Just finished ‘Decision by Design’ – a 12-week course on decision making by @ShaneAParrish and @FarnamStreet.

This is by far the most useful course I’ve ever taken.

It's packed with actionable techniques that I now use daily.

Here are just some of my favorite ideas:

1/ Good decisions can have bad outcomes, just as bad decisions can have good outcomes.

The outcomes are often not within your control. However, your behavior is always within your control.

2/ Decisions fall into a matrix of consequential vs. inconsequential and reversible vs. irreversible.

Break big, irreversible, and consequential decisions into the smaller ones – consequential & reversible, irreversible & inconsequential, and reversible & inconsequential.

3/ The number one reason we solve the wrong problem is that our mind is wired to quickly go into problem-solving mode.

Instead, we should stop and think about whether we’re solving the right problem.

4/ To find the root problem:

- Separate problem definition & problem solution

- Ask "What would have to be true for this problem to not exist in the first place?"

- Ask "What are some other underlying issues creating this problem?"

5/ When you need to solve a problem, use a simple two-day approach:

- Spend the first day on finding the root problem, write it down, sleep on it.
- Read your problem statement on the second day, decide if it's really the problem, dive into solution mode.

6/ When to make a decision:

- As soon as possible if it's reversible & inconsequential – save time & resources to make decisions that matter.

- As late as possible if it's irreversible & consequential – gather as much information and keep as many choices as possible.

7/ How to know when to act:

- When you stop gathering useful information

- When you first lose an opportunity

- When you gathered a critical piece of information that makes the choice clear

8/ Sleep on almost all major decisions before telling anyone.

This allows us to:

- Check-in with our rational brain and verify our assumptions
- Start to see information in a new light
- Check with our emotional selves - does this decision *feel* good?

9/ Knowing what you actually want is much more important than most people realize.

If you can clearly identify what you want, you can make decisions that meet your objectives, making it far easier to assess your options.

10/ The best way to get the decisions aligned for everyone from the janitor to the CEO is to make them all based on the same thing: the most important thing.

11/ If you don't articulate the most important thing, people are left guessing what matters, and if they're guessing, they need you.

You convince yourself that people cannot decide without you when in reality, people can't decide because of you.

12/ How to pick the most important thing:

1. Write down the most important objectives about the decision—one objective per piece of paper.

2. Choose what objective you think is the most important to you. If you had to pick only one, which one matters more?

13/ You don’t want to prevent people from getting into trouble or making a bad decision.

People have to own the decision to take responsibility for it.

If you’re always going to be there saving them, they’re always going to need you.

14/ Just as you put the best food in your body, you want to put the best information into your mind.

15/ It doesn’t matter if you’ve made a good decision but can't act on it or not able to communicate it.

16/ Whenever you're presented with only two options, dive into the problem, and ask what's the third option?

Coming up with a third option helps us to understand the problem better, get clear on the most important thing, and own the framing.

17/ Never allow anyone else to frame the problem or present only two solutions. Define the problem.

18/ When we only have two choices, we are in a binary.

Our brains get tricked into thinking this is all that available to us, and we miss out on big opportunities.

One of the most important skills you can develop as a decision-maker is to stop seeing the world in binaries.

19/ How to get out of binary thinking:

- What would you do if one of the options wasn't available?
- Find ways when both solutions can work together.
- What information would change your mind or help you to decide?

20/ Whenever you initially form a view, go and try to find the evidence that disconfirms it.
Who's got the best contrarian argument to you?
Can you argue better than they can about what's happening?
Is there data out there that makes it difficult for you to hold your argument?

21/ For most decisions, you don’t need a technical system, a flow chart, or a computer program to evaluate which opportunity fulfills most of your objectives.
A few sticky notes or a piece of paper will do.

22/ The quality of our decisions depends on the quality of the information we’re using to decide with.

More information ≠ better information.

Most information is irrelevant.

23/ Reflection, not experience makes us do something different next time.

Experience without reflection gives us an illusion of knowledge.

24/ “A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.”

— Bertrand Russell

25/ We mostly consume other people's conclusions that are multiple degrees removed from the source, which creates another illusion of knowledge.

We gain confidence about *what* to do without understanding *why*.

26/ Ask better questions.

- Don't ask people what they think; ask them how they think.

- Ask questions at the level of systems, not the level of information.

27/ Even one expert’s opinion can be more valid than hundreds of amateurs' thoughts and guesses.

28/ How to ask for help:

1. Have skin in the game and show it

2. Get precise on your ask

3. Show respect for their time and energy

4. Follow up to show your progress no matter what the outcome is, whether they helped you or not.

29/ In group meetings, instead of talking about what they think or feel, ask them what insight they have into the problem that nobody else in the room has.

30/ One of the signs that you’ve failed to empower your team to work towards your goals is if you can’t be away from the office for a week.

If you can’t be away, it doesn’t mean you’re indispensable; it means you’re a poor communicator.

31/ Good leaders set the ‘what’ & the parameters to get there.
They don’t care if something is done differently than how they would have done it.

Poor leaders insist that everything must be done their way, which demoralizes their team and undermines both loyalty & creativity.

32/ When you think about where you want to end up, ask yourself a simple question – what would a person who wants to end up there behave like?

Then compare your behavior to that hypothetical person and close the gap.

33/ Teams don’t make decisions, people make decisions.

34/ Masters of decision making don't predict the future; they prepare for the widest possible range of futures.

Preparation is much less susceptible to error and far less dependent on luck than prediction.

35/ When you do what everyone else is doing, you’re going to get the results everyone else gets.

If you want to move away from the herd, you need to correctly deviate from standard behavior. That requires a willingness to look like an idiot in the short term.

36/ No matter how smart or prepared you are, you're not going to make a good decision while:

- Physically & mentally stressed
- Distracted
- Operating in a group
- Rushing
- Operating outside of your normal environment
- Being lead by an authority figure
- Information overload

37/ In life, decision making, and business ask yourself, "Am I focusing on something too difficult when I could be focusing on something simple to get the same result?"

38/ Courage isn't the ability to overcome fear or anxiety. It's the ability to execute even when those sensations are present.

39/ Confidence comes from how you talk to yourself. And you are responsible for what you say to yourself.

You choose your thoughts. Your thoughts form a pattern. Patterns form habits.

How you talk to yourself is a habit you can change.

40/ The fastest way to progress is:

1. Know where you’re starting from;
2. Record your performance;
3. Review it constantly.

The same is true for decision making.

41/ You need to know where you are, where you want to go, and what you do and don't control.

You don’t control your outcomes, but you control your attitude, effort, and your decision-making process.

42/ The end.

This is just a tiny portion of the notes that I've taken over the last 12 weeks (the Notion page is 8851 words long ).

As far as I know, the course opens up again in October, and I highly recommend you to sign up: https://fscourses.com/p/decision-by-design

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