In praise of the least bad option
Often when I find myself stuck, it’s because I don’t have conviction about how to move forward. One option gives me part of what I think is important, another option gives me another part, but no option gives me everything I want. I can spend a lot of time churning with indecision, looking for an additional option that doesn’t exist.
Oddly, I find these situations harder to deal with in my personal life than in my professional life. It seems that at work I expect to be faced with choices where there is no ideal outcome, but running into this situation in my personal life is more distressing.
Recently I’ve been struck by the power of laying out the options that exist and “simply” choosing the least bad one. In practice, this looks more like:
Lay out the options
Make sure no other options exist
Identify the least bad one
Is there anything I can do to make this option even less bad?
Pick the least bad option
Decide to revisit the decision and/or how to move towards the ideal option in the future
A common pattern I see in the people who’s work I admire is consistently choosing the least bad option1. If you can do this regularly, you can improve a situation a lot over time. And remembering this seems to reduce the mental toll of not having an ideal option
So here’s to the least bad option: humbler and less satisfying than the best option, but powerful nonetheless.
1: I think of this Jon Gruber column about how Apple rolls, which I revisit about once a year.
2022-06-02