20 Comments

It doesn't always have to be this way. You can always just say "the hell with it" and take both options, and make everyone happy.

I answer questions on Quora, and one of the worst things about it is that whatever drunken idiot is running the question manufacturing machine keeps sending me by e-mail questions I don't want to answer or can't answer. Many of these fall into this either/or category: "Which show is better- x or y?" "If so and so from this show and such and such from this show were to fight, who would win?" And so on. This is not the correct way to analyze this stuff- it has to be done by gradual exposure and understanding what the show is trying to achieve in order to see if it has obtained that objective per installment. I'm not the only one who feels like that; some of the people who used to be part of it have left and the ones who remain use the questions to bitch about how bad the site was compared to how it USED to be, because it has gone to seed. All I do now is find questions to answer, answer them and wait to see if other people like the answer.

I do understand that there are many occasions and reasons where you must choose between two options, but you can choose to treat the options with equal merit in certain contexts.

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I used to spend a fair bit of time on Quora, but that stopped around 5 years ago. I think it was a combination of Quora getting worse and other sources of info getting much, much better.

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Got it! The next time I want to decide on a menu item at a restaurant, I'll just walk into their kitchen and grab a bunch of food into my hands.

I feel like I'm extracting the wrong lesson here, but it's already too late. I'm off!

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I am now envisioning you finding all of the big containers of salad dressing, dipping your hands into each to weigh the pros and cons.

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Is there any other way?!

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Well... you could also bring a collection of little tasting spoons with you so that you could double as the kitchen manager. On the one hand, you could measure the worth of the salad dressings with your hand. On the other hand, spoons.

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All I know is that with a taco in one hand and pizza in the other, I will not go hungry because I will eat both. 🥳

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Taco pizza? Pizza tacos? I think there's something here.

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To answer the question, tacos if I'm in Mexico, pizza if I'm in the US. US tacos are hit-or-miss, and Mexico pizza is dry. (There are exceptions of course.) I guess this would go into the Opportunities and Threats categories you mentioned? Haha

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My analysis has determined that today will be tasty. I agree with this general principle!

The pizza I had in Brazil wasn't dry, but it also didn't have tomato sauce on it, and I had a lot of pizza.

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If I'm ever in Brazil I'll have to try the pizza there and see how it compares!

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I think I wanna do that everywhere. Seems like a sensible benchmark!

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It seems like you might be referring to "The Gripping Hand," a science fiction novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Published in 1993, it is a sequel to their 1974 work "The Mote in God's Eye." The novel is set in the CoDominium universe and continues the story of Captain Sir Kevin Renner and His Excellency Horace Bury as they navigate the challenges posed by the Moties.

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I see your SWOT and I raise you a RACI. SWOT is SNOT. I worked with a guy where every thing we did needed a RACI model. Omg I wanted to smack the snot out of that guy

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I've seen worse frameworks than RACI! At least it gives you pause to consider stakeholders.

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I was talking to a friend who’s a legit artist. Worked for Pixar, etc. Now directs and such. Creatives are a whole category in these companies - they are so close to the product they are a recognized and vaunted class of workers. I’ve worked in other companies with design teams where the creatives are similarly nurtured and put in different spaces where they can do their best work. The people with Macs verus the RACI people with PCs. Maybe, just maybe I have just a weeeee bit of creative in me which is why I had problems with overtly process driven orgs and all the acronym laden frameworks that go with them.

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I definitely think that process can squelch creativity, although sometimes a stifling process can provide the right amount of pressure for a sneaking creative output that might not otherwise be produced. It's kind of ironic when I stop to think about it: more restrictions can yield greater creative outcomes in some cases.

I also think most creative types need some guidance. I myself tended to perform better with specific guidelines, but with plenty of variance allowed within those guidelines.

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It seems what we have been doing for thousands of years is judging.

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Judging, assessing, determining, deciding, thinking. Yes, I think that's fair.

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