How to actually make good decisions easy

Heyo 👋 Jordan here,

Wednesday, 6:03 PM.

I'm talking to a potential customer from the US.

It's way too early for me to start talking:

• It’s my first customer call

• I like the project too much (it’s a VR project 😍)

• I’m there to consult with the technical aspects in about an hour

But I have something to say. Something that will help the customer.

What do I do?

🧑‍💻 Context

An engineer can fix a slow elevator by redesigning the elevator to reduce its weight.Lower weight = an elevator that can go faster.

A psychologist can fix a slow elevator by installing a mirror.Doing something (looking in a mirror) while riding the elevator speeds up our perception of time.

Which solution is better?

Neither.

It depends on the context.

If you're designing a new elevator for a skyscraper — you'll be better off with the engineering solution. No mirror is going to distract people from a 15-minute ride.

If you're improving an old elevator — you'll be better off with the psychological solution. Replacing an entire elevator can take months and cost millions. A mirror costs $70.

Takeaway:

📝 Problems have different good solutions in different context.

If you have more context about your decision, you can make a better decision.

Example:

If you had to make the perfect product design, you'd optimize the design to be easy to use and beautiful.

But:

If you don't understand the engineering limitations behind your design, you can make it impossible to implement.

By understanding the engineers building it, you can guarantee 100% your design reaches the user exactly as you want it. Not the rough version — the exact version you envisioned.

👆 Once again, the better solution comes from having external context. Engineering knowledge to solve a design problem.

But, most projects are too complicated. Knowing everything about everything is impossible. Where would you even start?

⬆️ Bottom-up context

Intricately knowing how every part of a project can be impossible. Even if it is possible — it takes way too long.

Instead, follow this framework to get all the context you need:

1. Understand the big picture. Find the key responsible people in your project (including your customer) and get a general idea of what they do. No details.

2. Start solving a problem. You can’t learn to make decisions without making decisions.

3. Ask questions. It doesn’t matter if you have the perfect answer — find everyone responsible and ask how would they solve the problem. This will give you a new perspective to play with.

The more problems you solve and the more external context you get, the better your decisions will become.

Suddenly (in a few months/years of practice), you'll start considering viewpoints that no one even thinks about. And make better decisions for it.

It will seem like magic to everyone else.

It would've been a simple process for you (and maybe others if you share this email with them; might be a good investment in your colleagues).

👌

Back to the story.

Did I say what I have to or shut my mouth and listen more?

I considered that for about 0.1 seconds and started talking.

Maybe I was relying too much on my experience as a magician. Maybe I was naive.

But I felt I had it.

And I did.

The customer loved me. My team gently pushed me to lead the rest of the conversation.

We won that customer. My decision-making process didn't betray me, even in that high-pressure situation.

I'm sure it can help you too!

💡 Idea of the Week

⚙️ Tools, Apps, 'n' Gadgets

Today I have a mixed bag: from AB testing to project organization. Let's dive in:

• Birdy — AB test your Twitter profile. Create two bios and find which one is more attractive. The free version is fantastic by itself (what I’m using).

• Lose the “very” — Very good 👉 splendid. Very smart 👉 brilliant. This simple app removes the word “very” from your adjectives and gives you something better.

• Linear — If you ever used Jira, you know it sucks (yes, this is me being polite). Linear is what Jira should’ve been if it wasn’t designed nearly 14 billion years ago.

🔦 Creator Spotlight: Zlatko Bijelic

Zlatko is fantastic — he moved from Europe to California and (basically immediately) started creating businesses and helping people. You can find him on Twitter or sharing ideas on his podcast.

📰 Last Week with Jordan

General theme sentence

• How to be more creative — How creativity works and how you can get more creative every day.

• How to fall asleep faster — I fixed the audio from the London recordings (in public; scary!) and edited all of them into short videos.

• Power Poses! — Your casual Darth Vader and Jordan Parker power posing battle. Of course.

This week I show you how to reclaim your time and improve your focus with the One Sec app 👇

That was it for today! Hit me up if you need me, and I'll see you again next Friday!

Your biggest fan,— Jordan

PS: Help me out by sharing this with a friend who'll find it useful 🫶