Yes? What exactly does that question mean? What defines someone as a good decision maker? Sometimes I think of people who make fast decisions as good decision makers (DMs), and people who make slow decisions as bad DMs. But, really, a fast decision is not inherently better than a slow one except in emergency situations. Slow decisions, in fact, are probably more likely to be well-thought out than fast ones. However, slow DMs might not be carefully analyzing their alternatives, but just stalling and avoiding making a decision. And perhaps some fast DMs lack the intellectual capacity to evaluate their alternatives.
Why do we dislike making decisions? Okay, maybe not everyone does, but I do. I think it’s because making a decision means that you are rejecting some other alternative. And those alternatives that you don’t pick aren’t necessarily bad. Maybe they’re good, great even, But at some point, you have to choose between two or three or four good options. And the ones that you don’t pick are things that you’re missing out on now; that you won’t get to experience.
The “best” decisions, rationally speaking, are those that take into consideration all possible alternatives and evaluate them based on a set of criteria, then choose the optimal decision. In real life, however, we cannot evaluate every possible alternative. Nor can we rationally analyze every decision we make or even the big ones. There is simply too much information to process that it would be inhibitive to try to completely evaluate every decision. Instead, humans satisfice, that is, we choose a satisfactory decision, even if it is not the absolute best.
So, what is a good decision maker? Who knows… Perhaps it’s just someone who can look at alternatives and pick, at the very least, a good one, without going crazy, and without taking an inordinate amount of time.