thinking-bounded-rationality

# Bounded Rationality Under finite tool, context, and time budgets, stop at the first option that meets a predeclared aspiration level. Optimize only when the good-to-best gap is worth the remaining budget. ## When to Use - Search or option comparison has no natural endpoint and could consume the turn budget. - Multiple options would clear the requirement and further comparison has diminishing returns. - The decision is reversible or low-stakes relative to more search. - You are gathering context beyond what the decision needs to ship. ## When NOT to Use - Irreversible or high-stakes choices (data loss, security, migrations, public commitments) where the good-to-best gap is material. - Correctness gates: tests, security checks, and "did the fix work?" need the right answer, not a sufficient-looking one. - One cheap lookup would settle the fact — do it; do not satisfice past it. - The aspiration level cannot be stated — clarify the requirement first. ## Procedure 1. **State decision and budget.** Name the choice, residual tool/context/time budget, and reversibility. 2. **Set aspiration before searching.** Write concrete pass/fail criteria for "good enough." Do not evaluate until the threshold is explicit. 3. **Search sequentially.** Score options in encounter order against the threshold only. Skip full matrices unless step 1 marked high-stakes/irreversible. 4. **Stop at first adequate.** When an option clears every criterion, select it immediately. 5. **Handle search failure without moving the goalposts.** If nothing clears after the pre-set cap, preserve the threshold and report no adequate option. Relax only a criterion predeclared as non-load-bearing, record the relaxation, and resume within a new cap; never raise the bar after failure. 6. **Commit.** Record choice and residual uncertainty; spend remaining budget on execution, not re-ranking. **Stop condition:** First option meets the predeclared aspiration level, or the search cap is exhausted with none adequate. ## Output ```text Decision: <choice> Aspiration: <pass/fail criteria> Search: evaluated N; stopped at first adequate | cap exhausted Selected: <option or none> Residual risk: <what further search might change> Next spend: <execution step> ``` ## Verification - Falsify if you kept comparing after an option cleared the threshold, or invented the threshold after seeing winners. - Falsify if a correctness gate or irreversible decision was treated as satisficeable. - Over-application guard: if one cheap check settles a fact, look it up — do not invoke this skill.