I recently finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink. I remember enjoying it a great deal when I first read it several years back. A course I'm teaching in a few weeks required I familiarize myself with the work again.
Not surprisingly, I stumbled upon many insights I'd completely overlooked or forgotten since the last time I read the book. But one part felt especially poignant in this day and age of limitless and readily available information.
Gladwell argues when it comes to making thoughtful decisions information is not the key but understanding of that information. When we have too much data on any given topic it becomes more difficult to see the forest for the trees. We're crippled with indecision.
He then referred to an interesting observation by the father of psychoanalysis himself, Sigmund Freud who takes how we're taught the think about decision-making and flips it on it's head.
Freud contends that when it comes to making decisions that are deemed less important we should think deliberately, carefully weighing the pros and cons of each outcome. But when it comes to big decisions he argues the opposite:
"When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature."
In other words, when it comes to matters of the heart trust yourself. You somehow already know.
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