Insight into Decision Making

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track.

The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?

Let's take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make........ ........


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Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would not try to change the course of the train, because, he believed that the kids playing on the operational track, should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train's sirens.. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.

'Remember that what's right isn't always popular... and what's popular isn't always right.'

Everybody makes mistakes; that's why they put erasers on pencils.

AgE Of InNoCeNcE AnD PrINCiPLes Of LuSt

Look at the expression on the "other" little girl's face! That is absolutely priceless!

THIS IS TOO SWEET FOR WORDS!!!

A six-year-old boy told his father he wanted to marry the little girl across the street. The father, being modern and well-schooled in handling children, hid his smile behind his hand.

"That's a serious step," he said. "Have you thought it out completely?"

"Yes," his young son answered. "We can spend one week in my room and the next in hers.It's right across the street, so I can run home if I get scared of the dark."

"How about transportation?" the father asked.

"I have my wagon, and we both have our tricycles," the little boy answered.

The boy had an answer to every question the father raised.

Finally, in exasperation, his dad asked, "What about babies? When you're married, you're liable to have babies, you know."

"We've thought about that, too," the little boy replied. "We're not going to have babies. Every time she lays an egg, I'm going to step on it!"

hahahaaaa......!!!!!!

TiMe CrAwLs.........

Son, I want you to listen to me.
I have something important to say

Yes dad

No son, really listen.
Come, sit next to me.

Ok dad

I’m not young like you, but I was once.

I know dad. If this is about the…

No son It’s not. You promised to listen.

Sorry dad…

Well, can you see I’m aging?
I’m not the same as I was before.

You look great for your age

Yes?
How old am I?

You are 10?

No son, I’m over 100 years old.

Like I said dad, you look great for your age.

In my life I have seen a lot of things.
I’ve seen a rainbow after a storm.
I’ve seen clouds that took a swim in the ocean.
I’ve seen divers find treasures only to die of sunburn.
I’ve seen captains risk their lives to save a whale and others risk a whale to save their lives.
My son, I’ve seen a lot.
Every wrinkle, every stain of rust, every hole in my crumbling body is something I’ve seen and learned.

I know dad… can I go now?

Son, you promised me you listen, will you keep your promise?

Yes dad.

Well, after all I’ve seen there is one thing I know.

What’s that dad?

I’ve learned I know nothing.
I can’t explain, and I can’t predict anything.
Life is a big storm, and we must assume we can drown in any minute.

I don’t understand.
If I know nothing, how do I know that?

Now son,
Now I know you were listening.

I think it’s my time to go.

Why Some People Have All the Luck

Why Some People Have All the Luck
By Professor Richard Wiseman, University of Hertfordshire

Why do some people get all the luck while others never get the breaks
they deserve?

A psychologist says he has discovered the answer..

Ten years ago, I set out to examine luck. I wanted to know why some
people are always in the right place at the right time, while others
consistently experience ill fortune. I placed advertisements in
national newspapers asking for people who felt consistently lucky or
unlucky to contact me.

Hundreds of extraordinary men and women volunteered for my research
and over the years, I have interviewed them, monitored their lives and
had them take part in experiments.

The results reveal that although these people have almost no insight
into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behavior are
responsible for much of their good and bad fortune. Take the case of
seemingly chance opportunities. Lucky people consistently encounter
such opportunities, whereas unlucky people do not.

I carried out a simple experiment to discover whether this was due to
differences in their ability to spot such opportunities. I gave both
lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through
it and tell me how many photographs were inside. I had secretly placed
a large message halfway through the newspaper saying: ' Tell the
experimenter you have seen this and win $50. '

This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was
more than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the
face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people
tended to spot it.

Unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people, and this
anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected..

As a result, they miss opportunities because they are too focused on
looking for something else. They go to parties' intent on finding
their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends.
They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job
advertisements and miss other types of jobs.

Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is
there rather than just what they are looking for. My research
eventually revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four
principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance
opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition,
create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt
a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

Towards the end of the work, I wondered whether these principles could
be used to create good luck. I asked a group of volunteers to spend a
month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave
like a lucky person.

Dramatic results! These exercises helped them spot chance
opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be
more resilient to bad luck. One month later, the volunteers returned
and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80% of
people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps
most important of all, luckier.

The lucky people had become even luckier and the unlucky had become
ucky.

Finally, I had found the elusive 'luck factor'.

Here are Professor Wiseman's four top tips for becoming lucky:

1) Listen to your gut instincts - they are normally right
2) Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine
3) Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well
4) Visualize yourself being lucky before an important meeting or
telephone call.

Have a Lucky day and work for it.

The happiest people in the world are not those who have no problems,
but those who learn to live with things that are less than perfect.