The Framework
A holistic understanding of what, how, and why we make decisions - and how to make better ones.
Why
A decision goes wrong at one of three levels, and the level tells you where to look.
Personal
The decision-maker's internal decision processes are out of alignment. Their actions don't match their values, and this is where chronic, systemic failure originates, leading to various substantiative failures.
Environmental
The people and systems around the decision-maker incentivize certain actions. Deception, conflict, breakdowns in trust, and structural failures all stem from incompatible personal actions and environmental incentives.
Universal
There exist a small set of metaphysical principles - truthfulness, harm reduction, kindness, etc. - that underlie sustainable decisions. Ignoring these principles degrades the personal and environmental levels.
How
Every decision moves in a combination of three modalities.
Harmony
Mutually supportive and uplifting. Results in decisions made in alignment with your inner values.
Dissonance
Slightly overpowering and fostering a race to the bottom. Results in decisions chasing outer validation instead of inner values.
Noise
Full of chaos, and blind to both values and validation. Results in decisions made from inertia and fatigue.
What
By breaking down how the different parts of our psyche activate when making decisions, we can understand what happens internally when we make a decision. The greater our understanding of this process (metacognition), the more our decisions are in harmony across all three levels.