John Brandon Elam has an interesting post, “What Is a Policy? Just Ask Anyone Buying a Car.”
Watch how people buy cars. Not the impulse buyers. The ones who think through the purchase before they make it.
Before they walk onto the lot, they decide something. A price ceiling. A monthly payment they will not exceed. A tradeoff between horsepower and gas mileage. A hard no on certain brands because of insurance costs or bad transmission histories. They do this thinking while they are calm, while they have time, while nobody is standing over their shoulder pushing an extended warranty.
That decision, made in advance, under no pressure, applied consistently once the pressure shows up: that’s a policy.