Daniel Kahneman

What is a good decision?

Thoughts about the power of conscience

1. In how many ways can we make a wrong decision? One of the worst decisions is non-decision. One type of non-decision is to follow the crowd, when the majority (without considering the situation) copies the behavior of the „neighbor”, the „influencer X” – uncritically. A hasty decision almost always focuses on the short term objectives. Following the long term objectives is much more important than that. (For further details, please read my essay here.)

 

2. What can help us make a good decision? For making a good decision it is important to estimate whether I am in an appropriate state of mind. A very useful example is that of the rabbit. The rabbit EITHER listens OR runs. It does NOT do both at the same time. A good decision needs time. I have good news: time is subjective. If we can create silence in ourselves, our inner time expands and a moment becomes "a thousand years". For making a good decision it is important to control our emotions, since only "indifference" which is free of unsettled inclinations may lead us to good decisions. The most important compass of a good decision is our conscience, which is the reflection of Totality living in ourselves. (For further details, please read my essay here.)

 

3. Good decisions made at the right time and at the right place. We rarely recognize that we are in a life-changing situation. So it is worth paying attention to the surprising situations VERY carefully. In these cases we have to stop and think. For the most important decisions of our lives we have to leave our own viewpoints and have to rise high (Saint Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises, 184 to 187). If we have accepted Totality with a humble heart, we will see ourselves as God sees us. If we succeed to leave all the earthly affections behind that we ourselves have been in our everyday lives, then we can feel God’s intentions and will with us. In such cases those miraculously new paths that cannot be imagined by a human mind are to be revealed in our lives that link us together with Totality, bring us our real freedom and lead us to good decisions made at the right time and at the right place. (For further details, please read my essay here.)

 

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Waiting and persistence – as modern virtues

How can we discover the wisdom and creativity of patience?

 

 

1. Waiting and persistence are virtues here and now. Behavior of „let’s get and enjoy today’s pleasures fast” is such a form of „runaway selection” that destroys the chance of sustainable development with increased consumption of goods. "In those who are really able to wait, a profound patience is born that is not at all less regarding its beauty and meaning than all what they are awaiting for.(János Pilinszky) Our desires which are not fulfilled for a long time may improve us much more than those which become accomplished quickly.

 

 

2. The liberating and creative strength of patience. Virtues of waiting and persistence liberate us. If we do not obey our first reflexes but we think our situation over thoroughly, more creative and optimal solutions may emerge in our minds. (If you wish to know how, please read the post.)

 

 

 

3. Why patience has become one of the key elements of wisdom specifically today? The wise avoids the extremes. But the wise does more than that. If circumstances drive towards one of the extremes the wise moves just to the other. That is why we should deliberately slow down when life accelerates around us. (If you wish to know how patience becomes a way to save the harmony of the world, please read the post.)

 

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