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20-second career tip

Ask "is this reversible?" to unstick any decision

About Rohan

Hey, I’m Rohan!

I write thoughts about life and career strategy a few times a month.

I run Coached, the behavioral science lab, and Resume Worded, the best software for job seekers.

A good place to start is our free 3‑minute, science-backed personality test.

Teams agonize over decisions as if every choice is permanent. Almost none are. There are two kinds of decisions: one-way doors (can't undo → quitting, firing, signing the big contract) and two-way doors (walk back through anytime → the tool, the format, the process tweak).

The unlock is that most decisions at work are two-way doors being debated like one-way doors. So when a meeting is stuck in week two of "evaluating options," ask:

"Is this reversible? If yes — can we pick one and revisit in two weeks?"

Save the agonizing for actual one-way doors; they're rarer than you think. Even “big” life decisions like moving countries seem irreversible, but they’re more reversible than you think. When a decision is truly irreversible, slow down and take more time than you think you’d ordinarily need.

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Illustration of Rohan Mahtani
Written by Rohan Mahtani
From Coached Weekly, issue 364.

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This is Coached Weekly, my career notes where I share the tiny % of ideas that actually work in real careers. It takes 5 minutes to read, but could speed up your career by years. I write this myself (no AI). —Rohan Mahtani (LinkedIn)

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Another tip1 min read

Do one five-minute favor a week

Some favors are wildly asymmetric: five minutes for you, potentially huge for the other person: forwarding a job post, introducing two people, sharing your template, a 5-minute gut-check on their draft.

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