What’s Your Scoreboard?
A tech startup debates launching a flashy app feature to boost downloads or building a core product that solves real customer pain. An artist debates between a 9-to-5 job at a marketing firm and going solo in a risky but potentially rewarding venture of a gallery. A parent debates putting their phones down engaging with the kids or responding to an inquiry from work. A CEO is pressured to hit quarterly projections and layoffs would practically guarantee hitting them. The is nothing that says that boosting downloads, a 9-to-5, a work call, or layoffs are bad decisions, in fact they may be very effective and solve very specific problems. But do they solve the right problem -- are they good decisions?
“All good decisions are effective, but not all effective decisions are good,” says Shane Parrish. Effective decisions get short-term results; good decisions ensure long-term fulfillment. What's fulfilling to you will be different than what's fulfilling, valuable, and important to me. You need to determine what your scoreboard should be tracking. Doing anything that advances your scoreboard is an effective action or activity. When you know that you're tracking the right things, that's a good action or activity. What are the signs that you're being effective? That's pretty easy -- the scoreboard is advancing in your favor. What are the signs that your decisions are good? That can be a little trickier. It might be easier to approach that question by identifying signals that point in the opposite direction.
“Happy-when” people defer joy—“I’ll be happy when we hit 1 million users”—missing purpose. “I’ll be happy when I get a new car.” I will be, for a minute, but my level of discontent will quickly return to my base level – after all, I no longer compare myself to people with old cars, I compare myself to people with nicer, newer cars. Comparison truly is the thief of joy. We’ve learned to pause, compound small moments, build rituals, and think clearly. Chapter 5 of Clear Thinking shows how to define your own scoreboard, choosing good over merely effective to spark ripples of lasting satisfaction. Today, we’ll be looking at why we must.
The Traps of Short-Term Thinking: Four Defaults
Parrish identifies four defaults that sabotage long-term goals.
- Our Social Default pushes us to inherit others’ goals.
- Our Emotional Default captures our fancy, like buying a shiny gadget on a whim.
- Our Ego Default craves status, wealth, or power, like choosing a job for prestige over joy.
- Meanwhile, our Inertia Default keeps us chasing goals we know aren’t quite right anymore, but we’ve already started and feel the need to finish it up…and it’s not a bad goal.
These defaults prioritize short-term “effective” wins over the “good” of trust, love, health, clouding what matters. They’re effective decisions, after all we got what we thought we wanted. But are they good decisions? Are they worth wanting?
Choosing your own objectives, not defaults, sets the stage for effective and good decisions and great outcomes. When you consider your long term objectives, consider them your scoreboard – what are you tracking, what signifies progress?
Take a Minute: Think of a recent choice—did conformity, emotion, ego, or inertia drive it? What’s your true scoreboard?
Dickens’s Lesson: Wanting the Right Things
While it may be cliche and even a bit predictable, In A Christmas Carol, Scrooge was ruthlessly effective, amassing wealth with precision. But his ego-driven chase for power left him empty, missing trust, love, health—the ultimate good. The ghosts of Past, Present, and Future forced a pause, revealing what mattered: relationships over riches. “Because I told you so” is a tempting phrase that can be highly effective for compliance by a child, but it might not be good in the long run, if over-used. A teacher might chase a quick curriculum tweak for effective test scores, but pausing to reflect decides to redesign lessons for lasting student growth—good for purpose. A perspective shift ensures decisions align with what you truly want, not fleeting defaults, stacking the odds for fulfillment.
Take a Minute: What’s a decision you’re facing? How would your future self define a win?
Escaping the Hedonic Treadmill
The “hedonic treadmill”, per Brickman and Campbell, traps us in a cycle of chasing short-term pleasure (that new car, raise, or chocolate bar) that feel effective, but always seem to return our happiness to its baseline. The car’s thrill fades as bills pile up and comparisons creep in; remember, “comparison is the thief of joy.” “Happy-when people” defer joy to milestones—“I’ll be happy when I get promoted”—missing present purpose. “The sweet chocolate is amazing”—but this isn’t helping with health goals. The problem isn’t the car or promotion; it’s sacrificing what matters, like family time for a shiny ride or a marriage for a corner office. Climbing the corporate ladder is effective, unless it means stepping on others, trading daily relationships for status. Chocolate isn’t a problem, unless it sabotages your health or well-being.
Parrish says happiness is a decision, a “happy in spite of” mindset, not “happy because of.” I like how Jordan Peterson pushes further: aim for purpose, responsibility, and adventure, not the often perceived soft, fleeting happiness. Viktor Frankl, paraphrasing Nietzsche, says, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” A designer might chase a high-paying client for effective cash, but choosing a project that sparks creativity aligns with purpose—good for the long haul.. Another designer may be focused on stability and consistency, not as concerned about the spark of creativity; both need to determine what’s good, then decide what’s effective, too. Build on your priority-setting ritual, ensuring decisions compound into joy, not regret.
Take a Minute: Are you on the hedonic treadmill? What’s one decision you can align with purpose?
Lessons from the Wise:
Wisdom from Octogenarians
Parrish cites the research of Carl Pillemer’s 30 Lessons for Living from octogenarians. The ultimate currency is time—life is short, so choose what matters.
Their top lessons:
- Say things now to the people you love - love, encouragement, conflict resolution
- Spend as much time as you can with your children
- Savor daily pleasures, don't wait for big ticket items
- Work in a job you love
- Choose your mate carefully, don't just rush in
Parrish also notes what’s not on any of the lists, which I would say is as significant as the items that were common on lists:
- Work as hard as you can to get money
- Strive to be wealthy as those around you
- Choose your career based on earning potential
- Getting even with enemies/those who slighted them
- Worrying
In the context of such wisdom, however, Parrish does qualify happiness nicely in that there's a distinction between events that happen to us versus our attitude toward them. It's a choice, not a condition, in our circumstances. It's “happy in spite of", not "happy because of". Again, this jumps out to me as purpose -- long-term thinking that allows for hard, difficult times to exist in tension with long-term purpose and success. And being "happy in spite of" the situation is only possible because there's vision toward the right things, overarching important things.
Marcus Aurelius adds, “When you are distressed by any external thing, it is not the thing itself that troubles you, only your judgment of it; and you can wipe this out at a moment’s notice.” Do you have a distressed reaction? Pause to consider how you should judge it. Reverse engineer your reaction to understand your actual scoreboard. Does it align with your intended scoreboard? Now you can begin to choose your reaction, aligning with purpose—trust, love, health—not treadmill traps and unhelpful defaults.
Take a Minute: When you experience distress, unhappiness, or aimlessness pause to understand why and practice realigning your reaction with your scoreboard. Remember that good decisions are for the long-term.
Good Decisions, Big Impact
Good decisions, not just effective ones, spark true satisfaction. A startup’s flashy feature might drive downloads, but building a product that solves real pain aligns with purpose. “Happy in spite of” means choosing trust, love, health, even in tough times, because you’ve got your why, as Frankl says. Here’s a checklist to choose good over effective:
- Define Your Scoreboard: Pause to nail your purpose and values—avoid defaults like conformity or ego.
- Check for the Treadmill: Is this a short-term high or lasting joy? Don’t sacrifice family for status.
- Align with Purpose: Ensure decisions reflect trust, love, health, like choosing work you love.
- Choose Your Reaction: Pause to reframe challenges, as Aurelius advises, focusing on your why.
- Make It a Habit: Ritualize pausing and purpose-checking, compounding clarity.
Parrish’s Clear Thinking shows that escaping defaults and the hedonic treadmill sparks ripples of purpose. And purpose, can spark ripples of good decisions! Don’t settle for effective decisions. Want the right things and keep aiming up!
Pause, But Don’t Stop: Consider times you chased “effective” over “good” and how it impacted you. Consider a time you consciously dismissed an effective decision to seek and select a good decision and how that choice impacted your happiness and satisfaction.
