"Never Judge a Decision by Its Outcome"

There is a frightful amount of honest wisdom in this cartoon by Bob of Work Chronicles.

In so many facets of life, we may make decisions based upon other criteria, such as principles. ‘We believe in X, therefore let us act upon X.’ Little or no thought is given to the outcomes of our decisions.

This is not to say that outcomes are everything. Purely consequentialist ethics may result in depraved decisions, even if the outcomes may be mathematically demonstrated to be optimal.

But outcomes are not nothing. It’s perfectly reasonable to move forward with a decision despite a lack of knowledge, but we are still responsible for the reasonably anticipated outcomes for decisions that we make.

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