Quotes About Decision-making

The difference between a heel and a coward and one who jumps in the fire and one who runs away from the fire; is up to the individual in how they manage a given situation.

I prefer Lee to Johnston," he explained. To his mind, General Lee was "too cautious & weak under grave responsibility . . . wanting in moral firmness when pressed by heavy responsibility & is likely to be timid & irresolute in action.

Military history is rife with examples of generals and presidents who squander strategic advantage by failing to press a battlefield triumph to its conclusion. Here was the same story again, involving not only complacency but also inexplicable strategic judgment, fractured decision making, and confusion.

Atta selected early September after determining Congress would be in session. Although bin Laden continued to lobby for the White House as a target, Atta still favored the Capitol, believing it would be easier to strike; the evidence suggests the decision may have remained unresolved until the very end.35

Outgoing President Bush, who had served briefly as CIA director during the Ford administration, had been the agency's most attentive White House patron in decades. He invited senior clandestine service officers to Christmas parties and to weekends at Camp David. He drew agency analysts and operators into key decision-making meetings.

Bush asked whether killing bin Laden would end the problem. Pavitt and Tenet replied that it would make an impact but not end the peril.

I'M TIRED OF SWATTING FLIES," President Bush told Condoleezza Rice in the Oval Office that spring after another in a series of briefings about al Qaeda threats. "I want to play offense."13

They had provided insights for the article in the President's Daily Brief received by George W. Bush on August 6, 2001, headlined BIN LADIN DETERMINED TO STRIKE IN US. "It's Bin Laden," Blee insisted to his colleagues. They were still arguing among themselves at 9:03 a.m. when United Airlines Flight 175 struck the World Trade Center's South Tower.6

The title of Bordin's work signaled his perspective on these and similar cases: "Lethal Incompetence: Studies in Political and Military Decision-Making.

When poor people are constantly worrying about money, they neglect other areas of their lives. Scarcity of money affects scarcity of time, which in turn affects scarcity of mental bandwidth. All of these things feed on themselves, leading to worse and worse decision making. And although most of us might take a break when life feels overwhelming, the poor cannot. "Poor people can't say, 'I'll take a vacation from being poor,'" Mullainathan explains.

Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

We develop more emotional maturity if we play more. We develop better decision-making ability if we play more.

In reality, though, most of the time we don't choose the best option—we choose the first reasonable option, a strategy known as satisficing.

It doesn't matter how many times I have to click, as long as each click is a mindless, unambiguous choice. —KRUG'S SECOND LAW OF USABILITY

few people can understand more than three levels of nested ifs

Maybe it's time to take a lot closer look at the bureaucratic decisions being made by some of our governmental agencies and to start reducing their powers back to where the citizens control instead of being controlled.

Fuzzy thinking leads to hesitancy in acting. Clear thinking makes it easier to act boldly and consistently.

You can't operate a company by fear, because the way to eliminate fear is to avoid criticism. And the way to avoid criticism is to do nothing.

Decision making brings together many of the finest traits of contrarian leadership--thinking gray, thinking free, artful listening, delegating authority while retaining ultimate responsibility,artful procrastination, ignoring sunk costs, taking luck into account, and listening to one's inner voice. Weaving these traits together is an art itself. When it is done well, the result is a thing of beauty and a powerful tool for effective leadership.

the leader should reserve to himself the hiring, compensating, motivating, molding, assessing and firing of his chief lieutenants.

Well," she said, "if I were the enemy commander, and our assault had failed three times, and I wanted to make a fourth, I don't think I'd attack with fewer men. But that's just me." "Shut up, Loiosh." "I beg your pardon?" "Never mind. Private joke.

I've learned something about my own hunches: the only time they turn out to be meaningful is when I ignore them.

You've got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you're not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.