You were right from the beginning
I am still in the catch-up-with-friends mode. Mostly it has been great fun updating each other.
Then there are the ones who are at a cross-road in their lives. How to know which path to take? If wrong path then how? Aiyoh, let me tell you these folks can analyze and agonize till the cows come home and still not make a decision. And the more they think through the puzzle, the more off-course they become as they get mired in their own over-analysis.
It made me think of Blink: the power of thinking without thinking in which Malcolm Gladwell made the convincing case that thin-slicing is a neat cognitive trick that involves taking a narrow slice of data, just what you can capture in the blink of an eye, and letting your intuition do the work.
Rapid cognition is really a powerful decision making tool if we understand how the brain is capable of processing a life-time of experience and knowledge in the first 2 seconds that we encounter a person or situation. Our first impressions are more accurate than we usually allow ourselves to believe.
So to those of you who are still wringing your hands, pacing the floor and cannot make up your mind, I say, "Come on man. Trust yourself. You were right from the beginning."
So now either go for it, or junk it.
12 comments:
Amen to that.
If I were to play Devil's advocate, I'd argue that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but we all know that given enough experience, what we perceive from the onset is usually correct.
And the last thing anyone should do is to second guess themselves.
I also say, yes to gut feel! The man's need to analyze everything drives me to exasperation sometimes.
@wg: You comment made me realise that I am guilty of over analyzing things too. I think rationalize it by telling myself that in doing so, it makes making snap decisions far more accurate when they need to be taken.
Given the choice between over-analyzing and unquestioning behaviour, I have to say I much prefer the former.
jmalkavian - we distrust going with first impressions because we are conditioned to believe that we arrive at better decisions after care and objective evaluation.
wildgoose - get him the book!
Sigh, if I were to do as you advised, I would be off to France and Germany learning the languages now.
Then I think of my old mother who has to do without my monthly allowance...
*strangles self*
wg-i seem to be the analytical one..guilty! just like now that i've finally left my ex-company & opened my pole school (and only owing to circumstances), everyone's saying I should have done it earlier. I, however, never regretted doing it later or the results could have been different....hmm..not sure if i make sense here and am speaking in conrrect context to the post.
whoa i cannot. being kiasu makes me the over-analytical one. but then looking back, the best choices i made in life were the ones i made without much thinking! otherwise i wouldnt be a mother now :)
eve+line - your day shall come :)
suziewong - striking out on your own to make a living needs a lot of planning. decision might have been made much earlier but the planning was what took you so long.
edpjunkie - haha. so glad you didn't think to long and hard !
Johnny Malkavian - I think our minds know what we want and make sense naturally.
SL - he doesn't read. Probably wouldn't agree even if he does. :p
wildgoose - he doesn't read???
SL - unless surfing the web counts. I've never seen him read a book, although he has some books at home he said he read.
Suzie - makes sense lah. I think later probably gave you a better idea of what to do, and erm... who to (not) work with.
wildgoose - books are compulsory reading from school right? haha
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