PDF Summary:The Master Guides: Making Better Decisions, by Shortform

Decision-making skills play a key role in every part of life, from professional advancement to personal relationships. Therefore, the ability to pick the best options available can measurably improve your career, family life, and even happiness. But when you’re in the moment, it can be hard to know how to approach a major decision.

In our master guide to making better decisions, we’ll cover advice on decision-making from popular science and psychology authors like Malcolm Gladwell (Blink) and Chip and Dan Heath (Decisive). We’ll arrange their views into concrete principles you can use to analyze a decision, approach it from an informed perspective, and make your decision objectively. We’ll also explain how each of these strategies helps to improve your decision-making process.

(continued)...

For example, Dave is still considering going back to school. But when he considers his options, he focuses on only two: quit his job to go to school full time, or don’t go to school and continue working full time. By consulting with his coworkers and considering other options, Dave discovers he can go to school at night while still working enough hours to get by.

Principle #3: Get Help

Once you fully understand what you want and what your options are, you can start comparing them. But you don’t have to do this alone. In fact, the authors recommend you seek outside help during your decision-making process. This allows you to get new perspectives on your decision that you wouldn’t otherwise. They recommend two forms of help: seeking out relevant information and participating in group discussions.

1) Seek Out Relevant Information

Chip and Dan Heath explain that a helpful source for decision-making is outside information: The more you know about the choice you have to make, the better you can predict and compare the outcome of each option. They recommend you speak with experts or research the subject related to your decision.

But to make the most of this information, you have to use it purposefully. Gladwell explains that you should only consider the information most relevant to your decision. If you overload yourself with unnecessary detail, you lose track of what is or isn’t useful to achieve your goals. On the other hand, looking at only the most important pieces of information helps you focus on what you specifically want and how each option addresses that.

For example, Dave looks at all available metrics while deciding what college to attend, researching everything from fire safety to athletic programs. This muddles his decision-making process, as every college he considers seems to have tons of pros and cons. But by narrowing his focus to the most important criteria—cost, flexible scheduling, and quality of professors—Dave has a much easier time seeing which colleges are good options for his circumstances.

2) Participate In Group Discussions

You can also benefit from outside help by forming a group to discuss your decision, explains ex-professional poker player and behavioral science author Annie Duke (Thinking in Bets). Other people can identify blind spots in your experience or logic you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. In addition, explaining and justifying your reasoning out loud to others can help you better understand how and why you feel the way you do about each option. Duke recommends gathering a group of people who are invested in your decisions, have diverse views and experiences, and aren’t afraid to speak up and challenge you.

For example, Dave gathers a bunch of friends to look through his options of colleges. As they discuss pros and cons, one of his college-educated friends chimes in that class sizes make a big difference in the educational experience. This provides Dave with a new metric he can use to compare his options.

Principle #4: Avoid Biased Thinking

Many authors note that another important part of making better decisions is avoiding or limiting your bias, or preexisting beliefs, emotions, and preferences. When you act on bias, you stop thinking logically and pick the option you want to be best—instead of the actual best option. The authors offer a couple of ways to avoid biased thinking, including examining your beliefs or potential biases and considering your decision’s impact on your future.

1) Question Your Beliefs

Chip and Dan Heath suggest you avoid bias by questioning your existing beliefs about your decision. They explain that one of the most common forms of bias is confirmation bias, or the tendency to focus on information that reinforces your existing beliefs. Questioning these beliefs not only helps you recognize what they are—and therefore what you might be biased toward—but also helps you shift focus away from information that confirms them. The Heaths recommend questioning your beliefs by seeking out opposing perspectives and objective statistics as opposed to things you believe in or subjective anecdotes.

For example, Dave is biased toward going to college, believing his career will hit a dead end if he doesn’t go to college. As a result, he pays particular attention to anecdotes and articles about how non-college-educated adults make less money overall. But when he decides to question his belief, he researches developments in his field and finds an option to advance his career without a college degree. This helps him be more objective when making his decision.

2) Consider Your Future

Duke recommends avoiding biased decisions by thinking about your options in terms of their impact on your future. She explains that we’re often biased toward our present desires and feelings since they’re more immediate and obvious—at the expense of our future selves. Focusing on the future lets you distance yourself from these present desires so you can compare your options more objectively. To consider the future, Duke recommends thinking through the potential consequences of each option over a long period.

For example, Dave is biased against going back to school because he finds any kind of change stressful. But by considering where that option would lead him one, five, and 10 years down the line, he’s able to distance himself from his current stress and think more objectively about the potential outcomes of going to college.