Two-way door decisions
Sort choices by how reversible they are, then move fast on the reversible ones
Start by asking whether you could walk back through the door if the choice turned out wrong. Most decisions can be undone, so they should be made quickly by one person or a small group, often with around seventy percent of the information you would like to have. The few that cannot be undone get the slow, careful, senior treatment. The failure mode it guards against is using the heavyweight process on everything, which makes an organization, or a person, slow and timid.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Jeff BezosDoes it
Amazon and Blue Origin founder · Six-page memos and eight hours of sleep
Two-way doors are reversible, and he says individuals or small teams should make those calls fast. One-way doors are not. Those deserve slow, senior attention. The 2016 letter adds that you should make most decisions with around seventy percent of the information you wish you had.
Source: Lex Fridman Podcast #405 transcript: Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin
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