There is a clear truism in George Box's 1979 statement that “all models are wrong, some models are useful.” We attempt to model reality to see how changes can affect it – hopefully, for the better. But models of reality are, by their very nature, incomplete depictions, which tend to be misleading. Still worse are models and associated solutions that faithfully attempt to do justice to reality by incorporating many facets of reality into their structures. Unfortunately, a common result is an overemphasis on certain issues in decision making that, although interesting, are far less relevant to effective decisions than other issues that have been overlooked.

Ultimately, any approach to decision making is a balancing act between an appropriate accounting of relevant reality (that is, the objectives, decision variables, and constraints discussed in Chapter 4) and avoiding details that only obscure or mislead. When we attempt to rationalize all of the factors that might go into a decision-making process, as well as possible solutions that might be practically viable, we often “satisfice,” a term used to describe making a decision about a set of alternatives that respects the limitations of human time and knowledge.