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How do you make the biggest decisions you face, the ones that have significant consequences and can change your life? Choices like whether to get married, move, attend a certain college, take a particular job, and so on? If you're like a lot of people, you just kind of wing it, and maybe draw up a basic pros and cons list.\n\nMy guest today has studied the latest research in decision making theory and formulated a better approach.\xa0His name is Steven Johnson, his latest book is\xa0Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most, and today he walks us through how to move beyond listing pros and cons to using a more effective 3-step decision making process.\xa0We begin our conversation discussing how most people make decisions and how it hasn\u2019t changed much in hundreds of years. Steven then walks us through the phases of a better decision-making methodology, including developing a more creative map of the possibilities before you, accurately predicting\xa0the outcomes of those options, and questioning\xa0the narratives you have about your choices.\xa0Steven then makes the case that reading novels and watching quality television shows can be a great way to train our brains in the skill of decision making. We end our conversation\xa0discussing what the raid on Osama bin Laden can teach us about making good decisions. \n\nGet the show notes at aom.is/farsighted.