The preceding sections, Part I and Part II, address the nature of our human dilemma — too much to know and not enough time to learn it all. As a consequence, our decision-making tends to revolve around only those possibilities which we are immediately aware of. We don't consider EVERYTHING. We focus on some possibilities while forgetting, overlooking or even ignoring others. We are lazy, and we prefer to learn by regret, that is, by erring purposely and storing those blunders in memory to guide subsequent behavior. Simple memory recall and subsequent observation and analysis is preferred over committing lots of time and effort to intense, exerted imagination. 100% preparation seems silly to us. Why work so hard to achieve total preparation when we have learned that we usually don't have to?

   The answer to that question, of course, is that our universe is a rather complicated place to be living! And when we are deciding what to do, we would prefer to make sure that no one subsequently becomes hurt by the actual doing.

   The next two sections, Part III and Part IV, address the solution to our dilemma and the tools which may be needed to reach it. Once we know where to focus our attention, we can get to work without wasting time or effort or resources. We can do much better at planning our behavior before behaving. We'll know where to start and what to watch out for so that we may effectively minimize overlook error and learning by trial-and-error. Once we have our "solution-search routine" organized and ready to go, we may quickly get to the business of going at it efficiently!

   Depending on your own personal preferences, you may prefer to read Part IV before continuing with Part III. Whereas Part IV concerns itself with mnemonic devices you may find useful for keeping in mind these mental tools (and a few others) so as to help keep your attentive focus on track, Part III is primarily concerned with the application of our mental tools to yield some rather important results which for some may not be so immediately obvious. These are responses to remember, results which rest well above and beyond most customary intuition. Once you realize that humans progress only so long as we take the time to think about what we are doing so as to search for a better (best) way, these responses become appreciated for all the effort put into deriving them. Here are some important conclusions to all our efforts for isolating those appropriate mental tools to use for human deciding.

  I. Summarizing The Tools

   As mentioned on the previous page, disciplining yourself into a more caring outlook helps, but knowing what to look for helps even further. Before continuing, I conveniently summarize on a single page most of those mental tools we have now to work with. For the sake of brevity, if you don't find the following concepts sufficiently discussed in this article, you will find them in Avoiding Error.

   In addition to the above, we must commit ourselves to constantly improving. This is something that groups usually have no trouble recognizing, as it is usually an automatic and direct consequence of their commitment to creativity and subsequent brainstorming for recognizing all possibilities. For the individual mind, however, it is something that may be more commonly forgotten or overlooked. We become conservative and at times commit ourselves to repeating the "tried-and-true" over and over without searching for a better way (safer, more secure, more compassionate, more efficient, etc). So, as we are discussing simplemindedness, this commitment has been included in the list below, though you won't find it similarly listed elsewhere.

   Moreover ...

   Finally, it is always helpful to remember ...

and

and

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.
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