This is Colin Powell’s rule. Make a decision with no less than 40% of the information you need but no more than 70%. Anything less and you are just guessing; anything more and you are just wasting time. You can replace “information” with just about anything, and you will realize that this mental model is about encouraging quick yet informed decisions.

Jeff Bezos developed what he calls the regret minimization framework. In it, he asks one to visualize themselves at age 80 and ask if they would regret making (or not making) a decision. This simplifies decisions by making them about one metric: regret.

Continue reading “Keep It Between 40-70%”