Facebook and some Lessons in Decision Making

Yesterday, I took a radical decision in life.

Radical not because my decision will change the world. And not even because it will change my life (or will it?). But radical because it was a decision that I thought I would never take..

I am not usually the kind of person who spends days mulling over decisions - I generally like to believe that there is only so much that you can plan and analyse, concerning the consequences of most of the decisions that we make in our lives. If we think about it, none of us know what is going to happen in our lives tomorrow; and I am frequently faintly amused when I see people weighing decisions that they believe will possibly have an impact on their lives 99 years later! In a Singapore context, when you buy an apartment, you are faced with a few options - you can buy a 99-year leasehold apartment or a freehold apartment (and a few more choices in between!). And that's when the number crunching normally begins! Now I am not saying that one approach is right or that it is not good to ponder long and hard over your decisions; nor am I hinting that impulsive decisions are in any way superior - all I am saying is that my disposition generally is to be quite impulsive in my decision making.

And so I must confess that looking back, I am unbelievably amazed that I took so long to make this one particular decision. To a person who went from an "I will always stay in a rented apartment" to owning an apartment in Singapore in the space of one week; to a person who literally concluded the purchase of a house in Ernakulam after seeing some photos on the internet sitting far away in Singapore, the fact that it took almost two years of indecision and contemplation whether "to post or not to post on facebook", must seem incredulous to anyone who hears of it - and I don't blame them; because I myself am dumbfounded by the sheer irony of it all.

But the decision has been made - which is why you are reading this right now.

But I was thinking back yesterday and I thought that there are a few interesting aspects of decision making that I have learnt from this experience - aspects that I am penning down more for my own benefit than anything else - if it resonates with you, good; if it does not, good also - just forget that you read this! After all, these are just a few thoughts from a retrospection of my own personal observations.

What then were some of the factors that influenced my facebook decision?

Bias : Facebook cannot be good - in fact how could something that the whole world is talking about be good? I am sure you have heard of the herd mentality - it's when you do something just because everyone else is doing it. But I am more prone to the opposite. On a careful and brutal self introspection, I realise that I often like to do things that many people have not done or are not likely to be doing. Not always the best philosophy, I have come to realise. But that ruled out facebook-ing for sure!

Ego : I said I wouldn't fall for this facebook craze (maybe because of my bias to start with); and it's been two years since I started saying that. How could I possibly go back on my word now? What will everyone think? Its not very easy to accept the fact that you were wrong. If somebody told me that I am too attached to my ideas, I don't think I would think too much about it - but at least now, I know that there could be some truth in it.

Personality : I am an extremely shy person by nature - almost to a fault. And this whole new facebook culture, this business of shouting out where you were, what you had for breakfast or the book you are reading now, was not a very enticing way of life for me. I preferred my quiet corner and my silence and this new fad threatened to completely invade and disrupt all that - and I was not willing to give any of it away.

Even though in my case it's been fb, I dare say that many of our decision making processes are influenced by one or more of the above. How often do we let our bias cloud our decisions? And once we take a particular stand, how comfortable are we to accept that maybe, just maybe we could have been wrong and could have taken a wrong decision? And how often do we find ourselves stuck in our comfort zones - not willing to peep out of our quiet little corners?

Ok..so now that you are on fb, what happens to all those notions? you may ask. Well, to be frank, I dont know :-) But I am now on facebook and I am still sitting in my quiet corner! And, believe it or not, I have actually put up a profile picture!

And its not been as bad as I thought it would be. Let's see how it goes..