The Secrets of Good Judgement: It Relies on More Than Easy Answers

 Good judgment is an essential quality for organizational leaders. According to recent research, sound judgment relies on six core elements: knowledge and experience, awareness, trust, feelings and beliefs, choice, and delivery. Exercising good judgment requires deep self-awareness, a grounded understanding of the broader operating environment, and a clear view of the internal resources needed to execute strategy.

In applied psychology, leadership selection often reveals a double-edged sword. Individuals who rise to executive ranks frequently possess relentless drive and high agency. While this determination fuels achievement, the dark side of this trait is a tendency toward overconfidence, self-serving decision-making, and a willingness to compromise ethical boundaries or alienate others to reach an objective.

Ideally, an effective leader balances ambition with collaborative ethics. High-performing managers must pursue clear goals while remaining willing to work with others, understand their own personal and professional boundaries, and align decisions with the best interests of their organization, their workforce, and society at large.

This balance becomes even more critical in an era dominated by automated systems and predictive technologies. While modern algorithms process vast amounts of data within bounded domains, heavy reliance on them risks passive decision-making. When technology sets up the choice—lining up the "cue ball" for us—human nature inclines us to select the easiest option without scrutinizing the underlying inputs, assumptions, or gaps in the data.

Algorithms excel at deep, linear analysis within established parameters, but human neurocognition possesses a unique capacity for lateral synthesis. Human minds make non-linear, groundbreaking connections across disparate domains—weaving together culture, ethics, and strategic vision in ways machines cannot replicate. For leaders, raw data and algorithmic outputs should serve as starting points rather than final answers. True judgment lies in thinking beyond the immediate information to evaluate how choices shape the broader future of the organization.

You may find this article interesting, 

The secrets to better judgement

• Good judgement is defined as the combination of personal qualities with relevant knowledge and experience to either make decisions or form opinions.

• The foundational framework for judgement consists of six core elements: knowledge and experience, awareness, trust, feelings and beliefs, choice, and delivery.

• Gaps in knowledge and experience introduce significant risk, requiring individuals to find ways to compensate depending on the stakes involved.

• Overconfidence is highlighted as particularly dangerous because it leads individuals to overestimate what they know, neglect surroundings, avoid consulting others, and take unwarranted risks.

• Organisations can foster better judgement by integrating it into hiring, performance appraisals, promotions, and by promoting diverse perspectives to challenge groupthink.

• Human judgement remains indispensable in the age of artificial intelligence, particularly because machines cannot replicate context-specific evaluation or moral responsibility.

Likierman, A., & Haydock, S. (2025, March 24). The secrets to better judgement. London Business School Think. https://www.london.edu/think/the-secrets-to-better-judgement

Beyond Party Lines: Voting for Our Shared Future

Our republic relies on good people making good decisions—choices that uphold core principles and work to strengthen the nation for the next generation. Yet, our system faces real internal threats. Hyper-partisanship, self-interest, foreign influence, the over-concentration of wealth, and a breakdown of proper checks and balances within our institutions continuously weaken our collective foundation.

We see the danger of these failures illustrated in modern cautionary  thought experiments like the Allegory of the Clan. In that story, entrenched bigotry and the pressure to appease political stakeholders and one social group (in-group) led to civil and human rights violations, while actively blocking victims from receiving justice (The second class citizen is born). When extremism, corruption, and political violence suppress basic freedoms of speech and religion, the entire democratic framework breaks down.

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Ensure the
Republic is serving 
The people
And their principles. 

While we face critical challenges, there are still countless good people driving positive change forward. However, we must also recognize that some do not care about our shared future. The Allegory of the Clan highlights this intentional bias. These are the takers—individuals who manipulate, cheat, lie, and bully society simply to secure power and resources for themselves. They are the segregationists of modern times (Segregation is only removed by one generation so there are still some judges, officials, and others who still promote and protect those behaviors. It is time to end all that and adapt upward.)

Political parties cannot serve as our primary check and balance. While they may offer a rough ideological balance, strict party-line adherence often benefits party managers and their fonord rather than the public. To encourage reorientation of democracy back to the people, we need to vote as independently as possible, evaluating each candidate and issue strictly on its own merits. If they don't have good values forget all the political rhetoric.

This is not a condemnation of any single party, person, or platform. It is a reminder that this society is ours to shape and pass on. They think it is theirs but it isn't. We have sacraficed since the beginning and there are some who will dismiss your rights when profitable or convenient. Whenever we allow hyper-vetted, heavily funded interests to dictate our decisions, the balance of power inevitably shifts away from the public interest (The real crime that undermines the democracy.)

Today is your opportunity to remind our leadership on both sides that the American people sit at the center of this republic. If our elected representatives fail to fulfill their duty, we must vote them out and encourage our best and brightest to step forward. Don't automatically jump to the next party rhetoric. Think for yourself. 

We possess a strong foundation built on a long history of striving for something greater. We need to back leaders who honor their oaths to the public across all races, religions, and backgrounds.

Be a hero today. Vote your conscience to help reclaim our system and guide it back toward its true north. Progress is never sustained by those who use public office to take, but by the true public servants who work to leave a better nation behind. We each have different kinds of duties and skills we can bring to the table and as long as that is in service of the nation, not the parties, then we will reorient. We will thrive. 

Choose our shared future wisely. Think for yourself and have a blessed day. 

The Trap of Technicalities: Loosing the Northern Star of Justice (The Allegory of the Clan)

 Justice matters beyond legal technicalities. When the justice system and politics are dominated by lawyers, the law can become a game where technical rules replace core principles. A hyper-focus on fine detail obscures the primary goal of the law: true fairness and justice. Not that lawyers are all good or bad but they are limited by their occupation perspective to win even if it costs everyone else.  

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This exact trap exists in science and everyday thinking: when you get bogged down in details, you lose sight of the big picture. You risk wasting effort on things that do not matter, or worse, causing harm. 

The incentives of playing games versus the collective good that comes from doing the right thing (Notice that within this game playing of technicalities are the darker side of human nature such as rhetorical vanity, benefits, partisan incentives, etc. while society benefits more from the deeper fundamental approaches offered by philosophy.) 

To fix this, lawmakers and judges must let the underlying purpose of the law guide their decisions rather than getting lost in procedural mechanics:

• Preventing Ongoing Harm: Legal tools should stop corruption and wrongdoing, not provide technical loopholes for bad actors to exploit.

• Protecting Victims: When systems play technical games, bad actors escape accountability while victims carry the burden. Merely avoiding liability or finding the easiest exit leaves harm unaddressed and rewards bad behavior.

Justice is not about finding technicalities to win a game—it is about keeping the fundamental purpose as your north star. If you loose that then the first (in-group) and second (out-group) class citizenship forms. Once that is an implicit value assumption the harm to society and the principles of freedom clearer.

*The Allegory of the Clan is a hypothetical thought experiment designed to foster thinking. Feel free to reject, change, etc. 

Restoring Faith in Airline Customer Service: 3 Principles

The value of customer service to long-term business development and customer retention is undeniable, though people often get lost in theoretical weeds. At the end of the day, treating customers well means providing the service you promised and quickly fixing customer service mistakes.

Consider an airline story as an example. Flying out of a small town means fewer available flights, so when an airline delays one flight, it cascades and kicks passengers off connecting routes, leaving them stuck. In this instance, the airline lets passengers know in advance. Going the next morning is not a massive problem, but it remains annoying because of canceled plans.

When the passenger informs the airline, the representative simply says, "You can put in a complaint." The passenger responds, "When you put in a complaint, a lot of people complain and nobody listens. At the end of the day, the consumer has to eat the cost."

Then, coming through the airport the next morning, the airline staff announces, "We waived your pet fee." The passenger never asks for this. Moments later, an agent approaches and says, "We are giving you back some of your points." The passenger does not expect this gesture. Having lived with the annoyance of being locked out of plans and swallowing the cost in the past, the airline actually does the right thing this time. It shows there are still people trying to make things right after an operational failure.

This experience highlights three core principles for building a stronger system of customer retention:

1. Provide the promised service as your baseline baseline.

2. Practice genuine empathy by listening when a failure occurs.

3. Make it right proactively to restore customer trust.

The Tree Painting: Quick Work For Sale

That is the classic artistic trap: spending three hours agonizing over the individual bark texture of a single tree while the rest of the canvas looks like a crime scene in a fog bank.

Doing a 10-minute speed run is basically forced exposure therapy for your inner perfectionist. It stops you from over-working the brush and actually forces you to look at the composition as a whole. Plus, if it turns out looking like abstract interpretive garbage, you only wasted ten minutes instead of a Tuesday.

The Walking Path Gallery (Painting and Photos)-Price below.

$70 Purchase Direct Painting PayPal

$60 for photos (Rights to Use or Printing)

Art Gallery eBay (Paintings)

The Tree on eBay

A few ideas on quick painting that I found were interesting. 

9 Ways to Improve Your Quick Painting / Pochade Skills

Attracting Start-Ups and Investments to Local Downtowns

Attracting new businesses to small, rural communities requires leveraging unique regional strengths while preserving local character. Escanaba serves as a prime model for this balance, combining exceptional natural amenities with robust infrastructure. Recent investments from major companies like Amazon show that proximity to a major metropolitan area isn't a strict requirement for growth when a community possesses strong core assets.

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Thinking of the
possibilities.

A central driver of Escanaba's potential lies in its human capital and logistics. The local skilled trades college provides a dependable pipeline of practical talent tailored to modern industry needs. Furthermore, the region boasts exceptional multi-modal connectivity—spanning rail, a port, major highways, and an airport—making it an ideal hub for expanding supply chains and logistics-minded startups.

Finally, economic vitality relies on maintaining an inviting downtown experience. Escanaba's active downtown authority hosts frequent community events that energize the commercial core, benefiting both local residents and a growing tourist base. By showcasing a high quality of life paired with enterprise-grade infrastructure, rural towns can effectively attract compatible new businesses while keeping their small-town feel intact.

Which Small Towns Attract Start-ups and Why

• A 20-year study by Iowa State University researchers examined why certain small rural towns successfully attract new businesses while others experience economic decline.

• Human capital and business agglomeration were found to be the strongest drivers of new firm entry in rural communities.

• High concentrations of educated residents, higher median household incomes, and existing clusters of related businesses and suppliers consistently entice entrepreneurs.

• Physical distance to major metropolitan areas, natural amenities, local fiscal policies, and community social capital had negligible effects on attracting start-ups.

• Policy efforts aimed at small-town growth are most effective when targeted at communities already possessing strong human capital and market density rather than distributing economic incentives uniformly across all rural towns.

Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. (2020, November 2). Which small towns attract start-ups and why. https://www.cals.iastate.edu/news/2020/which-small-towns-attract-start-ups-and-why

The Structure and Root of Philosophical Wisdom

Where does wisdom come from? It comes from life experiences, reflection, learning, and paying attention to what people say and think. It involves looking at social disparities, understanding their root causes, and learning why people make choices and how those choices create macro impacts.

Wisdom also comes from knowing and understanding yourself within the context of your environment. Without this self-awareness, we risk making selfish, thoughtless decisions that prioritize ourselves over others. Some of it is natural but as you become more enlightened you also understand the balance. Do good to yourself and to the world.

Ultimately, wisdom operates across three levels:

• The I: Your inherent abilities, skills, and personal contributions.

• The Me: The socialized self shaped by your environment and programming.

• The We: The social and economic outcomes produced by collective actions.

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Now in our sort of exploratory nature let us think of the I, ME, and We as it applies to the interplay between social and economic outcomes. 

I found this interesting you may be interested in reading the article below. We have also discussed natural systems which are more powerful than socially constructed systems. Below they talk of natural wisdom which is likely drawn more from a more natural system implicit knowledge. 

*PS if you like these free articles support them through purchasing a product, buying advertising space, etc. 

Wisdom: Meaning, structure, types, arguments, and future concerns.

• The paper addresses the lack of scientific consensus on wisdom by proposing an integrative, two-dimensional framework.

• Wisdom is defined both as an action achieving altruistic outcomes and as a psychological trait integrating virtue and wit.

• The authors categorize wisdom by capability types into humane wisdom and natural wisdom, and by applicability into domain-specific, domain-general, and omniscient types.

• Key theoretical debates are clarified regarding the relationship between wisdom, expertise, and moral development.

• Five critical directions for future psychology research are outlined, including cross-cultural validity, standardized measurement, and the impact of artificial intelligence.

Zhang, K., Shi, J., Wang, F., & Ferrari, M. (2022). Wisdom: Meaning, structure, types, arguments, and future concerns. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-02816-6