XIII. Think Ya' Smart Enough??

     "Think Ya' Smart Enough??”

    It has been my experience (and I’ve grown confident enough to declare this a generally applicable truth!) that we self-centered humans, when given even an illusion of similarity, will tend to answer, "Yes,” to that question. We tend to lead our lives believing ourselves "adequately equipped" to face whatever new challenges that life may throw our way. We commonly assume that we already know everything we may need when the terrain ahead seems familiar, similar to where we’ve been before. If it looks similar, it’s assumed similar, and we don’t commonly anticipate much apart from what has been previously experienced beforehand to potentially occur.

    We are lazy! And we prefer to cling to those assumptions that lead to even greater laziness! This, of course, especially holds true when those assumptions provide us with a way to gain what we want or avoid what we don't.

Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.
— Francis Bacon.

So, we prefer to plan around all our basic assumptions, act upon them, and then let the subsequent course of events blatantly present to us our inherent stupidity and ignorance! Because of our inherent laziness, we prefer to learn by trial-and-error! After all, imagining and preparing for every particular possibility ahead of time, for each and e-v-e-r-y single situation we may encounter is just not humanly possible, in any practical time frame.

    As if all the above weren't bad enough already, this unruly optimism is then further bolstered by our own mental self-esteem. Good students are more likely guilty of having committed this sort of behavior before than perhaps the rest of our human population, usually because they have been rewarded so frequently for their supposedly "superior" mental capabilities in the classroom. Amazingly, some of us find ourselves astoundingly surprised when we realize that these good students are as "stupid" as we are! They are humans just like the rest of us — lazy, self-centered, assumptive, forgetful and downright clumsy at times! Upon recognizing this little revelation in our shared inherent mental deficits we may now all work together and progress out of our mutual ignorance cautiously and compassionately and understandingly.

Good nature and good sense must ever join;
To err is human, to forgive divine.
— Alexander Pope, An Essay On Criticism, 1711.

    Human society is — fortunately! — by default "good.” Though humans aren't perfect individually, (we are innately selfish and lazy for example [but, fortunately again, capable of self-discipline]) as members of a cohesive unit, we tend to all want to get along with everyone else. Good parents/guardians and society force us to become Righteous! That is, we are all expected to share a certain level of compassion, concern, consideration and respect for all our fellow beings living around us. This is what Pope was referring to when he wrote the first line above, and "good sense” is an outcome of these qualities. It involves foresight, planning, preparation and safety above all.

    Nevertheless, always must we recognize that what may seem true may NOT actually be so once ALL possible avenues, factors, variables, special cases, rare exceptions, possible underlying causes, potential subsequent consequences, potential emotional responses, potential interpretations or mis-rationalizations, and finally any immediate and initiate responsibilities are COMPLETELY taken into consideration. Our foresight may be a bit shortsighted at times because of our own inherent utter ignorance and inability to imagine all ALL of the time. So, as Pope then points out, we humans are all doomed to err. All our plannings and preparations are never consistently flawless! We don't always know e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g even when we think we do! But, as Pope points out again, forgiving our comrades for this shared failure is something still that we perfection-minded humans (obnoxiously) again find difficult!^* We reason to ourselves, "If he had CARED enough at the outset he wouldn't have made such a blunder to begin with but would have COMPLETELY prepared himself before going any further!” And it is this argument, our friends in law and criminal science tell us, wins the final draw every time.

   Upon making an initial observation of some 400 decisions made by top managers, Ohio State University Professor Paul C. Nutt selects 15 in particular and critiques them in his book, Why Decisions Fail: Avoiding the Blunder and Traps that Lead to Decision Debacles, 2002. He points out that when managers believe they have found a good way of going about achieving some end, they typically assume it sufficiently so and act upon that basic assumption. Consequently their decision-making falls … hard! Likewise, it is only when we err that we see clearly how limited our human imaginations can be! We need time — lots of time usually! — to consistently imagine e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g! And this is something that we don't customarily enjoy much doing: Wasted time could very well lead to wasted effort if all those rare possibilities we so worried over and planned for previously never actually confront us. So, we typically prefer to assume, because it provides us with lots of free time!

    Certainly, this behavior fails the professional decision maker. What may at times seem appropriate or necessary may in fact be entirely the opposite ... if only someone would have recognized the boundaries to their thinking as cast by their own humanly assumptions! The professional mind then MUST become unequivocally guided by the following simple precept:

CAUTION BEFORE PROCEEDING!!

Extreme caution! “Watch Your Step!” Sometimes upon encountering new scenarios may we humans readily recognize a safe course to take, while other times we do not. Then, sometimes what we think to be safe options to pursue actually turn out leading us to some entirely disastrous sequence of events or course(s) of action that we consequently wish we had never even initially contemplated!

    For the sake of SAFETY for all those who may subsequently rely on YOUR superior supervision, you would be prudent to perpetually keep the following in mind:

We live in a world of illusions! But we humans usually don't face them all often enough to remember that little lesson Life teaches each and every one of us. We forget it, move on, and assume once again ... until it once again hits us squarely in the face!

All those little illusions that we all eventually stumble upon in one way or another in the courses of our lives usually are of trivial importance: "He said 'yes,' but he meant 'no,'” or "It looked easy, but was actually extraordinarily complex!” and so forth. Little illusions such as these may seem trivial, but they can bear considerable importance when we are planning for future events and attempting to prepare robustly for all potential subsequent possibilities.

XIV. Professional Competence

    It is precisely here where professional decision-making differs from impromptu decision-making (that is, the decision-making that we all engage in on a daily basis). Whereas the non-professional certainly is not expected to know e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g about whatever scenario he may be deciding over, the professional is! The professional is expected to know e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g about what he or she endeavors to do, lead and accomplish … and to an exceedingly detailed degree! Any breach in professional competence represents a potential for what we in modern society have come to dub “professional negligence.” As a professional decision-maker, knowing and doing ALL about what exactly you are attempting to accomplish is expected of you! Know your craft, and know it well. Or find someone else who can do that for you! If you haven’t all the resources or time needed for achieving total preparation and overview, you certainly should at a minimum find yourself necessarily exercising the appropriate concern over matters to do what best you can do with whatever resources and time you do have available. Your compassion to safeguard all others from possibilities perhaps inadequately prepared against should keep all your personal energies focused sharply at prevention and protection against any unknown possibility.

    "Competence" requires us to utilize our memories and imaginations and analytical faculties to the utmost. We haven’t the luxury of relying solely on one while abandoning the other. We must rely on all our cognitive facilities! Competence means that we know where matters are headed and are thoroughly prepared for them. We know where all the “weak points” are and what needs to be checked up on and verified so as to keep matters progressing precisely as planned. (A chain is only as strong as its weakest link!) We know what possibly could go wrong and what needs to be done to prevent it. Professional competence demands us to so thoroughly analyze matters that the most effective route for reaching our goal(s) has already been imagined and selected and amply prepared for so that all our subordinates or entourage may trustingly follow our foresight … safely and without hesitation.

    In a wheelbarrow, the loaded lesson is this: Where assumption leads to oversight, overview and verification lead to victory. "Confidently" believing at times that we may effectively “cross the river when we reach it,” that we need not exert any extra effort at preparation in advance to imagine where matters may be headed so as to do what we can now in anticipation of what may happen later (that is, unconcernedly assuming we aren’t assuming!) and attempt to navigate our way around those predicaments which we may know nearly nothing about is, of course, foolhardy. Nuances are typically overlooked when a decision-maker is attempting to manage a scenario that he or she knows little or absolutely nothing about. Guess-estimates always carry a probability of being wrong estimates and wherever possible ought to be avoided entirely if we don’t want anyone to perhaps suffer the dire consequences of making a wrong estimate.

_________________________________
   ^*“'Monkey see, monkey do,’ but don’t do what I know better than you!” is how the underlying — yet erroneous! — thinking customarily goes. Always must we remember, however, that only where we all have common shared values may we impose common punishment. Otherwise, things begin to grow complicated, with a multitude of possible effects and causes and underlying mis-rationalizations and special exceptions entering into the instructor's/scientist's/prosecutor's classroom/lab/courtroom view. Justice, like the good schoolmaster or scientist, must remain readily open-minded to any potential or prior and unapparent complexity.

Member World Wide Web Chamber of Commerce
Promoting "Responsible and Ethical Internet Business”

All opinions expressed in this web site, unless otherwise noted, are my own, Michael Gaspard. If you notice any errors or have any suggestions for improvement, please let me know by e-mailing webmaster@mdpme.com. Thank you!

This web page was last updated on Monday, February 2, 2004.
http://www.mdpme.com/question4.htm

Terms of use &
Disclaimer/Privacy.