Last weekend, I've been on a dive that is notorious for people getting separated from their buddy due to low visibility and high current. A friend of mine, who also dived that day, shared his personal philosophy that on a dive like this, staying with your buddy takes absolute precedence over anything else... so if you are at the risk of getting separated, you must do whatever it takes to remain together, and if this means things like buoyancy and trim may have to go out the window, then so be it. He proceeded to explain emphatically that in general, in diving there are strict priorities, and when a condition that lies higher on the list of relative priorities is in danger of being violated, then everything further down the list can be sacrificed.
My friend did manage to stay with his buddy on this dive, which could not be said about many (most?) other divers, myself included... some folks reported that it's been so far 0 out of 5 for staying with their buddies... My friend was attempting this dive for the very first time. Perhaps indeed his philosophy served him well? Reflecting on the dive, I do also believe that if I had perceived staying with my buddy as having a much higher priority (e.g., higher than not puncturing my gloves or drysuit, alongside a long list of other things), then there were quite a few things I would have done differently, and I might have enjoyed a much better outcome.
I guess it should not be too surprising that beginning a dive with a more accurate perception of relative priorities can lead to better decisions in real-time. It has been said a lot, here and elsewhere, that when decisions are made under time pressure, one's problem-solving ability easily gets reduced to the very simplest responses learned in training or acquired through prior experience. Perhaps remembering that "X is more important than Y" is just the kind of basic knee-jerk response that can be ingrained into deep layers of one's brain to actually work?
When I reflect on past experiences, I definitely see how my behavior has been influenced a lot by a certain perception of relative priorities, whether subconscious, ingrained through prior training, or deliberate practice, especially during the times when I felt task-loaded. And yet, despite clear evidence that a perception of priorities largely controls my behavior, I have never consciously tried to think about relative priorities on a dive... even though there is, of course, a long laundry list of things I perceive as critically important. I wonder how many people, like my friend, make a conscious effort to do so, and whether it actually makes a difference.
So, do you set priorities? Does it help you? Have you experienced situations, in which having clear priorities allowed you to make the right decision under time pressure? Have you had situations, in which a bad outcome could be attributed to having had wrong priorities? Or, do you believe that in real-life situations, priorities are so relative, fuzzy, and dependent on context, that it is completely pointless to even think about it ahead of the time?
Thanks!
My friend did manage to stay with his buddy on this dive, which could not be said about many (most?) other divers, myself included... some folks reported that it's been so far 0 out of 5 for staying with their buddies... My friend was attempting this dive for the very first time. Perhaps indeed his philosophy served him well? Reflecting on the dive, I do also believe that if I had perceived staying with my buddy as having a much higher priority (e.g., higher than not puncturing my gloves or drysuit, alongside a long list of other things), then there were quite a few things I would have done differently, and I might have enjoyed a much better outcome.
I guess it should not be too surprising that beginning a dive with a more accurate perception of relative priorities can lead to better decisions in real-time. It has been said a lot, here and elsewhere, that when decisions are made under time pressure, one's problem-solving ability easily gets reduced to the very simplest responses learned in training or acquired through prior experience. Perhaps remembering that "X is more important than Y" is just the kind of basic knee-jerk response that can be ingrained into deep layers of one's brain to actually work?
When I reflect on past experiences, I definitely see how my behavior has been influenced a lot by a certain perception of relative priorities, whether subconscious, ingrained through prior training, or deliberate practice, especially during the times when I felt task-loaded. And yet, despite clear evidence that a perception of priorities largely controls my behavior, I have never consciously tried to think about relative priorities on a dive... even though there is, of course, a long laundry list of things I perceive as critically important. I wonder how many people, like my friend, make a conscious effort to do so, and whether it actually makes a difference.
So, do you set priorities? Does it help you? Have you experienced situations, in which having clear priorities allowed you to make the right decision under time pressure? Have you had situations, in which a bad outcome could be attributed to having had wrong priorities? Or, do you believe that in real-life situations, priorities are so relative, fuzzy, and dependent on context, that it is completely pointless to even think about it ahead of the time?
Thanks!
