On making ancillary decisions
I recently was reading a short book called “Maxims for Thinking Analytically: The wisdom of legendary Harvard Professor Richard Zeckhauser”. Tucked within Maxim 19 there are a few pages that stuck with me on what to do after you’ve made a decision:
“[Once] you have made a decision, one habit that will increase your well-being is to collect information favorable to your decision (after you have made it), and to muse on the positives. So for example, if you have decided to attend a certain college, try to discover all the great things the college has to offer (such as the faculty doing work in areas you are interested in, the sense of community the school is able to foster, etc.) and give less attention to any shortcomings of the school for you (such as unexciting cafeteria food, expensive housing etc.).”
Similarly, keep in mind that you can make auxiliary decisions that will increase the value of your initial decision (though beware of not falling into the sunk-cost fallacy when doing so). "Strive to make the right decision; afterwards you'll make your decision right" is the advice Richard gave to Paul Resnick, now professor and associate dean at the University of Michigan, who early in his career was choosing between academic job offers at Berkeley and Michigan and a potential offer at the Kennedy School. As Paul looked back on this decision, he said "Twenty-three years later, I am still at the University of Michigan. Along the way, I have made all sorts of ancillary decisions that have increased the utility of the original decision. During my first two years here, my wife and I took a bike tour of the upper peninsula and I went on a five-day bus tour with faculty to learn about my adopted state. I took advantage of having an office next door to Michael Cohen, a mentor to many, by knocking on his door often, and got on a plane to Boston at least once a year to work with Richard in an attempt to compensate for not having an office next to his. Ten years ago, my wife and I bought a home on the river within walking distance of my office, creating a lifestyle that would never have been possible for me in Berkeley or Cambridge" (emphasis added by me)
To summarize: you can improve the value of a decision after you’ve made it by focusing on the positive elements and also by making ancillary decisions that improve the first decision. It’s a much more tactical approach to “making the best of things.”
As I’ve let this idea simmer it’s had a profound effect on how I think about personal decisions. After I decide something I look around for how might I make other decisions to improve it. What ancillary decisions can make things better?
We so often treat decisions as one-time events when in reality they are starting points. You moved to city X. Great but there are many different ways that could go - it could be great, it could be terrible. Moving was just the first step! To what degree do you make the most of it?
Other decisions are also similar: you take a new job, you go to a restaurant, you go on a vacation - you can make all of these better by the decisions you make after the fact.
One of the decisions that was made for many people last year was working from home (WFH). I have grown somewhat comfortable with my setup and realized I reached a bit of a blind plateau - there must be things others have figured out about how to make it better that I’ve missed! So I tweeted a question about how people have improved their setups:
I loved the set of replies and they mostly fall in the world of ancillary decisions. There are broadly three categories people responded with:
First, some made changes to improve their actual working setup.
Many made smaller changes that increased their happiness
Better lighting
Standing desks
Faster internet, monitors & webcams
Better snacks, mini fridges and better coffee
Nicer clothes
Others made much bigger changes (e.g., buying a new house, moving to an entirely new place).
Second, some started enjoying things they can only do because they are working from home and have time from reclaimed commutes:
“Started meditating”
“Walks!! Lots of walking” (3 x 20” walks) (daily 45” walk) (“Long, long walks after work”)
Getting a pet (dogs, cats and rats made the list)
More exercise (e.g., personal trainer thru http://future.co; daily morning yoga; “I jog every morning”, “Row a 500m - 1k piece between mtgs”)
Seeing kids throughout the day
And finally, many mixed-up how they work to carve time for breaks / non-desk time:
“Making time for moving, turning off video and blocking time for lunch to not eat at desk.”
“Actively asking “could I be walking the dog or sitting outside for this chat?”"
“Prioritize long enough breaks to go for a walk, or sit outside at cafe, etc, a real break”
“Not doing video meetings when video doesn't enhance the conversation.”
“I started blocking my calendar for lunch and not eating at my desk. It doesn’t work out every day, but it’s been a nice break when it does”
Now, of course many others didn’t stick with the initial “decision” to WFH and just quit or created co-working routines to not WFH. But for those with WFH setups, making the ancillary decisions improved their wellbeing. While most of these changes were free or relatively low cost they end up making the overall experience much more enjoyable…
In this spirit I have been trying to add more of these WFH recommendations into my routines. I took some of the clothing suggestions (yay new t-shirts and sweatpants) and also started to work more outside.
On top of this I was also inspired to make the ancillary decision to get a cat last weekend! And so, welcome Pantufla to the family. He’s cute as can be and he’s also going to be a lot of work… But if we’re spending more time at home, having a little feline walking the halls (and fingers-crossed keeping me company while I read) will make it all a little bit better.