Options!

This one is abt options; one of the characters in a novel I read long time back ("No comebacks") was reported to be use this approach. He used to evaluate all the available options, take into consideration the pluses and minuses of each, and then pick up the safest and the most suitable option for his context.
Nothing new! Probably a lot of people do this already. So? I was amazed with this being documented and written with clarity. So called managers of the world might have given this a fancy name and must already be practising this, preaching this. But you don't need to be a manager to do things smartly! (no offence meant!!)
This was for the real world.
What I always tell my team is abt the relevance of this in software developement:
Understand why one approach is preferred to other ones existing. It helps you understand and evaluate the best of the available options. You get into such situations when you have to evaluate a bunch of frameworks, vendors to work with your product or application.
From my side, I make it a point to forward to the team, some important mail conversations that discuss the pros-cons of available options. I believe its a good way to learn things.