Heuristics-- Did I spell that right?

I'm back. I did another cycle with the Fireman. We've been off/on for 13 years, and I stupidly stepped back in again due to nostalgia and inattentiveness.  I'm out again (thankfully),  but I lost a few weeks and a few thousands calories in the process.

Nevertheless, I'm back and excited to write about the word for the day.  It's a GREAT word, although I can only vaguely describe it. The word is "heuristics" meaning a process that we use to "discover or find out"   relying on less information but achieving the same  or better results. This is my definition. The real definition is so hard to understand, you'd be better off trying to decifer a physics text book. 

I got turned onto the concept reading Malcolm Gladwell's blog.  He postures that a pro basketball team could get better results from its scouting using the heuristic theory of firing its scouting department and instead hiring only players who played at  at Duke and U-Conn (the two best college teams). The pro team would rely on the college coaches to pick the best in the country, meanwhile saving money spent on its scouting department.  The theory is make decisions with less but reliable information. 

The whole idea behind heuristics is that you come up with a plan that requires you to use less brain power, time, and money to get to a decision, and yet has a high probability of  providing better than average results.  A heuristic might be:  I will shop at all the stores where Linda shops because I know she gets the best deals.  I'll stop trying to find good deals myself and rely on her brain power to make the best shopping decisions.  Or, I'll eat at the restaurants that Peter recommends because he spends gobs of time scouting for and trying out cool places and he likes the same types of foods I like.

In the divorce arena, it means that I will make an offer that is in the same range as my lawyer's other clients, since I can assume that they worked very hard to figure out the best number.  Why reinvent the wheel if someone already put more time and effort into the decision than I want to put in?

In a world of too many choices and too many pulls on our time, why not start relying on methods that reduce the information needed to decide and cut  the total time in  decision-making?   If these  methods can produce equal or better results, why not?

I'll tell you why not. Because as smart people we like figuring things out.  We don't trust other people to be as smart as us.  And, we assume we can make a better decision.  But here is the kicker, is this really where we want to be focusing our efforts?  Isn't there anything we'd rather spend our time doing than making all the stupid decisions life throws at us?  Or can be successfully piggy back on the decisions of others?   Should we?  Heuristics says yes.

Go check out Gladwell.  I think he's got something poignent to say. 

Comments

[Lise]

I think there is a time and place for heuristics, and a time and place for doing our own thinking and research. Depends what's at stake. :-)