4 ms·
My biggest takeaway from an amazing post: > When there’s a complex list of pros and cons driving a potentially expensive action, Reid seeks a single decisive r
by imkevinxu 12y ago
My biggest takeaway from an amazing post:
> When there’s a complex list of pros and cons driving a potentially expensive action, Reid seeks a single decisive reason to go for it—not a blended reason. For example, we were once discussing whether it’d make sense for him to travel to China. There was the LinkedIn expansion activity in China; some fun intellectual events happening; the launch of The Start-Up of You in Chinese. A variety of possible good reasons to go, but none justified a trip in and of itself. He said, “There needs to be one decisive reason. And then the worthiness of the trip needs to be measured against that one reason. If I go, then we can backfill into the schedule all the other secondary activities. But if I go for a blended reason, I’ll almost surely come back and feel like it was a waste a time.”
- joshdotsmith 12y agoThat seems like a good way of limiting yourself from discovering potentially new and surprising things. I get the need to protect your time, but not at the total expense of randomness.
- imkevinxu 12y agoMy takeaway wasn't literally the "time" consideration but the "one decisive reason" part. I believe that could extend into other types of decision-making like building products where there should be an overwhelmingly strong reason to do something vs 10 small reasons where you're just trying to convince yourself of something.