This week’s Build explores how we approach decisions and problem-solving. I’ve spotted three great articles that collectively challenge founders to think more carefully about the frameworks they.
From questioning whether problems need solving at all, ensuring decisions are truly clear rather than strategically ambiguous and to recognising that major decisions are really just hypotheses to be tested – today’s Build gives you some refreshing perspectives on solving problems better.
This is the last Build for 2025. I’m taking a couple of weeks off so I’ll be back in your inbox on January 7th. I wish you a happy Christmas and wanted to say thank you for reading Build this year. I hope you get as much enjoyment from reading it as I do writing it.
best regards,
sw
RECOMMENDED THIS WEEK #1
Inside and outside perspectives
Andrew Ormerod argues that every problem has an “inside perspective” (accepting the problem’s framing and solving it logically) and an “outside perspective” (questioning whether the problem needs solving at all). The inside perspective is our default as humans and is needed for flow states, but also means we can become too absorbed in a problem’s internal logic and lose sight of whether the task is actually worth doing in the first place.
My take:
This struck a chord with me as founders often pride themselves on problem solving ability, yet a really valuable skill is really recognising which problems to ignore entirely. The examples of deleting old emails and paying disputed invoices to make problems disappear show how stepping back can save enormous time and energy.
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RECOMMENDED THIS WEEK #2
Driving extreme clarity
Deb Liu describes how Naomi Gleit at Meta forced teams to document their positions in spreadsheets, revealing hidden disagreements that had been glossed over in meetings. She argues against “strategic ambiguity” and “messy yeses” – those vague (not real) agreements that avoid short term discomfort but create long term confusion and friction.
My take:
I loved “strategic ambiguity”. That’s particularly dangerous in scale-ups where resources are tight and every decision matters. I’ve seen too many founders leave meetings thinking they have alignment but discover weeks later that everyone understood something different. We’ve all done it. The techniques in this article here are good practical ways to avoid this trap.
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RECOMMENDED THIS WEEK #3
You call it a decision, I call it a hypothesis
Decisions are hypotheses about the future rather than definitive endpoints. In this article Margaret Heffernan suggests that marriage and merger failure rates suggest we’re often wrong. She recommends spelling out operating assumptions, building in cooling-off periods, conducting pre-mortems and monitoring decisions as experiments rather than treating them as final.
My take:
This is spot on. Once you’ve decided a problem is worth solving and achieved genuine clarity on what you’re doing, you still need to remain open to being wrong. The pre-mortem technique is especially valuable for founders who can often become too emotionally invested in their own decisions.
From the Build archive
Build #13 –
Deciding on deciding
How to be much more deliberate about how decisions are made in a scaling business.
Build #80 –
Why we’ve got decision-making backwards
Balancing rational and emotional approaches when making the big calls in life.
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