How to Decide

One of the most difficult things in modern life:

To make a decision, to stick with a decision, and to *NOT* second-guess your past decisions, or to *NOT* have regrets.

Some real thoughts:

Second-guessing ourselves as the modern vice?

Perhaps modernity is all about ‘decision making’. For example, in the past (Christian times) we just put our faith in God, and the happy thought that ‘everything happens for a reason’ or ‘God has a plan for us all’.

For the Ancient Greeks, the thought that the gods would always meddle in human affairs. No matter how hard we strove as human beings, the simple head nod of Zeus would sway something totally the different way. The thought that even the great Hector was deceived by the gods — it wasn’t his bad decision-making to fight Achilles which led to his death (he actually thought his compatriot was with him to fight Achilles head-on), Hector was positively *DECEIVED* by Athena.

We got too many choices now.

In many ways, I prefer a ‘choice minimal’ lifestyle– in which I am presented with *SOME* choices and options, but not *TOO MANY* options. This is actually what I hate about modern capitalism and consumerism:

There are toooooo many options for me to decide!

For example with devices, I always agonize over trying to find the ‘perfect’ device to satisfy all my earthly needs. And then whenever I buy x, y, z … there is always a voice in the back of my head which second-guesses myself, or makes me want to return it for something ‘better’.

Best to ‘foolishly’ cling onto the decisions you’ve made?

The thought:

Perhaps the best way to make decisions is this: spend a loooong time thinking about a certain decision (thinking about your aesthetic values, ethical values, and design values) and once you’ve (finally) made a decision (after a long time of thinking and reflecting) — cling onto that decision until the very end!

I have decided thus, thus it is best!

Thus with present, past, or current decisions … spend a long time to decide, and finally when you do, stick with it (foolishly!) and realize the decision you made was the supreme and absolutely best decision possible!

ERIC