# When to Decide ## 1. Summary **Problem** How do we know when to keep gathering information or act? **Answer** * We want to act [ASAP (as soon as possible) or ALAP (as late as possible)](ASAP%20and%20ALAP.md). * If we have opted to decide ALAP, we can use the heuristics [Stop-FLOP-or-Know](Stop-FLOP-or-Know.md) to determine when it is time to act * We must [avoid spinning out between ASAP and ALAP](Stop-FLOP-or-Know.md#4%20Avoid%20spinning%20out%20between%20ASAP%20and%20ALAP) **Automatic Behavior** > Decide as soon as possible or as late as possible but never in between. ## 2. Arguments and Context Supporting Summary A dichotomy of concerns arises in our decision making process: 1. *Acting too soon* means that we may miss out on *vital information* that could change our decision. 2. *Acting too late* means that we may miss out on an *opportunity* We want to make decisions that preserve opportunity and [make our future easier than our present](Decision.md#Good%20Decision). #### 2.1 Decisions as Experiments Each decision is a [hypothesis and experiment](Decision.md#Hypothesis%20and%20Experiment). We must always keep in mind the [timing trade off](Decision.md#Timing%20Trade%20Off). #### 2.2 ASAP and ALAP - Heuristics We can initially categorize decisions based on where they fall in the [decision matrix](ASAP%20and%20ALAP.md#2%201%201%20Decision%20Matrix) and [how useful the information is](ASAP%20and%20ALAP.md#2%201%202%20Time%20to%20Decide%20vs%20Usefulness%20of%20Information). This allows us to determine whether we are in ASAP or ALAP territory. #### 2.3 Stop, FLOP, or Know If we are in ALAP territory, the question arises: How do we know when it is finally time to act? There is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to information gathering. A quick shorthand is [Stop-FLOP-or-Know](Stop-FLOP-or-Know.md). #### 2.4 How to avoid spinning out between ASAP and ALAP We can [avoid spinning out between ASAP and ALAP](Stop-FLOP-or-Know.md#4%20Avoid%20spinning%20out%20between%20ASAP%20and%20ALAP) by following a few clear directives. --- tags: #decision-making #problem-solving #critical-thinking links: [Decision by Design MOC](Decision%20by%20Design%20MOC.md) created: 2020-11-19 modified: 2020-11-25