Tuesday, February 28, 2012

AOC: Choosing with less of a focus on being right

Haley Scholar Reading Groups 

By Danielle Hall

In this week's reading, Iyengar discusses the long-term effects of making difficult decisions, especially when we must assign value to people we love or become accountable for more than just our own quality of life. Under such circumstances she points to how we often seek sources of "authority and expertise to alleviate the burden of a difficult decision" (236). 

One thing that stood out in this reading was the "cake and death" concept, that is a clear desirable answer vs. a non-desirable one. Iyengar notes, however, that two seemingly different choices can be rooted in a similar "psychological process" (217).

What are some of the benefits or implications of negotiating choice when we focus less on perfection or being right?

10 comments:

LaToya Bond said...

You make a better decision when you think less about being perfect or being right. Instead of letting outside influences influence you, you go with your gut which can be a good and bad thing depending on the situation.

Maame A said...

I think the benefits of negotiating choice when focusing less on being right or perfection is just going with your gut feelings and doing what you feel is best rather than what you think someone else would think about it. Like Iyengar expressed that we like to give decision making to authorities and experts that way we do not feel bad about going with our gut or don't get in trouble for doing something that wasn't "right". However if we made decisions on what our feelings where I feel like we as a whole would be a lot happier

Jaimie Belen said...

I think that the benefit of not worrying about being right is that you think for yourself and learn from your mistakes if you are wrong. You can't always be right and the only way to get through life is accepting that you make mistakes. Making mistakes is part of human behavior.

If we aren't afraid to make mistakes because we want to learn from them then we will go with our instinct. Most of the time my instincts are always right rather than when I second guess myself and choose the wrong answer (like on a test).

Joe Brown said...

To begin with, focusing on perfection or being right are two major stumbling blocks to making choices, especially important ones. Having said that, a person cannot use this as an excuse to ignore mistakes or to become lackadaisical in their choices. It is a difficult balance to strike, and it's easy to get caught at one extreme or another. For example, I am detail oriented, so it is easy for me to get so caught up in the details of a choice that I lose sight of the context in which I am making the choice, or even why I am examining the details of a choice to begin with.

Denita Campbell said...

When you make a choice without considering the being perfect or right you take accountablity for your life and decisons. You own your actions and and you are not being conformed to what societies expectations are. I believe it is the most organic way of living a happy life and not having any regrets. We give people too much authority over our decisions and lives.

Hilary Conrad said...

I think that it is important to go with your instincts and intuitions. Often when I second guess myself, I make a decision that would not have turned out as well than if I had went with my "gut feeling." When going with my natural instincts, I know that I am a making a decision based on me and only me. If I make a mistake, then it turns into a learning experience

Tia Borders Baptist said...

Some of the benefits of just going with a decision without thinking about if its the perfect decision is we end up making better decisions. We may not notice that a imperfect decision may have a better outcome than a decision that just seems to be perfect. Sometimes just letting go and going for something else without much thought is better than just thinking about something too much and stressing yourself.

Anonymous said...

Making decisions can be extremely difficult, especially if you are a perfectionist. I used to be one of those people and I would stress myself out to no end on even the simplest of choices. I've found that it is much easier to go with the flow, be spontaneous at times, and not worry too much about the things I have no control over. Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don't, but you'll never get anywhere if you are striving to be "perfect" or make the "best" choice.

Alexis Cortes

Anonymous said...

I think it's good to think about all decisions before making them but we should not let others influences on our own judgement. The best way to make an important decision is to way out the good and bads of the problem/situation. Some times it's hard because we second guess ourselves, but the important thing is to learn from our mistakes so we don't make that situation again.

-Dino Anagbogu

Shawn C said...

When the goal of perfection is taken out of the equation when making choices, the ability to make a more clear cut decision is much easier. Without the distortion of perfection clouding the view of the overall goal that is intended to be achieved, we are able to focus on the best fit solution to the situation at hand. In a more general sense when our choices are based on the sense of perfection we are forced to narrow our view in a way that we may miss another decision that would ultimately be more efficient or out right better in the larger scope.