A Plate Full Of Bad Calls

Much of what I do comes down to making decisions.

Sometimes it’s easy. You have the data, the picture is clear, and the better choice wins by a wide margin. You don’t need judgment for those. You just need to not get in your own way.

The hard ones are different. The information is incomplete. The choices are murky. And you have to rely on judgment.

When I was younger, I mostly went with my gut. I notched up a few wins and a lot of losses. But the losses taught me something the wins never did.

I once put someone in a critical role because I knew him well and trusted him as a friend. I never honestly stress-tested whether he had the aptitude the role actually demanded. Comfort, I learned the hard way, is not the same as judgment.

Another time, I took something on, convinced I could pull it off, and badly underestimated how hard it would be to change what needed changing.

Good judgment is mostly built by collecting instances of bad judgment and then working hard never to repeat them.

Behind every good call I make today sits a plate full of bad ones.And maybe that’s the point. A plate full of bad judgments slowly becomes the foundation for wisdom.