The other day when we went to the café, it was closed and so we had to find a new place.
Swami immediately got into the car again. Jigneshbhai opened up Google maps. I sat on the back seat.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Let’s figure out,” Swami said and started driving.
“Let’s figure out,” Jigneshbhai said, and stared at his phone.
There are two types of people. Those with a bias for thinking, and those with a bias for action.
The ones with a bias for thinking map out everything before taking the first step. The ones with a bias for action step out first and then start thinking about the map.
I don’t have to tell you which of my friends is which. The problem is I like both of them. And I often agree with both of them. So I can’t say who is right and who is wrong.
After about ten minutes, both of them were at different stages. Swami was lost and Jigneshbhai still hadn’t reached a decision. I was still in the backseat of the car and there were no cafes in sight. I could only see a traffic jam.
“Let’s decide guys,” I finally said.
“There’s nothing in sight,” Swami said.
“Give me two minutes,” Jigneshbhai said. “But do you guys want a cafe or is a restobar okay?” he asked.
After ten minutes, he was still looking for options. Swami wasn’t even looking. And I was stuck, in the backseat.
After a certain point more thinking doesn’t take you anywhere. After a certain point, more action takes you in all directions.
Ten more minutes passed. Swami turned left a couple of times and right a couple of times. Neither Jigneshbhai nor I spoke.
“By the way, where are we?” Swami asked. “I think we have driven a lot,” he remarked.
“We have two options. One is a cafe seven minutes from here, but it doesn’t have muffins. The other is a restobar where we will get some snacks and coffee, but I am not sure if its open. Maybe it’s under renovation,” Jigneshbhai said.
I gave up on my coffee for the evening. One of my friends was going around in circles. The other wasn’t going anywhere. I don’t have to tell you which was which.
The ones with a bias for action do a lot, but often wonder what they are up to. The ones with a bias for thinking are clear about a lot, but often don’t do and move ahead fast enough.
Finally I had a suggestion that both my friends took. I took the steering wheel from Swami and the phone from Jigneshbhai.
I asked Jigneshbhai to drive and Swami to check the map. It seemed to have worked. Swami knew what cafe to choose, and Jigneshbhai drove to it perfectly.
I finally got the right mix of thinking and action in my friends. I asked the thinker to act, and the actor to think, for a change.
After a point, the people with a bias for action need to think. And the people with a bias for thinking need to act. I switched them from the innate tendency.
That seems like a good mix. We reached the new cafe. While it was good, we decided to get back to our regular one from next week. We missed the wealthy old man at the new cafe.
But at least I got the answer to what is better – a bias for thinking or a bias for action. The answer is both and it depends. Which means that both thinking and action were good, like both my thinker and actor friends.
But I realised that, perhaps, there is a formula.
If the wealthy old man would have been here, he would have walked up to us and said, “Think, Act, and then Switch.”
***