How to be better at making decisions
Max Stoiber emphasizes improving decision-making by documenting thoughts, establishing evaluation criteria, seeking feedback, and reflecting on past decisions. He suggests using a decision log template for clarity and learning.
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Max Stoiber shares insights on improving decision-making skills, emphasizing the importance of writing down thoughts, establishing clear evaluation criteria, and seeking feedback. He suggests that documenting decisions helps identify gaps in reasoning and facilitates better discussions by making evaluation criteria explicit. By prioritizing these criteria, teams can quickly address differences in opinions. Stoiber also advocates for sharing decision logs with at least one person to gain valuable feedback and enhance clarity. Reflecting on past decisions with hindsight allows individuals to learn from their experiences, as demonstrated by his own realization regarding the importance of community size in technology choices. Additionally, he mentions the potential benefits of playing poker as a way to practice decision-making in a dynamic environment. Stoiber provides a decision log template that includes sections for context, evaluation criteria, considered options, and recommendations, which can be adapted for formal work settings.
- Writing down decisions clarifies thought processes and highlights gaps.
- Establishing and prioritizing evaluation criteria improves discussion quality.
- Sharing decision logs with others can provide valuable feedback.
- Reflecting on past decisions enhances learning and future decision-making.
- Engaging in activities like poker can offer practical decision-making practice.
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5 commentsThe feeling is the same as being sure that something, like an algorithm, is able to do what you expect. Then you sit down, trying to write a proof for it and end up finding the flaw in it. By making the thought process explicit you can uncover so much.
As such - lay down the information such as mentioned in this article is fantastic, but always take into account intangible elements.
Such as in Poker - bluffing is an integral part of decision processing, so make sure you get similar variations and variables.
The best on paper decisions are sometimes just not good - code, life, products... whatever pros and cons you've put forward.
Unfortunately I think most people won’t want to do this, because who wants to draw a target on themselves „he was wrong about that“ and risk job security, because coworkers make themselves look flawless by saying/doing things in a vague rather than falsifiable way.
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