Where to Cut
Sometimes you understand the pieces.
You understand how they interact.
You have decent evidence.
And the question is still refusing to produce one clean answer.
That may be because there isn’t one.
Sometimes the answer changes depending on something else.
Ask:
What would have to change for my answer to change?
Three useful places to look:
Goal: What are you actually trying to accomplish?
Condition: Under what circumstances is this true?
Comparison: Better, worse, safer, cheaper, or more effective than what?
The Same Thing Can Produce Different Answers
Imagine someone asks:
“Is working from home better?”
Better for what?
Better for:
avoiding a commute?
concentrating?
meeting new people?
caring for a child?
collaborating with a particular team?
reducing expenses?
The facts about working from home did not necessarily change.
The goal changed.
Or:
“Is it safe to walk there?”
Under what conditions?
At noon?
At 2:00 a.m.?
Alone?
During a flood?
Through a flock of geese whose diplomatic relations with humanity have deteriorated?
Same place.
Different conditions.
Different answer.
Or:
“Is this expensive?”
Compared with what?
Yesterday’s price?
A competitor?
Your income?
The cost of repairing the thing you already own?
“Expensive” needs somewhere to stand.
Why This Cut Helps
People can argue for hours while appearing to disagree about the answer when they are actually holding different versions of the question.
One person is optimizing for speed.
Another is optimizing for safety.
One means:
Does this usually work?
Another means:
Will this work under these specific conditions?
One is comparing Option A with perfection.
Another is comparing Option A with the alternatives that actually exist.
Before deciding that somebody’s reasoning makes no sense, check whether the answer is being asked to do the same job.
When to Try This Cut
Use this cut when:
reasonable people keep reaching different answers;
the answer seems to be “it depends”;
a word like better, worse, safe, effective, or worth it is doing suspiciously heavy lifting;
changing one detail seems like it could flip your conclusion.
Ask:
What would change the answer?
You may discover that the disagreement was hiding in the question.
FOLLOW THE WIRES