Fabulous article! I consider myself to be in the proactive camp, and found another benefit is it reduces stress because you're reducing uncertainty. I liked your first conversation example: this frustrates me so much and like you, have experienced it many times. I find it hard to trust people who can't make a decision because I find it often results in them being flakey, too. My other half has a great saying - though most attributed to driving, I think it can be applied to most facets of life - "indecision causes accidents".