REDECIDE

Weighted Pros & Cons Scorer

Give the oldest decision tool in the book some teeth. Weight each reason by how much it really matters and see which way the balance actually tips.

List each reason and weight it 1 (minor) to 5 (decisive). Weighting is the whole point — one heavy con can outweigh several light pros.

Pros

Cons

Verdict

Pros weight
8
Cons weight
3
Lean toward yes
72.7%
Verdict
Lean YES

Why weighting changes the answer

Benjamin Franklin’s famous “moral algebra” was a pros-and-cons list where he crossed out pros and cons of roughly equal weight until one side was left standing. This tool does the same thing with arithmetic: each reason gets a weight from 1 to 5, the two columns are totted up, and the heavier side wins.

The result isn’t a verdict to obey blindly — it’s a mirror. If the score confirms your instinct, you can move with more confidence. If it contradicts you, you get to ask the more interesting question: is my gut seeing something the list missed, or is the list catching a bias my gut would rather ignore?

Frequently Asked Questions

Why weight a pros-and-cons list?

A plain list treats every point as equal, so a decision with eight trivial pros and two serious cons looks like an easy yes even when it shouldn't be. Weighting each point from 1 (minor) to 5 (decisive) captures the fact that one dealbreaker can outweigh a handful of nice-to-haves, which is much closer to how good decisions actually work.

How is the lean percentage calculated?

The tool adds up the weights on the pros side and the cons side, then reports the pro weight as a share of the total. A lean of 70% means the pros carry roughly seventy percent of the combined weight. It's a quick read on how lopsided the case is, not a probability.

What counts as a toss-up?

When the lean lands between 45% and 55%, the tool calls it a toss-up: the two sides are close enough that the numbers alone shouldn't decide it. That's a signal to look for a missing factor, gather more information, or fall back on reversibility — if the choice is easy to undo, just pick one and learn.

Isn't this just gaming the numbers to justify what I already want?

It can be, if you assign the weights after you've picked a side. The discipline is to weight each point honestly on its own merits before you look at the totals. If the verdict surprises you, that's the tool doing its job — sit with the discomfort before you override it.

A decision aid, not a decision. The verdict reflects the weights you enter; use it as a structured second opinion, not a substitute for your own judgment.