Here is a pattern worth noticing: we often spend the most deliberation on the decisions that deserve it least.
Tip #5, “Decide Fast on Reversible Things,” from The Luck Field Manual by The Polymath Investor offers a clarifying framework: if a choice is easily reversible, act quickly and keep moving. Save your cautious deliberation for the choices you cannot undo. This way, you get more done and create more opportunities in the same amount of time.
The late Daniel Kahneman, whose groundbreaking work, Thinking, Fast and Slow, introduced millions of readers to the idea of System 1 and System 2 thinking, gave us a useful lens here. System 1 is fast, instinctive, and emotional. System 2 is slower, more deliberate, and more analytical. Kahneman’s insight was not that one is better than the other, but that the real skill lies in knowing which situations call for which approach.
The same principle applies to how we make decisions. Not every choice deserves a System 2 deep dive. Many of the decisions that slow us down, the ones we agonize over, lose sleep about, and committee-to-death, are actually low-stakes and easily reversed. We can always change course. And in treating them as if we cannot, we exhaust the mental and emotional resources we actually need for the decisions that genuinely matter.
In the context of building relationships and showing up as a leader, this plays out constantly. Reach out or wait? Attend the event or skip it? Accept the introduction or let it pass? These are reversible. Decide quickly and find out what happens. Reserve your System 2 energy for the choices with real consequence: the partnership you are considering, the commitment you are about to make, the bridge you might be burning.
The Polymath Investor puts it simply: most progress comes from acting decisively on the many small, reversible choices that quietly increase the odds of a fortunate outcome.
Reserve your best thinking for the moments that deserve it. For everything else, just move.
Happy Networking!
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This post is part of a series inspired by The Luck Field Manual: Rules for Engineering Serendipity by The Polymath Investor. The full manual is well worth your time. Read about it and download it here.
Also, a Happy, Happy 79th Birthday to my wonderful, amazing, incredible father, Max. My System 1 thinking confirms that I was BORN LUCKY to be blessed with the world’s greatest dad. I love you, Daddy Max!