Welcome to the initial posting of the new blog for those who are interested in decision making, those facing the challenges of a complex decision, and for anyone interested in the Analytic Hierarchy Process and the Analytic Network Process. We welcome guest submissions and content. Following is a brief excerpt from "The Logic of Priorities" by Thomas Saaty and Luis Vargas to open the discussion!
“Our minds have a limited capacity to assimilate and retain large amounts of information even for short periods of time. Because of such limitations, and because in many situations data are not available, we must base our decisions on the information at hand and on the experiences we have accumulated over the years. In today’s complex world, no amount of information seems adequate to make objective decisions on multifaceted and controversial problems. No wonder individuals and even public and private enterprises often make decisions based on subjective knowledge rather than on a thorough and complete logical resolution of the issues – if that ever is a possibility.”
“In addition, complex decisions are usually characterized by a large number of interacting factors. The problem is how to properly assess the importance of these factors in order to make tradeoffs among them; how to derive a system of priorities that can guide us to make good decisions by choosing a best alternative? To answer this problem of decision making in the face of risk, uncertainty, diversity of factors, and varying opinions and judgments, a new approach has been developed by Thomas L. Saaty in recent years – the Analytic Hierarchy Process.” (The Logic of Priorities, Thomas L. Saaty and Luis Vargas)
