| name | outside-view-decision |
| description | Run a Kahneman-inspired decision process using outside view, reference classes, base rates, bias checks, premortem thinking, and decision journals. Use when Codex is asked to evaluate a major decision, forecast project outcomes, reduce overconfidence, compare alternatives under uncertainty, or create a structured decision memo. |
Outside View Decision
Overview
Use this skill to slow down high-stakes decisions and replace unsupported confidence with evidence, base rates, and explicit assumptions. Do not copy book text; use the original workflow here and cite references/source-notes.md when needed.
Workflow
- Define the decision, irreversible consequences, timeline, and owner.
- Separate inside view from outside view: capture the user's narrative, then identify a comparable reference class.
- Gather base rates from past comparable cases, benchmarks, or historical examples.
- Adjust from the base rate only for concrete differences, not optimism.
- Run bias checks: overconfidence, anchoring, availability, planning fallacy, loss aversion, sunk cost, and framing.
- Run a premortem: assume failure happened, list likely causes, and add mitigations.
- Produce a decision journal: options, assumptions, base rates, evidence, uncertainties, decision, and review date.
Output
Return:
- recommendation
- reference class and base rates
- key assumptions
- bias risks
- premortem risks and mitigations
- decision journal entry
- review trigger/date
Resources
references/process-checklist.md
references/source-notes.md