Zero-sum based thinking

Zero-sum is an interesting concept. It’s the idea that you can only have gains or losses that are balanced by gains or losses by others. Poker is a zero-sum game; if you win $10, someone else has to lose $10. If three people in a five person game win $10 each, the other two people had to lose $30 between them.

Of course, this is game theory and not everything in life is a game. But using the concept of “zero-sum based thinking” can help you gain clarity and make decisions - or at least make it a little easier to decide on a decision. It’s still difficult to actually make some decisions.

It’s easy to use zero-sum based thinking too. All zero-sum based questions should begin, “Knowing what I know now, and all things being equal, would I make the same decision?”

It’s binary - yes or no - all you have to do is answer “yes” or “no” to the question. That’s the easy part. The difficult part comes when you have to actually make a decision based on the “yes” or the “no.”

Zero-sum based thinking is a good tool to use when evaluating making a change. If I were torn between staying involved in a business relationship or leaving, I might ask, “Knowing what I know now, and with all things being equal, if I could start over would I get involved with this business relationship again?”

It shouldn’t be very difficult to answer this question. If things are going well, you would likely answer “yes!” If things were going badly or you dreaded getting up in the morning and facing your business relationship you would probably whimper, “no.”

Again, it’s easy to come up with your “yes” or “no” answer. Actually making the decision to terminate your business relationship will likely be a much more difficult decision to make.

The reason this is zero-sum is because you’re going to make a decision that causes a gain for one party and a loss for another. In some cases both parties will be you, but the net result has to balance out. If you to say “yes” to one option, you have to say “no” to the opposite when making a binary decision.

I can give you a good example of this working in my own life. Some months ago I had become extremely frustrated by some circumstances at my day job. I finally asked myself, “Knowing what I know now, would I take this job offer if I had to make the decision all over again?”

In light of a question like that the answer was “yes.” In general the job was great, it was just a small, but extremely frustrating set of circumstances that had me completely boxed up and ready to walk away. I wasn’t able to make a rational decision because I was far to emotionally involved.

However once I realized that, overall, I enjoyed the job and I didn’t want to have to go find another position in another company I realized that I just needed to get a handle around the circumstances that were causing me pain. It took me some time to do that, and it involved some not-so-comfortable conversations with people regarding the cause of my frustrations, but ultimately it worked out and now I’m much happier.

And I didn’t just make a snap decision and walk off the job because of frustration. I analyzed my stay/go options and realized that I didn’t want to go. Once I had made that decision, I could focus my choices on how I could limit my frustrations and fix them.

It’s a useful tool to use when you’re struggling with a decision because zero-sum based thinking allows you to take at least 50% of your options off the table. If you’re struggling with your relationship with your spouse and ask, “Knowing what I know now, would I get involved with this relationship if I had it to do over?” will net you a very clear “yes” or “no” answer.

If the answer is “yes” then you can 100% clear out worrying about all the questions and decisions you would have to face if the answer were “no.” Instead you can focus on finding the root of your disagreements and fixing the gaps in the relationship.

The next time you’re stuck and frustrated, see if you can break your options down to a “yes” or “no” question and try applying some zero-sum based thinking to your own situation.

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Here are some related articles you might also enjoy!

• Tony Robbins’ free goal development tools.
• Are limiting beliefs holding you back?
• Are you a P.A.W. or a U.A.W.?
• You become what you think about.
• Doing more in less time.

February 28th, 2006

Entry Filed under: Improvement, Purpose, Tools