The cost of keeping too many options open

Keeping options open can be useful. Early in a decision, you need time to learn, test, and avoid jumping at the first decent answer.

But keeping options open takes work.

Think about half-started projects: the tool you might build, the series you might start, the business idea you keep meaning to test. Every maybe stays on the list. You revisit it, explain it, and keep making room for it.

That is fine while you are learning something. It becomes a problem when the only reason to leave it open is that deciding feels uncomfortable.

Give the option a test and a decision date.

Write down what you need to learn, what would make you say yes or no, and when you will decide. Then close the loop.

A closed door can hurt. It can also give the work you chose more room.

What option are you keeping open that is no longer giving you useful information?
Hit reply and tell me. I read every response.

Have a great week!

Graham

📚 Book Notes

The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan is a useful reminder that we are bad at predicting the events that change things most.

That does not mean every option should stay open. It means we should be careful about decisions that make one wrong prediction ruinous.

Keep room to adapt, but do not mistake indecision for flexibility.

📖 Article

How Susceptible Are You to the Sunk Cost Fallacy?

The sunk-cost effect is simple: past time, money, or effort can make us keep investing even when the next hour would be better spent elsewhere.

Past effort is not a reason to keep funding a bad future. Look at the next decision on its own terms.

From the Blog

📝 Best Books for Decision Making: 8 That Actually Changed How I Think
Better decisions often come from making the tradeoff explicit instead of pretending every path can stay alive.

📝 What Not To Do: The Power of Removal
Removing a possibility can be the move that makes the chosen path easier to follow.

🔗 Things I Found Interesting

Essentialism
A useful rule for crowded calendars: if it is not a clear yes, treat it as a no.

Tradeoffs: The Currency of Decision Making
Every yes spends time and attention that cannot go elsewhere. Make the trade-off explicit.

Jeff Bezos' 2016 shareholder letter
Not every decision deserves the weight of a permanent one. Reversible choices can use a lighter process.

Intelligence is Not The Bottleneck (Taylor Pearson)
An interesting case for making scattered business data and past decisions usable by people and agents, rather than treating model capability as the whole problem.

📣 Quote

"Quitting on time will usually feel like quitting too early." - Annie Duke