Common Questions

The questions people actually search when a decision is live.

Each page answers one question directly and gives you a framework for working through it. Structured to be useful in 10 minutes — when you need clarity, not a course.

High-intent decisions

You are in the middle of a real decision right now.

How do I decide between two job offers?
When both offers are good, the comparison itself becomes the trap. A framework for the variables that actually matter.
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Should I quit my job to start a business?
The question most people avoid asking structurally. The runway calculation, the reversibility test, and the bias that keeps people stuck.
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Should I accept a counter-offer?
Counter-offers solve the symptom, not the cause. Why 80% of people who accept one leave anyway — and how to decide before the pressure distorts the choice.
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How do I decide whether to relocate for work?
Relocation decisions have more second-order effects than almost any career move. What to map before you decide.
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How do I decide whether to move to a new city?
A city move is a lifestyle decision disguised as a logistics question. The framework for separating what you are running toward from what you are running from.
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Should I move in with my partner?
The cohabitation decision sits at the intersection of emotion, finance, and long-term commitment. How to think through it without pressure.
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Should I buy or rent a house?
The buy vs. rent question is almost always framed wrong. The real comparison is not financial — it is about flexibility vs. stability.
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Should I pay off debt or invest?
The answer depends on interest rates, risk tolerance, and tax treatment — but the framing most people use misses the most important variable.
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How do I make a major financial decision?
A decision framework for any significant financial choice: the mental models, the biases to check, and the one question most people skip.
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How do I choose the right college major?
Most people optimise for the wrong thing when choosing a major. The decision framework that separates interest from opportunity from identity.
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How do I decide if I should change careers at 40?
A career change at 40 has different stakes than one at 25. The specific variables that make it rational — and the sunk cost bias that makes it feel impossible.
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Should I end this relationship?
The hardest decision to make structurally because the cost of clarity feels high. What thinking clearly looks like when you are inside the situation.
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Frameworks and tools

You want to understand a specific decision tool.

How do I use the 40/70 rule?
Colin Powell's decision rule: act when you have between 40% and 70% of the information you think you need. Why under and over-information both fail.
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How do I run a weighted decision matrix?
A structured method for comparing options across multiple criteria. When to use it — and when the numbers are lying to you.
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Cognitive and thinking questions

You are trying to think more clearly or get unstuck.

How do I overcome decision paralysis?
Decision paralysis is not lack of information — it is usually a specific bias or fear in disguise. How to identify which one is operating.
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How do I overcome overthinking?
Overthinking is a symptom of an unstructured decision. Once the decision has a framework, the loop stops. Here is how.
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How do I make decisions under stress?
Stress narrows thinking. The moves that protect decision quality when the pressure is high and the window is short.
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What are the most common decision-making mistakes?
Not randomness — the same five errors appear across most bad decisions. Naming them is the first step to stopping them.
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How do I make better life decisions?
The meta-question. Not one answer — a system. The habits, tools, and mindset shifts that compound over time.
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Why ChatGPT is not an AI decision assistant
ChatGPT generates text. An AI decision assistant runs a structured process: framing, bias detection, pre-mortem, decision record. The difference matters when the stakes are high.
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Looking for a specific mental model or cognitive bias? The Field Notes cover all 30 models and 40 biases from the Decisions Matter book.

Run a decision through the tool →