Not complex, muddied.

Most decisions are not actually that complex, they are muddied. Take a look at government, if you were to give a bill to a single person, they would easily decide yes or no on it. Yet, laws seem to get very contentious in their passing at times. Triggering many back-and-forth discussions, heated debate, and changes. The reason for all the clamor is that by having multiple people making decisions about the proposal muddies things. There are now a range of values, needs, and different constituent bases involved. It’s must less clear for the whole how it benefits or harms everyone.

This is a problem with our own decision making at times. When torn on a purchase for example, it may be because we want it to solve a problem we have, but it means breaking budgeting rules set for ourselves.

Or in another problem, such as hiring a friend, letting them go for subpar performance may mean hurting someone you care about.

Anytime that you are struggling with a decision, it’s probably not all that complex if you list out all the values that you are using to judge it against, then realize you are weighting those in a complex way. Decide the most important, and use that to get yourself unstuck.