Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Comparing alternatives

A few years ago I took a systems engineering course and one of the topics we covered was how to compare different options you might need to choose between. There were two tips that stuck with me, so I thought I would share them here.

  1. Compare actual alternatives. When you are considering different options, it is really easy to compare one specific possibility versus the entire world of other possibilities. Do we want pizza for dinner tonight? Well, pizza is cheap and easy, but it isn't exactly healthy, and there are things that are more delicious... But how many things are both healthier and more delicious at the same time as they cost the same amount of money and time? Pizza versus spaghetti however is an actual comparison.
  2. Include an evolutionary alternative in addition to revolutionary alternatives. An evolutionary alternative involves doing more or less what you have been doing, but perhaps better. A revolutionary alternative involves a completely new way of accomplishing your goal. The idea being that typically revolutionary ideas will be a lot more costly to implement, and it is easy to get carried away with planning something totally new and lose sight of what you are really trying to accomplish. One example is the repair or replace decision for a car.
Do you have any other tricks for choosing the best alternative?

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