Over breakfast with fellow Dell cloud thinker and general deep thinker Michael Cote, he suggested that we two options for something.  I was quick to add a third and Cote objected because “having three options is a marketing thing to make you happier with the choices.”   He’s right but didn’t have the sources to backup the comment.  Since I was looking them up for Cote, I figured they’d be worth posting too:

1. Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational  (covers the theory and it funny)
2. Rom Brafman’s Sway (very pragmatic)
3. Leonard Mlodinow Drunkard’s Walk (if you like statistics)

Personally, I believe that there are always FIVE options.   People generally over look the extreme choices like “do nothing” or  “all in.”   For example, when discussing a product architecture the two options that IMHO should always be on the table include “scrap the project” and “live with the problem.”

We never take the extra options, but they help clarify the three moderate choices.  Of course, this makes more sense after you read the above books.  So read the books (there are 3), don’t read the books, or setup personal interviews with the authors to get the real story.   The choice is yours!