My Wife is Skewing my Decision Making!

Written by Kyle about Korea, Republic of. Feelin' confused
Kyle_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=460

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? :)

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