Decision making - head or heart?

[MadImmortalMan]

Meri left out a certain other organ men use to make decisions.

But I went for the second option.

Yeah but that rarely results in us making our best decisions

And falls under the "heart" category.

[Barrister]

As soon as I saw the herodotus quote I assumed it was Malthus who posted it, because I'm sure he posted it before on Languish.

[Malthus]

As soon as I saw the herodotus quote I assumed it was Malthus who posted it, because I'm sure he posted it before on Languish.

I was all ready to post it this time, but was beaten to the punch. 

[Richard Hakluyt]

There are certain Herodotus quotes that his fans are always desperate to post; the Persians making decisions is one of them and I knew I had to be quick 

Which, I guess, is an important reason why I have posted here for so many years 

[MadImmortalMan]

99% head. There is one major decision in life to be left to the heart, but even that has rational components to it.



That is the "should" scenario. Like all people, I am human and make mistakes. But I always feel guilty about it when I do something based on whim or emotion. It's like I was too lazy to make the intellectual effort to think it through and make a proper decision. Or at least rationally validate the one I emotionally want to make.

Of course, the smarter you are, the more power you have to rationalize things. Heck lawyers do it for a living. The most intelligent can be the most wrong and the most entrenched in their wrongness. 

[Admiral Yi]

I'm not sure I can think of many times when the two have been in conflict for me.

[fhdz]

I think the issue with attempting to be TOO head-driven, as it were, is that the brain is less a rational organ than a rationalizing organ. We see an event unfold - unpredicted - and the brain constructs a story around it, a narrative, to make it seem as though it were a) inevitable and b) part of an entirely rational sequence of events. The brain's shortcuts are very often useful, as most shortcuts are, but one can easily plow down an irrational path while thinking one is being quite logical.

[Valmy]

I think the issue with attempting to be TOO head-driven, as it were, is that the brain is less a rational organ than a rationalizing organ. We see an event unfold - unpredicted - and the brain constructs a story around it, a narrative, to make it seem as though it were a) inevitable and b) part of an entirely rational sequence of events. The brain's shortcuts are very often useful, as most shortcuts are, but one can easily plow down an irrational path while thinking one is being quite logical.

Yeah you have to get out of your head to really make rational decisions.  Nothing can mess up your life as much as taking your own thoughts too seriously, not recognizing that alot of it is just random noise your brain produces as it takes in data.

[mongers]

For me, I'm not sure I can categories decisions this way. I think the mind/intellect constructs a future landscape within which possible emotional and other type of decisions can be taken.

So impart those decisions are defined and certainly the parameters of possibilities are formed by ones mental life. 

There's no way I'm going to have a dramatic argument and off the back of it commit a crime of passion, that's not me, though it might be part of a hard drink, hard living guy who lives more in the now.

But that's not to rule out I don't do daft emotional or romantic things, but they'll still be within the context of the emotional landscape I've constructed/ continue to construct.

[merithyn]

I'm sure you'll be shocked that I voted 25/75% head/heart. I made decisions with my heart, and then think them over thoroughly to make sure that the long-term will work. Basically, I use my head to justify my heart's decision.

[CountDeMoney]

My decision-making processes are predicated solely upon the application of logic, reason and the scientific method.

[Viking]

seriously, this is a silly discussion. We are determined. Our actually decisions are made instinctively and any reasoning we pretend to do is merely rationalization. This is not a choice, it is merely an acceptance that our choices are made with the heart and only in the rarest cases by the most disciplined people does reason actually drive decision making.

[Admiral Yi]

seriously, this is a silly discussion. We are determined. Our actually decisions are made instinctively and any reasoning we pretend to do is merely rationalization. This is not a choice, it is merely an acceptance that our choices are made with the heart and only in the rarest cases by the most disciplined people does reason actually drive decision making.

I knew you were going to say that.

[Viking]

seriously, this is a silly discussion. We are determined. Our actually decisions are made instinctively and any reasoning we pretend to do is merely rationalization. This is not a choice, it is merely an acceptance that our choices are made with the heart and only in the rarest cases by the most disciplined people does reason actually drive decision making.

I knew you were going to say that.

Of course, I had no choice.

[DGuller]

I instinctively think rationally, so I don't know where that puts me.