When it comes to decision making, I find that having all the facts is crucial to making the best decision. But often times, the more facts that are involved, the more you start rationalizing back decisions. I set you up yesterday with the hypothetical car question. How did you react? Brilliantly. I gave you very little factual about an everyday car problem. Trying to decide when to buy a car is a tough decision. In our hypothetical example yesterday I gave the following details:

Assume that you own your car outright. It is worth $6000. It needs $1800 worth of work right now. You were going to get a new-to-you car in 6 months. You were going to pay for the new car in cash and trade. What do you do? Do you do the work on the car (which won't add to the value)? Do you go ahead and buy a new car now?

There are clearly some details missing here, but they don't matter. Many times we add details that just don't matter. They only serve to confuse. I could have brought insurance rates into the equation. I could have discussed gas mileage. The bottom line: The person described above probably should just wait to buy the new car.

I met a guy the other day that apparently has a knack for telling stories that put people to sleep. Forget warm milk, soothing music, and Ambien. This guy's stories are an over-the-counter narcotic. He describes every single detail in his story. He even argued with himself about what day the story actually occurred. Me, I was looking for the take away. What was the point of the story? Unfortunately, there was no point, other than to test my penchant for narcolepsy.  Eight minutes into his Iliad he said, "Long story short..." I just stared at him as though he had a foot coming out of his forehead. Unless you say "long story short" within the first 30 seconds of any given story, then it is null and void. It is illegal to use "long story short" at that point in time. Long story short...sometimes the small details actually make decision making harder.