Frequently asked questions about thinking, epistemology, and cognitive tools. 1675 answers
List every decision you made or participated in over the past five working days. Be comprehensive — include the trivial ones. For each decision, answer four questions: (1) Was this irreversible or easily reversible? (2) Did this require knowledge or context that only I possess? (3) What would.
The most common failure is delegating the decision but not the authority. You tell someone they own the vendor selection, then override their choice because you would have picked differently. This is worse than never delegating at all — it teaches your team that delegation is theater and that the.
Know which decisions you must make yourself and which can be delegated.
Different frameworks for decisions made alone versus with others.
Different frameworks for decisions made alone versus with others.
Different frameworks for decisions made alone versus with others.
Different frameworks for decisions made alone versus with others.
Identify a group decision your team made in the last month. Write down: (1) What framework was actually used — majority vote, loudest voice, consensus, delegation, or something else? (2) Was the framework chosen deliberately or did it emerge by default? (3) What information was lost because of the.
Applying a solo decision framework to a group context and wondering why it fails. You build a careful decision matrix, present it to the team, and expect alignment — but the group resists, not because your analysis is wrong, but because they had no role in constructing it. Group decisions require.
Different frameworks for decisions made alone versus with others.
Choose the option you would least regret in five years.
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.