Show HN: Help Me Decide Please

#1

Post by tannerljohnson » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 12:16 AM UTC

Show HN: Help Me Decide Please
helpmedecideplease.com

Re: Show HN: Help Me Decide Please

#2

Post by themodelplumber » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 12:29 AM UTC

I love tools like this. Thanks for sharing it. It's nice to go through a process like that and feel extra-good about your decision. :-)

It reminds me of a tool I used some time ago, the "Oracle" script at SimilarMinds.com. One difference is that the Oracle script used forced-choice based on baked-in global factors, even including how much a decision would affect your social standing, for example.

Re: Show HN: Help Me Decide Please

#3

Post by tannerljohnson » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 12:34 AM UTC

themodelplumber wrote: post #2

I love tools like this. Thanks for sharing it. It's nice to go through a process like that and feel extra-good about your decision. :-) It reminds me of a tool I used some time ago, the "Oracle" script at SimilarMinds.com. One difference is that the Oracle script used forced-choice based on baked-in global factors, even including how much a decision would affect your social standing, for example.

Thanks for sharing! I'm glad it's useful :) I originally made it because I wasn't feeling confident in a direction I was about to take in life. I wrote it all down in a spreadsheet and actually changed my mind after doing a similar process!

Re: Show HN: Help Me Decide Please

#4

Post by jolmg » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 1:01 AM UTC

I don't know why, but I was expecting this to just take a list of choices and decide on one randomly, with the idea that sometimes making a choice is more important than what choice is made. I know there are times where I've gotten stuck on something because I couldn't make my mind up on retrospectively, relatively unimportant decisions.

Thanks for sharing.

Re: Show HN: Help Me Decide Please

#5

Post by franciscop » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 1:01 AM UTC

Tip: if you input something and press "enter", it will reset the form. You should attach the event listener to the form's onSubmit, and not to the button's onClick.

Re: Show HN: Help Me Decide Please

#6

Post by stanski » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 1:13 AM UTC

franciscop wrote: post #5

Tip: if you input something and press "enter", it will reset the form. You should attach the event listener to the form's onSubmit, and not to the button's onClick.

Ah, I thought it was broken.

Re: Show HN: Help Me Decide Please

#7

Post by vikramkr » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 1:16 AM UTC

That's pretty cool and a really intuitive way of decision making. I think I like that style of reasoning slightly better than a good old fashioned pro and cons list, forcing you to rank is really helpful. Cool stuff!

Re: Show HN: Help Me Decide Please

#8

Post by tannerljohnson » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 1:27 AM UTC

franciscop wrote: post #5

Tip: if you input something and press "enter", it will reset the form. You should attach the event listener to the form's onSubmit, and not to the button's onClick.

fixed :) thanks for the feedback!

Re: Show HN: Help Me Decide Please

#9

Post by ALittleLight » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 1:28 AM UTC

This is pretty awesome. I just used this to help consider what to get my mom for mother's day. I think the most value comes from actually enumerating your options and considering what's important. It's interesting to get the algorithm's perspective, but I think I settled on a different choice after working through it.

Re: Show HN: Help Me Decide Please

#10

Post by dotancohen » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 1:31 AM UTC

Nice tool!

It would be nice to be able to go back and fix mistakes. For instance, on the first pass after entering something to consider I pressed Enter. I didn't even notice the "important" radio button, so the first choice got "somewhat important". It was actually super important and there was seemingly no way to fix it.