Big decisions and a culture of decisionmaking

“Big” decisions are defined as discontinuous, abrupt, and unique, in contrast to “little” decisions, which are marginal, commensurable, and additive. We can model big decisions, as well as a wider range of little decisions, if we enlarge our notion of decisionmaking to include legal interpretation, rites-of-passage ritual and conversion experience, heroic leadership, critical judgment of works of literature and art, and entrepreneurship. These models are exemplary of a more encompassing “culture of decisionmaking,” involving six practices: marginalism, untouchableness, gaps, action, judgment, and entrepreneurship. Although big decisions may often be reduced to sets of little decisions, when a decision is treated as big it becomes a powerful mode of initiation, commitment, and justification of a project.