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Decision making, it's not always a case of right and wrong

The other day I mentioned that I was on the cusp of an important decision regarding my career and implied - via my favourite piece of poetry - that there were 2 distinct paths that I could take.  After asking some colleagues for advice I was pointed towards a wonderful parable titled "Buridan's ass":

A paradox of medieval logic concerning the behaviour of an ass who is placed equidistantly from two piles of food of equal size and quality. Assuming that the behaviour of the ass is entirely rational, it has no reason to prefer one pile to the other and therefore cannot reach a decision over while pile to eat first, and so remains in its original position and starves.

No answers of course but at least it offers some sound perspective into the paranoia surrounding the decision making process.

1 Comment

  • LOL, hey Todd... that's exactly the point! The parable of Buridan's ass illustrates that, when faced with 2 good options, not moving at all is a choice that's worse than randomly picking one (of the 2 piles of food).



    So you see... it's not such a silly little parable after all! :-)



    - Darren



    P.S.: BTW, if you've read some of my future blog entries you will note that I did pick one of the piles ;-)

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