Wednesday, I was listening to the radio while driving to an appointment.
There was a quiz on, and about a dozen people got their answers wrong. I’ve got to admit, I would not know the answer either – that quickly.
The astonishing bit was, though, that all the candidates would have had more time to think, google or ask Alexa, if they thought about it. Instead, they just quickly guessed the answer, without even remotely taking their time.
That made we think.
It’s like in life and work: What are our chances of making quick decisions and getting it right? Or should we rather take our time, do some research, analysis and get it right. Or substantially increase our chances of getting it right?
Same scenario happened with exams and my daughter. She’s a smart cookie, at least smarter in biology and chemistry. She went into the exams and finished within an hour out of 3 hours available.
But she ‘only’ had a merit and an achieved (her words).
If she had done the basics and spent the remaining 2 hours (or maybe even just one) on refining it, linking things and explaining things plus checking her rationale, she would have easily achieved excellence. Her takeaway from this: Do not rash things and take your time.
If we act rash, the chances of getting it right are slim. Unless it’s a subject we know about really well, so this is where your experience and knowledge comes in. If it is not an area we are certain about, would more time and research increase our chances of getting it right, instead of just taking a guess?
Can we afford to take a guess or take time and risk the possibility that we run out of time? The latter one typically rather meaning running out of budget in a commercial environment.
Thinking commercially, if we are not certain, do the risks of running out of time and budget and maybe running at less revenue outweigh the risk of guessing, doing a bad job and paying the price (or losing the job)?
To close the loop, my all-time favourite quote: Think McFly, think!