Decisions Decisions

What can indecisive, hyper-spiritualized Christians learn from Game Theory?

Some folks seem to think that rational people must be super smart, never making a mistake, looking over each and every possible thing that could happen to them, working out the exact costs and benefits of every conceivable course of action. That is nonsense. Nobody is that smart or diligent, nor should they be. Actually, checking our every possible course of action, working out everything that could possibly arise, is almost never rational, at least not as the term is used in my world. It is never rational to continue searching for more information, for example, when the cost of finding out more is greater than the expected benefits of knowing more. Rational people know when to stop searching–when enough is enough. (I try to impart this message to my students. When they tell me they want to make their term papers as good as possible, I please with them not to. A paper that is worked on until is as good as possible will never be finished.) (Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, The Predictioneer’s Game, 16)

If you feel like you need to exhaust every possible option before you get married, you’ll never get married (or you’ll make someone very unhappy when you do). If you want every sermon or cleaning chore to be the best if can possibly be, you’ll be a menace to yourself and others. If you have to know everything about everything before making a decision, you’ll go crazy (perhaps literally).

We are not gods. Therefore, our knowledge can never be exhaustive. Sometimes, the most rational thing to do is to stop searching and just do something.

Hmm, there’s gotta be a book in there somewhere.

HT: DeYoung