Improving Decision Making: Skepticism, Method Evaluation, and Performance Tracking

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Improving decision making entails three key factors. Firstly, cultivating skepticism by questioning one's confidence basis and seeking feedback on performance to avoid biased recall. Secondly, assessing the effectiveness of methods used and being wary of falling for an 'analysis placebo', ensuring the objective is making better decisions, not just feeling more confident. Lastly, embracing curiosity to explore what methods actually work and consistently tracking and documenting performance to evaluate decision-making accuracy over time, especially in significant decisions.

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Can we measure everything that matters to us? When is measuring the correlates of a thing pretty much just as good as measuring the thing itself? Why are some people resistant to measuring certain things? What are some things people should be measuring but aren't? What's the connection between measuring things and assigning probabilities to events? How much do we know about how well human intuition performs against "doing the math"? How inconsistent are we at applying our own principles in decision-making? What kinds of calibration training are effective? What is "value of information"? What is the Rule of 5? What are the top three things we can do to improve our decision-making?

Douglas Hubbard is an author, consultant, and recognized expert in decision theory and risk analysis. He has written several books on measurement and measuring risk. His work spans various industries including insurance, finance, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, military, energy, government, tech, and nonprofit organizations. Connect with Doug on LinkedIn, email him at dwhubbard@hubbardresearch.com, or learn more about his work at hubbardresearch.com.

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