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Myopia, incompetence and disregard
Poor decision making comes in many guises, but there are three widespread causes that are often implicated
When did you last make a poor decision? I don’t mean unfortunate situations where you were simply unlucky (the kind of thing Alanis Morissette somewhat erroneously calls “ironic” in her eponymous hit). Even the best decisions can lead to an undesirable outcome due to the uncertainty that the future inevitably holds.
No, I mean the kind of decision where you now know that — without the benefit of hindsight and with just what you knew, or could have known at the time — you really could have made the decision in a better way. Those are the decisions we can learn from. No need to tell me your poor decision, though (I am not going to tell you mine either). We can also learn from other people’s poor decisions — for example policy decisions that are made en plein public.
Decisions change things
On Monday morning, the BBC news reported the government plans to scrap the fees that many local authorities currently charge for disposing DIY waste at their recycling centres. That is actually a good decision, aimed at reversing a poor decision. There is a simple (or perhaps simplistic) logic behind charging people to bring an old…
