decision-making

Bilingual

Denken en voelen over wetgeving - Bert Hubert's writings
2 months ago
- The text discusses two approaches to decision-making: thinking and feeling, both valuable.
- When choosing a house, feelings (like loving a garden) and thinking (checking practicalities) both play a role.
- First impressions should be neither trusted nor ignored; a feeling of unease often signals hidden issues.
- Feeling good is a worse guide than feeling bad, as it can lead to shortcuts and poor decisions.
- In legislation, politicians often rely on feelings due to lack of time and complexity, leading to rushed laws.
- Media focus on emotional statements rather than careful analysis, similar to buying a dream house that proves unsuitable.
- The author hopes democracy will allow more time to thoroughly understand important legislation.
Your tech or my tech: make up your mind quickly - Bert Hubert's writings
2 months ago
- Organizations often delay outsourcing decisions for years, leading to the loss of valuable ICT employees who become frustrated justifying their roles.
- A clear set of criteria (importance, future innovation potential, and difficulty of doing it yourself) helps make quick, solid decisions on what to outsource and what to keep in-house.
- Outsourcing core functions, like .NL domain management, can be risky; companies should retain a small, valued team of ICT professionals to handle essential tasks and oversee external partners.
- Hesitation creates a self-fulfilling crisis where incidents force outsourcing, rather than a conscious choice, undermining morale and driving away talent.
- Successful examples like Odido (T-Mobile NL) show that full outsourcing requires embracing the role of a 'master outsourcer' with strong focus on marketing and sales, but still needs qualified staff.
- Government bodies outsourcing email to US-based providers (e.g., Microsoft) raises sovereignty and security concerns, highlighting the difficulty of rational decisions under pressure.
Why Am I Doing the Thinking for You?
2 months ago
- Asking 'What do you think?' without sharing your own opinion outsources your thinking work to others, creating extra cognitive load.
- This behavior often stems from not reading/understanding the document or from fear of committing to a position.
- A better approach is to state a clear recommendation with reasoning, consider alternatives, and set a deadline for feedback.
- This transforms 'help me think' into 'check my thinking,' respecting others' time and accelerating decision-making.
- Even when unsure, share a tentative position with context to reduce ambiguity and move things forward.
AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making
2 months ago
- AI mania is overwhelming large companies, leading to irrational strategies and behaviors, as observed by consultant Nik Suresh.
- An executive at a $2B+ company admitted to never using ChatGPT or any AI tool, yet presented an AI-centered technical strategy.
- An engineer at a company with a token leaderboard used AI to rewrite a Go repository in Zig just to appear productive and keep their job.
- Corporate culture prevents honest discussion about AI limitations because contradicting exaggerated claims risks losing contracts and getting fired.
- Recent articles include: OpenAI's accidental cyberattack against Hugging Face, a fireside chat with the Claude Code team, and Kimi K3 and the pelican benchmark.
A Heuristic for When to Reason vs When to Act
2 months ago
- The author reflects on the tension between thought and action, a theme that has intrigued them since reading Hamlet.
- Philosophical explorations, including Nietzsche's will power and Kant's reason, haven't provided a practical heuristic for balancing thought and action.
- An analogy from a conference about being on the dance floor (action) vs. the balcony (reflection) was insightful but lacked guidance on when to switch.
- Real-world examples like Tarantino's filmmaking and Dostoevsky's writings highlight how plans often change and overthinking can hinder action.
- Success stories, such as Cursor IDE's growth, show that reason might discourage initial ventures, but strategic reasoning is crucial later.
- The proposed heuristic: use reason for short-term tasks where variables are stable, but avoid it for long-term visions due to unpredictable changes.
- The author applied this heuristic by writing the article without overthinking its impact, embracing action for long-term endeavors.
The bottleneck might be the air in the room
3 months ago
- CO2 levels in enclosed meeting rooms rise quickly, impairing decision-making.
- Studies show cognitive decline at 1,000 ppm, worsening at 2,500 ppm, affecting strategic thinking.
- High-stakes meetings often occur in environments where CO2 reaches impairing levels.
- Cognitive impairment from poor air quality is often mistaken for fatigue or disengagement.
- Poor air quality affects remote workers in small home offices similarly.
- CO2 monitors are inexpensive tools to detect and address air quality issues.
- Prioritizing air quality monitoring and ventilation can improve meeting outcomes.
- Focus on environmental factors before attributing team underperformance to people.

decision-making

Denken en voelen over wetgeving - Bert Hubert's writings

Your tech or my tech: make up your mind quickly - Bert Hubert's writings

Why Am I Doing the Thinking for You?

AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making

A Heuristic for When to Reason vs When to Act

The bottleneck might be the air in the room