X.3.1 · Skill in Decision-making
Weighing tradeoffs
Making explicit what each option gains and gives up.
Almost every decision trades one good thing for another. Writing down the options and what each costs makes the choice clearer and easier to revisit. Pretending there is no tradeoff is how bad decisions get made.
Resources
3- articleStart hereDesign docs at Google ↗Malte Ubl · 2020 · 21 min
How a short document with goals, non-goals and alternatives considered makes trade-offs explicit before code.
- articleStart hereDocumenting architecture decisions ↗Michael Nygard · 2011 · 6 min
The original proposal for short architecture decision records, so trade-offs stay visible later.
- articleGo deeperWriting an engineering strategy ↗Will Larson · 2023 · 27 min
Turning many local trade-offs into one written strategy that others can follow and challenge.
Tools
none yetTools for this topic are being researched.