Module 5 · Thinking & Decisions

Making decisions

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How to think through a decision — not what to decide.

By the end of this module

You will know what makes a decision hard, how to weigh trade-offs and consequences, which mental traps to watch for, and how to review a decision without endless second-guessing.

Lessons

• What makes a decision difficult — Uncertainty, trade-offs, high stakes and too many options — and why a hard decision can freeze you. (7 min)
• One-way doors and two-way doors — Most decisions can be undone. Knowing which can’t tells you where to slow down. (7 min)
• Trade-offs and opportunity cost — Every choice has a price, and part of the price is what you didn’t choose. (8 min)
• Consequences — and their consequences — What happens next, and what happens after that. Short-term and long-term effects often point opposite ways. (8 min)
• Evidence, intuition and your gut — When intuition is expertise and when it is only a feeling — and how to decide under uncertainty. (8 min)
• Traps in what you notice — Confirmation bias, anchoring and availability: the mind’s shortcuts about what counts as evidence. (8 min)
• Traps in what you hold on to — Loss aversion, sunk costs and the pull of the status quo. (8 min)
• Social pressure and fear-based decisions — Deciding to please others or to escape a feeling — and how to notice it happening. (7 min)
• Good enough or the best? — Satisficing, maximising, and why looking for the perfect option can cost more than it gains. (7 min)
• Pre-mortems and decision journals — Imagine it failed and ask why. Write down what you expected. Then review it once — not forever. (9 min)