IV. P-I-G: Don’t be a PIG!

• Pillaging Your Losses:
  Attempting to minimize your losses may be okay, but trying to take back your losses with utter disregard for the welfare of others is, well, criminal. You must remain responsible for the outcomes to your own decisions, whatever the consequences! Always! Attempting to sidestep responsibility regardless of who might have been hurt will always get you into even more trouble than if you had just openly acknowledged responsibility at the outset. Furthermore, attempting to avert loss in an unsafe way, oblivious to the potential consequences entailed, is again equally as foolish. Attempting to abscond — irresponsibly, unsafely, uncaringly or without regard to potential dire consequence — so as to avoid loss inevitably leads to even greater loss ... always. The days of the old fashioned getaway are truly over. (Yes, they really are!)

• Inaction/Inattention:
  In the professional decision-making profession, what you don’t do can get you into even more trouble than what you do do! If you fail to check to make sure or to brainstorm to recognize unsafe possibility in advance, you can be held negligent and liable for the consequences. So, the lesson is simple: Get To Work! Check To Make Sure! And Prepare For ALL Possibility! Do it before something unwanted happens or, worse still, someone becomes unnecessarily hurt because of your apparent lack of concern. Beware complacency! Improve, Improve, IMPROVE!

• Grabbing For Gain:
  Pursuing your own goals is certainly okay, but doing so without exercising any form of Precaution or Fairness or Consideration for Others can lead to some rather devastating scenarios. So, Exercise Self-Restraint! Pause Before Doing! Always must we contemplate Safety and Compassion for any endeavor we may plan or do. No JUST decision could ever be made in ignorance of these basic concepts.

 V. S-O-S

• Sloth:
  You are naturally a lazy beast. Beware of this innate tendency so that you may discipline yourself into a more industrious attitude. You'd be surprised by what you can do!

• Off/On:
  Turn your brain on! Rather than relying on your memories and emotional predispositions to guide your thinking, discipline yourself into IMAGINING PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE POSSIBILITIES! Thinking is progress, but if you limit all your thoughts to simple memory recall and what everyone had always done before, how do you expect to notice something NEW? something CREATIVE? Put Your Mind To Work!

• Selfish:
  Don't be so stupid! Think about everybody else fool! Help others! You had to compete to land your job, but now you must cooperate to keep it! Be responsible for your own decisions!

   The preceding mnemonics represent our best attempt at helping ourselves (that is, us English-speaking peoples) remember where to quickly focus our attention during those times when a decision must be made in only a short duration. Fortunately for us, these weighty concepts may be conveniently arranged in so few, simple and clever ways. Once we know where to look first, we can get to work more quickly without wasting any excess time, effort or resources.

   The next couple of pages are devoted to those mnemonic devices that have proven themselves helpful for those cases when time isn't so short, when considerably more deliberation is possible, when, say, there is no immediate deadline looming over the decisions needing to be made.

   The first discussed in the following, I-C-E (or C-I-A), is a personal favorite and has been included first for this very reason. It not only highlights the most important ideas to remember in the way of avoiding mental error but also is (1) simple to remember, being a word (or acronym) that we all immediately recognize, and (2) easy to use, as it embodies only three basic concepts which we must bear in mind. However/unless/furthermore is another personal favorite, but appears elsewhere at this site in addition to here, namely at Decision: A Decision Making Flowchart, and consequently has been listed last. If you remember nothing else from these next couple of pages, remember these two mnemonics! They really are so helpful!

VI. I-C-E (or C-I-A, depending upon your own personal preference)

• Imagine:
  IMAGINE and PREPARE for ALL possibility — Antecedent, Concurrent and Consequent. Your memories, experiences and emotions steer you in a direction which you perceive to be the most appropriate. Don't rely on them to tell you which alternatives are the "right" ones to tend to, for you may be overlooking subtleties that you have never hitherto experienced yourself. You must imagine alternate possibilities! Prepare for the unexpected! Imagine the not-so-obvious!

• Contradict:
  Contradict your own conclusions in an attempt to recognize what you might be overlooking. Dare to differ! Research the matter a bit to discover alternate options, alternate perspectives, alternate reasons for doing something contrary to your own final conclusion. Try to see matters in some other way which you may have initially overlooked. Reverse it! Consider the Flip Side!

• Expose:
  Expose your Assumptions! Don't rely on experience to expose your misperceptions. Do this yourself before something unwanted happens. Don't assume your knowledge base to be entirely accurate. What happens if ... or in the case of ... ? Making an actual list of all your assumptions can help tremendously! Give it a try! Then, list in hand, get to work to verify that they all really must hold true. You’re gonna’ find some that don’t!

 VII. CRUNCH!

   Crunch it! Tear it up! Rip it apart! Expose all weak points! Recognize what’s wrong! BRAINSTORM to seek out what precisely might be wrong with the plans you have made. You're only human! Surely you must have overlooked, trivialized or forgotten about some miniscule detail! Expose all these overlooked subtleties before they devastate your planning.

   "CRUNCH" is the preferred pronunciation for the actual acronym, "CRONCHH," which actually could be written in numerous alternative forms, "CC⁹RONYCHH" for example. Nevertheless the underlying ideas are still the same. Which acronym(s) you choose to remember — or choose to create for yourself! — is solely a matter of personal preference. You may even choose to rewrite the following in some alternate format more suitable to you.

CC⁹RONYCHH:

• C:
  Criticize! Find a reason to Complain! What are the Cons to your argument or final decision? What might your opponent(s) point out? Don't think only in terms of advantage! Consider the disadvantages and opportunity costs (that is, what other options are you depriving yourself of so that this option may take precedent?) as well!

• C⁹:
  Consideration, Care, Concern, Caution, Compare/Contrast, Causes, Consequences, Contradictions and Overconfidence. Remember the Cube of Considerations on the previous page, and that'll pretty much cover this list. The fact that all these concepts begin with the letter C provides us with a happy coincidence that we may conveniently capitalize on!

• RONYC:
  Rationalize Options Not Yet Considered! Realize that you will tend to make decisions that are biased toward your own particular perceptions, merely out of ignorance of any other perception which you are yet to encounter. So, try to imagine another perspective that might run counter to your own initial predispositions. Be creative! Imagine a martian if you have to! What might that person(alien?) be telling you? How might you respond? Imagine how his or her argument might be rationalized and for what reason(s).

• H:
  How? Humans seems to have lots of problems with that simple, single-word question! A lengthy record of attempts, failures and learning by trial-and-error precedes every human endeavor. No matter what it is, if it's fashioned by humans, there is a long history behind it of attempts, modifications and improvements before finally reaching the present-day result. Apparently, we necessarily require lots of attempts before we finally get things right. Our imaginary capability, so it seems, isn't broad enough to consistently take e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g into account on the very first try. We have to at first do what seems appropriate and then subsequently observe to learn what we initially overlooked. So, the lesson here becomes ... Try your utmost to get it right the first time. Then, once your done, monitor to recognize what it is that you may have overlooked! Because you are only human, you're gonna' notice sometin'!

• H:
  Help! Two brains are better than one! Decision-making is best done in groups. The incidence of potential error is then reduced when we seek competent advice. And then errors are minimized further by double-checking that advice with second- and even third-opinions. Don't think that you can confidently handle all matters alone, because you can’t. You're just one little human with one little mind facing a Grand Ole Universe of Possibility. It doesn't care about you, and it doesn't give you second chances. So, you gotta' do what you can to Prepare for whatever she may throw your way. When you find yourself alone, you need to do the best you can in the way of Preparation and Prevention. Preparation and Prevention will subsequently provide you with more Time to work on actual Problem Resolution. Hopefully you'll be able to eventually find someone to help you figure things out!

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/simple13.htm

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