ask: Is this the person I want to be?

One parent of a Rebel explained, "The best way to wrangle the Rebel child is to give the kid the information to make a decision, present the issue as a question that he alone can answer, and let him make a decision and act without telling you. Let him make a decision without an audience. Audiences = expectations. If he thinks you're not watching, he won't need to rebel against your expectations.

Questioners are often puzzled by others' willingness to act without sound reasons.

For Rebels, the ability to choose is so important that sometimes they make a choice—even when it's against their own self-interest or it's not what they prefer—just to reassure themselves that they can make that choice.

One thing that continually astonishes me is the degree to which we're influenced by sheer convenience. The amount of effort, time, or decision making required by an action has a huge influence on habit formation.

You can choose what you do; you can't choose what you like to do. You can do anything you want, but you can't do everything you want.

Although people believe they like to have lots of choice, in fact, having too many choices can be discouraging.

This freedom from decision making is crucial, because when I have to decide—which often involves resisting temptation or postponing gratification—I tax my self-control.

To craft a sign that works for all Four Tendencies we should provide information, consequences, and choice.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation. Full half the time of such a man goes to the deciding, or regretting, of matters which ought to be so ingrained in him as practically not to exist for his consciousness at all.

Arranging to Fail Loophole: It's odd. Instead of fleeing temptation, we often plan to succumb.

In one study, when subjects made a shopping list for what they'd eat in a week, more chose a healthy snack instead of an unhealthy snack; when asked what they'd choose now, more people chose the unhealthy over the healthy snack.

One-Coin" Loophole: Whether we choose to focus on the single coin or the growing heap will shape our behavior.

I did, however, vow to stop reading books that I didn't enjoy. I used to pride myself on finishing every book I started—no longer.

The most important thing is to know ourselves, and to choose the strategies that work for us.

To achieve greater clarity in my actions, I often invoke a "bright-line rule," a useful concept from law. A bright-line rule is a clearly defined rule or standard that eliminates any need for interpretation or decision making.

Information, consequences, choice. Without lectures or micro-management or rescue.

When we change our habits, we change our lives. We can use decision making to choose the habits we want to form, we can use willpower to get the habit started; then—and this is the best part—we can allow the extraordinary power of habit to take over. We take our hands off the wheel of decision, our foot off the gas of willpower, and rely on the cruise control of habits. That's the promise of habit.

Like Buridan's Ass, the donkey that starves because it can't decide between two bales of hay, I become paralyzed by indecision.