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"Analysis Paralysis" and "Extinct by Instinct"


There's an interesting link about decision making called "Analysis Paralysis". The article points out how introverts are vulnerable to this problem, but I feel that this problem is not limited to introverts. All of us are affected by it.

From the article:
"As an introvert, you're a deep thinker and you like to consider every angle of a problem. And that's a good thing — except when it leads to something called analysis paralysis. What is analysis paralysis? It's what happens when you get so carried away analyzing every aspect of a situation that you can't come to a decision. Instead, you just sit there, paralyzed, doing nothing.
As an introvert, you're prone to analysis paralysis..."
Here's the link:
Avoiding Analysis Paralysis - For Dummies

Here are two quotes about how "Analysis Paralysis" affects all of us.

"I come from an environment where, if you see a snake, you kill it. At GM, if you see a snake, the first thing you do is go hire a consultant on snakes. Then you get a committee on snakes, and then you discuss it for a couple of years. The most likely course of action is — nothing. You figure the snake hasn't bitten anybody yet, so you just let him crawl around on the factory floor.” 
~Ross Perot1


This quote is about how we all are almost forced into "Analysis Paralysis".

"Analysis paralysis can be used to describe the way that information affects workplace productivity. An overload of physical mail, email, internet websites, voice-mails, instant messaging, telephone and cellphone calls, memos, faxes, and interpersonal communication can make it difficult or impossible for employees to make decisions."

EXTINCT BY INSTINCT



"Extinct by Instinct"  refers to making a fatal decisions based on hasty judgment and/or gut reaction.
Another quote:



It might work if you are lucky but it might lead to disaster if you are not.






Some good advice:

"In their decision-making activities, managers need to tread a fine line between ill-conceived, arbitrary decisions ("extinction by instinct") and an unhealthy obsession with number, analyses, and reports ("paralysis by analysis")."
~Resumen



Comments

  1. I am certainly not an introvert. I seldom suffer from Analysis Paralysis but it has happened. Extinct by Instinct could describe me better. I am much too impulsive.

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  2. I feel we tend to over analyze things to much. I do consider a situation somewhat before I panic :)) But...when it comes to snakes I have no time for analysis. I have to keep my mind on where I am running so I don't hit the wall at break-neck speed :))

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