Waterloo cognitive science professor, Paul Thagard, argues that conscious decisions are made through a combination of logic and emotion. When we approach a decision, we consider the factors that affect our goal in the decision. We assign these factor valences, or emotional connotations. We use the coherence of these factors to select the alternative with the most positive emotional valence, that will get us to the goal.

Paul’s paper, headlined as How to Make Decisions, arrives at a theory on a general approach to making good decisions. Informed Intuition is described as a step-wise procedure.

Informed Intuition
1. Set up the decision problem carefully. This requires identifying the goals to be accomplished by your decision and specifying the broad range of possible actions that might accomplish those goals.
2. Reflect on the importance of the different goals. Such reflection will be more emotional and intuitive than just putting a numerical weight on them, but should help you to be more aware of what you care about in the current decision situation. Identify goals whose importance may be exaggerated because of jonesing or other emotional distortions.
3. Examine beliefs about the extent to which various actions would facilitate the different goals. Are these beliefs based on good evidence? If not, revise them.
4. Make your intuitive judgment about the best action to perform, monitoring your emotional reaction to different options. Run your decision past other people to see if it seems reasonable to them.

Yikes! Basically, he is telling you to understand your emotional intuition towards the decisions. Try describing the factors that are making you feel the way you do.

A crucial part of (group decision making) is becoming aware of the emotional states of others, which may benefit as much from face-to-face interactions involving perception of people’s physical as from purely verbal communication.

I have seen that empathy towards the thoughts and feelings of others, is delicate but crutial to society. I feel that with the rise of individuality, any attempt to understand someone else, especially when they are unable to describe themselves, has been lost. Few but the best leaders appear to have acquired this learned skill.

Are your decisions intuitive and reasonable?

Fast Company offers a very realistic view of the best habits to expand your career opportunities.

They suggest that you use the power of social networking and free flowing nature of personal information to your advantage. Build a network of really great friends and keep up regular contact.

Understand that anyone can find out the intimate details of your life that you or anyone else posted online. What does this mean? You should deeply understand who you are what you want from your life. In the future, employers and partners will be directly targeting potential hires, instead of posting and waiting (the Web 1.0 way).

Labor trends point to the increasing importance of adaptability. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average worker currently holds 10 different jobs before hitting age 40. Job tenures now hover around four years.

Employees are more willing to pursue the next opportunity because they know that different responsibilities, people and situations will energize them in new ways. People are no longer looking for the holy grail of jobs; they want new experiences and new learning opportunities. They want to experiment with their careers. Society promotes career experimentation as highly desirable.

Interesting people care. Everyone has a few passions in their life, which they pursue relentlessly and love to talk about incessantly. In an ever growing sea of famous people not only do you need to be interesting, you need to be remarkable.

Obama presents his platform for Innovation. He suggests increasing focus on supporting risk in the marketplace. A very noble goal, indeed. Considering the US census says that about 2/3 of Americans hope to own their own business at some point in their life, and nearly 40% plan to do so within the next year.

One of Obama’s promises is to build Government 2.0, and make the decisions of White House more accessible. I agree that opening up access to decisions by the governments, and the results of those decisions, can only make those decisions clearer. Even if a broader range of opinion inputs are not collected, at least it keeps people more sympathetic towards the government that Americans historically distrust.

All of the words that leave his mouth sound fantastic, but I would not have posted this commentary if there wasn’t a deeper message. His approach inspired me. It is Obama’s solid character that was the inspiration. Notice that the reason he wants to post the federal budget online is to make those in power more accountable for their decisions. I get the sense that he is present and clear in his understanding of real life. He presents himself with a strong sense of responsibility and honesty.

He says it himself; I bring judgment, vision, and character. To speak up forcefully for what I believe in. To stand up for what I believe in, even when it’s unpopular. These are the qualities I look for in a leader, and that’s why he inspired me.

Note: I am Canadian, and am not suggesting that any presidential candidate is any more worthy than any other.