The Decisionmaking Thread

[Howard Treesong]

I was discussing success with an old friend of mine recently. As part of that discussion, it seemed to us that the decision of what to have for dinner is qualitatively no different from JFK's decision to play brinkmanship with the Soviets during the Cuban Missile crisis. Of course, the only consequence of the first is my own gastronomic pleasure, while the consequence of the second is the fate of the human race and perhaps all life on the planet. Why does the fact of consequences really make a difference in the ways we make decisions? In a related point, isn't the magnitude of consequence of our decisions a significant measure of success? And if so, why?

Discuss.