Principles Part 1: The Problem

I'm very intrigued by the process of decision making.  I actually enjoy reading about behavioral biases, about where people go wrong in making decisions.  I like poker because it involves so much game theory.  To study poker is to study how other people make decisions; I think it's really fascinating stuff and you can count on me posting about this stuff later.  But before you're able to make any real decisions, you need principles.  I've gathered this idea from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Covey.

Great so here's a hypothetical situation:

You're 29 and you've planned a week long trip to Greece with your serious girlfriend and her parents, and your senior partner tells you that your big case is being moved up to the same weekend.  You think that if you crush this case, you'll impress senior management because you'll help bring in a huge client, and it'll put you to first in line of becoming a partner within the next few yrs.  You've been with your girlfriend for just under 2 and half years, you've met her parents before, but this trip seems very important to her and everyone involved.  What's the best decision?

Principles are simply the things that are important to you.  At the end of the day, what's going to make you happy?  You see a lot of articles about how to network, how to make money, how to interview, how to talk to girls at the bar, how to this and that.  But these are techniques or tools.  It's like learning the subway system, learning how to drive a car, get gas, etc.  These skills are important, but you first need to know where you're going.  If you want to get to a destination but grab the wrong map, you'll be upset that you've ended up in the wrong place in life.  

"... working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need." - Fight Club

Sometimes, we forget what makes us happy.  Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow talks about how our brain will try to simplify questions like "are you happy?" into a question that is much easier to answer like "what's your current mood?" or "has anything good/bad happened in the recent past?"  Sometimes we relate money to happiness or unfortunate events to sadness.  If the stock market swings down 40% and you lose 30% of your net wealth, you might be devastated.  But all you really lost is money...  

In my next post, I'll write about my thoughts on sets of principles and what different "Maps of Life" might look like.