91 AD Decisions can be made quickly, or they can be made after careful thought. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? The decisions that people make quickly are always wrong. Use reasons and specific examples to support your opinion.

I disagree with the statement that the decisions people make quickly are always wrong. However, I think those decisions probably turn out to be wrong more often than carefully made decisions do. Usually, fast decisions are based on what we call our “gut reactions,” or feelings we have about a situation. Sometimes these gut reactions are based on good sense backed by experience, but sometimes they’re based on nonsense or poor reasoning.

Let’s say you’re at work and the boss calls you to his office and tells you there’s a big project that needs to be done. He thinks you’re the best person for the job, but he needs an answer from you on the spot. He hasn’t told you what the project is, but you make the quick decision to accept. This is the right quick decision, because you’re basing it on a lot of factors that will occur to you later. One is that it wouldn’t make sense for the boss to ask you to do something he didn’t think you could handle. That would only hurt his business. Plus, doing a good job on this project might help your career. You realize it’s good to reach higher, if you want to get ahead.

But let’s say you’re on a deserted highway late at night and your car breaks down. Along comes a car driven by someone who doesn’t seem quite right to you. He offers you a ride to the nearest gas station. You make the quick decision to accept the ride because it’s late, you’re cold and tired and you don’t want to sit there waiting for the highway patrol to arrive. This is a case where a quick decision is a wrong decision. You shouldn’t trade your personal safety for physical comfort, and if you thought about it, you wouldn’t.

How do you know when it’s okay to make a quick decision? You have to be able to guess at the possible benefits versus the possible dangers. If it’s a small decision like where to go to lunch, who cares? However, if my whole future were at stake, I’d want as much time as I could get to think about it.

92 Some people trust their first impressions about a person’s character because they believe these judgments are generally correct. Other people do not judge a person’s character quickly because they believe first impressions are often wrong. Compare these two attitudes. Which attitude do you agree with? Support your choice with specific examples.

Any opinion is, in fact, a judgment. I feel that as Americans we would do well to judge others less often. Still, we must be able to decide whom to spend our time with and whom we’d rather forget. In my opinion, this type of judgment is best after we get to know other people. First impressions are not always accurate impression.

Judging a person based on a first impression does save time. There are more people than anyone could possibly get to know in one lifetime. It is frustrating to waste time getting to know someone, only to find out that your first impression was correct and that you really don’t like him or her. So is it a waste of time getting to know people your probably won’t like? That seems to be a valid point of view, but I believe that it is not the best attitude to take.

It’s more humane to spend time getting to know people before judging them. I know that I don’t always make a good first impression even when I truly like the person with whom I am interacting. We all have bad days, I wouldn’t want to lose a job or a potential friendship simply because I picked out the wrong clothing or said something wrong. I think everyone deserves the chances make a second impression.

If we all base our final opinion of others on first impression, it would be hard to get to know anyone. There is always more to people than meets the eye. If we don’t give someone a chance, we may be missing out on meeting a life-long friend. That would truly be shame.

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