Why do people (and corporations and organizations) do the things they do? Why do they make those choices?
It all boils down to a fairly simple idea.
People (and corporations and organizations) do whatever they think is the best option at the time. It’s nothing more complicated than that.
Given a number of possible options, each with their pros and cons, people choose the one that seems to be definitely the best one according to their personal system of priorities and the information that is available to them.
It’s those priorities that make things more complex. Some people will choose efficient options, some weight short-term gains/savings as more important than long-term gains/savings (or the other way around). Everyone’s got their own weighted priority system in their head, and they are rarely identical.
Given two options, one that is expensive in the short-term, but makes up for it in the long-term, and another that is much cheaper in the short-term but more expensive in the long term — but all other things being equal — some people will prefer one and some people will prefer the other. That’s just the way we are. For some people, it’s very important to choose what they think someone else would choose.
Nobody sits down and thinks “Well, this is the third-best option on my list. There are two options that are clearly better than this one, so I’ll ignore those and pick this option.”
You might think that there are two options that are clearly better, but they don’t. Their priorities weight the choices differently, and the option they choose is the one that comes out on top.
When someone comes along and makes what you think is a lousy choice from a set of options, remember, they’re making that choice with good reasons. They’re just not your reasons!
Thank you for this article Tateru, this is a nice article.
It is true that everyone has their own set of utility values, which differ from person to person (as well as information, experience and circumstance).
All choices are therefore subjective and according to each individual’s collective understanding, embedded into the experience and circumstance of that person who is making the decision.
Therefore, I agree Tateru, with the underlying principle of Information Theory, we all make the best decision we can at the time based on the information we have at that time.
I also agree that different people do not make decisions for the same reasons, because all our ‘reasons’ differ because all our aims also differ.
Before you criticise another person (corporation or organization), it is wise to appreciate that they are doing the best they can with the information they have at the time, given their own particular goals and identifications.
If you want to encourage an alternative decision, I suggest that the best way you do this would be to add to the decision makers information pool with accurate, detailed and quantifiable information.
… criticism welcomed … add to my information pool please
*smiles*
Of course, the priorities can be emotional, too, even if lacking cleverness. Like, “I know this is stupid, I should be doing that instead, but I just can’t stand letting N gloat” or something along the line. *reflections from reading HP fics*
%)
You err in conflating the motives of corporations with that of individuals. They are demonstrably not even remotely the same thing. Leaving aside privately owned corporations dominated by one strong personality, a definite minority, publicly-traded corporations with their almost robotic drive for profits are essentially legalized collective sociopaths.
Not at all. A corporation does indeed have its own priorities and motivations. Just as you say, it can be a robotic drive for profit. In many countries it can be unlawful for a publicly-traded company to behave otherwise. In many others they can still be sued by shareholders, even if it is not strictly unlawful for them to pursue goals that dminish shareholder value.
As I stated earlier, there is a body of evidence in Information Theory that supports Tateru’s arguments here, for corporations as well as individuals.
Many large corporations follow well established and proven economic principles to increase profits – their ‘utility value’ is in maximising profits for the benefit of the shareholders whether it be legislated or not, massaging their individual bonuses in the process.
With the recent increase in information (and collapse of share prices and occasionally bonuses), errors in the ‘thinking’ processes of the corporations are being made increasingly apparent making change happen with new choices being the outcome.
Once again we go on the merry-go-round of information available + utility value leads to choice made (leaving out the added complexity of probabilities).
Again, back to Tateru’s original posting, “they’re making that choice with good reasons”. – reasons to ‘them’ that is.
*thanks you for feedback*
Wait a minute, are you (Tateru) suggesting that other people may value different things than I do, and that a decision that seems idiotic to me may actually be quite logical when evaluated from that person’s perspective?
Preposterous! I know for a fact that my way is objectively superior to all other possible ways, and that everybody is wrong, except when they agree with me!
… *ahem* But being serious for just a moment, this article is a good example of wisdom that’s obvious when one thinks about it, and yet eludes so many people at times, myself included.
I fear that that is exactly what I’m suggesting