Principles for Decision-making

The two rules of decision-making

The biggest threat to making good decisions is human emotions and short-term thinking.

Good decision-making is a two-step process: 1) you gather information before you 2) make a decision.

Principles for decision-making

Gut feeling

When information, data, and insight are limited and arriving at a rational decision is complex, you will likely have a gut feeling. Listen carefully to what your gut is telling you — it likely sends a conflicting signal, and you might recognize one of the signals as the right decision for the long-term, the greater good, or the morally right option. The other signal might be what you really want to do. If it’s high-risk, go with the former.

Short-term vs. long-term

Go with the long-term. It usually yields a better payoff in the long run and provides an avenue with less competition in a world where most tend to go with the short-term.

When you have no apparent alternative

There will be scenarios where you don’t have any apparent alternatives. Doing nothing is not an option because you still have a problem. These are my tools for how I approach this scenario:

Reframe the problem

Reframing a problem means looking at it from a different perspective or angle. Try casting a new light on the problem, and come up with creative solutions you might not have considered before.

• What would <insert thought leader> do?

• What happens if you go in the opposite direction?

• What happens if you don’t have any resources to solve this problem?

• Can the problem be broken down into more minor problems?

• If the problem is overwhelming or consistent with many sub-problem, try using a decision quadrant.