Priority Heuristics

When a decision has many factors — price, quality, distance, risk — the mind secretly refuses to weigh them all. Instead it runs a simple rule: check the most important factor first; if one option clearly wins, stop there. Only if they tie, check the next factor.

This is a priority rule, and it is not sloppy thinking — it is often exactly right. The passenger choosing flights does not average safety against legroom; the safety record disqualifies, and then comfort chooses. Elimination by priority is how sane creatures handle a world too rich for arithmetic.

The error enters when the order of priorities is wrong — when the loudest factor outranks the largest one. Choosing the job by salary first when the daily work mattered more; the house by the kitchen first when the commute decided the years.

So the discipline is not more computation but honest ordering. Before comparing options, write your factors in true order of importance — the order you would defend in five years, not the order your excitement prefers today. The heuristic will do the rest. It only fails when its instructions were wrong.