Mini-Max Framework
A useful framework to get the most out of life
There is a lot of advice out there about how to live life. But you can’t just lift things from other people and use it.
One person can be perfectly content taking the ‘work to live, not live to work’ approach of earning minimal money but really enjoying just bumming around.
Some get the most satisfaction from working hard and go stir crazy if they aren’t accomplishing things.
And some people are actually perfectly content spending life searching for ways to eek out another $0.69 in savings with coupons (allegedly).
Far too often people will choose a path, make it their identity, and then their ego won’t let them admit it is actually very unfulfilling. If you know someone who is a froogal FIRE person, or a mimosas at 10am brunch childless lady, or a partying way too late into their 40s bro, you can catch glimpses of this. It may be a staring off into space moment when talking about their latest budget cut/brunch/bender where you sense the sadness or it may be a slight trailing off in their voice as they are trying to convince you (aka reinforce to themselves) why you should join their lifestyle.
Whether it is the examples above, or the guy who gets soul-crushed in a 9-5 but won’t try to build a business or the person too afraid to ask out their love interest or whatever, too many people live life full of regrets and too few people are willing to admit to themselves they aren’t living true to themselves.
It often isn’t till one is knocking on death’s door and have no reason to keep fooling themselves that they finally see the regrets they were avoiding.
A smart man once said (paraphrasing) “go volunteer at a convalescent home and talk to the lonely elderly about life’s regrets. You will consistently hear about risks that they didn’t take, loves they missed or let get away, kids they didn’t have or weren’t close to, and financial support they couldn’t provide.”
Personally, after seeing most family and friends die at various ages from teens to nearly 100, my 2nd biggest fear in life is looking back and regretting huge pieces of it. (Biggest fear is raising screwed up kids).
Well, one of the best mental frameworks I have seen to help avoid regrets and, not only that, but actually massively improve life is the mini-max framework. Unlike typical advice which is based on unnatural risk aversion that keeps you trapped in an unideal situation (looking at you guy who missed the girl and is toiling away in a job they hate since making a move would be risky), the mini-max framework has you take smart risks that moves your life forward positively.
So what is this decision-making rule and how can you use it to improve your life in all aspects?