2016 Spring May 11 Wednesday

72 degrees this morning. No walk, early appointment 

72 degrees, appears that Summer is finally here, although I am sure there will be another cold day or two.

Early appointment today, each quarter I have a person “ride” with me in the field as kind of an update. I like to prepare for it like I do for a test, more or less, and make sure i am prepared.  

I also have found it is an excellent learning experience, so I schedule some of my problem cases so I can learn more how to approach  and resolve them.  

One thing I really like about this job is that each day is much different, even when it is the same.  People and businesses are each unique so there is usually no cut and dried answer.  

 I basically now have two separate areas.  One I go south about 12 miles, one I go north about 12 miles, so I go “north” one day, have an office day, and then “south” one day.  Of course, it depends on how much activity there is in each area.  So far they have been about equal.  

As  I mentioned before, they are completely different environments, but the  people and the environment are basically the same.  

Without getting too involved in politics, I read a comment yesterday, something to the effect that “actions have consequences” as far as action or “inaction” goes.

Sometimes, action is necessary and inaction is the worst decision you can make.  

I recently read something about “how to make a decision” etc.  It may be good in theory, but, I know from experience, decisions are not made an an environment of perfect information or perfect timing.

It probably is good to have a concept of how to make a decision, but at the same time, there is no such thing as a perfect decision, or a perfect time to make a decision.

Anyone can go back and say what the “perfect” decision would have been, but it hardly is always apparent at the time the decision is made.

Of course, you also need to know when not to make a decision also, a forced decision can be worse than a decision. 

Any decision should be  made with the maximum information possible, but information just always available at the time the decision is made.

I think one of the worst ways of making a decision is to merely obstruct something and not have a alternative proposal.  

To summarize, decision making is still more of an art than a science.  Anyone who presents a conceptual framework for making a decision is probably wrong if it is an analytical “if this, than that” because every situation may be slightly different.

As long as you realize that, conceptual models are fine, but they are just a model.  

I got a “cliffs notes” of “War and Peace”  (not actually a Cliff’s Notes, but something like it).  I was actually pleasantly surprised how much I  picked up from listening to the first part of War and Peace and actually how much I understood.  

That’s it for now, Wednesday, May 11, 2016.