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A former professional poker player and expert on decision science offers advice on making your biggest decisions and setting goals in the New Year.
gettyIf you’re like most people, you struggle with decisions and New Year’s resolutions. How do you keep those commitments—but also keep them from making you do too much? How can you make tough calls when both options seem like good ones?
You’re probably making pros and cons lists to help you decide and setting specific goals you don’t think will let you fail.
You shouldn’t.
I recently spoke with decision-making expert Annie Duke, who says goals and resolutions need a way out or an “unless,” and a pros and cons list is nothing more than a “bias amplifier;” one that allows you to game which option looks best when making the list and weight different factors similarly even when they’re not.
“Once we start to think about something, we’ve usually already made a decision. So if you want to do it, you’ll have lots of pros, and if you don’t want to do it, you’ll have lots of cons,” said Duke, the author of Quit: The Power of Knowing When To Walk Away and a former professional poker player who is a “special partner” focused on decision science at venture fund First Round Capital Partners.
Duke spoke with Forbes last month for a subscriber-only session where she talked about using helpful decision frameworks, getting a “quitting coach” for sticking to your commitments and developing “kill criteria” to look for factors that could help you know if it’s time to quit.
She shares great advice, which I wrote about here. But that’s not the only advice Forbes has to share on decision-making and setting 2023 goals. Contributor Ashley Stahl has suggestions for things to consider if you’re thinking about changing your job. Mark Parna offers goal-setting strategies for staying focused in 2023. And there are essential resolutions you might not be thinking of—Bryan Robinson has ideas here.
Hope the first full week of your New Year is going well.
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ON OUR AGENDA
An end to non-competes? The Federal Trade Commission put forward new legislation last week seeking to outlaw commonly used non-compete agreements between workers and employers. They’re opposed to the principles of “healthy competition,” FTC chairwoman Lina M. Khan said in a statement; the federal antitrust agency estimates ending the practice would result in $300 billion in additional wages, Forbes’ Derek Saul reports.
Former McD’s CEO fined: Former McDonald’s chief executive Stephen Easterbrook was fined $400,000, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in an announcement, charging him with making false and misleading statements to investors about the circumstances leading to his termination in November 2019. Without admitting wrongdoing, Easterbrook agreed to the penalty and a five-year ban from serving on the board of a public company or working as an officer at such firms, Forbes’ Saul reports.
Economic update: Friday’s jobs report showed the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%. But job quality is deteriorating, economists noted, with technology, finance and manufacturing firms laying off workers while lower-paying industries like leisure and hospitality are still adding jobs. Meanwhile, layoffs continue to mount, with companies like Coinbase cutting 950 jobs, or 25% of its workforce, and financial services giants like Goldman Sachs reportedly cutting more than 3,000 jobs.
More Twitter drama: The changes and drama at the company continue, as reports roll in of more staff cuts and some employees criticize the severance packages they are given, Forbes’ Brian Bushard reports.
Harry’s new book: Prince Harry’s book release—and all the drama it has (or has not) surfaced—has some career-related lessons, writes Forbes’ Diane Brady. Harry, she writes, “decided that his job sucked. Now, he’s made comments that imply not having that job sucks even more. But reconciling with one’s family is different from regaining an old job. The former is a decision of the heart; the latter, a decision of the head.” Read more about her take on his new book and the attention it’s received here.