My grandmother used to like to tell what we called the “J.C. Penney story.” It goes something like this:
At a dinner party held by J.C.Penney for his executives, Mr.Penney paid very special attention to several select execs. He was looking for someone to fill in a coveted V.P. positions. One of his advisers suggested a specific candidate and J.C. Penney wouldn’t hear of it. “He’s not the right person for the job,” Mr. Penney said. “He put salt on his potatoes before tasting them. How did he know those potatoes needed salt? This is a good restaurant, surely the chef knows how to season food. I’d rather have someone who isn’t so quick to judge and makes carefully researched decisions.”
In researching this story I learned it’s been told in many forms with Thomas Edison, IBM execs and others making decisions based on the salting of food, and though it’s been proven to be an urban legend, it’s still a good story that bears repeating.
The Brussel Sprouts Rule
My eight year old says he hates brussel sprouts. He will go on at length about the reasons for saying he hates brussel sprouts but none of those reasons have to do with taste – that’s because he never tasted brussel sprouts (I have and don’t like them which is why we don’t eat them). It got to the point where Mr. Ng and I now have a rule that The Boy is no longer allowed to say he “hates” something unless he tries it. He can say he hates the idea of brussel sprouts or that he doesn’t like cabbage and brussel sprouts look like little cabbages, but he absolutely can’t say he doesn’t like something he hasn’t tried.
I feel this way about all the people who are tweeting about how they hate iPads or iPhones even though they didn’t use them. How do they know they hate them? Do they dislike Apple? If so, that’s not the same as hating a product one hasn’t tried. Do they dislike the idea of an iPad? Again, hating an idea is not the same as hating a product. It’s that whole green eggs and ham thing. We have these preconceived notions that our green eggs are going to taste bad because they’re not something we see every day. We don’t realize that they might be delicious. As the faux J.C. Penney reminds us, not all potatoes are bland, how do we know they need salt unless we try them first?
Proceeding With Caution
My mother will take an hour to submerge herself in a pool, lake, or other body of water. In fact, it will take her almost that much time to get her big toe wet because she’s afraid of stepping into cold water. Mom proceeds with caution which is way different from rejecting something outright even though we haven’t tried it, or over seasoning something we never tasted in the first place.Proceeding with caution means we’ve heard things, or read things or we’re researching thing but we’re not willing to commit until we’re sure it’s a good choice. This is a good practice to get into. Being headstrong and impulsive isn’t always an attractive trait to the people who hire us or trust us to make decisions for them. In today’s competitive job market, you can be sure someone is watching to see how you handle your potatoes.
Making Informed Decisions
Tasting potatoes before salting and peppering means making an informed decision. We try them, if they’re to bland, we season to taste. The chef could have been a little heavy handed with the salt shaker that day and we won’t know this unless we give them a try.
How do we know we hate iPads unless we test them out? How do we know a book is boring unless we read it?
Now, we can read in a restaurant review about salty or bland potatoes and decide beforehand if the potatoes are worth tasting. We can read iPad reviews by people who already have one, and decide whether or not it’s worth the purchase. We can also ask the swimmers around us if the water is cold, and this will determine who quickly we plunge in.
We do our research and make informed decisions.
Trusting Others to Make Our Decisions for Us
To me, the dilemma is knowing who to trust. So many “swag bloggers’ will write good reviews in exchange for free stuff because they think if they’re too negative it will prevent others from sending them free stuff in the future. Some reviewers will give a good review in hopes that you’ll click on their affiliate links, even if the product is so-so. If they give a poor review, you won’t buy the product. Some folks talk up a product or service simply because it is their job to do so. P.R. people aren’t hired to love something, they’re hired to promote it.
Making an informed decision is about going beyond the hype and any preconceived notions and prejudices. It’s also making a decision based on your own needs and not someone else’s. A restaurant review might say that a certain place has the best potatoes he ever tasted, but he might also have received a free meal in exchange for his review. Should you trust that, or taste the potatoes on your own?
Are You a Salter or a Taster?
How do make a decision? Do you jump in and see where the current takes you, or do you try a less rudderless approach? Do you carefully weigh out the pros and cons before making a decision or just think to yourself, “eh, this looks good.”
Has being impulsive worked to your benefit or backfired
Tell us, are you a salter or a taster…and why?
