This episode tackles one of the most important thinking traps to avoid in your 20s when evaluating your decisions.

Decisions and outcomes are not the same. Yet many of us confuse the two, judging the quality of a decision based solely on how things turn out afterward. If the outcome is good, we assume the decision was good. If the outcome is bad, we assume the decision was bad.

This pitfall is known as outcome bias, and it can limit learning and make it much harder to improve your decision-making skills.

In your 20s, when you are making high-impact choices about careers, relationships, and major life events, outcome bias can cause you to draw the wrong lessons from decisions that were actually well thought out.

This episode explores a good decision with a bad outcome and a bad decision with a good outcome. We make this concrete by following Jim’s story and examining how a reasonable decision to plan an outdoor wedding ends up leading to an unlucky outcome.

By the end of this episode, you’ll be able to spot outcome bias in your own life, extract better lessons from your experiences, and build decision-making skills that compound throughout your 20s.

Now It’s Your Turn

Take 5–10 minutes to reflect about a decision you made recently that had a clear outcome.

Now separate the decision from the outcome.

• First, notice if the outcome was good or bad.
• Then, regardless of the outcome, did the decision felt right at the time?
• Was your choice aligned with your values?

Remember, a good decision can still lead to a bad outcome… and a bad decision can end up with a lucky outcome.

Focus on noticing the difference between "the decision" and "the outcome" not judging yourself by the result.

And if you're up for it, share what you discovered in the comments so others can benefit from your reflection!

This episode puts value-focused decision making into action and shows you how to apply this powerful tool immediately to your own life.

I reflect on my own experience in my 20s to show how taking a value-focused approach helped me eliminate a potential job option.

You’ll also follow Jim, a 20-something college senior navigating a job search before deciding whether to pursue an MBA, as he applies the same framework. Most people get stuck and fall back into an alternative-focused approach to decision making, choosing from a default list of options on the menu of life.

After this episode you will:

• See how to move beyond the default approach to decision making
• Move past the limited menu in front of you
• Expand what feels possible
• Start shaping your own path.
• Enter the matrix, like Keanu Reeves, to create your own reality.

Now It’s Your Turn

Think about a decision you are facing right now. It can be small - like what movie to see or which salad dressing to choose - or big - like what job to pursue or whether to make a move to a new city.

Before you decide, take 5–10 minutes and write down what truly matters to you in this situation.

Identify your values and group them into categories (just like Jim) so you can take a value-focused approach, starting with what matters, not just the options in front of you.

And if this process leads you to create your own alternative, one that wasn’t even on the original menu, share your story in the comments so others can learn from your experience!

NOTES: This episode is inspired by Value-Focused Thinking: A Path to Creative Decision Making by Ralph Keeney, which shows how clarifying fundamental values can reveal new decision opportunities.

*Link to Keeney’s book

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674931985 *Link to Frontline episode detailing the outcome of Providian, the company Ben eliminated from his menu of job options based on his ethical values https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-the-card-game/

This episode builds directly on the foundation of critical reflection and introduces a better way to approach decisions.

Ben shows how value-focused decision making helps you go beyond the list of options on the menu of life so you can start getting more of what you actually want.

Most of us make decisions by reacting to the choices in front of us, like job offers and choosing a major, without ever stopping to ask what we truly care about.

In this episode, we introduce value-focused decision making, a powerful shift that starts with clarifying what matters to you and uses your values to create better alternatives rather than just picking from the default menu.

By the end of this episode, you will be able to apply a simple value-focused approach to the critical decisions you make in your 20s so that your choices align more closely with the life you actually want to build.

Along the way, you might just learn how to go full Keanu Reeves, create your own reality, and step into the Matrix.

Now It’s Your Turn

Think about a decision you’ve recently made.

Did you start with your values — or did you start with the options already on the menu?

If you took the alternative-focused approach, that’s completely fine. Now take 5 minutes to reflect: What does your decision reveal about what matters to you? Why did you choose one option over the others?

Start writing down the values that may have been guiding you — even if you weren’t fully aware of them at the time.

**Ralph Keeney's Book: Value - Focused Thinking

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674931985