One-way door vs. Two-way door decisions: One-way door decisions like selling your company or quitting your job are almost impossible to reverse, and you should make them slowly. Two-way door decisions like starting a hobby or changing your prices are easy to reverse, and you should make them faster. Most decisions are two-way doors1.
Some decisions are consequential and irreversible or nearly irreversible â one-way doors â and these decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation. If you walk through and donât like what you see on the other side, you canât get back to where you were before. We can call these Type 1 decisions. But most decisions arenât like that â they are changeable, reversible â theyâre two-way doors. If youâve made a suboptimal Type 2 decision, you donât have to live with the consequences for that long. You can reopen the door and go back through. Type 2 decisions can and should be made quickly by high judgment individuals or small groups.
Jeff Bezos 1997 Shareholder Letter2
1. Perell, D. 18 of my favorite frameworks: 1) Location, vocation, relation: Where you live, what you do, who youâre dating or married to. Try not to change more than one at a time. 2) Do something fast, do it for cheap, do it at a high quality. Pick two. 3) Head, heart, wallet: Three https://t.co/i6MoAysOT9. https://x.com/david_perell/status/1777365903815950677 (2024).