Decisions vs. Choices
We either leisurely or are forced to make decisions or choices each day. Each decision or choice points to a different path, defines our future and influences people around us, subtlety or profoundly.
Using programming language, life presents us with sets after sets of “if else" statements. We could very well come from the same place in our lives (i.e. classmates from the same school). Each outcome of the “if else” sets us apart. Over a long period of time , we become vastly different people. Therefore, some of us become restless when it is time to make decisions, others are afraid of the consequences of their choices.
Recently, I had an enlightening conversation with Dan Pritchett, EBay Fellow and CTO of Rearden Commerce. He was the first person ever who clearly separated decisions and choices for me. He said, “Choices are made based on pure facts, based on adequate supportive information; it is a purely analytical result. Decisions are made based on partial facts, partial experience and a lot of intuition and intellect. Making a decision without adequate facts requires judgment and leadership.” Dan applies his theory at work where he trains his team to choose well and to make conscious decisions.
Dan’s theory explains why many people have a hard time making choices or decisions. Ironically when enough facts present the obvious choice, emotional factors frequently jump in and polarize that very obvious choice. On the other hand, when information is limited, principle, guts and intuition should and must rise to drive the decision. Often people opt to look for facts which might take a long time to obtain or even impossible to get. This situation imposes a huge cost of opportunities. Using Dan’s principle, leaders must know when to decide and when to choose, and then the rest is easy.
During my son’s last ski break, Lake Tahoe was buried in snow. We stayed inside for two days. Were we bored? Not at all. We looked forward to the evening Jeopardy show between Watson and the two best human Jeopardy champions. My 9 and 12 year old sons talked about Watson all day long. They guessed who would win and bet on the outcome. As you may know, Watson, the IBM analytical software running on IBM super computers defeated the two best human Jeopardy champions, a major milestone of computer analytics and artificial intelligence advancement.
Watson reminded me my early years (1996-2000) at IBM. It reminded me of my trips to Watson Research Lab, we worked days and nights and delivered the first commercialized Digital Watermark, Cryptolope (encrypted envelope for secure content delivery) and Video Charger (video streaming over Internet) products. These products were many years too advanced to gain massive market adoption. Watson also reminded me of the analytical engine and Business Operation Intelligent product my teams built at Vitria three years ago, which helped business professionals understand the meaning of the data ocean, search for patterns and boil down to a few relevant supporting data to help them to gain insights and make better, quicker choices and decisions.
If you watched the Jeopardy show, you should have noticed that Watson made choices based on facts and data. When its data didn’t present a dominate choice, he skipped that question. Yes, Watson could not make decisions when data was not sufficient. Watson could not raise meaningful questions on its own; it could choose questions from the list on the screen. Watson is indeed a computer; Watson is a piece of advanced analytical software, Watson can only make choices but not decisions.
My young boys were not ready to accept the defeat. They argued and decided that humans have the advantage of curiosity, creativity, intuition and passion over machines. I could not agree more. When a group of the right people get together, sparks of creativity and synergy can help them go far beyond an array of machines. "Sparks" would destroy any super computers! My sons cheered on our way back home with relief, because they suddenly realized that Watson was created by humans. The two best champions were defeated by a group of scientists who are excellent in building an analytical engine, acquiring relevant data to make better and faster choices.
Is Watson way too advanced just like the products I built in late 90s? Is Watson ready to become your personal assistant, presenting you with the right amount of relevant data at the right time, helping you to make either decisions or choices better and faster?
Dan has the answer. He is not only teaching his team to make decisions or choices, he is leading his team to build such an engine to help you and me make sound choices and decisions faster. In the near future, you may have “Watson”, the smart personal assistant by your side, but it may not come from IBM Watson Research Lab, it comes from Dan’s team at Rearden Commerce.
Elizabeth Xu
Using programming language, life presents us with sets after sets of “if else" statements. We could very well come from the same place in our lives (i.e. classmates from the same school). Each outcome of the “if else” sets us apart. Over a long period of time , we become vastly different people. Therefore, some of us become restless when it is time to make decisions, others are afraid of the consequences of their choices.
Recently, I had an enlightening conversation with Dan Pritchett, EBay Fellow and CTO of Rearden Commerce. He was the first person ever who clearly separated decisions and choices for me. He said, “Choices are made based on pure facts, based on adequate supportive information; it is a purely analytical result. Decisions are made based on partial facts, partial experience and a lot of intuition and intellect. Making a decision without adequate facts requires judgment and leadership.” Dan applies his theory at work where he trains his team to choose well and to make conscious decisions.
Dan’s theory explains why many people have a hard time making choices or decisions. Ironically when enough facts present the obvious choice, emotional factors frequently jump in and polarize that very obvious choice. On the other hand, when information is limited, principle, guts and intuition should and must rise to drive the decision. Often people opt to look for facts which might take a long time to obtain or even impossible to get. This situation imposes a huge cost of opportunities. Using Dan’s principle, leaders must know when to decide and when to choose, and then the rest is easy.
During my son’s last ski break, Lake Tahoe was buried in snow. We stayed inside for two days. Were we bored? Not at all. We looked forward to the evening Jeopardy show between Watson and the two best human Jeopardy champions. My 9 and 12 year old sons talked about Watson all day long. They guessed who would win and bet on the outcome. As you may know, Watson, the IBM analytical software running on IBM super computers defeated the two best human Jeopardy champions, a major milestone of computer analytics and artificial intelligence advancement.
Watson reminded me my early years (1996-2000) at IBM. It reminded me of my trips to Watson Research Lab, we worked days and nights and delivered the first commercialized Digital Watermark, Cryptolope (encrypted envelope for secure content delivery) and Video Charger (video streaming over Internet) products. These products were many years too advanced to gain massive market adoption. Watson also reminded me of the analytical engine and Business Operation Intelligent product my teams built at Vitria three years ago, which helped business professionals understand the meaning of the data ocean, search for patterns and boil down to a few relevant supporting data to help them to gain insights and make better, quicker choices and decisions.
If you watched the Jeopardy show, you should have noticed that Watson made choices based on facts and data. When its data didn’t present a dominate choice, he skipped that question. Yes, Watson could not make decisions when data was not sufficient. Watson could not raise meaningful questions on its own; it could choose questions from the list on the screen. Watson is indeed a computer; Watson is a piece of advanced analytical software, Watson can only make choices but not decisions.
My young boys were not ready to accept the defeat. They argued and decided that humans have the advantage of curiosity, creativity, intuition and passion over machines. I could not agree more. When a group of the right people get together, sparks of creativity and synergy can help them go far beyond an array of machines. "Sparks" would destroy any super computers! My sons cheered on our way back home with relief, because they suddenly realized that Watson was created by humans. The two best champions were defeated by a group of scientists who are excellent in building an analytical engine, acquiring relevant data to make better and faster choices.
Is Watson way too advanced just like the products I built in late 90s? Is Watson ready to become your personal assistant, presenting you with the right amount of relevant data at the right time, helping you to make either decisions or choices better and faster?
Dan has the answer. He is not only teaching his team to make decisions or choices, he is leading his team to build such an engine to help you and me make sound choices and decisions faster. In the near future, you may have “Watson”, the smart personal assistant by your side, but it may not come from IBM Watson Research Lab, it comes from Dan’s team at Rearden Commerce.
Elizabeth Xu
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