Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 4568 answers
Choose the option you would least regret in five years.
Choose the option you would least regret in five years.
Identify one decision you're currently stuck on. Write down both options. Now project yourself forward to age 80. Write a paragraph from the perspective of your 80-year-old self, looking back at each choice. Which version of the story produces a wince — a flash of 'I wish I had...'? That wince is.
Using regret minimization to rationalize impulsive decisions. The framework asks you to consult your future self, not your excited present self wearing a future-self costume. If your 'age 80 projection' conveniently agrees with whatever you already want to do right now, you haven't done the.
Choose the option you would least regret in five years.
Sometimes deciding fast is more important than deciding optimally.
Sometimes deciding fast is more important than deciding optimally.
After a decision plays out review whether your framework served you well.
After a decision plays out review whether your framework served you well.
After a decision plays out review whether your framework served you well.
After a decision plays out review whether your framework served you well.
Pick one significant decision you made in the last 90 days where you now know the outcome. Write down: (1) what you decided and why, (2) what actually happened, (3) whether the outcome was due to your process or to factors you could not have known. Separate the verdict on your process from the.
Conflating outcome quality with decision quality. When things go well, you credit your brilliance. When things go badly, you blame your judgment. This makes your review useless — you learn nothing about your actual decision process because you are only responding to results. The deeper failure is.
After a decision plays out review whether your framework served you well.
When routine decisions are systematized your creative energy is preserved for novel problems.
When routine decisions are systematized your creative energy is preserved for novel problems.
When routine decisions are systematized your creative energy is preserved for novel problems.
When routine decisions are systematized your creative energy is preserved for novel problems.
When routine decisions are systematized your creative energy is preserved for novel problems.
When routine decisions are systematized your creative energy is preserved for novel problems.
Audit your last work week. List every decision you made — large and small. Categorize each as either 'routine' (you've made a similar decision before and could have used a framework) or 'novel' (genuinely required fresh thinking). Count the ratio. For most people, 70-85% of decisions are routine..
Systematizing everything, including the decisions that should stay open. You build frameworks for your creative process itself — which ideas to pursue, which aesthetic directions to explore, which risks to take. Your work becomes efficient and utterly predictable. The point of decision frameworks.
When routine decisions are systematized your creative energy is preserved for novel problems.
Any system that cannot observe its own output cannot improve.