Preview — The Goal
♟️ The Goal: The free pizza at the office meeting solves hunger (first order) and teaches everyone that meetings without pizza aren't worth attending (second order). The discount that boosts this month's sales trains customers to never pay full price again. The all-nighter that saves tomorrow's deadline wrecks the three workdays after it. Most bad decisions aren't stupid — they're FIRST-ORDER decisions: right about the immediate effect, blind to what the effect causes next. Second-order thinking is the habit of asking one extra question — 'and then what?' — and it's the closest thing to a cheat code for avoiding self-inflicted problems. First-order thinking is why the obvious move is so often the wrong one.