Is This Big? Is This New?

A surprisingly helpful thing I've started doing: when faced with a choice or decision, I ask myself: is this big? is this new?

If the answer is "yes", I do my absolute best to go find someone who has dealt with it before and get their advice instead of just jumping in.

People often make big, new decisions surprisingly quickly, and with surprisingly little context. It's a bit of a cliche by now, but I've truly seen people spend more time deliberating over which brand of beans to buy than which apartment to rent.

The "new" side is even more surprising: I think people often don't realize when they're making a decision of a type they've never made before, and that probably means they're at risk of making it badly. Or: they do realize the decision is new, but don't realize that means it's a good time to stop and get advice.

I unfortunately made this discovery after @#$ing up some of the biggest decisions in my life, because I tried to go them alone without realizing I was out of my depths. Hopefully this mantra can catch you before you do the same: is this big? is this new?