No this isn't a post about my love for that wonderful book! I am back at doing what i do best-asking silly questions!!
Well this one's about What rules a decision- the head or the heart?
To begin with, what is the definition of "head" and "heart" here?Is it about emotions? Popular notion has it that a "head" type decision maker is the practical kind and of course the "heart" type decision maker goes by what "feels" is right as opposed to how practical a decision it may be.
Arguably, we fall in either category depending on the decision itself.But in general people lean to one side or the other for most of their decisions. Any decision is difficult but don't heart decisions tend to be a little less thought out and impulsive? May be more room for regret in the future?
Being a very head type decision maker I have often found it very difficult to identify with heart type decisions!! Sometimes the lack of logic is so striking its almost as if the decision was made hoping for a miracle! Decisions colored by unrealistic optimism are as obvious to people who make them as they are to on lookers. So what makes people go ahead and make those decisions anyways? Does emotion kill the rationale of the thinking brain? Does it take one further away from reason,logic and indeed reality?
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7 comments:
The problem for us now is that having grown up in the kind of society that we have,the question of making a decision from the heart is ruled out.From childhood, we are asked to ignore other's difficulties since that will prevent us from being happy ourselves.Who with sensitivity can see such misery all around and still be bothered only about himself? We have cultivated a coat of insensitivity so that we dont feel a thing.Or at least not to the extent that we DO something about it.The head is pretty much ruling all our decisions.Thats why its tough to believe when people say that they they are in love and stuff like that.
Have you ever tried reading the series of books - "Conversations with God"?
Really awesome. I dont usually recommend such stuff being a non-believer myself but this book is not what you expect it to be.)
Instinct, ask every athlete who makes decision by the split-second, he'll tell what it means to act upon instinct and trust his gut feeling. But like what you said, what seems so normal on the sports field can be looked down upon in society as brash and at times even presumptuous.
Two can play your questioning game. So im going to play along :) Does the rationale brain kill the emotions? The excitement of doing something impulsive and the exhilarating feeling that comes along with it, is absent, because your rationale brain will tell you the sequence of events that the decisions you make will result in. Looking for the reason,logic and reality in everything that you do, wouldnt that make you an unfeeling humanoid that many people are fast metamorphosising today?
An office-goer, late for his work, when he stops to help an accident victim on the road, is it a head type decision? The thread of hope by which death bed patients and their family cling onto, with some even making it out of the bed on their own legs, isnt that raw emotion and unrealistic optimism? In todays world we are taught and bred to make head type decisions and Im guilty of it too, as years build upon our "experience" we can be guilty of missing out on the emotions. Why do you think children find their parents so uncool? :))
This brings up an interesting question ... how do you know that the "rational" brain is actually being rational and logical?
in any decision there's a certain amount of logic thought involved, as well as a certain amount of what's usually called intuition ....and the people who make logical decisions usually base them on the amount of knowledge they currently have about a situation. These tend to be "safe" decisions that will usually lead to expected outcomes.
the non-logical decisions are usually made by people who "feel" they're right or people who "just want to do it" or ( in a surprisingly large number of cases ), people who are "really drunk".
However, given the fact that all information required to make a decision need not necessarily be available, how does one know that a rational decision is always the right one?
thats where intuition and "that chap said it's a good idea" are helpful concepts...
I'm the kind who thinks from the heart by nature.
A question to ask yourself.. does being only head type person made u very happy all the time? Has it given you all what you want?
If yours has.. then maybe thats what works best for you..
My inherent nature hasn't given me either. And for most people I know, who claim they are "head type" people.. it hasn't either.
Maybe its somewhere in-between? I don't know.. :-)
I suppose it depends on the issue at hand, regarding which a decision is being made. Sometimes I would trust my gut (neither heart nor head) and at times do something totally in an emotional frenzy (like when I gave all my money to a lost traveller and kept 5 rupees with me. I travelled as far as the 5 rupees carried and then walked to the ATM) and sometimes do things after careful thought and analysis.
Often, a few in each set have failed to produce fruitful results... but thats ok.
To trust one over the other, to say that what the head discerns must be better than those riding on the horses of emotions or conversely, doesn't sound sensible to me.
Now comes my question:
Was it really the heart or the head that decided? Or was the heart or the head lead into the decision and made to believe that they were the ones who decided? :-)
no updates!!!!?????
Very interesting comments as usual..:)Sadly right now I am on a holiday and don't have time enough to reply at length or write anything new!!
Will be back soon tho'.
Cheers
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