There are, Weick says, two approaches to selection: rule and cycles. Rules (or what Peirce would call deductions) are often taken to be the key to principled action, but Weick is skeptical. Rules are really only useful in reasonably simple situations. Because rules are formalized for general and usually highly idealized cases, they most often fail to account for the complexity of real cases, Sometimes, in fact, two complicates the “selection” process. One rule will solve one segment of the problem; in attempting to force the remainder of the problem into compliance with that rule, another rule comes into play and undermines the authority of the first. Therefore, Weick says, in most cases “cycles” are more useful in selecting the optimum course of action.