Decisions, Once Removed

What if a simple way to make decisions was to take yourself out of the equation?

In his 2001 talk at the University of Georgia, Warren Buffett asked a simple question: “If you could invest in a friend and get 10% of their income for life – who would you pick?”

Once the students had answered the question, he then asked: “Why would you invest in that person? What character traits do they have?”

They had quickly created a list of desirable character traits. Next he asked: “If you could short a friend’s earnings, who would you pick and why?”

Now they had a list of traits to avoid. Simple.

This is a great example of what I call “Decisions, Once Removed”. It essentially bypasses the inherent human tendency to be bad (terrible, actually) at self-awareness.

But…we are pretty great at seeing things in other people. E.g. If your friend is in the wrong job, you can see that in 10 minutes, but it might take them years.

Daniel Kahneman, the grandfather of codifying our biases, summarised his entire book on cognitive biases, “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, by saying: “The premise of this book is that it is easier to recognize other people’s mistakes than our own.”

Buffett was big on avoiding the things that are detrimental to us, personally and professionally. He once compared our minds and bodies to a car. He said "Think of any car —a genie offers you any car in the world. The catch is that it's the only car you'll ever get…You read the manual 10 times, you change the oil twice as often as you need to, you take fastidious care, so that it remains the car of your dreams forever…You get only one mind and body — the same ones you'll have at 40,60, etc. You need to take care of them and maximize their potential. It will be too late to take care of your body and mind later on. You can maintain them, but it's hard or impossible to undo big mistakes or negligence later on. You don't want to end up with a wreck on your hands.”

Similarly, I have a friend who, when stressed, sits down and describes to himself whats happening as if he was outside of himself, looking at himself, like he was an animal in a zoo. He removes himself from the equation, temporarily, so he can get a birds eye view and try to get some kind of objectivity on whats happening. He says it’s immensely helpful.

The idea of moving a decision even one step away from yourself can be a powerful way to get the perspective we need.