The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas
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The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas
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Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas
#2I've had two different experiences like this. The first is a co-worker that did a different tactic. When someone would ask him if he wanted to get lunch and no idea of where to go, he would ask "rice or noodle?" This somehow always lead us going to a place that had neither of those things.
From what I've seen, the inverse of this seems to also imply where a group will end up going for lunch. I've had co-workers say Costco or Taco Bell "isn't lunch". Because of those negative statements, that is exactly where the group ends up going.
Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas
#3[deleted]
Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas
#4The problem I have with this starts as soon as the author insists that the second step is "always" easier than the first, and implicates that first step as somehow being a time sink.
As soon add you say "always" you are almost certainly wrong, and you have most likely missed something important, or at least relevant. This article dismisses a huge breadth of ideas and processes simply because sometimes it is effective to skip them.
Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas
#5I use a technique like this when I am stuck trying to write code and can't figure out how to do it efficiently. I ask myself "what is the worst possible way to implement this function?" and start writing that. Sure enough, that gets my mind going almost immediately and I start thinking of the improvements needed to turn it into good code.
Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas
#6Of course, there is the risk that everyone thinks McDonalds is a swell idea, and then no one will ever do anything nicer for lunch ever again. Not to stretch the analogy too far, but I have had this happen both literally and figuratively.
Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas
#7I use a technique like this when I am stuck trying to write code and can't figure out how to do it efficiently. I ask myself "what is the worst possible way to implement this function?" and start writing that. Sure enough, that gets my mind going almost immediately and I start thinking of the improvements needed to turn it into good code.
Haha, I know that feeling. "How on earth am I supposed to implement this?" usually turns into:
for (int i = 0; i Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas
#8Isn't this just a "straw man concept?" Just throw out some idea, even it it's bad just to get the conversation going?
Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas
#9Of course, there is the risk that everyone thinks McDonalds is a swell idea, and then no one will ever do anything nicer for lunch ever again. Not to stretch the analogy too far, but I have had this happen both literally and figuratively.
If it backfires, then all you need to do is next time say "let's do something different".
Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas
#10Related hack:
When you can't make progress and choose between two comparable options, Dan Ariely (behavioral economist) recommends you flip a coin. As you flip it, the impact of a potential decision might prompt you to realize the outcome you truly want.
However, there is a caveat: "The coin trick is indeed only useful for cases where the two options are of the same type (two cameras, two movies, etc). In your example, one option is more tempting in the short term (chocolate cake) while the other is better in the long term (fruit). In such cases we should not trust our gut feelings to drive us to the best decisions."
http://danariely.com/2013/01/05/ask-ariely-on-stretching-tim...