The why behind your answer, so nobody has to ask twice

Jay WestOut of My Head · about 13 min

By the end of this step you have:

The because and the unless written for your three most-given answers
One record format for every decision from now on — what, because, unless, revisit when
A second AI test that answers closer to you than the first, and the line it still could not guess
One line added to the way you summarize calls or meetings, so decisions arrive already written

The idea

An answer without its reason is a fact the next person cannot use. "No" to a discount helps your team once. "No, because this client is already at our lowest margin, unless they sign for twelve months" helps them every time the question comes back, from any client.

The reason is also the part that disappears first. People remember what they decided far longer than why. Psychologists call the effect hindsight bias, first measured by Baruch Fischhoff in 1975 — once an outcome is known, people cannot recall what they believed before it, and they rewrite the reasoning to fit. Write the why at the moment you answer, or it is gone.

Keep what happened apart from what you made of it. "The client paid late twice" is what happened. "They are a risk" is your reading of it. Your team can check the first. They can only take your word for the second.

An example

An HVAC owner logs a question from the office manager — "Can we squeeze the Hendersons in on Friday?" — and his answer, "Yes." Written like that, the next squeeze-in request still comes to him.

So he adds the because — "they are a maintenance-plan customer, and Friday afternoons hold one open slot for plan customers" — and the unless — "unless the slot already went to an emergency." The office manager now has the rule, not the answer. The next three squeeze-in requests that week never reach him.

Do this now

Ten minutes. In your log below, pick the three answers you give most and fill in the two boxes for each. Came in through "One place your answers live"? Your becauses are in the note already; paste them into those rows' Because boxes, and spend the ten minutes on the Unless lines. Work alone, or nobody asks you much? Use a customer's question, or three decisions you keep putting off. Because: the real reason, in one sentence, as you would say it to a new hire. Unless: the one thing that would change your answer. Most-given answers are plain facts — a price, the schedule? Tick "This is a fact" on those rows, and pick your judgment calls instead; facts go in a "Where things are" section of your note, with no because needed. Keep the because to what happened and what you want, not your opinion of the person who asked. Do not know the because — the answer was someone else's? Write "ask: " and the role, and fill it in the next time they explain.

Add the because, and the unless, to the answers you give most.

Your Question Log: day 1 of 5 · 0 questions reached you · 0 rules written

Test it

Copy your rows into the AI again and ask the same sixth question. It now sees your reasons and your exceptions. Compare the answer with your first one and note, in one line, what changed. If it still guesses, the line it guessed is your next because.

The format, from now on

Any decision worth keeping gets four lines: what you decided, because, unless, and when you would look at it again. That is the whole decision record. The rest of the course uses it, so there is only one to learn. Already keep ADRs or a decision log? Add an Unless line and a Revisit line to that template; it is the same record, not a second one.

Let your AI catch them as they happen

If you record calls or keep meeting notes, add one line to the prompt you summarize them with — "List every decision made, each as: what was decided, because, unless, revisit when." Your decisions start arriving already written, in the format the rest of the course uses.

Where it goes wrong

Writing a because that only makes sense to you — "same as last time", "you know why". Write it so someone who started on Monday could act on it.

This step is written for this course from the research in the full curriculum. The research behind it, on howtothink.ai (L-0182, L-0164, L-0029, L-0030)

Step 2 of 8

Next: step 1, which the rest build on →