ThirstyFish

About 27 percent of Turks still smoke. Since the indoor smoking ban, many cafe's across Turkey have large, heated outside porches where customers can smoke and dine. Many non-smokers also prefer outdoor spaces. Cafe's hand out shoulder-blankets to anyone who gets cold and asks. Why didn't we think of that here in the U.S.?

When we don't have the time to evaluate everything make an optimal choice, we regularly use a solution that first comes to mind which we believe will give a satisfactory result. Common sense, educated guess, rule of thumb, stereotyping, intuition, availability, familiarity, anchoring, shortest path (greed), Occam's razor, profiling are all examples of heuristics. Heuristic methods might not be optimal or perfect, but they are generally sufficient for our immediate goals. In everyday life, most of our decisions are based on heuristics, especially we are dealing with complex problems, or when we are left with incomplete information. If you're cold, get a blanket.

Yesterday's post touches on the relationship between heuristics and science.