“We had the data”….
12-13 hours.
700 miles one way.
Busiest day to travel.
Snow predicted.
We knew all these things…we had the data. Yet we decided to travel from Syracuse to Raleigh anyway to meet up with our family and celebrate Thanksgiving. As we were making light of the situation (with two kids in the car, what else could you do?) I kept thinking “What makes rational people act irrationally when presented with the facts?” And, even more personally, 500 miles into the trip, 11 hours down, “What the hell were we thinking???”
After all, much of the data you need to make an educated decision is usually available if you just dig a bit to find it. For example, if you are contemplating starting a new business, you can actively research other companies that have been successful in the field, you can talk to others who own similar businesses, you can check the demographics and firmographics, strategize and contemplate until you feel as if you’ve done your homework.
But at the end of the day, what makes people or companies decide to act on the data? And when things go right, do they look for patterns in the research they gathered to see what could be improved on? And, if things go wrong, how do they assign blame?
For us, a holiday vacation had an overiding emotional component that made the logistics pale in comparison. After all, what’s a few hours in a car versus spending time with those you love? (She says with a sigh. It took 17 hours and 2 days….we didn’t count on sick kids!)
But when a decision involves something more serious, all the answers you may need may appear right before your eyes, and yet at the end of the day, it’s usually a gut feeling that sways the decision one way or the other.
For me, at least, having as many facts as I can gather makes it easier to rely on my gut instinct. After time, you gain experience which lets you know what data points to consider and which to discard. However, you can’t get that level of comfort without spending time examining the available data. Only during back end analysis can you start seeing the patterns that point you towards good decision making.
We knew it would be long, we knew it might be frustrating, but more importantly, we knew if we kept moving, we could handle the trip. Avoiding I-95 at all costs — cost us time. But in the end, it saved us sanity. And we got there just as the turkey was taken out of the oven.
