Decision-making

Lot's of people struggle with decisions. I know I've written about the consequences of having 80 different kinds of bread to choose from. Here's my favorite decision-making tool: Assume you're going to make the wrong decision.

If you're really not sure what to decide, the chances of making the correct decision can be estimated at around 50-50. So what I do is think about the consequences of choosing wrong. If you can't choose between the desired outcomes, how about the undesired ones? Which mistake would you rather make?

I learned this in business school, but the jury system (innocent until proven guilty) is founded on this principle. We'd rather let a guilty person go free than jail an innocent one.

This isn't going to help with bread choices, but when you have a sticky moral dilemma, it can come in handy.