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Big Decision Heuristics

Helps the agent work through major life choices with a default-to-no rule and a short-term-pain tiebreaker

Source Download skill
Repository
kangarooking/cangjie-skill
Stars
11,998
Licence
MIT
Files
3 files

What it does

This is a set of thinking rules, drawn from Naval Ravikant's book, that the agent applies when you're stuck on a big decision such as changing jobs, buying a home, moving city, partnering, or getting married. It tells the agent to default to "no" when you can't decide, to treat a long pros-and-cons list as a sign you're not yet sure, and to pick the option that is more painful in the short term when two choices are truly equal. It is meant for major, long-lasting choices, not everyday ones.

Great for

  • People who have made a pros-and-cons list and still can't decide on a major life choice
  • Someone who keeps saying yes to too many opportunities and needs help learning to say no
  • Readers curious how a specific book's decision principles can be turned into an agent's behaviour

Skip it if

  • Everyday choices like what to eat or wear, because the author's rules would add needless friction (the skill itself says so)
  • Choices where one option is clearly worse; the skill says to drop the weaker option rather than apply the heuristic
  • Scarce-opportunity situations where a default of "no" could make you miss a once-only chance (the skill's own stated blind spot)

Try asking

  • “I can't decide whether to take a job offer in another city. I've listed ten pros and cons and still can't choose.”
  • “Should I buy a flat now or keep renting for another two years? Help me think it through.”
  • “Two business partnership options look equally good to me. Which one should I pick?”
  • “Someone keeps offering me 'fine' opportunities. How do I decide which ones to turn down?”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Big Decision HeuristicsInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 3 original files, the MIT licence and an attribution note.

    decision-heuristics.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip decision-heuristics.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip decision-heuristics.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • State the two real options and any facts you already know, so the agent can check whether they are truly equal before applying the short-term-pain rule.
  • Give your timeframe and what the decision locks you into; the skill treats commitments of five years or more as major.
  • Treat the output as a structured prompt for your own reflection, not as advice on finances, health, or legal matters, since the source is a single author's personal philosophy.

What's inside

  • SKILL.md
  • test-prompts.json
  • test-results.md

Redistributed unmodified from kangarooking/cangjie-skill under the MIT licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.