Subject in the Almanac Index
Decision Making
Judgment, assumptions, evidence, tradeoffs, and choices under uncertainty.
Use RACI for work, DACI for decisions
RACI and DACI solve related problems, but they are not interchangeable. RACI is useful when a group needs clarity about how work will be carried out.
Thinking must eventually meet reality
Thinking can improve an action. It can also postpone one. The difference is not the amount of time spent thinking.
Repair before you cut
A process fails repeatedly, and the most decisive response appears to be removing a role, habit, or relationship.
Do not decide only from the storm
Pressure can reveal that something must end. It can also narrow what we can see.
Rehearse the difficult parts
Prediction tries to tell us what will happen. Rehearsal asks how we might respond.
Shorten the safe gap
Not every action deserves more deliberation.
Decisional Integrity: The Self Taught System
Decision-making cannot be taught. It is an internal architecture that must be self-built.
Default clarity
A decision can consume a week without becoming any better defined. You gather another opinion, open another comparison, and return to the same uncertainty.
Audit the assumption behind the work
A team can improve its execution while continuing to serve an assumption that no longer holds.
When a decision is still a bet
Some decisions are calculations. Others remain bets. The distinction can disappear when a spreadsheet gives an uncertain future a precise number.
High-Resolution Inquiry: Beyond the Binary Trap
Binary labels can hide important detail. A project may miss one objective while producing useful evidence.
The Regret-Minimization Framework: Architecting the Long Game
Regret can be one perspective in a difficult decision, but it cannot make uncertainty disappear.
The Status Quo Tax: Paying for the Comfort of the Known
Routine can protect attention, health, relationships, and reliable delivery. It can also persist after it stops serving its purpose.
Protocol 6: Parallel Processing for Decision Velocity
Most meetings are a crime scene. Evidence is mixed with emotion. Optimism fights with caution. Egos wrestle for dominance. The result? Noise.
The Cartographer's Dilemma: Why You Must Navigate Without a Map.
The education system lied to you. For 20 years, you were given a syllabus. You were told what to study, when to take the exam, and how to get an 'A'.
The Regret-Proof Pivot: Conviction over Analysis
Analysis can become a way to postpone commitment. More information sometimes clarifies a decision.
The Lawyer vs. The Scientist: How to Kill Rationalization
The human brain has two operating modes: 1. The Scientist: Examines the evidence and draws a conclusion. 2.
The Me, Inc. Protocol: Stop Acting Like a Renter
The Me, Inc. protocol An employee can still think like an owner. This does not mean pretending that employment and entrepreneurship are the same. They are not.
The Prediction Error: Why You Are Listening to the Voice in Your Head, Not the Person in Front of You.
The human brain is a Prediction Engine. To save energy, it constantly guesses what will happen next. - If you see a ball thrown, your brain predicts the arc.
The Pyrrhic Protocol: Stop Winning the Wrong Games
We are conditioned to compete. From the school classroom to the corporate boardroom, we are trained that if there is a game, we must try to win it.
The Dogma Trap: Why You Are Running Someone Else's Software.
Steve Jobs said: "Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking." This is the most important algorithm for a Sovereign life.
The Asymmetric Bet: Why You Should Fail More Often
Some opportunities have limited downside and meaningful potential upside. That does not make the cost of “no” zero.
The Invisible Walls: How to Break the Rules That Don't Exist.
There is a famous experiment involving a pike (a predatory fish) in a tank.
The Interface-Fact Delta: Safeguarding Systemic Integrity
What we first observe is not always the full fact. A delay, silence, market movement, or early performance can support several explanations.
Systemic Sensing: The Architecture of Receiving
Professional work often rewards visible output: speaking, deciding, coding, and delivering.
The Conclusion Trap: Why Certainty is the Enemy of Progress
A premature conclusion can close inquiry. A delayed conclusion can also prevent necessary action.
Empathy Walk — A Short Guide to Seeing What You Usually Miss
Empathy Walk (from Theory U) is a way to sense the system through another person’s eyes : not to agree, fix, or feel, but to see what you usually miss.
How I Catch My Opinions
In July 2023, during a program that mattered to me, I learned a practice called CYO: Catch Your Opinions. The cricket image stayed with me.
Seven ways I make myself ineffective
In December 2008, I played with an inversion: instead of writing another list of effective habits, what if I named the habits that make me ineffective?
The Entropy of Synchronicity
In 2008, I was trying to understand what made a meeting useful. I focused on commitment, integrity, reason, and the conditions around the conversation.