Cascade Decision Theory

Cascade Decision Theory – whenever a choice is to be made numerous choices have already been made to bring you to that point. Some on purpose others by chance. 

Say for example you go to the supermarket – you have made an active choice to go to a place designed to make you choose to buy things. 

At the cereal aisle, you browse through the numerous boxes on display, each one has been meticulously designed to entice you to buy it – the colour, the picture, the font, the contents, the size, the price and so on. Who decided on all of this? Why aren’t cereals spread around the supermarket – why are they on one aisle? 

In this scene from The Devil Wears Prada Miranda Priestly gives the assistant a dressing down – saying that her lumpy blue jumper was chosen for her by the decisions made in Miranda’s office. 

However, Miranda herself isn’t making a free choice. Three racks of clothes have been brought into her office for the selection to be made. How many layers of decisions have been made for all the ‘trending’ clothes to be boiled down to three racks. Have the assistants actually manipulated Miranda into choosing the one outfit that stands out from the rest? Is Miranda truly in control?

As human’s it is not possible to examine every option available as they are infinite. We have to boil the concepts down to what constitutes clothing for example. 

This is where Cascade Decision Theory can play a part in breaking the cycle of dead ending choices that don’t go further than the first screening of choices. 

In this example maybe Miranda would have appreciated seeing a rack of clothes from the first screening – or even bring in something odd that wasn’t clothing to free the mind up as to what constitutes clothing – would Miranda have been able to pick out a dress made of meat how Lady Gaga did just that?

Concepts

No decision can be made in a vacuum there has to be something to stimulate a change. 

Many decisions are made on shared ‘Undefined’ concepts. 

Think of a box of cereal – I guess you have the concept of a box about 30cm tall, 15cm wide and 20cm long with a colourful picture, text and a price tag. 

A shared understood, unwritten concept of the size, shape and contents of a box of cereal is understood by all. If you can free your mind a little, you may be able to imagine/comprehend much more variety when it comes to a shared concept. A box of cereal can be infinitely small or infinitely large. Breaking down a concept is a key component of cascade decision theory and should be applied all the time – free thinking. 

In The Matrix Neo is presented with a choice of taking the blue pill, or the red pill. These are the only choices? No, not at all, he could have walked away not taking either, or he could have taken both, or he could have pulled out a white pill from his pocket. And why Red and Blue, why are those colours important. 

Question everything! 

 

Pinch Points

Pinch points are also a key factor when it comes to Cascade Decision Theory. A pinch point is when a ‘lot’ of new options open up. Going on holiday for example. Being in a different place – a hotel, beach, bar, etc with all the other options cascading through you at that point, all because you chose to go on holiday. 

It should be noted that not all options are practical, and some decisions are forced upon you – a car crash for example. But then again, you chose to be in that car at that time – avoiding cars would mitigate a risk of a car accident. 

Why is all of this important? For me, it helps in writing a story that breaks down the fundamental concepts of reality, and our learnt behaviour. We are all trapped in a world of concepts that may not suit our needs. Learnt behaviour is something that we all do. 

Example – A woman is cooking a Sunday roast for her friend. The woman cuts off the front and end of the joint of meat and throws it away before she puts it in the oven. Her friend asks, why did you do that? The woman replies it was the way my mum taught me. So she rings her mum to ask why. Her mum replies – that was the way my mum taught me. So the woman rings her grandmother. “Gran, why do I cut off the front and end of the joint before I put it in the oven? I learnt this from mum and mum learnt it from you.” Oh, I remember dear, I didn’t have a big enough roasting tin. 

KEY TAKEWAY

QUESTION EVERYTHING YOU KNOW! We did it as kids, asking WHY!? and at some point we stopped...

ASK WHY AND TRACE IT BACK TO AN ORIGIN – WHY IS MY SCHOOL TIE BLUE? WHO DECIDED THAT? We live in the decay of our ancestor’s future and we are in no way bound by it as long as we’re able to wake up. We live in a time with immense capability to remember the past, more so than at any time in human history. Is this a good thing? Or is this a bad thing? 

Cascade Decision Theory is a tool to help open the mind and revert us back to our best selves, childish minds with unbounded imagination.