Mike Carruthers

It seems an important element in decision-making that maybe doesn't get talked a lot about is timing, that you have to make a decision about something, but you also have a time limit because if the time expires, the decision doesn't matter.

Some people take a long time to make decisions.

Other people make them quickly.

What do you think?

Drives me crazy.

Yeah, not much.

We're talking about decisions we make and why we spend a lot of time on making decisions that don't really matter much.

My guest is Annie Duke.

She's author of the book, How to Decide, Simple Tools for Making Better Choices.

Oh, I know this game.

So Annie, I find often in making decisions where you speculate, like if I did this, then this could happen, or that could happen, that none of those could happens ever happen.

That it's always something else, and it may be good, may be bad, but you spend a lot of time imagining the possibilities, and it seems like almost never do those possibilities materialize.

But it seems that also that your temperament has something to do with what those outcomes are.

That if you're a pessimist, you're going to be looking at the worst case scenario.

If you're an optimist, you're going to be that everything works out.

It doesn't really matter.

Well, I mean, that is so apparent when you look at somebody who's struggling with a decision, struggling with a problem.

And to you, the answer is so clear.

But when you have something similar, that same kind of problem, you struggle as much as they did because it's you.

It's you on the line.