Decisions, Decisions!
We make around 35,000 decisions a day, that’s about 2,000 decisions an hour! Most decisions are relatively trivial, but some are important, and a few are critical!
I’ve spent the last decade and a half researching critical decisions, the ones that make a difference to our lives and the lives of others. I’ve wanted to understand the dimensions of decisions which might be considered wise.
“Thinking, Fast and Slow” is a 2010 book written by psychologist, Daniel Kahneman. He famously won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002 and is widely considered to be the father of behavioural economics (sadly, he passed away in March 2024). Kahneman’s breakthrough assertion was that “behaviour is not rooted in a rational decision making process. Rather it is often based on instinct”.
Instinct, or intuitive decision making is what he called system 1 thinking. We pretty much use system 1 thinking to make 90% of our decisions. It’s quick and mostly “feels right”.
Then we use rational decision making to justify our feelings. System 2 thinking is deliberate and calculational. It requires effort. It’s hard work.
But what happens when you’re faced with doubt, when you’re not sure of the information or the advice you’re getting? You might doubt yourself and feel unable or paralysed to make a decision.
Or you might be confronted with a dilemma where you have to make the least worst choice and try to upset the fewest number of people in order to achieve a common good.
And then what do you do when you’re faced with a disruption, something unexpected, where the normal rules don’t seem to apply and your experience doesn’t help you?
This is where my colleague, Dr Barry Partridge and I came up with system 3 thinking in a research project at the University of Wollongong sponsored by the NSW Department of Innovation and Technology back in 2010.
It turns out there is a likely neurocorrelate for system 3 thinking in the DMN (Default Mode Network) which is humming in the background when you’re daydreaming or not thinking about anything in particular.
The DMN appears to be the place where you balance system 1 and system 2 thinking to arrive at a good judgement. It’s a place of considerative thinking.
I’ve established 6 psychometric dimensions of system 3 thinking: Focus, Life Experience, Decisiveness, Compassion, Emotions, and Values.
Focus: Wise decisions come from the practice of paying attention to what really matters, not getting distracted by “noise”.
Life Experience: Drawing on the life experience of yourself and others allows you to see what is sensible and realistic in the ordinary course of human lives - what passes the “pub test”.
Decisiveness: It’s important not to procrastinate but to rapidly prototype the way forward by making lots of little decisions. This is the entrepreneurial approach of “fail forward, and fail fast”.
Compassion: This has been left out of important decision making. You need self-compassion before you can attend to the needs of others. Bring kindness and empathy into your most important decisions.
Emotional Regulation: You can’t make a wise decision if you’re overwhelmed with emotions. You need to keep your cool and use emotional information about yourself and others to choose more wisely.
Values: And finally you must recognise the differences in value systems around you, ranging from beliefs and opinions to neurodiersity. The best decisions come from seeing things from other’s perspectives.
Here are 6 questions to ask yourself to make a wise decision:
“What am I focusing on?
“How does this decision look?”
“Am I moving forward?'“
“Am I compassionate?”
“Can I analyse my feelings?”
“Do I recognize the diversity of values?”
You can measure your competence in using system 3 thinking and learn ways to enhance it so you can make a wise decision in my book, “System 3 Thinking: How to Choose Wisely When Facing Doubt, Dilemma, or Disruption”