DecisionCount.com

One of the beloved Fathers of the Nation in the United States, Benjamin Franklin, a genius, wore multiple hats being an author, diplomat, inventor, politician, postmaster, and writer, among others at various stages of his life. You may have heard about his audacious experiment, where he flew a kite during a storm to prove that lightning is electricity. Besides being an avid reader, Benjamin also composed music and played chess when he was not busy with experiments and scientific theories. You must be wondering how he managed so many things when most of us struggle with doing one thing properly. His autobiography, where he talks about cultivating character with 13 values, reveals his simplistic attitude to living. One of his legacies, the Moral or Prudential Algebra continues to inspire millions of people to improve their lifestyles with a simple approach to decision making.

Let's show you how simple, yet powerful this technique is. We've created an online tool using the SIMPLE YES NO / PRO CON DECISION TOOL devised by the genius. While using this tool, you have to enter the question for which we need a Yes or No answer. To arrive at a logical solution, you enter the Pros and Cons of the decision and enter weights for each factor. Let's check what Benjamin Franklin would have to say about Romeo and Juliet. Without disregarding Romeo and Juliet's unconditional love for each other, we want to know whether Romeo and Juliet should have got married, considering their feuding families, and the cataclysmic politics of the era. Despite the tragic ending in the tale, the tool surprised us with results to ponder about. The moral of the story is: decision-making could be negatively influenced by bias, and Benjamin Franklin showed a way to deal with this bias. We encourage you to give it a try and share your result on Facebook or Twitter. This approach to decision-making, we believe, is what made Benjamin Franklin different from the rest.

We can now step into Benjamin Franklin's shoes with this online tool. Take a simple yes / no question you've been concerned about recently:

List all the factors for and against each choice, and select a weight or relevance for each factor on a scale of 1 to 10. Remember, it is relative. See the results. You'll be surprised how simple it is to get rid of bias.

For important decisions, try to use this tool several days in a row, as your perception of weight factors and pros / cons may vary. The best advice about decisions remains indeed Sleep on it!