Think through a hard decision without going in circles
Describe your situation the way you'd tell a friend. Compass asks a few questions, looks at it through the mental models that fit, then gives you three things to do in the next two weeks.
Not sure how much to write? Load a sample into the box:
See it the way someone who isn't you would see it
You are too close to your own situation to see it straight. Everyone is, about their own. So Compass reads what you wrote through several ways of thinking that do not care how you feel about it, and each one catches something the others miss.
Some choices can be walked back cheaply; some cannot.
It only asks what this would cost you to undo.
First-order effects are obvious; the decision usually lives in the second and third.
It only asks what you will make of this in twenty years.
Ask what each person is rewarded for doing, and for not saying.
It only asks who gains if you stay quiet.
Compass holds sixty-three mental models and uses the four to seven that have something to say about your case.
I've been offered a job in another city. It's a big step up, my husband teaches here, and my daughter starts second grade in August...
If the same job were here in your own city, would you still want it?
This is an illustration. Compass writes your questions from whatever you send it.
Most stuck decisions are stuck because the question is wrong
You think you are deciding between two options. Often you are deciding something underneath them, closer to what kind of life you want next. So Compass asks three or four questions first, and it only asks the ones where a different answer would change what it tells you.
See what you get- IN YOUR STORYTake the job in March, or turn it down.
- IN YOUR STORYThe raise is 40% and the school year ends in June.
- NEVER MENTIONEDAsking them to hold the offer until January.
- NEVER MENTIONEDYou have assumed all three of you move at the same time.
This is an illustration. Compass writes this from whatever you send it.
Compass looks for the part you left out
There is usually an option you ruled out in the first ten seconds, and an assumption that every version of your plan is resting on. Compass reads your situation for what is missing from it as well as for what you put in.
See what you get- INFORMATIONSomething to find out, so you stop deciding on a guess.
- CONVERSATIONSomething to say to a person the decision lands on.
- STRUCTURESomething to commit to, or a way to test the bet for real.
No app should tell you what to do with your life
So Compass does not hand you a verdict. It gives you three things to do in the next two weeks: something to find out, something to say to the person this lands on, and something to commit to. Each one comes back to the reasoning behind it, and you stay the one deciding.
See what you get- 4 MARCHYou wrote it down. Six mental models, three steps.
- 19 MARCHYour husband said what he would need. You added it and read it again.
- TODAYTwo of the three steps are done. The third has a date on it.
This is an illustration. Your own case looks like whatever you have done so far.
You can come back when the situation changes
A number changes, or someone finally says the thing they were not saying, and the decision looks different than it did last week. Compass keeps what you wrote and what it told you, so you start from there instead of telling the whole story again.
See what you getYou get the same five parts every time
Only the contents change. This is the shape of a report, so you know what you are getting before you write a word.
- YOUR SITUATION
What is at stake, what you actually know, what you are guessing at, and who else this lands on.
- FOUR TO SEVEN LENSES
Each one names the mental model, explains it in plain terms, then says what it means for your case.
- WHERE THE MENTAL MODELS DISAGREE
When two mental models point opposite ways you get both of them, and the reason the tension is there.
- YOUR OWN NUMBERS, READ BACK
Any numbers in your story come back as something you can move. Months of runway, the real deadline, what waiting costs you.
- YOUR THREE STEPS
One thing to find out, one thing to say, one thing to commit to, each tied to the lens it came from.
Your report is written about your situation, in your own words.
See three examples, start to finish
WHAT SHE WROTEI've been offered the head-of-design role at a startup in another city. It's a 40% raise and the first job I've ever wanted. My husband teaches here and my daughter starts second grade in August. I can't tell if I'm scared of the move or scared of admitting how much I want it.
If the same job were here in your own city, would you still want it?
What does your husband say when the move comes up, and what does he stop short of saying?
What would turning this down need to buy you for staying to feel like a choice?
The job is the easy part. The move is the decision, and it can be tested before you make it.
Can the move be tested before it has to be permanent?
Some choices can be walked back cheaply; some cannot.
The job itself is a door that swings both ways: if it fails, you quit. Selling up and moving your daughter midyear is the one-way half. Split them, and test the move while the offer holds.
First-order effects are obvious; the decision usually lives in the second and third.
First order: a title and a 40% raise. Second order: your husband hunting for a teaching post in a new city, your daughter starting over in second grade. Weigh the offer against those, because they come with it.
Ask what each person is rewarded for doing, and for not saying.
Your husband has a reason to keep his doubts quiet: his job is here, and voicing them makes him the obstacle. Ask what he would need for the move to work, then listen for what he leaves out.
One-way doors counsels waiting: the move is expensive to unwind. Second-order thinking pushes back: the first job you have ever wanted does not come around on a schedule. Both hold, which is why the move gets tested instead of guessed at.
The 40% raise clears the cost of the move by month 8. So the money says yes early, and the money was never the hard part. The year that needs pricing is your husband's, and he is the one who can price it.
- INFORMATIONSpend two days in the new city before you answer, one of them a school day.
- CONVERSATIONAsk your husband what he would need to say yes.
- STRUCTUREAsk the startup for a January start, so the school year ends here.
WHAT HE WROTEMy side project makes $2,100 a month from 60 paying customers and grows about 8% a month. My salary is $145k. My co-founder wants to go full time in September and will find someone else if I don't. Am I being disciplined or just scared?
How many months would your savings cover if the income stayed flat?
If your co-founder brings someone else in, what happens to your share of it?
What would the project need to look like in a year for leaving to feel obvious?
Keep the job for now, and stop calling that discipline. Set the line that would make you leave, in writing, before September.
What monthly number, reached by what date, would make you resign without needing courage?
Price a bet by its payoff, its odds, and what it costs to find out.
At 8% a month, $2,100 doubles in about nine months. The bet is live. And you do not have to price the whole company today, only the cost of keeping both for six more months.
Ask what each person is rewarded for doing, and for not saying.
Your co-founder's deadline is an incentive built to move you. It is real for him and negotiable for you. Ask what September protects before you treat it as physics.
The price of anything includes whatever you give up to get it.
The $145k is what staying pays. What staying costs is the compounding you pass up: the customers, the learning, your claim on the upside. Price both sides before you call the salary safe.
Expected value likes the project's math. Opportunity cost warns that waiting has a price of its own. They meet in one place: a number, written down, that ends the debate without asking you to be brave.
Your salary works out to about $12,000 a month against the project's $2,100. At 8% a month the gap closes in roughly two years, sooner if full-time attention lifts the growth. That date is the real deadline, and it is yours instead of September's.
- INFORMATIONWork out the month your savings stop covering rent.
- CONVERSATIONAsk your co-founder for ninety days before he looks for someone else.
- STRUCTURESet the growth line that would make you resign, and date it.
WHAT HE WROTEI got into a two-year master's programme I applied to on a whim. It costs $58k and I'd stop earning $70k while I'm there. I'm fine at my job. Not moving, not miserable, just fine. Everyone tells me to go and nobody can tell me what I'd do differently afterwards.
What would you do after the degree that you cannot do now?
Who do you know who finished it, and what changed for them?
If the programme cost nothing, would you still spend the two years on it?
Do not go this year. The offer is worth keeping open, and it is cheaper to test than to take.
What is the sentence the degree is supposed to change, and who is supposed to read it?
The price of anything includes whatever you give up to get it.
Tuition is $58k. Add two years of the $70k salary you stop collecting and the true price sits near $200k. A price that size needs a specific purchase, and nobody has named one yet.
When a choice is unclear we copy the room, and the room rarely pays the bill.
Everyone telling you to go is information about them: the degree sounds right to people who will never write the cheque. The opinions that count belong to people who finished it. Go find two of them.
Some choices can be walked back cheaply; some cannot.
Enrolling is hard to reverse once the loans land. Deferring keeps the door open while you find out what the degree is for. When one option preserves your choices and the other spends them, take the cheap test first.
Social proof leans toward going: people you respect keep saying yes. Opportunity cost prices their advice at $200k of your money. When the crowd and the arithmetic disagree, ask the crowd to show its work.
"Fine at my job" is free. The degree has to beat free by about $200k, which is $58k in tuition plus two years at $70k you would stop earning. So far the case for going is other people's certainty, and that is the cheapest thing on the table.
- INFORMATIONAsk the programme if you can defer for a year, and what deferring costs.
- CONVERSATIONTalk to two people who finished it five years ago about what changed.
- STRUCTUREWrite the sentence the degree is supposed to change, and keep it where you can see it.
We wrote these to show you the format. Nobody's real report appears here, and yours never will either.
One analysis a month is free, then you choose how to pay
One full analysis a month costs nothing and needs no card. A plan gives you a set number on top of that, every month, and a year bought up front costs four months less than the same year bought a month at a time.
- One full analysis a month, free
- Every mental model that fits your situation
- Where the mental models disagree
- Three things to do in the next two weeks
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Questions people ask before they start
Short answers. The first one gets asked most, and it is a fair thing to ask.
Why not just ask ChatGPT or Claude directly?
You can, and plenty of people do. A chatbot answers the question you typed. Compass spends its first move working out the question underneath that one, then reads your situation through the same set of mental models every time, in the same order. What comes back does not depend on how well you happened to phrase things that day.
Every report ends the same way too: three things to do in the next two weeks, each tied back to the reasoning it came from. You do not have to turn a paragraph into a plan yourself.
Compass also keeps the case. When something changes, you come back to what you already wrote instead of telling the whole story again.
Can Compass tell me what to do?
No, and it is not built to. It reads your situation, shows you where the mental models disagree, and hands you three things to do next. You stay the one deciding.
Compass is a thinking tool. It is not therapy and it is not professional advice. When what you need is someone licensed, it says so instead of guessing.
What happens to what I write?
Your writing and your reports stay in this browser. Producing the analysis sends your text to a language model provider, and Compass holds it for one hour between the questions and the report.
We stay on your side
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Keep it on your device
Your writing and your reports stay in this browser. Producing the analysis sends your text to a language model provider, and Compass holds it for one hour between the questions and the report.
Know what this is not
A thinking tool. It is not therapy and it is not a substitute for a professional, and it will tell you so when that is what you need.
Pay for what you use
One analysis a month is free, plan or no plan. A plan gives you a set number on top of it, and you can stop it whenever you want.