Daughter: Appa, why are you looking so serious?
Me: I have to take a decision on something really important. I am unable to make up my mind. I am thinking and thinking very hard….
Daughter: You know what I do in such a situation. I take a piece of paper and make two columns, ‘pros’ and ‘cons’. …
Me: Hey, if ‘pros’ is the opposite of ‘cons’, then is the “Congress’ party opposed to “progress”?
Daughter: Very funny. Here’s what I do. I list down all positive points under ‘pros’ and negative points under ‘cons’. I go by whichever list is longer.
Me: Give me an example of when you used this method.
Daughter: Last Tuesday was a holiday for school, remember? I had to decide whether to go to school on Monday or just enjoy the 4-day weekend. So, I started jotting down the pros like “I can have lots of fun”, “I will have a long break”. “I can sleep late on Monday”, etc and came up with eight solid pros. There were only two cons, one that I would have to catch up on the homework later and the second, that I would have to hear out your long lecture on why I shouldn’t have bunked school.
Me: Your ‘decision grid’ has two basic flaws, you brat. First, you need to assign weightage to each of the points. For example, the intensity of the ‘pain’ of a stern lecture and the aftermath can be eight times the degree of ‘pleasure’ of sleeping late. Second, the list has to include points that are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. Having fun, sleeping late, etc are all parts of the same point and cannot be listed down as separate ones. Moreover…
Daughter: As usual, you are complicating a simple system. No wonder you are unable to decide……
Me: I have to take a decision on something really important. I am unable to make up my mind. I am thinking and thinking very hard….
Daughter: You know what I do in such a situation. I take a piece of paper and make two columns, ‘pros’ and ‘cons’. …
Me: Hey, if ‘pros’ is the opposite of ‘cons’, then is the “Congress’ party opposed to “progress”?
Daughter: Very funny. Here’s what I do. I list down all positive points under ‘pros’ and negative points under ‘cons’. I go by whichever list is longer.
Me: Give me an example of when you used this method.
Daughter: Last Tuesday was a holiday for school, remember? I had to decide whether to go to school on Monday or just enjoy the 4-day weekend. So, I started jotting down the pros like “I can have lots of fun”, “I will have a long break”. “I can sleep late on Monday”, etc and came up with eight solid pros. There were only two cons, one that I would have to catch up on the homework later and the second, that I would have to hear out your long lecture on why I shouldn’t have bunked school.
Me: Your ‘decision grid’ has two basic flaws, you brat. First, you need to assign weightage to each of the points. For example, the intensity of the ‘pain’ of a stern lecture and the aftermath can be eight times the degree of ‘pleasure’ of sleeping late. Second, the list has to include points that are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. Having fun, sleeping late, etc are all parts of the same point and cannot be listed down as separate ones. Moreover…
Daughter: As usual, you are complicating a simple system. No wonder you are unable to decide……
Raj - Your daughter is right....Balaji.....
ReplyDeleteBalaji, I tend to agree. I suffer from 'paralysis by analysis'.
ReplyDeleteHahaha ! :)
ReplyDeleteVery Funny! So did you give or not give a lecture on non-bunking?
that was interesting and hilarious dialogue :)
ReplyDeletethe father - daughter conversations are well recorded. Great to read them!! :-)
ReplyDeleteVishwa,better to cut one's losses and get out.
ReplyDeleteJayanthu and Swapnita: Thanks