My Wife is Skewing my Decision Making!
Written by Kyle on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 in Korea, Republic of
Feelin' confused
Bessie for a long time has always wanted to go to the Southwestern part of Korea to see the ocean and some of the little islands around there. So, she sent me a link to a tour set up by a Korean company: http://www.adventurekorea.com/ouradventure/calendar_content.asp?id=calendar&RowNo=460Feelin' confused
Basically, what it comes down to is a trip starting on a Friday night and ending on a Monday night with most things included (lodging, transport, food, etc). They take you on hikes and tours of the relevant tourist spots while feeding you some local food. In other words, it's not unlike any other tour. All of this for about $300/person.
Hmmm...I'm kind of torn if I really want to do it, so, at this point I employed a normal decision-making strategy to list some Pros and Cons. This is what everyone does, right? So, let's try a pros and cons list from my viewpoint.
Pros
- Bessie really, really wants to do this. It would make her happy.
Cons
- It starts out with an overnight bus trip. I usually don't sleep well on busses, so this will mess up my sleep for a while.
- Most things that we have seen in Korea have been slightly underwhelming or disappointing.
- There is a clause that states if the weather is bad, we might not be able to make it back to the mainland from the island. That would really suck.
- I normally don't like being shuttled around in group tours.
The Cons win it! Hold on there, partner. Not exactly. The Pros and Cons list is good for getting thoughts down, but it quite often poor in clarifying what the answer should be. See, here's the problem with Pros and Cons lists: not every pro and con was created equal. If we took the Pros and Cons and put them on one of those old fashioned scales (like the one that Lady Justice holds), the Pro in this case is heavier than any single on of the Cons. The Pro in this case concerns the happiness of my wife. How could it not have a lot more weight attached to it?
But such is the nature of decisions. There rarely seems to be one that is 100% right, especially when it concerns other people. There are always Cons to balance the Pros. In the end, there are only decisions which turn into good or bad decisions upon hindsight.
Sigh..if only there were an easier way to do this. Coin flip? Rock, paper, scissors with my wife? Blind obediency to everything she wants? :)
Comments on "My Wife is Skewing my Decision Making!"
Maybe we can just arm wrestle.
Kyle, you are such a great husband. Cousins can share husbands.........right?
Ok, how about Bessie and I have kids and you can feed and raise them. We'll take them back after their freshman year of college. Deal?
haa haa - you're awesome barbie. :)
Take some ambien! It's prescription and you won't be groggy the next day
I'm assuming you're referring to the overnight bus trip and not recommending that I take ambien every time that I need to make a decision. Either way, it's good advice :)
You could also sleep through the shuttling of tourists....but I don't think Bessie would enjoy that as much.
Sounds like a deal Kyle. If you don't mind your kids wearing onsies til they are 10 and live off mac and cheese and hotdogs!
At least you'll put them in onsies. I'm just going to let them run around naked.
barbie is funny! u guys need a like button like on facebook so if i like a blog post but too lazy to type i can just like it =) ...maybe i'll just type 'like'. how annoying would that be? i love it =)
haa haa - ahh facebook and it's reprogramming the way we think. we'd understand. feel free. ;)
Let Bessie go on the bus trip with some of her teacher friends and you go to Seoul with some guy friends and find some sports to view and a beer tasting festival or a wax museum to view or a charity fund raiser to help out!
Honestly, the only thing that REALLY matters on your con list is that you might not make it back on Monday....which I believe is a school day and as I understand it, subs in the Korean school system are non-existent? Sleep....not THAT important as you can "catch up" on your return. Touristy things, done in moderation, can be fun as you meet other people outside of your regular social sphere. A couple that we met on a cruise/tour have become close friends and traveling buddies. If it turns out that the trip is "underwhelming", you've got weeks of "I told ya so" retorts to use on Bessie requiring her to be even more clever in response than she is normally. If all else fails, I thought DADDIO had a great suggestion!
So what happened? Did you compromise by taking the train (3-5 h) w/o the group?
Have Bessie do her pro and con list and see if your happiness ends up in the cons and how much weight that has for her. :) Then find something you both want to do. Ready, go! (If only it really were that easy...)
by Wendy at January 21, 2010 09:40 AM