Match the effort to the decision

The first question about any decision is not *what should I choose* but *how much should this cost me to decide*.

Ask two things: is it reversible, and how big is it?

Reversible and small: decide now, quickly, and move on. Which supplier for one order, which font, where to eat. Spending an hour here is its own failure of judgement, and people do it constantly because small decisions are comfortable to think about.

Reversible and large: decide reasonably fast and watch what happens. You can correct it. Trying a new process, hiring on probation, entering a market in a small way.

Irreversible and small: a little care, then move.

Irreversible and large: this is where the whole toolkit belongs. Signing a long lease, a marriage, a major loan, leaving a career. These deserve days, other people's views, and written reasoning.

Most people spend their thinking in the wrong box. Hours on a reversible small thing, minutes on an irreversible large one, because the small one is pleasant to consider and the large one is frightening.

Speed on reversible decisions is a genuine advantage. Deciding quickly and correcting is usually faster than deciding perfectly, and you learn things from the attempt that no amount of analysis would have produced.

And not deciding is a decision. It is choosing the current path, with the cost of delay included, while feeling as though you have kept your options open. You usually have not.