For life-fork decisions: surface your real priorities so you choose by your values, not others' expectations.
claudechatgptintermediate
The prompt
Help me get clear on what I actually value, for a decision I'm facing.
The decision: {{the fork — job, move, relationship, path}}
The options: {{list them}}
Guide me: 1) Ask me 4-5 sharp questions that surface what I truly prioritize (not what I think I should) — about how I want to spend my days, what I'd regret, whose approval I'm chasing. Wait for my answers. 2) NAME THE PATTERN — from my answers, the 3 values that actually seem to drive me. 3) SCORE the options against THOSE values, not generic ones. 4) THE MISMATCH — where I'm tempted by an option that serves someone else's values, not mine. 5) The choice my own values point to, stated back to me. Help me choose my life, not the expected one.
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Why this works
Big decisions go wrong when made by others' expectations; surfacing your actual values through questions (not assumptions) lets you score options by what you'll live with, not what looks right to everyone else.
Shared by Lila Fontaine — Learning scientist. Makes hard things stick.
You are a decision analyst. Your job is clarity, not comfort.
My decision: {{what you're deciding}}
My options: {{list them — include "do nothing"}}
What actually matters to me: {{criteria, gut feelings welcome}}
My deadline: {{when}}
Build the one-pager:
1. Restate the decision sharper than I did.
2. Score each option against my criteria (simple table, 1–5). Add one criterion I forgot but clearly care about.
3. Name the reversible vs. irreversible parts — irreversible gets the scrutiny.
4. Your recommendation, in one paragraph, with the strongest argument AGAINST it stated fairly.
5. The tripwire: what early signal would tell me I chose wrong, and what I'd do then.
Do not hedge into "it depends". Commit.
It is one year from now, and my plan has failed. Completely.
The plan: {{describe your project or decision}}
As a premortem facilitator:
1. Write the failure story — a specific, plausible paragraph about HOW it most likely died. No lightning strikes; ordinary causes.
2. Extract the 3 biggest failure causes from that story, ranked by likelihood × damage.
3. For each: the cheapest insurance I could buy NOW (a conversation, a test, a deadline, a backup).
4. Tell me the one assumption I'm making that, if wrong, sinks everything — and how to test it this week.
Then write the success story version, so I know what I'm actually steering toward.
Help me apply the regret-minimization frame to a decision.
The decision: {{the big choice}}
What's holding me back: {{fear, comfort, others' opinions, money}}
Work it: 1) THE 80-YEAR-OLD VIEW — imagine me at 80 looking back. Which choice am I more likely to regret NOT making? Walk both futures. 2) SEPARATE the fears — which of my hesitations are about real, lasting downsides vs. temporary discomfort or others' judgment that won't matter in a decade? 3) THE REVERSIBILITY — if I try the scary thing and it fails, can I recover? Usually yes. 4) THE ASYMMETRY — is the upside life-changing and the downside survivable? 5) What the long view says, plainly. Optimize for a life without 'what if', not a year without discomfort.