# Find the Lead Domino ## 1. Summary **Summary** Good decision making compounds over time to yield more time, energy, and leverage in future decisions. Lead Domino's are *consequential* and *irreversible* decisions that have a massive compounding effect. Give the most time and energy to solving the lead domino decisions. **Automatic Behavior** > Give the majority of your time and energy to the lead domino decisions. ## 2. Arguments and Context The main idea that I would take away from this, outside of the summary above, is that we can use a Decision Matrix to categorize our decisions:  Decisions that are in the 1 quadrant (upper right) are *lead domino's*, being both consequential and irreversible. Now, our goal with this decisions is to break them down as best we can, moving the subdecisions into the *other quadrants*. The more we are able to move out of the first quadrant, the better. We provide ourselves with more options, flexibility, and reduce the need to be *right*. We turn it from an optimization problem where we need to hit a home run, to a big picture, global optimization problem where we just want to be right in the long run. #### Cognitive Biases * The source of all biases is really the meta-bias. This comes back to the fact that it is very hard to see a system that we are a part of. Note that this is touched on very deeply in Godel, Escher, Bach, Godel’s proof, etc. Think of the classic example of a person on a train holding a ball. From the perspective of the person, the ball is moving 0 mph. From the perspective of a person outside the train the ball is moving 100 mph. It is all a matter of perspective. This is incredibly important to keep in mind. This is also touched on in GEB: A program cannot jump out of itself. No matter how much it twists and turns, it is still following the rules inherent in itself. Including us. There’s a difference between “seeing” ourselves and “transcending” ourselves. But you cannot quite break out of yourself and be outside of yourself. Again, we can also think of this via a 2d ant living on the surface of a sphere. From the perspective of the ant it lives in a 2 dimensional world. However, that sphere is actually embedded in a 3 dimensional space. But, from the ants perspective inside it’s system (the 2d surface), it cannot see outside the system to the greater 3 dimensional space. * >So to deal with cognitive biases, the solution is not to use a checklist, but rather consider frames of perspective. It is seeing the problem through multiple different frames. You want to take yourself out of the equation, walk through the problem from the lens of all different stakeholders, walk around the problem in a 3 dimensional way. By stepping out of the system (as best you can) you are able to get a more accurate representation of the problem, a more accurate representation of reality, and allow yourself to have better solutions to the problem. #### Automatic Behaviors * Our behaviors transfer knowledge into action. Our repeated actions become habits. The goal should be to create automatic habits that put you on the path to success * It is not just enough to know something. You have to act on it or do it * One of the best ways to create automatic behaviors is to create rules. People don't argue with rules. When you have an aspiration, people argue with you. When you have a rule, people don’t argue with you. --- tags: #decision-making #problem-solving #critical-thinking links: [Decision by Design MOC](Decision%20by%20Design%20MOC.md) created: 2020-12-01 modified: 2020-12-01