Pros and Cons Lists Don't Work. Here's Why.

You know the drill. Big decision, so you grab a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle, and start listing pros and cons.

It feels productive. It's also misleading you.

The Core Problem

Pros and cons lists treat all factors as equal. "Great salary" and "office has no windows" are both one line item. But they're not equally important.

Your brain knows this intuitively, but the list format flattens everything. You end up counting items instead of weighing impact.

I once watched a friend turn down a job because it had 5 cons vs. 4 pros. One of those cons was "slightly longer commute." One of the pros was "exactly the work I've always wanted to do." The list made a clearly good opportunity look questionable.

The Hidden Bias

There's another problem: we list what's easy to articulate.

"$20k higher salary" is easy to write down. "Better cultural fit" is fuzzy. "Closer to family" is concrete. "More aligned with my values" is abstract.

Guess which ones end up on the list, and which get overlooked?

Pros and cons lists systematically favor the tangible over the important.

What Works Better

Define what matters before you look at options. Write down 3-5 criteria that actually matter for this decision. Be honest—not what should matter, what does.

Assign weights. Not all criteria are equal. If work-life balance matters twice as much to you as salary, reflect that.

Score each option against your criteria. Not against a generic list of pros and cons, but against what you've decided matters.

Check your gut. If the "winner" doesn't feel right, investigate. There's probably an unacknowledged factor in play.

This takes more effort than a quick pros/cons list. But for decisions that actually matter, it's worth it.