RL88: Decision Making Frameworks

This post is part 2 of a series about making big career and life decisions.

For part 1, click here.

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Making decisions is hard.

Some decisions are straightforward - what to eat for breakfast, what to wear, etc.

For consequential decisions - those that will have an outsized impact on our health, happiness, and wealth, the decisions become much more challenging.

Why?

We’re trying to predict the future - we have a limited amount of information and too many variables will impact our decisions' outcomes.

I saw this fact all the time in the Marine Corps. There were a few sayings that I think are equally appropriate in business -

• “The enemy gets a vote” - meaning even when we make the best decision possible, there are things outside of our control that will impact the outcomes.

• “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face” - meaning the best of plans often crumble in the face of adversity and challenge.

Today’s post will focus on helpful frameworks for making decisions in a time-constrained environment with limited information.

I’m gathering a few of my favorite ‘razors’ for you to bookmark and refer back to in your hour of need.

A razor is a helpful rule of thumb to simplify decision-making.

-Sahil Bloom

This week’s post is paywalled. It’s probably the highest ROI piece of writing I’ve done, and I wholeheartedly believe it’s worth the subscription.

If you can’t afford a subscription, please let me know and I’ll be happy to gift you a year on me. If you’re not sure of the value, here’s what you’ll get for subscribing -

1. Access to the following razors in this article, which I explain with examples

   1. The Leverage Razor

   2. The Ikigai Razor

   3. The System 2 Razor

   4. The Learn, Earn, Network Razor

   5. The Luck Razor

   6. The Optimist & Abundance Razor

   7. The Regret Aversion Razor

2. You’ll get access to all 88 editions of Retained Learnings to help you through whatever business and life problem that you’re facing.

3. You’ll get the warm and fuzzy knowledge of supporting one of your favorite content creators.

Let’s dive in -