Mayur Gudka

3 Cautions of Decision Making

January 27, 2025 / / 0 Comments

In regards to decision making, I believe it’s important to know where the dangers and the pitfalls lie, so you can avoid going there. Why? Because if you can keep away from the dangers, you automatically increase the odds of making a better decision, the one that works in your favor.

Isn’t that what we want with all decisions? Increasing our probability of success? Here are three cautions I promised.

3 cautions of decision making.

Basis

We must understand the basis of our decision. Are we coming in from the point of fear, greed, or a place of comfort?

Fear and greed are dangers, and are also opposite ends of the same spectrum. Therefore, we must be at neither ends. A good place to be is somewhere in the middle. That’s where we are most rational in our thoughts and actions.

We act from the basis of fear when we’re trying to avoid a personal negative outcome. The word “personal” is the key here. If the loss wasn’t personal, we wouldn’t be making this decision out of fear. We’d be rational in our thinking.

Greed is also a form of fear, but it’s the fear of losing out on something that is seemingly amazing. Bitcoin is a good example of it.

Timing

Avoid waiting to make big decisions till you’re distressed and desperate.

Understand this, we pay a price for every decision we make. The price is not always monetary so it may not always be easy to see it, but there is cost associated with every decision. Making a decision when we’re distressed or in a mode of desperation, our decisions become irrational, and more than likely the price we pay for it either immediately or in the long-run is also irrational.

Results

If the long-term effects of a decision are going to affect you negatively, then don’t do it even if the short-term effect will be positive. While it may solve today’s problems, it’s going to make tomorrow difficult. It’s not worth putting your long-term happiness in jeopardy for temporary pleasure.

Does Google Search provide all answers?

January 5, 2025 /

Yes, only if you are looking for the most basic information.

If you’re looking for in-depth, high quality thoughts or answers, Google or the new AI tools will fail you.

Knowledge to me is like an onion. Every topic, every subject is an onion by itself.

Each subject has multiple layers (read levels) of knowledge. In order to get a high-quality, in-depth answer, you must peel back the layers of the onion. The expert quality knowledge lies deep within the onion, not on its surface.

Google search only gives you what’s on the surface layer of the onion.

To get under the surface, the best tool I’ve discovered so far is “questioning”.

How true is this Level 1 knowledge? The knowledge on the first layer of onion is sort of universal knowledge that is extremely basic and something everyone can understand. But that doesn’t mean it’s all true either. Put it to test, and figure out for yourself how much of it is true, how much of it is false, and how much of it is somewhat-true, which works in specific cases and not in others.

Here’s an example for this … What’s the opposite of success? Universal knowledge tells you it’s failure. That’s the wrong answer, as far as I can tell. The opposite of success, I believe is quitting, not failure. Again, put this answer to test, and determine it’s validity for yourself.

Second question you may want to ask is … what is the first layer of the onion leaving out? What is it not telling me?

Here’s an example – How many areas of money are there? A Google search tells you four – saving, spending, donating and investing. What it does not tell you is there are three more areas, a total of 7.

Why does it not tell you that? Because the other three areas don’t apply to the majority. Google or the AI tools will only give you answers that apply to the majority.

To peel back the layers, you need to question things, converse with people, read books, and contemplate. It takes time, but as you dive several layers deep into the onion, you get an incredible understanding of the subject that Google search can never provide you with.

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