The Pros and The Cons

When faced with a difficult decision, I'm a big fan of the pro and con list. It's a quick device to help focus your thoughts and bring your choices into perspective. Here's an example of an pro and con list in action.

Should I write a blog entry about pro and con lists?

PROS

1.) My attitude toward topic fits the general sentiment of blog.
2.) The generalized nature of the entry affords a wide latitude for treatment and many opportunities for jokes.
3.) Thinking of another topic will take time and likely cause my brain to bleed.
4.) I'm nearly halfway through the entry already.

CONS

1.) Less inspired than my entry on Sharpie markers.
2.) Likely to bore everyone but accountants, lawyers and insurance professionals, of which none read this blog.
3.) May be misinterpreted as a discussion of the relative merits of professionals versus convicts. (The real professionals don't get caught.)
4.) I just thought of a much better topic.

So in this case, the pros win out. But listing all the positives and negatives associated with a given problem, and then rating them in order of importance doesn't necessarily make your decision easier. Unless you're willing to give up your emotional attachments to one side of the decision or the other and give yourself over to the logic of the list, you may still find choosing difficult. In this case, you could take a different lesson from your pros and cons. If, after weighing everything you have an issue with the choice your list is telling you to make, then you now at least know for sure which choice you want to make, which means something.

Flipping a coin to make a decision has this same illuminating power. Let's say you can't decide between watching "A Clockwork Orange" and "Dude, Where's My Car?". You flip a coin, and the result, heads, indicates one of them. Based on your reaction to that result you can now at least be sure what you really wanted to watch all along.

I guess what I'm saying is, if you want to make the best choice possible, take the time to make a pro and con list. If you just want to do what you really want to do, and damn the consequences, flip a coin.

I flipped tails, so I finished this entry.