Fast Choices, Optimal Results: How the Quick-Call Method Powers Effective Actions Under Pressure
There’s a tension between the best ways to take action and the “real world” where time is limited. The best strategies follow a slower, rational and precise approach that also considers human pitfalls, such as emotional influences and cognitive biases. Practitioners regularly ignore such strategies and rely on their raw experience or wisdom because of the high potential time investment. Luckily, there is also a way to select strong courses of action without sacrificing large amounts of time.
In this article, I describe the framework I created for making quick calls based on rules. The Quick Call tool is available as a free Notion template, which can be found at the end of the article.
Acting, Fast and Slow
A fantastic book by Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, explains our decision-making through the lens of two systems: systems 1 (fast and survival-based) and system 2 (slow and precise). I believe that not only our decision-making, but all the actions we perform on a day-to-day basis, should be viewed through this lens. Learning, goal-setting, time-management, and planning are examples of this. By distinguishing and specifying each type of action, we can specify optimal, as well as, faster forms of execution. And, this is precisely what I intended The 5 Acts model to provide.
Introducing the 5 Acts cycle of action
The 5 Acts is a model for understanding and acting in the world. The central idea is that every human action can be represented as a 5-step cycle. Each Act is divided into specialized chapters that cover all of our everyday experiences.
The central idea:
Every action humans take, both conscious and unconscious, can be represented as a cycle:
Act 1: Understanding reality
The first act is what you perceive to be real. It’s your worldview. It’s setting the stage. The chapters in this first act explain physical matter, the laws of nature, and the structure of knowledge.
Act 2: Understanding life
The second act welcomes living agents and their behavior onto the stage. The chapters in the second act explain natural selection, evolutionary biology, and the most significant influencers of the universe: humans. It also includes a practical chapter on individual differences and understanding yourself.
Types of action in Act 2:
- Understanding yourself: How am I wired, and what drives me?
Act 3: Selecting
The outcome of the first and second acts is the information we process and use to decide what we will act on. The explanatory chapters in the third act describe agency and how the selection process works. It also features application chapters for problem-solving, decision-making, and planning.
Types of action in Act 3:
- Finding the root-problem: What is the suitable root cause of the problem to focus on?
- Goal-setting: What are the specific success criteria for achieving the desired outcome?
- Environment analysis: How do the environments influence the problem?
- Solution creation/generation: What solutions can contribute to solving the problem?
- Solution selection: Which solutions are the most suitable to solve the problem?
- Plan creation: When will the workload to achieve the goal take place?
Act 4: Doing (executing)
The fourth act is about executing the intentions that you selected in the third act. The chapters focus on strategies for taking action. They describe energy-, attention-, and time management, as well as systems for staying on track.
Types of action in Act 4:
- Constructing engines (processes) to facilitate your execution: What are the most suitable ways to guide execution efforts?
- Managing energy, health, and attention: What are the most suitable ways to manage energy, health, and attention?
- Managing time: What are the most suitable ways to distribute and manage time?
- Staying on track: What are the most suitable ways to stay on course and adjust where needed?
- Teamwork: What are the most suitable ways to coordinate complexity and scale?
Act 5: Learning
The fifth act is returning to where you started but with an enhanced understanding. By doing, you learn what works and what doesn’t, which you can incorporate in following iterations and cycles. The chapters in the fifth act describe how learning works and strategies for optimal learning. It also provides insight and methods for information transfer to others.
Types of action in Act 5:
- Learning & understanding: What are the most suitable ways to learn and understand new information?
- Teaching & Rhetoric: What are the most suitable ways to transfer information to another?
How The 5 Acts is structured
The types of actions listed above describe how to use the suitable strategies for the relevant situation. But, The 5 Acts model also includes explanations of why these are appropriate strategies (since we are better off using explanation-based knowledge over any other form of knowledge). The 5 Acts is therefore more than just a model. It is a book that aims to provide a comprehensive yet concise overview of the fundamental explanations that humanity has uncovered so far. And, how we can practically apply this knowledge to be more effective. More information on the book and its publication status can be found here: edwindoit.com/5acts
Fast Actions: Using The 5 Acts Within the Quick Call Tool
So how do we get from the comprehensive model of the types of action, to making a Quick Call? The answer is to condense down into simple and easy to use rules. A rule is a short statement that specifies what to do, or not to do. Acting from rules is also the straightforward translation of “reasoning from mental models” or “avoiding cognitive biases”. It comes down to assessing the situation, finding what rules suit it, and then deciding upon the appropriate course of action. Practically, these are the steps involved:
- Identify the type of action you’re faced with. The types of actions are chapters of The 5 Acts book and are accompanied by guiding questions.
- Evaluate the rules and select the ones which are most fitting to the situation.
- Decide and apply the most suitable course of action based on the rules.
60+ evidence-based rules for optimal actions
Everyone has a different context, which warrants specific rules that apply to your circumstances. Therefore, you are encouraged to add your own rules to the Quick Call tool. However, the tool also comes with 60+ universal rules derived from the 5 Acts book. Notable sources include:
- David Deutsch’s epistemology of hard-to-vary explanations & fallibilism
- Nassim Taleb’s work on strategies in the face of uncertainty
- Richard Dawkin’s selfish-gene version of evolutionary theory
- Game theory and microeconomics as interpreted by Naval Ravikant
Below, you will find examples of several rules for three of the action types.
Get the Quick Call tool Notion template
I turned the Quick Call tool into a free Notion template, which you can get here:
The Quick Call tool includes:
- A complete and easy-to-search overview of the action types (chapters) from the 5 acts Model
- 60+ default rules and the ability to add your own rules based on your specific context
- Detailed instructions and customization options
