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Hi Annie,

I have not read “How to Decide” yet, but I was wandering how do you decide when the chances of the outcome that you value (as there could be many types of success for a given decision) is 50/50, or simply you can’t know? I figured when things are not 50/50, it is easier to make a decision. But what is always a difficult decision is when you don’t know the probability of succeeding or that it is 50/50 chance.

Thank you!

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This goes under the category of “when a decision is hard that means it’s actually easy.” When we get to two options that are so close we often spin out and waste time trying to parse out which is better. But for most things, given uncertainty, we can’t actually parse those differences out. Not only that, it isn’t worth the time. If the options are so close, you can’t be that wrong whichever you choose better to spend that time on other things.

So, when you are in these fifty fifty situations, instead of going into analysis paralysis, just flip a coin to decide!

A more fleshed out answer is in How to Decide in the section on a sheep in wolf’s clothing.

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Thank you Annie for your reply. Much appreciate it.

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