Quotes About Decision-making

When I follow my own head, I am, in general, much more correct in my judgment than following the opinion of others.

It's good to have a leader, otherwise we argue too much.

Government cannot do everything, so we need to first decide what government ought to be doing, then figure out what it's capable of doing, and then follow the jobs we choose to completion.

We ought to start running the government like a private-sector business. I have that ability as CEO of our companies. I have line item vetoes, and if I didn't, we'd probably be out of business by now.

When the intelligence is making a policymaker too happy, he ought to challenge it, and even if he doesn't, the intelligence briefer needs to launch a red team against his own conclusions to see if he can hold his ground.

That's the fun part of being CEO. You can actually say, 'Hey, this is what we should be spending our time on,' and people get it.

The United States is, after all, supposed to be a free country - and it has never made any sense to me that choices about what to put into our own bodies aren't ours and ours alone.

The authority to declare war rests in Congress, not in an out-of-control president.

You're guaranteed to have outcomes you like and outcomes you don't like in a democracy.

When I was in government, what we would used to mystically call 'the kinetic option' was way down on our list. In my personal thinking - in my personal thinking, I need to emphasize that - I have begun to consider that that may not be the worst of all possible outcomes.

Taking the time to identify and infuse values certainly does affect outcomes and is one of the most important things to get right as the CEO.

The president and I sat down in the Oval Office, and he expressed very clearly that what he wants from me is my best professional military advice.

When choosing the president of the United States and the leader of the free world, your desire to have a beer with a candidate should be your last concern. Let's keep our president in the Oval Office and out of the bars.

Any time you pick third overall, there's a number of players and a number of ways we can go.

If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by the daily decisions you have to make, it's time to automate something.

Slackless organizations tend to be authoritarian. When efficiency is the principal goal, decision making can't be distributed. It has to be in the hands of one person (or a few), with everyone else taking direction without question and acting quickly to carry out orders. This is a fine formula for getting a lot done, but a dismal way to encourage reinvention and learning.

Saying no to something is actually much more powerful than saying yes.

No matter how high you rise in your career, no matter how much expertise you gain, you still need to keep your knowledge and your insights refreshed. Otherwise, you may develop a false confidence in what you already "know" that might lead you to the wrong decision.

All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don't know by what you do; that's what I called 'guessing what was at the other side of the hill.'" —Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

I thought about the kind of man who would stop off somewhere for a gun but not put on a pair of pants before committing grand larceny.

the hipster effect occurs, he suggests, when people try to make decisions in opposition to the majority. Because no one knows exactly what other people are going to do next, and information can be noisy or delayed, there can also be periods of brief "synchronization," in which nonconformists fail to be "disaligned with the majority.

What makes a good judge? Confidence for one. An expert, in Shanteau's view, is someone good at convincing others he or she is an expert. Good judges may make small errors, but they will "generally avoid large mistakes." When they encounter exceptions, experts are good at making"single-case deviations in their decision patterns." Novices, meanwhile, tend to stick stubbornly to the rules, even when they are inappropriate.

As with public hospitals, better public schools are likely to emerge when local teachers and parents have more say over how their schools are run. It's especially important to give parents a direct say in the running of schools rather than just an advisory role. Even

It is not an arrogant government that chooses priorities, it's an irresponsible government that fails to choose.