The hottest Decision-making Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Business Topics
Ruben Ugarte's Growth Needle™ 39 implied HN points 20 Feb 24
  1. JPMorgan Chase is opening more physical branches, even though many think they're outdated. This shows that sometimes going against the trend can be a smart move.
  2. The bandwagon effect can lead people to make poor decisions just because others are doing something. It's important to think critically instead of just following the crowd.
  3. To resist the bandwagon effect, consider your own goals, gather diverse opinions, and take time to analyze options before making decisions. This can help you make better choices.
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Ruben Ugarte's Growth Needle™ 59 implied HN points 12 Dec 23
  1. Encourage your team to write down their decision-making process. This helps clarify steps and improves alignment.
  2. Identify key stakeholders in decisions. Knowing who matters most can streamline communication and decision-making.
  3. Look for ways to improve the decision-making process. Discussing it openly can reveal areas of improvement to help the team work better.
Adventures in Leadership Land 78 implied HN points 18 Sep 23
  1. In competitive environments, following conventional wisdom may lead to a costly war of attrition.
  2. Being a contrarian can be advantageous in zero-sum games and dynamic systems where others are following conventional wisdom.
  3. It's important to know when to switch between being an authoritative follower and a true leader.
The Uncertainty Mindset (soon to become tbd) 199 implied HN points 11 Jan 23
  1. Understanding not-knowing helps us deal with uncertainty in our lives. It’s important to recognize that we often face different types of not-knowing that affect our decision-making.
  2. The world is more interconnected today, which means uncertainties can spread faster. We need to be aware that one issue in one part of the world can quickly impact others.
  3. It's important to accept that we can't know everything. Recognizing our limits can help us manage our emotions better and make clearer decisions in uncertain situations.
Ruben Ugarte's Growth Needle™ 39 implied HN points 30 Jan 24
  1. Success can come with unexpected challenges, which can be hard to talk about. It's important to recognize and address these challenges as they arise.
  2. Changes in society, like those seen during the pandemic, can really impact how organizations connect with their clients. Adapting communication methods is crucial for effective outreach.
  3. Issues like inflation and increased stress in people's lives can lead to more divorces and conflicts. Organizations need to be ready to support their clients through these tough times.
The Data Score 59 implied HN points 15 Nov 23
  1. Data-driven insights are most effective when the right questions are asked, emphasizing the need for thorough inquiry and curiosity in decision-making processes.
  2. Asking the right questions involves various methods like the '5 Whys' technique and 'Question Bursts' to delve deeper into understanding the root causes of problems and uncovering key insights.
  3. Understanding users' desired outcomes through techniques like 'Jobs To Be Done' interviews is crucial for creating products aligned with user needs and expectations, leading to greater satisfaction and product success.
10x your mind 199 implied HN points 09 Jun 22
  1. Anchors influence our decision-making more than we realize, affecting things like budgeting, salary setting, and party planning.
  2. The anchoring bias can lead us to make decisions based on irrelevant or absurd information, impacting negotiation outcomes and everyday choices.
  3. To counter the anchoring bias, it's beneficial to make the first offer in negotiations, delay important decisions to avoid impulse buys, and use anchors to set higher personal standards for growth.
Sarah's Newsletter 199 implied HN points 10 May 22
  1. Company culture is critical for employee happiness and retention, with clear values fostering alignment and unity.
  2. Values in relationships and business overlap, emphasizing the importance of shared core beliefs for effective communication.
  3. Key principles like valuing individuals, balancing logic and emotion, trusting employees, and working with intention and urgency can drive success in company culture and relationships.
Engineering Open Societies 58 implied HN points 12 Mar 23
  1. Design documents are essential for software engineers to communicate ideas and solutions with others.
  2. Design documents should be treated as ephemeral artifacts used to drive a collaborative process and then discarded.
  3. In design documents, focus on presenting the problem, provide solution-independent correctness conditions, and offer a solution with trade-offs and decisions.
Sam’s Newsletter 58 implied HN points 05 Apr 23
  1. Utility theory is a powerful tool in academic fields like decision theory and economics, explaining human behavior based on preferences and optimization.
  2. Utility theory, while universal in application, has limitations when it comes to conflicting preferences that require creativity to resolve.
  3. Applying utility theory to scenarios like AGIs, which involve conflicting desires and behaviors, may result in unrealistic models and outcomes.
Kristina God's Online Writing Club 159 implied HN points 18 Oct 22
  1. Taking a leap in life doesn't have to be an emotional choice. It can actually be a logical decision based on what you truly want.
  2. Adults often overthink their decisions, unlike children who jump into experiences without fear. Embracing a childlike curiosity can lead to growth and joy.
  3. While there are concerns about making big changes, the rewards and opportunities that come from taking the leap can be incredible and unexpected.
The Uncertainty Mindset (soon to become tbd) 99 implied HN points 03 May 23
  1. The term 'risk' is often misunderstood and misused. Many people think it means a situation where we know some things but don't know the outcome, even though true risk is much rarer.
  2. Decision-making strategies designed for formal risk scenarios may not work well in real-life situations, which often involve many unknowns. This can lead to poor choices when we apply the wrong approach.
  3. Different people define 'risk' in various ways, which creates confusion in communication. It’s important to clarify what we mean when we talk about risk to make better decisions.
New Things Under the Sun 160 implied HN points 24 Apr 23
  1. Scientific peer review has its strengths, but it also has shortcomings like high costs and potential biases.
  2. Empowering individuals to make decisions on resource allocation can sometimes outperform peer review, especially for supporting less conventional or risky research projects.
  3. Studies show that editors can play a significant role in selecting high-impact or novel research papers, showcasing the importance of individual decision-makers in scientific publishing.
The Hagakure 115 implied HN points 13 Aug 23
  1. Improve performance by leading with trust and compassion, engaging in conversations, reducing fear, and providing guidance instead of advice.
  2. Enhance hiring effectiveness by building a system, partnering with recruitment experts, being authentic with candidates, aligning values, and focusing on potential over experience.
  3. Scale yourself by allowing for high-quality decisions, sharing mental models, communicating processes, setting boundaries, and seeking diverse perspectives for better outcomes.
Comment is Freed 82 implied HN points 19 Nov 23
  1. History is shaped by the choices individuals make, especially during times of crisis
  2. While big impersonal forces like demography and geography matter, individuals in positions of power play a significant role in making crucial decisions
  3. It is important to understand the constraints and possibilities before individuals when analyzing historical events
The Uncommon Executive 19 implied HN points 14 Mar 24
  1. C-level executive roles offer significant impact on company trajectory and industries, allowing for big bets and tangible results in a shorter timescale.
  2. Executives have more control over their schedule, better anticipation of risks, and the ability to create work for others at well-run companies.
  3. The executive role comes with overflowing stress from high-level accountability, feelings of loneliness at the top, and a distance from day-to-day operations.
Moral Mayhem Podcast 19 implied HN points 13 Mar 24
  1. Many people think their career paths are more straightforward than they actually are. It's okay to change jobs if you're not happy, as often the risks are lower than you think.
  2. People sometimes stay in jobs longer than they should because they're worried about making a change. Remember, doors don't completely close and new opportunities often arise.
  3. Anxiety about career choices can feel overwhelming because of how much we tie our value to work. However, this fear usually doesn't match the reality of risk when trying something new.
10x your mind 119 implied HN points 18 Aug 22
  1. People often react adversely when told what to do, leading to the reactance bias where they do the opposite just to assert their freedom of choice
  2. Feeling out of control can increase the desire to go against restrictions, like strict rules on teenagers may push them to break them
  3. Having many options can create a sense of security, even if some features may never be used, leading to biased buying decisions
Ruben Ugarte's Growth Needle™ 19 implied HN points 12 Mar 24
  1. Group decisions can take a long time, especially with remote work. It's important to find ways to make these decisions quicker.
  2. Using decision maps can help clarify the decision-making process. They can guide groups through their choices more efficiently.
  3. Understanding how long decisions take in your organization can highlight where improvements are needed. This awareness can help teams speed things up.
Askwhy: UX Research, Product Management, Design & Careers 50 implied HN points 04 Mar 24
  1. Understanding business strategy helps drive alignment and focus, ensuring products contribute to company goals and avoiding feature creep.
  2. Knowing consumer trends, markets, and competitive landscape aids in developing relevant products and making informed decisions to stay competitive.
  3. Engaging with business strategy leads to better decision-making through frameworks like second-order thinking and inversion, fostering alignment within the organization.
10x your mind 19 implied HN points 07 Mar 24
  1. Optionality is about having backup plans for complex problems, not just deciding between simple choices like ice cream flavors.
  2. Smart options should be non-obligatory and allow for decisions after outcomes, helping increase luck in various aspects of life.
  3. Practice optionality for potentially unlimited gains with limited losses by exploring new opportunities and treating each option as an experiment.
Ruben Ugarte's Growth Needle™ 39 implied HN points 21 Nov 23
  1. Building emotional competence helps leaders make better decisions. It's important for leaders to understand their emotions and those of others.
  2. Having empty spaces in your schedule allows for better brainstorming and connecting ideas. It gives your brain time to think and create.
  3. The idea of 'blocks of time' can limit decision-making in companies. Companies should be more flexible instead of strictly scheduling everything.
Poczwardowski Notes 39 implied HN points 07 Nov 23
  1. Using mental models can enhance decision-making by offering different perspectives and minimizing blind spots.
  2. Engaging with tools and frameworks like mental models can lead to improved problem-solving strategies.
  3. Learning from mistakes is valuable, but utilizing structured models like mental models can equip problem solvers with additional support.
The Pole 79 implied HN points 23 Jan 23
  1. Deciding whether to listen to your audience isn't always easy - audience feedback matters more in client work than in personal projects.
  2. Starting out in a creative field can be tough as your early work often falls short of your taste and potential - it's normal and requires persistence.
  3. Making creative decisions is preferred over dealing with complicated decisions early in a project - starting with templates can save time and reduce overwhelm.
The Radar 19 implied HN points 11 Feb 24
  1. Processes, rules, and policies should not be substitutes for leadership. Bureaucracies lead to inefficiency and hindrance in decision-making.
  2. Bureaucracies treat customers and adversaries the same, making it difficult to get requests handled efficiently. They drown common sense and generate unnecessary rules and policies.
  3. Leaders should rely on their presence and values rather than creating new structures as substitutes. Avoid bureaucracy as much as possible, as it can turn against its creators.
Developing Leadership 39 implied HN points 25 Apr 23
  1. Engineering leaders have two main responsibilities: improving developer experience and delivering impact to end-users.
  2. The Engineering Leader's Process for Continuous Improvement involves identifying, discussing, deciding, aligning, acting, and measuring.
  3. It is important for engineering leaders to continuously loop through the improvement process, not just during times of issue.
Silicon Reckoner 39 implied HN points 19 May 23
  1. Geoffrey Hinton's resignation from Google raises concerns about democratic decision-making in technology
  2. The involvement of tech industry in mathematical research may reduce autonomy of practitioners
  3. There is a need to reconsider current models of AI governance and prioritize societal interests over corporate motives