Bezos's distinction, and the failure mode it names is more useful than the distinction itself. > Some decisions are consequential and irreversible — one-way doors — and these must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation. But most decisions aren't like that. They are changeable, reversible — two-way doors. Type 2 decisions can and should be made quickly by high judgment individuals or small groups. ### **What I'm thinking about** 1. **The failure mode is scale-induced, not stupidity-induced** – "As organizations get larger, there seems to be a tendency to use the heavy-weight Type 1 decision-making process on most decisions, including many Type 2 decisions." Nobody decides to slow down. The process just gets applied uniformly because uniform is easier to administer. 2. **The costs compound in a specific direction** – "The result of this is slowness, unthoughtful risk aversion, failure to experiment sufficiently, and consequently diminished invention." Note that reduced invention is downstream of the process choice, not of the talent. 3. **The calibration is aggressive** – Mike Vernal's version: "Decisions are almost never Type 1." Most things that *feel* weighty are reversible at moderate cost. 4. **Type 2 is a delegation instrument** – The rule attached is that if a decision is Type 2, someone other than the most senior person should be the decider. Three benefits at once: it's faster, they build the muscle, and you get evidence about their judgment on something recoverable. 5. **Genuine one-way doors are a short list** – Long contractual commitments, legal or corporate structures that constrain future options, anything touching equity, anything that destroys a relationship. Most of what generates anxiety is not on it. ### **So what?** Make the classification explicit and out loud, at the start. "This is a two-way door — you decide" is a complete instruction, and it converts a decision-review queue into parallel action. The asymmetry worth internalising: the cost of a wrong Type 2 decision is the cost of reversing it, which is usually small and known. The cost of routing every Type 2 decision through a Type 1 process is unbounded and invisible, because it shows up as things that never got tried. Related: [[Separate the Decision from the Implementation]] [[RAPID]] [[I Intend To]] [[Issue, Proposed Solution]] [[uncertainty]] [[Executive Operating System MOC]]