"Seven Breath Decision Making"
Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 2:54 pm
or "Samurai Shopper"
This isn't exactly a working system, and I didn't invent it, but it's thought provoking, has the necessary eds earmarks in spades, and speaks to a virtue I'm sorely lacking: decisiveness (I'm very persistent once I've finally arrived at a decision, but man does it take a while).
Here's the system in its pure form: aspire to make all decisions, great and small, within the space of seven breaths. This is part of the code of Bushido, as espoused by the main character of the Jim Jarmush move "Ghost dog." (Though I'd seen the film, I'd forgotten this scene -- thanks anonymous coworker for reminding me of it)
Crazy? Impossible? Maybe. But also interesting and useful. Here's why.
Thanks our wealth and freedom as first worlders, we have an unprecedented number of decisions to make -- most of them rather small -- and an unprecedented amount of information available with which to make these decisions. All in all, this is a good thing. But there is a cost: decision making is expensive. It costs time, and it produces the "negative externality" stress. Having hundreds of tiny unmade decisions looming over you, even if you aren't consciously thinking about them, means constant low-level stress (the worst kind, the kind that gives you heart attacks) -- and they distract you from big decisions. Do I really need to spend hours reading product reviews on amazon to save $5 on an mp3 cd player? Just in terms of pure wage economics, is that decision really worth that much of my time?
But even more importantly, I think this "little" indecisiveness carries over to big things. Hours on amazon translates to years or "never" when the stakes are truly high.
For most of our existance on earth, we had far fewer decisions to make -- but they tended to be weighty and urgent ("quick! there's a bear coming!"). Death, that great crystalizer of thought, tended be directly or indirectly involved.
I'm going to continue to allow myself a few more breaths for the big decisions, but for the little stuff, I might give this a shot. Who knows? If I manage it, 7 breaths might not seem so crazy even for the big stuff. In any case, it will be good training in general purpose decisiveness. Maybe not quite as effective as a deadly bear, but those have negative externalities of their own.
This isn't exactly a working system, and I didn't invent it, but it's thought provoking, has the necessary eds earmarks in spades, and speaks to a virtue I'm sorely lacking: decisiveness (I'm very persistent once I've finally arrived at a decision, but man does it take a while).
Here's the system in its pure form: aspire to make all decisions, great and small, within the space of seven breaths. This is part of the code of Bushido, as espoused by the main character of the Jim Jarmush move "Ghost dog." (Though I'd seen the film, I'd forgotten this scene -- thanks anonymous coworker for reminding me of it)
Crazy? Impossible? Maybe. But also interesting and useful. Here's why.
Thanks our wealth and freedom as first worlders, we have an unprecedented number of decisions to make -- most of them rather small -- and an unprecedented amount of information available with which to make these decisions. All in all, this is a good thing. But there is a cost: decision making is expensive. It costs time, and it produces the "negative externality" stress. Having hundreds of tiny unmade decisions looming over you, even if you aren't consciously thinking about them, means constant low-level stress (the worst kind, the kind that gives you heart attacks) -- and they distract you from big decisions. Do I really need to spend hours reading product reviews on amazon to save $5 on an mp3 cd player? Just in terms of pure wage economics, is that decision really worth that much of my time?
But even more importantly, I think this "little" indecisiveness carries over to big things. Hours on amazon translates to years or "never" when the stakes are truly high.
For most of our existance on earth, we had far fewer decisions to make -- but they tended to be weighty and urgent ("quick! there's a bear coming!"). Death, that great crystalizer of thought, tended be directly or indirectly involved.
I'm going to continue to allow myself a few more breaths for the big decisions, but for the little stuff, I might give this a shot. Who knows? If I manage it, 7 breaths might not seem so crazy even for the big stuff. In any case, it will be good training in general purpose decisiveness. Maybe not quite as effective as a deadly bear, but those have negative externalities of their own.
Deb
