As noted in this blog entry at Psychology Today:
The modern science of quick decision-making is called heuristics. It is concerned with finding simple rules for making good decisions in complex situations. One of its discoveries (proved in areas from weather forecasting to the prediction of high school dropout rates) is that there is often no need to assess the relative importance of different factors. Just drawing up lists of "for" and "against", and going with the longer list, can produce as good a result or better.
This is what Charles Darwin did when deciding whether to propose marry his cousin Emma. His original list is still on display at his home in the village of Down, England for all to see. The pros included companionship ("better than a dog, anyhow"), while the cons included the fact that he would have less money for books. The list of pros was longer than the list of cons, and Darwin duly proposed. Darwin's procedure is now called "tallying."
"Tallying" allows quick decisions that can be surprisingly accurate. It can be used in many area of life (sometimes with caveats that I discuss in "The Perfect Swarm"), but it is not the only simple rule that the science of heuristics has come up with to help us steer our way through the complexities of life.We can't analyze the heck out of every complex decision, but we often can avoid jumping to ill-considered conclusions by simply taking a few moments to think through and jot down the pros and cons involved. It often happens that the decision will become obvious and you will be able to move forward confidently.
