
Use a Decision Journal - ingve
https://blog.trello.com/decision-journal
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npudar
Also known as a Decision Record, as described by Russell Ackoff in many of his
books. Another critical component to include in the Decision Record is not
just the decision made, but also the other alternatives that were considered.
The documentation should also describe why the other alternatives were not
chosen.

Since we can only ever learn from our mistakes, a Decision Record helps us be
honest with ourselves when we are evaluating things when they don't go as
expected.

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xenonite
thank you for the hint. There are many works of Russell Ackoff. Could you
recommend one of these for this regard?

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thirtythree
I would love a recommendation too. This is the first time I've heard of
decision journals or records

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jFriedensreich
In every team i joined at later stages, it was an uphill battle to try
establishing this. In the end i was always the only one maintaining it and
management saw it as a waste of time. It is absolutely beyond me why decision
journals are not standard. But i guess the source of the problem is that
thorough evaluation of alternatives does not show immediate results to PMs and
is against most devs "just starting to code" reflexes. Also if your choice is
made by thinking "facebook also uses react and i already had to use it at my
last job" it would be embarrassing to write this in a public document. (this
is true for most EU projects, i really hope its different in the US)

~~~
closeparen
I cringe when I come across the aftermath of decisions that sorely needed a
reality check from a "just starting to code reflex" prototype or POC.
Unchecked by the compiler or the need to actually work, complex design
documents tend to derail into fantasy worlds.

I want to read about what you ended up having to do after making contact with
the real world, not what you thought you were going to do at the whiteboard
stage.

~~~
epicureanideal
I don't think he's saying you should write excessively before doing anything,
just that enough context should be given to understand the decision at that
point in time. At which point someone should start coding, and after real
world experience changes the plan, that too could be added to the decision
journal.

~~~
closeparen
Which is why I love the idea of a decision journal! Currently we only really
document the upfront designs. Ongoing logs would add even more value.

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charliepark
I have a Google Sheets … sheet? … for this, and it's been handy.

I'm paper trading the stock market while I work on a couple of investment
ideas (and still feel like I'm learning, so no real money yet). Every time I
"buy"/"sell" a stock (logged in one tab of Google Sheets), I enter the date
and the rationale I used when making the decision (logged in another tab of
the same Sheet), as well as some context around the current state of the
world. It's been useful already (a few months in), but will only get more
useful, I believe, as I begin to note patterns in my own behavior.

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dchuk
This is such a simple, clever idea. I make what feels like hundreds of
decisions a day (exaggeration but it feels like that sometimes) and I
frequently finish the day exhausted and unable to remember anything.

I’m going to whip up a web app for this.

~~~
DLarsen
I've recently ramped up work on something along these lines aimed specifically
at personal finances (see my profile if interested... won't spam this thread).
It's a spending journal which helps folks gain insight into their own spending
habits and make better spending decisions. I've been using it as my own
personal tool for years, and have recently (after being laid off) made it
available for more folks.

What I found from my (currently) small circle of users, is that ease of use to
enter the decisions was key. The SMS input has been key, and I'd recommend you
consider it as a way to appeal to folks who would resist installing "yet
another app with who knows what kind of data/privacy practices."

~~~
dchuk
This is really great! Good luck with your project

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wtmt
Tangential: for me, the buzzfeed-esque GIFs make this post unpleasant to read.
I couldn’t continue after a point.

~~~
user00012-ab
I stopped reading because I can't take articles full of gifs seriously; just
content farm crap.

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VoodooJuJu
The author mentions decision fatigue and then cites that well-known judge
study [1], implicating decision fatigue as an observed effect. However, the
judges study probably isn't the best example of decision fatigue; see
program_whiz's explanation [2] from another thread [3] on the judges study:

> Here is the refutation being referred to in the article, the article author
> did a poor job explaining it, and the reason to reject isn't "effect is too
> large", because the effect is real -- but this study explains it:
> [http://journal.sjdm.org/16/16823/jdm16823.html](http://journal.sjdm.org/16/16823/jdm16823.html)

> 1\. Prisoners are ordered by whether they have an attorney (so those going
> last in a session are self-represented)

> 2\. Judges order prisoners often by "complexity of the case", so the ones
> taking most time are first (and therefore most likely to have a favorable
> decision, a short/easy case is probably a no-parole situation)

> 3\. Statistically, the cases that gained parole take longer than those that
> don't, so even if they are random/normally distributed, then if one falls at
> the end, it will come back to the beginning of next session. A simulation
> shows that even with random ordering, you still get the same graph (because
> the long/complex cases that could be paroled tend to be moved to next
> session when the session is almost out of time).

> So after reading this, the graph means: Ratio of cases with a lawyer that
> can be finished in the remaining time in the session.

> Both values are decreasing as the session continues, so it produces a heavy
> down sloping graph that resets each session to some approximately random
> value (.65).

[1] Extraneous factors in judicial decisions |
[https://www.pnas.org/content/108/17/6889](https://www.pnas.org/content/108/17/6889)

[2] Here is the refutation being referred to in the article ... |
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14703990](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14703990)

[3] Impossibly Hungry Judges |
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14701328](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14701328)

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jph
Decision record journals can help teamwork, especially when the team also logs
the decision alternatives.

Decision record templates are here: Template:
[https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/architecture_decision...](https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/architecture_decision_record)

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hartator
I kind of disagree with having a decision journal. Because I don’t believe you
have a set date or action that will mark a decision. And believing that it’s
what make you procrastinate and delay things.

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sidcool
ADR is another form of Decision journal but for technical decisions.

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jiveturkey
for engineers, aka a design doc

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magwa101
The animated gifs make me need to write a decision journal to handle this
article.

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ohduran
I read until I saw "As an article for Farnam Street recommends", and then I
stopped reading.

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mturilin
What’s wrong with Farnam Street?

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James_Henry
I think they were just letting us know how much of the blog post they read. It
could have been that at the Farnam Street mention they suddenly realized they
had cookies burning in the oven.

